A64Pilot

Well this was around 2000 or so and I really didn’t pay a lot of attention although I was racing against it. The little Zuki was only about 45 stock, the BMW was I’m sure built and it was in a custom frame etc. All I remember was it was a BMW, I’m not sure it was a 650 but I think it was. The rules allowed larger displacements for different motor designs in an attempt to even out the playing fields. Many years ago for the Pros you were limited to 750 for a four cylinder but 1,000 cc for a twin, so with 25% larger motor the manufacturers made more power of course and the thinner twin was better for racing anyway, so twins took over. Plus a 90 degree twin is very smooth, very much unlike a Harley. Most Clubman bikes were cheap, built on a shoestring budget and built by the racer, most that had money didn’t race Clubman, many were Frankenstein bikes, but every now and again you would see one that the owner had $$ and was professionally built, this BMW was one.

That was a long time ago, early 80’s? Honda had an interesting turbo. Took the liquid cooled 500cc twin CX500 I think? Anyway for one year they bored it to a 650 and turbocharged it. Conventional wisdom at the time was you couldn’t turbo a twin, but Honda did and it worked. The turbo pulled about 20 lbs of boost and pretty much doubled the power, the bike was a touring bike but I’ve seen the motor on a race track, Roebling Road. The Japanese turbos didn’t last long at all before they were discontinued. Great for drag racing, I built and raced Z1 turbos, but not so much for road racing.

If it were WERA then they didn’t have the assets to really check anything. Most non professional motorcycle road racing isn’t well funded. Back when I was drag racing fuel was often checked but the engine was only checked if you set a World record. Specific gravity of fuel was what was checked and that’s easy, just a turkey baster looking tester. Wera Clubman excepting engine displacement you could do pretty anything. The Suzukis handled better, but the Kawasakis with liquid cooling and four valves that allows made better power, so some put Kawasaki motors in the baby Suzukis. That was 25 years ago, the drag racing was 40 years ago. There was some kind of BMW motor that made much power, easily pulled everyone on the straights. It may have been a single? I think singles could be 650’s. So I’m out of touch with todays reality. You can get quite a lot of power from ditching the air box, properly rejetting the carbs and running high enough Octane so you can put the timing at max HP. I pulled my timing pick up plate slotted the mounting holes and put the bike on a Dyno jet Dyno and advanced timing until HP peaked at 1000 RPM below redline. I got at least a 10% increase in power, Back in the day you could get lots of power from exhausts, but modern bikes exhausts are so good often you lose power now. Now you run race pipes to lose weight, gain ground clearance not for power. Stock pipes if they have a Cat can be really heavy. My pig, a KLR-650’s pipe is stupid heavy. But as an old man I doubt I’ll pop for an aftermarket one, the KLR is a pig and your not changing that, even with money.

I’m at a loss to explain sub $4 in Tx, a National average of $6.20 and over $7 in Ca. Can you image if there was that much variability in say a gl of milk? I can understand some of the Ca car gas price, as Ca has a special Ca car gas.

You can get a clue as to function when you turn on the system after the airplane has sat for a couple of days in a hangar. I used to have an aircraft with an MVP-50, when I turned on the battery I would have 14 temp indicators showing the identical temp.

I don’t think it would hurt, but if you’re a DIY type it’s about one of the easiest thing to make yourself there is. Just need something air tight to hold dessicant bags and a tiny aquarium air pump, tiny one as you barely need any air at all. Oh, be sure to close off the breathers “whistle slot” when your using the drier Good dessicant bags have instructions on them on how to reactivate them in your kitchen oven overnight. Everything in the Army came in cans with dessicant bags, engines, transmissions etc. I kept a bunch, but have lost them over the years, I should have kept a lot more. The mil spec dessicant bags maybe are three lbs or so and have the recharge instructions on them The breather is the tube near the nosewheel that drips oil. My J models is at the back of the left cowl flap, but the oil drip is your clue

During colder times just a little heat will drive down RH substantially, remember RH isn’t a measure of how much water is in the air, it’s a measure of how much water is in the air relative to how much the air can hold, increasing temp raises airs ability to hold water. A dehumidifier both dehumidifies and adds a little heat Peltier principle things are very, very inefficient, a Peltier plate is attractive because they can be very small and have no moving parts and are cheap, but you give up efficiency, they are I believe less than 10% efficient, where an efficient heat pump can be 300% to 400% efficient. I think if you owned a hangar then you could seal it up very effectively with spray foam insulation. In my hangar my problem is door gaps, but unless the wind is blowing from the East there isn’t much leakage. I would love one of those big hydraulic doors, but they are as expensive as a new glass panel, and I would never save enough electricity to pay for that.

