A64Pilot

You can certainly go that way and as an owner it’s likely best. But to just further muddle the pond an A&P can fabricate simple parts like this, for example wing ribs and skins etc are done all of the time. Then for example I’m allowed to have others work under my supervision, for example I believe the FAA would rather have me take a broken engine mount to a professional welder and Tig weld the repair under my supervision as opposed to me lighting the welding torch and gas welding it as I’ve not done that in a looong time. So in my option it could be done either way, as an OPP or a fabbed part by an A&P or above, either way if properly documented you wont get any grief. Just looking at the part it’s likely if an FAA inspector sees it, you would be congratulated not admonished, another opinion. Now I know it was purely in jest, but attempting to pass off a part as a factory part gets you into counterfeit / unapproved parts and that is a very big possible problem. Just one part for personal use surely just a stern talking to, but Counterfeit / unapproved parts is as bad as printing your own money.

I too only have the factory instrumentation and in a Fl Winter I have to enrichen a bit to stay in even the bottom of the green in cruise. J model. I adjust what full close is on the cowl flaps twice a year, the book has an allowance and I can’t pull it from memory but in Winter I’m at the most closed and Summer it’s more open, and as I’m in Florida it’s of course not a real winter so I’d expect in places that get real Winters that you need the cowl flaps full closed, no gap and run ROP just for the heat. EI Thermistors are normally very accurate and stay that way, in my experience with them they are either accurate or don’t work at all, nothing in between, assuming we are talking a digital EI instrument, before engine start they should display ambient temp pretty accurately. I had an MVP-50P in my Maule and had 14 temp sensors and all would display within 1 deg F on power up if the aircraft had been sitting in the hangar for a few days

Easy to rule out the pitch stop, if it’s the pitch stop she won’t get the RPM on the ground but easily will in the air, especially at higher speeds. If I were getting 2640 I’d be tempted to leave it alone if the governor were a pain to adjust, mine in fact turns about that now and as I only have the stock tach, it might be 2700 or even 2600, who knows, they aren’t super accurate.

On things like that plunger I’ve had good luck by not using any kind of oil on reassembly, not even silicone spray. Glad that was all it was because I’ve heard some of those switches are very expensive IF you can find one. I use teflon spray, just search for it, everybody sells it even WD-40 brand, I like Dupont because I think they were the original manufacturer of PTFE? Anyway it’s perfectly dry, any oil etc will accumulate dirt eventually even if it takes 50 years, but dry teflon powder won’t. We even use it on sails, there it’s sold as “sail kote” it won’t stain the sail cloth, great for zippers etc. https://www.mclubemarine.com/sailkote/ It’s just over priced teflon spray though Oh, and I think Teflon is completely non reactive if I use the term correctly, it won’t “melt” any kind of plastic etc like some solvent carriers can.

Add makes the windows and Avionics and interior years longer to the list, the sun destroys the cover instead of the airplane But depending on where you are covers can harm the windows if dirt gets under them and the wind is blowing

Most any engine will go to TBO if it’s not run hard. There have been a few problem children though that have defects in design. The H2AD Lycoming comes to mind. For those that run it like they stole it or “I bought a Mooney to go fast” it’s very likely they will have less engine longevity than one run at lower power. Now there is nothing wrong with running one hard and enjoying the speed, just accept that it will impact engine longevity. The point of boosting an engine is of course to increase power whether in total or to maintain it at altitude so running one at high power is sort of the point of having a turbo. TANSTAAFL I know we aren’t talking Lycoming here, but Lycoming states in a few of their pubs that for maximum engine longevity to cruise at 65% power or less. If your trying to make an engine last first control temps, ITT and cyl head, then secondly slow down some.

Most “RADAR” altimeters that have reduced range are usually Lasar, which isn’t bad because at low altitudes Lasar’s are way more accurate. Of course they will read the foliage of trees etc as height, not ground, but who wants to hit a tree anyway? I believe “real” RADAR altimeters are pretty expensive compared to Laser. Probably 10 or more years ago I Certified this one for installation on Thrush aircraft, we put it in an inspection cover which made installation real simple. http://yorktonaircraft.com/pub/AgLaser - Flyer (r2).pdf The theory was knowing your exact altitude to the foot made application more accurate, but in truth once you learned the sight picture you didn’t need the Altimeter anymore, of course Laser light won’t interfere with avionics so EMI/EMC isn’t an issue.

