Hank

I have never heard of this happening. Ever.

So how do people inspect yokes after Hector at Aero Comfort covers them in leather? Mine are just powder coated.

If you can rent a 252 when needed, buy the J!! Then you'll have them both. Boy, I like spending other people's money. But you did ask.

a--see above. Before removing existing static wicks, I'd talk to your A&P about their continued necessity, and about what to do with the empty holes. Seems like a lot of us never had them.

Gary, The easy solution to Jim's problem is for him to sit in the left seat, and leave the right seat for his un-favorite passengers . . .

C'mon, guys . . . Even on those rare occasions when I go somewhere that has a tower, they never tell me when to turn base. Just recently, CMH told me to report right base for 28R when coming up from the south; RDU vectored me approximately downwind and told me to follow the CJ that was 8-10 miles out on a straight in. Both left it up to me how to get to the runway, when and where to turn, etc. Do you really fly into airports that tell you when to turn base, when to turn final? Do they also tell you how fast to fly, when to drop the gear, remind you about flaps and landing lights? Then again, I've never been into Class B. For the Floridians, FXE just vectored me out to sea at 2000' agl and cleared me for the GPS approach to 31, once again leaving turns up to me and my Garmin. I personally find the idea that the tower will tell you when to make each turn shocking . . . Maybe that's because I'm based at a non-towered field and find the whole control thing unusual. Often I have to ask to descend, not having speedbrakes, spoilers or reverse thrust, and can't descend 4000' in 3 or 4 miles and be able to land.

Call Brittain. There is an adjustment screw on the Accu-Trak box in addition to the roll adjustment on the DG. The L-R roll knob on Accu-Flite is very, very effective . . .

430W, Stormscope, KX197. No static wicks. The Ohio Valley and South East where I fly are both very humid. No issues.

Way to go, both of you! I wanted to be either an F-14 or Test Pilot, but didn't have the required 20/20 or better. So I thought I would build planes instead, and graduated with an ME degree, emphasis in thermo with some AE classes thrown in for good measure, just at the bottom dropped out of the market in the late 80's . . . Dreams are good, but sometimes reality hits. Sure was glad I didn't have an aviation-only degree. "Plan B" is required even when not flying!

Check the vacuum hoses behind the panel, mine were crumbly. Make sure the red & green tubes are in good shape and that no connections were pulled loose while checking static lines. They run from behind to panel to each wing servo, to both tail servos and to the controller in the top of the tailcone. You already worked on the difficult-to-reach wing servos. Pull and inspect the tail servos; mine are inside the tailcone access door, and there is only one screw to remove per servo. If the boot isn't torn, the guys at Brittain can tell you how to rewrap them to eliminate leaks, quickly & inexpensively.

I was taught early in my primary training to always verify that the number on the runway matches the number on the compass before taking off. I have once or twice been distracted and missed setting the DG during runup, this will often catch it and is why I use the compass to confirm runway heading. On every landing, I always verify handle position and green light on base and final, and I like to double-check the floor indicator on final, too. There's no need to pick my feet up off the floor because they're on the rudders coordinating the turns, and straight in approaches are very infrequent for me. On short final I often re-confirm gear switch position by touch and recheck the green light. I also calculate my short final speed no later than downwind, so I know the number to shoot for [75 mph at gross - 5mph per 300 lbs. under gross]. When rolling wings-level on final, I call out the PAPI/VASI lights if they are present & operating, and adjust flaps if high or power if low. Other than that, I've just rearranged the factory checklist items to make a good right-to-left flow pattern and added in items for modern avionics [no more Radio--ON; it's Avionics Master--ON; set GPS; etc.].

The only time I had a squeak while moving the plane was when the wheel bearings were going bad. They shouldn't squeak from boarding.

I thought non-certified stuff could be carried or non-permanently attached (not 'installed'), as long as the certified, installed avionics were still there for primary use. Isn't that how people 'mount' Garmin handhelds using those nifty removable mounts by I-forget-who?

Like you say, never that simple for your theory, either. We've looked at building more hangars here where things are less horribly expensive. A dozen T-hangars can be had for ~$350 per month per hangar for 20 years, if you don't have to pay interest and don't want to make a profit by renting them out. That does not include paying for the land, which belongs to the county. We decided at that price that our waiting list would dwindle from the current 25+ down to about 3, so no construction. Our existing twelve T-hangars have had exactly one change in lessee since I started lessons in 2006.

Steve-- You surely can. That's what I get for reading too fast--I thought you were saying that removing the clock would give extra clearance between the yoke and the EMD 700 that he wants to put in the panel almost directly behind it. Mount your handheld anywhere you like. Personally, I like the sweep hands and the settable red hands, it really makes remembering to change tanks easy, and simplifies figuring flight time at the end.

Those of us with wind-up clocks know that they cannot be "removed" from the yoke. The yoke was cast with the clock mount, and it completely surrounds the clock; taking the clock out will not eliminate the obstruction. My EGT is mounted to the lower left, near the bottom edge of the panel. Gotta love the variation in the vintage panels!

Congrats, Philip. I like your unit so much that two of my friends have bought them, too. It's hard to beat the "open the box and plug it in" convenience, and $10 for 3 months of service is a good deal, too. Dog training is not an application that would have occured to me. In the meantime, I continue to get good use from my Switchbox! I hate driving to the airport to plug in the engine heat . . .

I know what my druthers are. :-)

Just be aware that 'accidents' and 'incidents' are defined differently, recorded differently and filed in different locations.

I thought he was a rabbit.

The problem is all you E/F/J drivers don't have to put it on a fuel line running to a carburetor way down on the bottom of the engine. Things are different for the C models. Keep us posted. I'd like to add fuel flow, but have nowhere to put a display other than a back page on the 430W.

There's nothing like that on my 1970 C. What year is yours again?

Lane at CMH is still friendly, still has cookies & drinks and still has $15 ramp fee. But it's convenient. Never been to OSU, but it's across town and traffic was getting bad when I left town 8 years ago.

While the Owner's Manual does not say for certain, I treat is as "maximum speed for flap extension at all." Safer that way, too. There are two big differences betwees flaps and ailerons: The flaps are mounted to a short sub-spar at the rear of the wing Flap deflection is much greater [down to 33º; ailerons go up~15º and down 8º].

Jared, thanks! That's great, and the arms match what I have. Hatrack = 110" too. Robert, PM your email and I'll send you the spreadsheet I found. The empty weight and CG for your plane are required entries, then you just add fuel, passenger and baggage weights. It will take into account which of the three holes you put your seat into, but you must specify. I use the middle one, most right seaters use all the way back to stay clear of the rudders.