I have a 3,000 sq ft hangar in Central Fl, just south of Ocala, so it’s humid. It’s concrete block with folding doors and a finished ceiling that’s 12’ tall. I dehumidify it, I can’t show you a log but I can show you run times per day of the 2 ton mini split that dehumidifies it during warmer times and I run one 60 qt per day dehumidifier plus the AC in colder months. I have a humidistat that turns the AC on at 65% RH and off at 60% RH, the dehumidifier isn’t as precise it doesn’t turn off until about 55% but one click higher it turns off at 65% or so which is too high. I use this thermostat for the mini split https://cielowigle.com/cielo-breez-plus/ I got 65% RH from internet research, I found a chart that showed that corrosion of 2024 and 6061 got steep at 65% RH, and of course I can’t realistically drive the hangar to below 50% or I would. I think it costs about $50 a month to dehumidify the hangar on average, but it also keeps it say no hotter than mid to high 80’s in the middle of Summer and I can keep it at 60F when outside temps are 32 or so, so if I know I’m going to work in the hangar I can turn the heat or AC on the night before. AC use is hugely variable, if it’s a rainy day all day the AC will run almost continuously, but it may go several days and not run at all. Attached is sort of a typical week if there is such a thing, a good 2 ton mini-split is very energy efficient as they are variable speed compressors, the design is to vary speed as opposed to constantly turning on and off so long run times doesn’t necessarily mean it’s running full speed, but in my case it likely is.

I think you need to de-cowl it, degrease it and run it up for 5 min or so and shut down and start looking. Some swear by adding UV dye in the oil but I’ve never had to go that route. There are advanced techniques like spraying dye penetrant developer onto suspected case cracks, but I don’t think you need to go that far, case cracks do occur but are relatively uncommon. I would not worry about them at this point. I don’t see a smoking gun in the pics. It’s sort of normal depending on how long it’s been since overhaul or manufacture to have seeps. I use Gunk engine bright, mineral spirits is good too and often is what engine manufacturers recommend as it avoids water, be careful with it though as it’s charcoal lighter fluid. I’m not saying don’t use it just take precaution as you’re spraying a flammable liquid on the entire engine, at least have a fire extinguisher available. I’ve never heard of a single fire from engine cleaning though. I’m hopefully fixing a leak on my C-85 as we speak, it lost 1 qt of oil in a 30 min flight. That qt of oil covered the entire belly and when I got back after lunch there were puddles of oil going all the way back to the tailwheel, probably four puddles in all. If you lost 3/4 quart of oil in a leak, it makes an epic mess, the entire belly would literally be dripping oil.

Comment I often hear is car gas and Avgas prices aren’t related. However I think they are in that both of course are made from crude oil and therefore the price of crude ought to affect both. Price of crude is almost down to pre pandemic prices https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/brent-crude-oil You need to select the 5 yr tab on the chart to see back to 2019 of course. It’s $78.80 now, but peaked right at $120 Jun 2022, that’s a big drop. However there does seem to be a lag in Avgas pricing, it seems most airports price their fuel based off of the price they paid for it, however it seems car gas goes up instantly, whenever there is a jump in crude pricing.

I don’t think I would. I need to remove the bulb, as I always fly with a flashlight if I’m ever out at night I’ll just use it. The likelihood of me killing the battery is probably ten times higher than me needing it to see at night. Had wing lights under the wing on the 210, same deal

If your really into the survival thing, a Di Di Mao bag is possibly useful. DI Di Mao is Vietnamese for go now or go fast, hurry up or something similar, I wasn’t over there, so I’m not sure the older pilots who were taught me when I was a W1. Anyway you can put small lightweight things hopefully that won’t stick you etc in a survival vest, but anything heavier or bigger you need a bag or similar. We had large extraordinarily well equipped and packed survival kits in the storage bay, but maybe you couldn't get them for a couple of reasons so the idea of the go now or go fast bag was it was in the cockpit with you and you could grab it in a hurry, and Di Di Mao, AKA run like hell. Civilian flying maybe the things on fire. I had a lot of parachute cord and lots of Power bars in mine, fire starter, space blanket, camp axe, water treatment pills and lots of things but keep it small. Today going to breakfast it was Fl cold. 32F, as I’m running straight 50W now I turned on the heat in the hangar last night and it kept the hangar and therefore of course the airplane at 60F. Was it necessary? Probably not but it didn’t hurt.