May sound silly, but it’s worked for me on boats finding a deck leak, water can leak in one place then travel before it leaks out. Stick a vacuum hose into the vent window and seal the hole with whatever you can, foam, tape whatever, then turn the vacuum on blow with all the vents closed and the door shut of course, maybe tape the vents shut on the outside with blue painters tape if you have to. First feel around for any air flow, maybe use a candle or smoke and or maybe soapy water in a water bottle. Boats I used a blower fan, but assume a shop vac would work for an airplane, but I’ve not done it on an airplane. I had a C-210 that it was the base of the windshield, water leaked into the Avionics. If you have ever seen a house tested for air leaks, same deal just in reverse.

No I don’t have any kind of proof, and won’t because I really not that interested, but it is logical. I have never seen it installed permanently, only when they are doing work, and even then I’ve only seen it very rarely, haven’t noticed it myself in years. I had a friend now gone that started out life working for the phone company that told me. That’s not “proof” of course but it seemed logical to me. He was the Dean at the A&P school in Americus Ga. started out teaching Avionics there years ago. He also told me that Bell telephone was the first to use a Solar Panel in Americus Ga. The first practical test of one in 1955. He was sort of a telephone and electronics Nerd. I have no idea what a SGOT is OK a simple search of “does the telephone company purge cables with nitrogen” turned this up. Granted this is power cables, but I’m sure if I kept looking I would find it applies to any buried wire conductor cable even TV cables. https://www.tdworld.com/intelligent-undergrounding/whitepaper/21165280/respond-rectify-and-restore-underground-electrical-systems

43.13 doesn’t cover manufacturers. Like I said, do you think every PMA manufacturer of parts gained OEM approval for the parts they manufacture? Pratt building GE parts or Continental and several others building Lycoming parts like cylinders and a whole list of other things is the point. If Conti, Superior and who knows how many other PMA manufacturers are allowed to build Lycoming engine parts, then certainly one can build a throttle cable. Of course they likely get DER approval, I never said they didn’t. Most probably they have DER’s on staff, I did. I manufactured Type Certificated aircraft from about 2003 to 2017 or so, I’m familiar with the process. A throttle cable would be very, very easy. It’s essentially a standard part with a specified length with a slot cut into it. First sentence of the FAA definition of PMA covers it “ A Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) is a combined design and production approval for modification and replacement articles. It allows a manufacturer to produce and sell these articles for installation on type certificated products” https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/pma

When you say Piper 235, I guess that’s a Cherokee 6? How long ago did you have it, and why are you thinking Mooney? Flight time wise the difference between the two over a couple hundred miles isn’t much, but if your taking clubs etc on those golf trips it’s going to be a whole lot different in a Mooney. Now start talking flying to Colorado, Texas or something then yes it makes a big difference. I don’t golf so I assume they will fit, but think it’s not easy, possibly hard on the interior etc, whereas a 6 you can even fit a coffin as I had a friend that used to fly deceased people back home to be buried. Heck you could probably fit a house refrigerator in one leaving the front baggage area for several suitcases. Back when my Parents had a C model my Mother packed in pillow cases as there wasn’t the room they had in the C-210 they used to have, it’s really downsizing. It is very much like moving from a pickup or maybe big SUV to a Miata or other smallish sports car. They are very different machines. Find one to rent or maybe somebody teaches in one or something and get several hours in one to see if you still like it.

Ever taken an old school automatic transmission valve body apart and tried to figure out fluid flow? New ones may be the same I don’t have any experience with those. Some hydraulic flight control servos remind me of the transmission valve bodies. I guess we have to stop calling then trannie’s now huh? How about XMSN?

Do not go by pitot A/S, back in the day we had to do runs over ground reference points to determine A/S error which was error prone subject to interpretation etc, thankfully now there are GPS’s and Dr Ralph Kimberlin after much discussion with the FAA finally got them to accept GPS data, believe it or not but they fought abandoning the old inaccurate way. As a GPS is an averaging thing speed wise it’s very accurate for speed as it averages errors out, I mean stupid accurate. From memory Garmin quotes .05 m/sec for steady state speed which is .1MPH? Do the three way speed run referenced earlier in the thread and forget any other data, if there is a significant difference, then the other instrument is in error, not the GPS. Do it early in the morning in smooth air, if it’s rough at all pick another day.

