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jlunseth

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jlunseth last won the day on March 15 2023

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    KFCM
  • Reg #
    N381SP
  • Model
    M20K 231

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  1. Mine has worked really well. The valve leaked years ago but that was fixed and it can sit for months without losing pressure. Understand that there is a change of the pressure reading by the gauge as OAT changes. Pressure goes up on a hot day and down when it is cold. Here in MN the difference can be substantial. But it does not mean there is a problem with the system.
  2. Mine is a 430AW, it’s a WAAS unit. Haven’t had the problem you mentioned Fritz, but can tell you that the cards have changed since those original non-WAAS units came out. The label color on the nav data cards has changed, each change made for a larger storage capacity. You should check, your terrain card may just not be large enough for the current database and a new card (not cheap) might fix it.
  3. Take Pinecone’s advice. Get TCM’s instructions on compression testing and make sure your mechanic, or preferably another mechanic, actually follows them. I am not an A&P, I am an owner of a K, so I track this whole issue just enough to understand what my A&P is telling me. As I understand it, TCM issued SB03-3 about 20 years ago. To my knowledge, it is still TCM’s current advice. Paul Kortopates or another A&P could tell you. TCM’s methodology is different from other engine manufacturers and places less reliance on straight-up compression testing to determine whether a cylinder needs to be replaced. Among other things, the SB says that a borescope should be performed. It also says that compression testing should not be done on a cold engine, the engine must be operated first, preferably flown at 65-75 percent power for about an hour before testing, so the compression test is done on an engine with full lubrication. If compressions are low, the SB says to recheck. There have been many instances where the first compression test is low, the engine is then flown and retested, and the readings are completely different. Last but not least, TCM’s minimum compressions for the K engines are much lower than other manufacturers’. Compression in the low to mid 40’s are acceptable. Testing has born this out, engines with intentionally low compressions (rings filed) put out the same horsepower as those with higher compressions. TCM’s advice on compression testing in the early 2000’s was controversial, you will actually find many articles online about it, and Mike Busch requested and got a legal opinion from the FAA about it. Lot’s of mechanics still don’t follow it. I have a new engine (TSIO360-LB). I replaced my old one when it approached 2300 hrs, which is nearly 500 over TBO. LOP operations were very good for that engine, and most of the time I was at 71% LOP, not 65 or in the 50’s. I replaced the engine because it was 22 years old and I thought getting a factory engine would result in the least down time for the aircraft. That did not turn out, but that is another story. In the last five years of the engine’s life (about 500 or 600 hrs) my number 2 was down in the 50s and eventually in the 40s. Borescoping made clear, however, that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the cylinder. I never had any trouble with that cylinder. Bear in mind that at that point the engine was a few hundred hours past TBO. At about 1200 hrs on the engine, I had the engine IRAN’d because it had obviously been run very hot by the prior owner, and because I had to make an emergency descent to landing that caused some ring slap in the cylinders. I never got a statement that said what was done, whether cylinders were replaced or just rebuilt. It was quite awhile ago. So I can’t tell you if cylinders were replaced now 14 years ago on that engine. I can tell you that the shop did a great job, the engine was far better than before the IRAN. Before the IRAN the engine would use as much as a quart every two hours. After the IRAN, and until the engine was replaced, I could generally go from one oil change to another at 25 hrs and not have to put in oil. If I went to 35 or more hours between changes then I would need to add a quart. I sometimes went as much as 40 or 50 because I was flying frequently and there was no point in changing oil every two weeks in my view. Oil use increased only very slightly toward the end, sometimes I would need to put in one quart between 25 hr. oil changes on an engine way past TBO. Also, I have to say that from my own experience I do not agree with mechanics that try to fault LOP operations for problems in an engine. Just was not my experience at all. Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about the compressions unless borescoping says there is something wrong with the cylinder. Just my opinion.
  4. Posting again in case anyone with the 430/530 is having a card problem. The history is that I updated my Garmin Aviation Database Manager a month or two ago, loaded the db on my navdata and terrain card, and the 430 would not work. I would get the Garmin screen with “No Copyright Info” underneath and that is as far as the unit would go in booting up. Talked to Garmin, got a replacement navdata card, saw that Garmin had created a new version of the Database Manager, installed that, and then reloaded the new card. Same result, the 430 would not boot past the Garmin screen, the only difference was that the small print showed copyright information existed. In fiddling around to test the unit, I pulled the navdata card and switched the terrain card into its place. The unit then booted normally except had no navdata. At least I could use the radios. I went to my avionics shop and they suggested that there had been problems like this in the past, and that they were caused by a corrupted terrain card, not the navdata card I was chasing. So I took the navdata card to the plane, inserted it, pulled the terrain card, and voila! the unit booted except now no terrain or obstacle data. Not a big deal because my main GPS is a 750 that works fine and the 430 is just backup. But at least I know what the source of the problem is. The first step was to reload the terrain card, so I have done that and now need to test it to see if the reload will work. If not, it will be back to Garmin.
  5. I know I have carried the pump type hairspray in my aircraft because it is just always in my travel toiletry kit, but I can't say I have ever noticed a problem with hairspray. Never thought about it. I get the small sample sized bottles for travel. I would put them in a plastic bag just in case, I do that with all my liquids and tubes of stuff even when I am going by commercial airline. Most of them won't leak but it only takes one....