It’s obviously WAY off topic and has nothing at all to do with aviating, but I’m hoping that as long as it’s polite and respectful that it will be allowed. Being polite and respectful no matter how badly you disagree or just how wrong the other guy is ought to be the standard, it’s just civilized behavior. Traffic that is posts is usually good for a forum I’ve heard, I think advertising pays based on traffic, but really don’t know, it’s just what I have heard Of course I have nothing to do with moderating this forum, so I’m just hoping, which of course you do in one hand while you know what in the other.

I try my best to not let my political beliefs out, let politics even a little bit sneak into this forum and it would ruin it, once out it’s hard to put it back in the bag, so if I inadvertently slip I apologize and please believe me it wasn’t intentional. Militarily though I’m nearly certain that we are right now in a more dangerous time than any since WWII with the exclusion of the Cuban missile crisis, we came phenomenally close to a Nuclear exchange one day with only one very brave and determined Soviet Officer that saved the day. The world knows for certain that we have zero taste for military activity, we telegraphed that as plain as possible with the Afghanistan withdrawal, we were already leaving, it was a planned drawdown that of course could have been accelerated, but to cut and run in the middle of the night abandoning many people we had promised that we wouldn’t and to abandon an entire Army’s worth of equipment reeked of the retreat at Dunkirk, it reeked of fear and frankly desperation. People were so desperate that they were clinging to transports and falling off to their deaths, yet we continued, handing their babies over barbed wire to foreign soldiers in the hope they would live a better life, think about that, how bad does it have to get for a Mother to do that? Then we decided that if we played nice and bought off the Iranians that they would behave. Guess what they didn’t and I believe they are very likely a Nuclear power now. Follow that with just ignoring North Korea which now is a Nuclear power with likely dozens of nuclear weapons and has most probably a delivery system now. Oh and on edit, It’s my belief that our capabilities are reduced very significantly, we have drawn dow no telling how many arms and material that hasn’t and can’t be replaced short term. Procurement of military equipment even simple ammunition is a long involved process beginning with submitting for bids etc. You can’t just go to the military store and purchase things off of the shelf, one just doesn’t exist so the current inventory is all there is, draw it down and even on a hurry up basis it takes a long time to replace it. Combine that with the lack of serious training and manpower of the Military and I believe our loss of capability to be substantial. In short I think we are in as bad a shape as we were after Vietnam This is a publication sort of known as being a cheerleader for the Military, not the press that always is negative. https://www.stripes.com/opinion/2023-10-24/us-military-has-readiness-problem-11817159.html

Ah, I understand now, no you don’t want your airplane kept near any ocean if you can possibly help it.

Aileron / rudder interconnects became a Fad if you will in the 60’s, and 70’s. Most small aircraft Certified in that era have them. There is a Certification requirement that you must be able to raise a dropped wing with rudder, I don’t know why it’s there but it is, if the rudder moves the ailerons then of course the wing will be raised. The FAA looked favorably on them. My guess is the thought they contributed to coordinated flight and may help prevent stall / spin accidents, but that’s a guess. The only time it becomes obnoxious in my opinion is crosswind landings and skids / slips where your cross controlled and therefore fighting the interconnect. I eliminated it in one aircraft I Certified. Maule has the only interconnect that I didn’t find obnoxious, the Maules ailerons are out on the wing tip and short span, so they create a lot of induced yaw. Old man Maule put a trim tab on the rudder that’s deflected by yoke movement adding rudder to correct for adverse yaw, but when you add rudder it doesn’t affect the ailerons. So he corrected for adverse yaw, but with his set up you weren’t fighting the interconnect on crosswind landings or a skid / slip.

Dick Cheney used to fly into Albany Ga all the time and shut down my test flights. He would go “hunting” at the Victoria Secrets Plantation just North of town. I’d imagine that the hunting was pretty good there. Must have been, because he came frequently, even out of season.

But, they are here to help Remember their motto “we aren’t happy, until your not happy”

One is, but here’s the deal it’s only PMA IF you buy a battery box STC for a couple of Piper aircraft and the C-180 and 185. It’s NOT PMA for anything else. Pretty sure but not certain about the 180 and 185. Just looked the attached link lists applicable aircraft, more have been added since I last looked it seems https://www.batterymart.com/p-hawker-sbs-J16-aircraft-battery.html?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-62tBhDSARIsAO7twbaLi7pv89kShGwP64ft0gtcT50oFDO-NfCDYwOKXC4coU08JroCPf8aAmUQEALw_wcB I promise you when you drill into EVERY FAR the answer is, it depends. Odyssey link https://www.odysseybatteries.com/odyssey/sbsj16.html

OK, I believe you. What’s the logic of having a $9 sticker price if you never sell any of it then?