You can check that with a degree wheel and a dial indicator. Look up how to “degree” cams for a very good explanation. I’ve never checked an aircraft, used to build drag bikes decades ago and I always degreed the cams. You do need to know what the lobe center number is though, if you can’t find that I guess you would have to get it from measuring a known good engine.

Prekote is a treatment meant largely to replace Cadmium plating and not any kind of stripping? I’m not impressed with it, sure it’s a lot better than nothing but it’s not as good as Cadmium plating, not even close. Thrush went to it in the last year or so that I was there for wing spars as a cost saving. I wasn’t a fan. It is easy and apparently environmentally friendly. Glad to hear that there are safe strippers, but gut says they aren’t as effective, require more work and success is largely dependent on the worker knowing what they are doing and following directions. I bet very often that “Aircraft paint stripper” is bought from auto paint stores, you know the stuff that oddly says on it “not to be used on aircraft” I’m sure like most everything else if done right it’s not that destructive, but if it’s not it’s is. Me personally if shopping I’d rather have an airplane with original paint. Mine unfortunately had been repainted, not very well either, but finding the perfect airplane is rare

Who knows, AD’s are very often tripped by very low probabilities if the possibly severity is high, very few of the wing spar inspection AD find bad spars, but it only takes one to kill you. Plus and as an ex manufacturer who rode the bust and boom that aviation can be a little bit of me wonders how much AD’s can be a profit model. AD’s differ from Auto recalls for example in that first they are mandated and secondly most often the owner shoulders the expense. Having to produce a large number of parts to cover an AD is an increase in business after all. But it also come at the expense of the way purchasers may view the product. But AD’s are very often the coffin nail for a manufacturer too, especially if they try to “do the right thing” and shoulder a large portion of the expense. Finally and again speaking from having been a manufacturer myself for 15 years, it’s my opinion that Lawyers are often a large portion of the blame for AD’s. A lot of decisions in aviation manufacturing are done based on the concern of litigation.

They are drying and or purging the cables as I understand it, not the boxes. I believe there is pretty much zero gas flow so once purged/ dried the the cables stay that way for a long time. Nitrogen is used a lot to displace O2 for different reasons, it’s used in Beer brewing to prevent oxidation of the beer I guess. We even had an NIU (nitrogen inserting unit) on the Apache that pumped nitrogen into the fuel cells so the gas above the fuel wasn’t explosive, the NIU was really just an O2 concentrator, just the O2 was expelled overboard and what was left was mostly N2 and that was dumped into the aft fuel cell, the fwd fuel cell vent opened at a slightly lower pressure than the aft so the N2 flowed through both cells and overboard thru the front. It had the side benefit if extending the life of the fuel cells it seemed.

You can make parts like cables that aren’t complicated without drawings, even lowly A&P’s can. For example many ribs etc are fabricated every day for repairs without drawings. Yes drawings make it easier but aren’t required. PMA manufacturers IF they have the capability can build any part, capability is the issue, Univair can’t build Compressor turbines for instance. What do you think the likely hood is that Lycoming gave Continental their drawings and permission to build their cylinders for instance? Yet they do. GE entered the turboprop market years ago in response to Pratt building PMA parts for the GE engine used on the 737 (CFM), before then they had an unwritten agreement that they wouldn’t build each others parts. Apparently neither company makes any money from sales of their big Commercial engines, the real money is in parts that keep that engine operating. You can choose engine manufacturer but until Pratt broke the agreement parts were pretty much sole source as it take a LOT of money apparently to be able to build those parts. So no, unless Patented parts are not protected

Boeing issued a ltr years ago, maybe the 70’s that laid out how much fuel was consumed over the life of a painted aircraft vs one that wasn’t and it was a HUGE number. However unpainted surfaces have to be polished occasionally and if memory serves that labor costs wipes out the fuel savings. This is from memory so I could be wrong

I suspect that quite a few cranks that were removed during the AD’s years ago are flying again too.

