A64Pilot

I’ll never tell but I know a few that swear by “Green grease” Its that water proof Marine grease you spoke of. But if you only put say 30 or 40 miles on them and repack them every year I can’t imagine how good the grease is or isn’t matters.

Very often tax is collected for this and that but the tax that’s collected goes into the general fund, that’s spent on what politicians decide to spend it on, not for the purpose it was collected for. During the Energy crisis in the 70’s I remember thinking my God if it keeps going up it’s going to cost as much as milk does. Since then it’s always seemed when gas and milk cost about the same per gl people weren’t crying about how much gas costs. People are funny, gas can be we will say 3 a gl, then go up to 5 for awhile, and if it drops back to 4 people are happy. They don’t think but it’s a buck a gl more than it was two years ago, they are just happy it came down. It’s like climbing stairs, you go up two, come down one, but your always going up. This current glut of oil we are experiencing is only temporary, it’s not come from new wells or new fields or whatever, it’s coming from more efficient extraction of current wells, fracking I assume but as we aren’t drilling new wells or opening new fields it won’t last, but I have no idea how long it will last.

I hate to say another myth, but it partially is. Some States you do get a free ride, but those are dropping like flies and those States that tax EV’s often do so in excess of what gas cars pay. It’s been that way for a long time, this Consumer Reports article was written in 2019 https://www.consumerreports.org/hybrids-evs/more-states-hitting-electric-vehicle-owners-with-high-fees/

The Honda I saw raced wasn’t in the original frame. I’m not sure of the class, I think it slipped in because no one thought to write turbo out of the class. The Zuki turbo was very poorly thought out, it didn’t make good power and broke often. Suzukis have always been the best handling, Kawasaki often made more power. There was an expression back then road racing “if you weren’t racing a Suzuki, you were chasing someone who was” The Kawasaki was the best designed turbo. Thing I loved about Turbos was even the ones we drag raced had no muffler of course but the turbo worked really well to reduce the exhaust noise so they were very quiet, I loved the whistle and with the low compression they were easy to start and we made best power with stock cams degreed to 110 lobe centers so they idled like a stock bike, very street drivable. We ran Titanium valves with aluminum retainers and the light weight allowed for stock valve springs.

Usually, but California is an outlier, Their gas is honestly different, it really does pollute less but you get less range too. As it’s a special fuel that’s only made for California it costs more, largely I believe because the supplier can charge more, but whatever it does cost more, although I’d guess it’s taxed higher too. Tax by State, and yep California takes the win. https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-gas-tax-rates-2023/

Many years ago I ran a Renault R5 in SCCA SSC class, it was R5’s against Chevy Vega’s. Just one year though, it was the year I crewed for a Formula Super Vee, 87 maybe? Renault sent out one heat range cooler plugs to every racer, just plain plugs but one heat range cooler. Anyway AFTER the race the cars were inspected, everybody except the local guy was running the out of spec plugs Renault sent us, so everyone except the local guy was disqualified. Believe it or not but the Vega’s were slightly more powerful, but the Renaults handled better, that is until they rolled over. They were prone to that.

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