  6. TCM wants the CHT to be between 300 and 380 and to limit cold and low power operations. Heat and pressure to prevent deposits and to seat the rings hard against the walls.
  7. I am also breaking in my engine. I don't hesitate to keep the speed brakes out to slow the airframe. They are rated for the Vne speed of the aircraft. I would not want to exceed the gear speed though, with the gear deployed. Mine is 132 kts. The leading edges of the gear doors are unsupported sheet metal, I have had pieces of the leading edges of the gear doors, especially the starboard one, sheer off several times, to the point where I don't even try to repair them anymore. Wasn't exceeding gear speed, they are just vulnerable. TCM recommends dialing the RPMs way down in order to keep the cylinders warm. For engine break-in, I routinely dial the RPMs down to 1800 on final in order to be able to keep the power up. Don't know that I would go that low for a sustained cruise though, but maybe look at your POH tables and use the lowest cruise RPM in the tables. Probably 2200. You might try the kitchen sink, i.e. leave the gear deployed, speed brakes out, and full flaps. Obviously, if the airframe starts to exceed the V speed for one of them you would need to slow and take that appendage in, probably the flaps first. But it might keep the airframe from exceeding any of the V speeds to begin with. I am nearing 50 hours and the engine is probably pretty much broken in at this point.
  8. I’ll bet nearly everyone has the problem of loose visor screws. I have always wondered whether a tiny amount of blue loctite wouldn’t take care of that. I should talk, I tell myself every time I get in the aircraft that I need to go through the visors and do that, but keep forgetting to take out sample screws so I can go to the hardware store and try to replace them. Good reminder. I am going to do that today.
  9. A few years ago a Warthog came to KFCM in preparation for the annual airshow. He got permission from the tower to do a low pass over the runway. The pilot was grinning, I know he was, I saw it.
  10. PS there is a normal operating range table in my POH, may be one in yours. Above 250 is in the normal operating range for my engine. Because of the cold here in MN I have looked into the consequences of operating one or more cylinders cold. The only consequence I have been able to find is that some think that lead scavenging degrades, so the spark plugs gunk up. I can’t say I have ever experienced that. Happens for a short time during every single landing in the winter here in MN when the engine is powered down on final or even in the pattern. Can’t say that it has ever caused an issue with my engine. @ Pinecone. As it happens, I have been reading through Basic Theory of Operation of Turbo Compound Engine, copyrighted in 1957, which the GAMI people distributed at the Ada seminar I attended. It’s by the Field Engineering Department of Curtiss-Wright. Pretty interesting.
  11. I pull off an inch of MP, make no other changes, and tip the nose over into a 500 fpm descent. In a turbo, if you are coming down from the flight levels it can be a long descent. If you were at 21k and need to get to 1k, that’s 40 minutes of descending, and making that kind of a descent exactly on the numbers is more art than science. The winds aloft that had you screaming along at 21k may stop quickly as you descend or they may not. Hard to predict. I pull the inch off because as soon as I tip the nose over the plane is going to pick up speed and the ram air effect is going to bring the MP right back up to around where I had it at cruise. Maintaining cruise power will keep the engine nice and toasty. Every time I say this someone jumps in and say, oh horror!, what if you hit a bump on the way down. Obviously, if it starts to get bumpy or you are going to descend into cloud tops where it could be turbulent you change what you are doing. Shock cooling is an OWT unless you are in arctic cold conditions. We do get that on occasion here in MN and when it starts to get difficult to keep the engine warm, remember, if you are at 65% power you can run the engine dead on peak, which helps keeps the temps up. You can also reduce RPMs way down, which allows you to keep percent of power higher in order to keep the engine warm. I am currently breaking in a new engine and TCM recommends pulling the RPMs way back during descents and approaches in order to keep the power up, so I am pulling it back to 1900 or even 1800 and guess what, nothing bad happens except I can keep the engine a little warmer.
  12. Yup, the 231 POH has the same warning. It also states, "Except for takeoff, fuel in the selected tank can be safely used until the quantity indicator reads empty (top of red line) for all other coordinated flight conditions." [Emphasis added.] Level or nose down and coordinated you are ok. ZW said it right, there is so much range with full tanks there is really no reason to get down to 0 in one and 10 in the other wing in the very efficient 231. I did it once on a trip from KFCM to Asheville, NC back in the day when I was flying ROP all the time, but if you fly LOP at cruise there is no good reason. Even if you get up into the flight levels and have to fly ROP, now your range per gallon is around 175 nm plus the tailwind that caused you to go up there in the first place.
  13. Could also be magneto related. Generating good spark gets to be a little more of an issue in the high atmosphere levels. The turbos went to a pressurized mag decades ago to prevent one of the symptoms, called cross-cap tracking. Air acts as an insulator and prevents the spark from tracking across the magneto cap to the wrong electrode, firing a cylinder at the wrong time. You can't do much about that, but when the mixture starts to get hard to ignite the condition of the mags and the type of spark plug are usually the issue. Those of us who fly LOP quite a bit generally go to fine wire plugs, which perform better, and the spark in my aircraft is always better right after annual when the magnetoes get maintenance work done.
  14. I have a guess. They closed all the freeway gates in ND and that stopped the weather at the border. The freeway gates are there to prevent Darwinian applicants from “givin’ ‘er a try don’t ja know.” And I am not pickin on em, I am one of them, ja u betcha fer sur. We refer to that weather condition as “uffda” weather.
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