A64Pilot

By using the words “It Is Recommended”. that means you should, but don’t have to. If it were mandatory, it would say “The following parts MUST be replaced”. It can even get more vague when the words “Will, Shall and May” are used. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/plain_language/articles/mandatory/ Having said all of that, your foolish not to replace those parts, especially if your a professional.

I’m thinking if it’s a combo manifold / fuel flow gauge, it’s actually a pressure transducer, most combo gauges are actually pressure gauges marked in GPH as pressure can be used to determine fuel flow, not as accurately as an actual fuel flow transducer, but accurate enough

Thanks, The hardware that holds the balance weight in is called an “Iron Flat Head Rivet” I’ve not heard of such a thing before.

Have any of you guys seen that filter, and the inside of the vacuum instruments from when people used to smoke in the airplane? That was nasty

I bet it’s the gauge, I’d temporarily install a direct reading gauge and verify that the engine oil pressure is correct. ‘Don’t do anything to the engine until your sure the oil pressure is actually high.

Thanks for the link, I downloaded it. ‘However I can’t find in the manual how the weights are installed as in what is that that looks sort of like the bottom of a Huck bolt that’s attaching the weights? I know it’s not a huck bolt of course, is it some kind of rivet that I’m unfamiliar with?

Yes, exactly correct

This is what I’m talking about, it would solve some issues for me, it’s a complete Mode S Xponder with ADSB out , doesn’t even need a blind encoder, everything is in the tail light, but it weighs 5 oz, and as far back as the tail light is on a J model, I’m sure I would have to rebalance the rudder. and yes of course that means it comes off. https://uavionix.com/products/tailbeaconx/

No, no You NEED a new autopilot. and to give me your old one, or sell it cheap Seriously, what is it you want an Autopilot to do that the Century doesn’t do now? Looks like the Cats meow to me.

You really should change oil once a quarter. The acid comes from moisture from burning fuel and the chemicals in the fuel. mostly sulphur I believe, it’s not from carbon in the oil or filter. Acid is I believe Oxygen, Sulphur and Hydrogen, sulphuric is I believe H2SO4 for instance, those chemicals aren’t in carbon I don’t think. Now I’m normally against oil analysis, as people want to think it’s an engine analysis, and it’s not, it’s what it says it is, oil analysis. ‘So one of the better uses for it is determining oil condition, so take an oil analysis and specifically ask for TBN and TAN, which oddly isn’t in a normal aircraft oil analysis I don't think. ‘Anyway TBN is Total Base number, which is a measurement of the oils ability to neutralize oil, a good TBN number means the oil is still providing good acid protection. TAN is Total Acid Number, which is exactly what it sounds like. ‘It was Diesel engines back in the day burning high sulphur fuel that really created acid, but TBN and TAN will tell the acid story of any engines oil, there are other factors of course but they don’t really come into play with little use,15 hours isn’t going to “wear” out oil. But bottom line is oil is the cheapest thing about an aircraft engine, don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. In my opinion it won’t hurt to change filters every other time, just don’t put more than 50 hours on a filter. (just an opinion) ‘A filter should have an anti drainback valve that does what it says it does, in other words draining the pan even for a week shouldn’t drain the filter. The valve exists so that at every engine start your engine gets oil pressure quickly,if it had to refill a drained filter, then it wouldn't. If I were in your position I’d seal the intake, exhaust and crankcase vent trying to prevent moisture from entering the engine. ‘Some will put desiccant filters on the crankcase vent, and that may be a good idea. I’d want one that you could dump the desiccant and dry it out and reuse it though

At the factory I worked at we broke side windows and door windows pretty regularly, so I went on a crusade to cut down on wastage, There are special bits made specifically to drill plastic, helped a little, maybe, we tried dulling bits and grinding our own cutting edge on bits etc. Nothing worked as well as a uni-bit, you know AKA Christmas tree bit. ‘I have a theory as to why, drill a hole in thin sheet metal with a normal bit, see how it distorts the hole, puts a twist in it? That’s what’s busting the plastic. ‘Drill a hole in thin metal with a uni bit, the hole isn’t distorted, there is no “twist” in a uni-bit to distort the hole. So buy a unit bit and be done with it.

I wish my Century worked, when you remove it, remember me.

Actually a multi question, looking at a tail strobe -x which weighs 5 oz. That's enough I feel sure to require adding weight to the nose of my rudder, because flutter is probably the only thing that scares me worse than fire in IMC. So I need a copy of the maintenance manual, where can I get one? The manual will give me the max weight of the trailing edge of the rudder measured at a certain point from the hinge line I’m sure, but how does one go about adding weight? Is weight added to existing weight or do you purchase a heavier weight? If so what is the source of supply? Manual will I’m sure answer most of that.

So far as removing something if control oscillations occur, maybe, if your lucky. The Test pilot is a friend of mine, it’s was a test to VD, velocity dive speed. The elevator got into flutter, an oscillation. The accident was recreated in a wind tunnel, from the onset to total destruction of the empennage was less than 1 sec. .7 if I remember correctly. The aircraft had been tested to VD I believe 7 times, successfully with no problems, what was different this time was the test pilot had run the trim to full down so that he didn’t have to hold excessive force on the controls, the test was a 1” “pulse” of the elevator, as soon as the pulse was accomplished the tail came apart, Ralph got out. He said his feet were in the corn when the chute opened, the flutter Engineer that was in the aircraft, didn’t. There is more this story of course, https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/2731

At the Army Test Activity, we had a specially equipped CH-47 helicopter with a large retractable spray boom like a crop duster, it was used for ice testing. ‘I can’t find it, but there is a picture of a C-17 tucked uo in trail with that CH-47 being covered in artificial ice. We even had a specially equipped King Air with all kinds of instrumentation and the Chinook could pump air into the water it was spraying and create all kinds of different forms of ice that you will fly into naturally. So once in a while you may see a CH-47 with a very different aircraft flying on its tail. The time I saw it, it was February in the Upper Peninsula of Wisconsin, we were based out of an old abandoned Air Force base. I found a clip of it, the Chinook has three APU’s two to run the spray system https://www.waff.com/2019/05/10/redstone-test-center-training-upcoming-icing-test/

Formation flying, take off and landings are three different things. ‘For example a Mooney can fly formation with my C-140, but landings and takeoffs would be problematic. These two can fly together, but landings and takeoffs would be more difficult.