I spoke to the airport manager about it, a good friend named Frankie Williams, he was one of our dealers, but Frankie pretty much said yes it’s arrogant, but you can’t do anything about it, there is no rule against it and they are entitled they think. Same guy of course preaches about our carbon foot print yet burns thousands of gallons of Jet to deliver a card.

Another wide misconception, you’re not alone a neighbor is still pissed at me for telling him that the Odyssey battery is a PMA battery, but it’s not legal in his 182. I was trying to help, but now he knows and I guess he didn’t like it, shoot the messenger. PMA does not constitute approval for a particular aircraft. PMA just means parts approval authority, that means the manufacturer has demonstrated to the FAA that they can manufacture parts and meet all requirements to do so. What you’re referring to is often called a “Standard part” something that can be used on any aircraft not requiring a special part for an application, many if not most electrical parts for example are standard parts. Usually, but not always standard parts meet a TSO, Technical Standard Order, which specifies the performance standard for the part, for example one would expect the TSO for a landing light might specify a min brightness level, possibly beam width etc. Usually but not always is relevant because if you dig into just about any FAR you will find exceptions. Some say they were intentionally written to be vague and full of loop holes, maybe they are right. But the FAA never got around to writing a TSO for landing lights, like many things it was just sort of taken for granted that people would buy lights made by GE etc meant for aircraft and not say a Sears garden tractor light because it would fit, and most of course did. Then along came LED’s, many manufacturers like Aeroleds for example, I’ll use his because I’ve worked with him and he’s a good guy who makes a good product who would sell you a light but would tell you that it’s up to the installer to determine if it was a minor or major etc. he was being honest I’m not knocking him. HID’s came out about the same time, similar problem, they are similar to a filament light bulb but require a ballast. Whelen manufactured the Parmethius and as they are the big boys in lighting I’m sure didn’t want to sell with the it’s not approved disclaimer. The issue as I understand it was the FAA has a policy I guess I’ll call it that makes approval easier if your building essentially the same thing that’s already been approved or has been in existence forever, like say a Butyl tire inner tube, so if you build a Butyl inner tube that’s just as thick etc and the same way as say Goodyears approval is easy. But make one out of a new material approval is going to be much harder, even if it’s superior. The problem with LED’s is they are nothing like an incandescent bulb, there is no filament in a vacuum etc, there are electronics etc., so while they both produce light it’s by an entirely different method, so the FAA was scratching their heads on LED’s and moving at the normal FAA pace of maybe next year. Whelen of course wanted to sell their lights, an Alaskan company named floats Alaska had an STC to sell LED landing lights, so Whelen chose to buy their STC as opposed to waiting on the FAA to decide what they wanted to do. Being as it was an STC that meant an IA got involved, the requirement for a continuous airworthiness document spelling out what required maintenance and servicing etc had to be done etc. Which is silly for a light hull of course but it allowed Whelen to sell light bulbs. This was years ago when I was an aircraft manufacturer and was attempting to get rid of incandescent bulbs as frankly they were in my opinion outdated and no million dollar new airplane should come with them anymore than our radios ought to have tubes. As that was likely almost a decade ago surely the FAA has addressed LED’s by now and hopefully written a TSO that specifies min luminosity, beam focus, possibly color temp etc. but I honestly don’t know. An issue with just installing things that require an STC is one day you may decide to sell, and it’s likely that whoever inspects the records will take note of the missing 337’s etc, and sloppy and or missing records are a red flag when buying an airplane. It doesn’t mean the airplanes bad of course but it could help devalue it. I would think think it more likely you winning the Lottery than you getting into hot water with the FAA if you chose to install an STC’d product yourself, the FAA just doesn’t care and doesn’t monitor GA to that level thankfully, they do monitor mechanics, but almost never the aircraft, unless it’s something so obvious that they can’t ignore it, like an airplane on the ramp with bent prop tips for example. An airplane with neat, properly kept records without missing items helps sell better than one that isn’t, beyond that it seems to a great extent owners often do as they please.

What is an environmentally friendly hangar, and why is it important?

Yes thankfully not all kids are like my Grandkids, things will turn around, hard work, saving etc will become important again. The difference is when I was young they would have been considered Abby normal, while today they aren’t.

I’ll never forget flying to Americus Ga and hearing on the radio a flight of two Challengers on a ten mile final, thinking that’s silly why would two Ultralight’s call ten miles out, to see once they got closer that it was two Challenger wide body bizjets. Bill Gates flew in from California to deliver a birthday card to Jimmy Carter, pretty much shutting down the airport to do so, you couldn’t park in front of the FBO or get fuel etc. the Challengers were there, parked intentionally to take up the whole ramp, I guess for security? I guess it takes two Challengers to fly Bill Gates? A Private one for him and another for his security maybe?