That is what usually happens because these “letters” etc have no real force of law. FAR’s are LAW, so to really affect change you have to change the law, and that’s a lot more work than the FAA wants to do. You can fight these letters and AC’s but good luck fighting an FAR. The FAA of course issues a lot of AC’s several modify procedures in Test Flights for aircraft certification, I or honestly my DER successfully fought the ACO in Atl and we did not follow the AC, we followed the FAR, specifically take off distance to 50’ sticks in my memory.

I don’t see how you could really, for example Repair Stations and manufacturers labor force is overwhelmingly people with zero FAA Certification. When pushed my Inspector told me the reason I had to issue “repair station certificates” was only so the FAA would have jurisdiction over them. The Certificates were worthless otherwise. But then the people on the factory floor had no such Certificates and therefore weren’t subject to FAA being able to “touch” them. MIDO and FSDO differ significantly. If supervision were to be disallowed then no aircraft could be manufactured and every Repair Station would have to shut down, and no one could get their A&P based on experience, except prior Military, because how could you get the experience? I think the number of A&P’s that didn’t go to school is higher than many expect, especially your local A&P, the school guys usually go to the Airlines etc. I do think that the intent was to prevent ridiculous claims of supervision like show me the repair on your phone etc. and in my opinion that nonsense should be disallowed.

I won’t say too much about speed increases personally I haven’t seen as much as others. There are pros and cons, paint is indeed heavier than you may suspect, but stripping involves chemicals that wicks into metal where it overlaps and into rivet holes, it’s extremely caustic stuff as it eats paint, well it eats aluminum too so any aircraft that’s been stripped will have corrosion from the stripping, but sometimes you have no choice, if the underlining layer is breaking up then of course an overspray will too. Then all flight controls have to be rebalanced especially for those that weren’t stripped. Stripping you might get lucky and end up where you started but as the area of a flight control aft of the hinge line is much greater than that fwd of it, you will gain considerable weight that has to be counterbalanced, often the weight required to balance tge control exceeds max allowable, then you have to strip and start over. At the Boeing Apache plant in Mesa Arizona they had a machine that had a head that hit the paint with unbelievably strong UV light then blasted it with CO2 pellets to remove it, it was precise enough that it could strip down to primer but leave the primer, I saw it working, but it was an apparently millions of dollars robot. I didn’t know that was available in the civilian world, but if it is that would be the way to go. https://boeing.mediaroom.com/1998-06-12-FLASHJET-Paint-Removal-Systems-Completes-Fiftieth-Apache-Fuselage But yes the disassembly and stripping etc is the most labor intensive part of painting an aircraft. Once the prep is done the painting is the quick part.

As an older not small guy ate up with arthritis I think this post nails it, once your in it’s fine, but getting in and out is much more difficult. Owning a Mazdaspeed Miata I think the Miata comparison is spot on. In both once I’m in I’m fine until it’s time to get out that is. My wife flies with her seat slid all the way aft which solves the shoulder width issue. In my opinion if you want a real four seat airplane, buy a 6 seater, unless we are talking kids. Some aircraft do seem to have bigger cockpits, the Aero Commander 112/114 for instance. But this measurement numbers comparing cockpits is just wrong, I had much more room in my C-210 than there is in any Mooney, a lot of it is that you sit on the floor in a Mooney, like the Miata while other aircraft you sit up high like an SUV. Mooney has among the smallest cockpits, it has to be to get as much as speed as it does with so little HP, you have to reduce frontal area to get there, while for example the Aero Commander with its large cockpit pays for it in cruise speed.

Required and what is done often differs. I stood up the repair station at Thrush and we kept records the same as the factory, forever or in the factories case at least back to 1965 when it opened. Very rarely that information was requested, usually it was used for reissue of a data plate or similar. I see it as similar to maintenance records, except for Transponder checks that data is only required to be kept for one year, but anyone who follows that is in for a shock when it comes time to sell. Personally I’m very much against that rule because it allows an unscrupulous individual to cull negative data and pretend it doesn’t exist, and I’ve even had one of our dealers at the time cut a page out of a logbook of an aircraft he was selling. At the time I thought that illegal, but I guess it’s not, just not ethical. So in other words I’d call and request a copy of the work order even if it past the date they can destroy it, and I’d offer to pay for their time digging it up and making copies.