Reading the FAA definition of owner produced part, I’d say that by supplying that information meets the requirement of an owner produced part, so my opinion concurs with yours and I believe pretty much follows the definition exactly. ‘For those that are interested, this AC covers aircraft parts, for owner produced scroll down to (n) https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC 20-62E.pdf

I sold our cruising boat, to the first person that really looked. ‘I was I’m pretty sure I was the first person that showed up to look at the Mooney I bought. Priced right , things sell, and now is the time to sell. Money is cheap now so things are selling. ‘Selling the boat, I used a Broker and thst was likely a mistake as it cost me $10,000 and they really didn’t do anything,I showed the boat, did the sea trial and went through all the electronics that the Broker didn’t understand. ‘Guy I bought the Mooney from did not use a Broker and sold it fast anyway, take that money your going to pay the Broker and reduce the price of the airplane by that amount,it will sell fast and for the same money in your pocket. So far as use tax, investigate setting up a Montana LLC and having it purchase the aircraft. A large number of the owners of the super expensive bus RV owners do it, and I see no reason why it’s not just as legal and legit for an airplane. However Fl for instance you have to own the aircraft for 6 months before it’s brought into aft or use tax is owed,I think. https://www.49dollarmontanaregisteredagent.com/vehicle-llc Guy I bought my airplane from had it in an LLC and offered to sell me the LLC for the purchase price of the airplane, but it was a Ga LLC and I didn’t have a Ga address so I didn’t. But if you buy the LLC apparently no sales tax is due. Note, I’m not a Lawyer so before you put any confidence in some nut on the internet that you have never even met, maybe verify with a real Lawyer.

Sorry to hear that, I’d hoped you would get lucky,but most don’t. Metal running around in the oil causes damage. At least you have something to fly, I’ve got a 140 myself, engine is mid life hours wise but it’s been almost 40 years since overhaul so I need to overhaul it. I’ll probably get to that next Winter after I get the Mooney where I want it.

You may be taking that partially out of context. ‘Yes to overhaul, you must follow all procedures etc in the overhaul manual, but you do NOT have to comply with an SB, if that SB is incorporated into the manual then it becomes regulatory, but left in an SB it does not. ‘I don’t know why Lycoming hasn’t incorporated their SB into the overhaul manual. but if you read the SB it very plainly states that it must be followed whenever any repair or even just a disassembly to inspect is done, but being an SB eve through they use the word mandatory in the US it’s not required, many other countries a Mandatory SB is actually mandatory. Because I know enough to look, if that SB wasn’t complied with, I wouldn’t buy that airplane, who knows what other money saving corners were cut. ‘If you read the SB, you’ll see that it’s a list of parts that any good knowledgeable mechanic is replacing anyway based on experience. I take it further and send the cases off to divco to inspected for cracks and repaired as necessary and the crank off to be disassembled, inspected for cracks and hopefully just polished but turned if necessary. ‘It’s only a couple of grand more to overhaul once you have the engine torn down, it’s not another $10,000, but it’s been a few years since I’ve done it. ‘To not spend that money and reset the overhaul clock on an engine half way to overhaul isn’t a wise decision, in my opinion. Now if it were only 100 or so hours since overhaul, then maybe not, but then also everything only has 100 hours on it, so do you really need to replace exhaust valves and rings with 100 hours on them? But 1,000 isn’t 100. Hiwever a repair must also comply with any repair manual if one exists, and many do, so it’s not correct to say that a repair doesn’t have to comply, if a manual exists, it does.

There is, but it can easy chew up aluminum and remove Alclad etc. The problem with using anything to “blast” paint from aluminum is that the paint is actually harder than the aluminum it’s on. ‘Chemical stripping of course has issues too, it’s corrosive and gets into places you don’t want it and once there it’s tough to impossible to remove. ‘I think I’d try to pressure wash any loose pieces off myself and then hand strip what can be stripped and then prime and paint it. It certainly won’t be perfect but it would protect and look better

How does one go about purchasing a set?

STC parts are sourced from a PMA, but the PMA holder may not have actually made the part, they may have simply gone to the parts house and bought it. So no, the STC isn’t used to approve the part, the PMA does. ‘It’s not the manufacturer or the manufacturing process that approves a part, where I worked we bought many parts off the shelf, the engine control cables came from a boat manufacturer and the brake master cylinder from NAPA for instance as were a great many “COTS” parts (Commercial Off The Shelf), what made them “approved” was that they were processed through our Quality Control system. So a PMA manufacturer can buy say an alternator from the actual manufacturer, do a visual inspection and a little paperwork and Volia it’s an FAA approved part, without testing or anything special done at all. All manufacturers do this of course, airplanes are insanely expensive now, imagine if every single piece part had to be custom manufactured where there was no economy of scale. The Millenium cylinder is an excellent example. So something complex and critical as a engine cylinder can be installed without involving an IA and paperwork, but a Sun Visor can’t?

Being under the wing I don’t see UV being a real issue, If you think it is sew yourself some sunbrella covers like the campers do

I tried sending an email to the AOL account listed. it’s undeliverable .