Shadrach

Back in the 80s it was not uncommon to rent high-performance singles. I remember my stepfather renting a T-tail Lance to fly from Texas to Kansas. I had done a lot of GA traveling in various makes by the time I was 12 years old. I was positively shocked to see a potty in the back of that Lance. We were of course forbidden from using it. Even so, I felt like we had stepped up to cabin class.

Agreed. A hangar neighbor is selling his turbo toga because he feels gouged by the insurance industry at age 70. It’s a super nice bird. Lot a of room, lots of payload. Not as fast or as efficient as a Mooney but not bad. It does other things very well.

No return spring and yes, stepping on them would be bad, but for a different reason.

Holy CB… We all have to choose our battles. $75 for a purpose designed, well finished, adjustable and reusable lock seems like a very good deal. My time is worth way more than $25hr and it would probably take 3hrs of planning, looking for hardware and screwing around with the installation to come up with a solution that was marginally worse.

They should not bleed up over time. My final test of the system after maintenance and bleeding is to pump them down 3/4 (3 pumps) and leave them for several days or weeks. When I come back they should be in the same position.

I thought it was running rough during ground ops?

Agree that EGTs track compression ratio. The less thermally efficient the engine, he more energy that leaves via the exhaust. I have to disagree that EGTs track low compression, though I am open to being educated. I’ve seen no evidence that diminished cylinder compression elevates EGT as long as it’s not from a pronounced exhaust leak. Low compression has little to no effect on power or thermal efficiency. There’s an aviation urban legend that Continental ran an engine without rings and it still made rated horsepower, albeit briefly… At 2500rpm a four cylinder Lycoming has 83 power pulses per second. Variances in compression from cylinder to cylinder don’t really matter in terms of combustion. Maybe at the extreme edge, but then you have a bigger problem on you hands

I do not think that fuel behind the flow divider pushes through. If it did, pressure in the servo would drop. My servo holds pressure long after the fuel from the lines has noisily burbled into the manifold.

We should not be stepping on flaps, but I think with hydraulic flaps the placard is primarily to protect unaware passengers. I was about 7 or 8 years old first time I ever saw a woman's panties (in use) My Dad took a family friend flying while we waited on the ground. Upon return, she stepped on the flap as she exited the wing....ass over tea kettle...skirt follows gravity...bright yellow panties. Indeed the hydraulic flaps are held up solely by a return spring. Without the aerodynamic load of flight, something needs to counteract gravity. Highly unlikely that a person (regardless of weight) stepping on the flaps cracked the stub spar. Those types of cracks typically propagate slowly over repeated use. The stress occurs when the flaps are deployed. The actuator as it is mounted to the stub spar is in compression as the piston extends to deploy the flaps against the aerodynamic load. When someone steps on a flap or pushes it down, the actuator is in tension pulling the piston through its travel. Very little stress on the system comparatively.

Send the pic to Edison. If it were my business, I would want to know.

That is a sad commentary on FAA ignorance and abuse of power.

First step is to check that the flap release cable (#67 in diagram below) is correctly adjusted and properly secured at the pump (red arrow under #51). The release cable is attached to an arm (red arrow) that rotates a cam shaft that unseats the check valve for the return circuit. You and your mx need to ensure that the valve is off the cam with the cable in the down position. If this does not solve your problem, then you likely have a valve leaking back to the reservoir.

Case fretting is when the two crank case halves move independently (oscillation) of one another. This can cause friction at the the parting flange eroding the mating surfaces. Improper torque of the case bolts is a typical cause. It will eventually cause leaks and create drag on the crank as bore misalignment worsens.

Affirm.

I don’t care where the thermocouple is mounted; if your take off EGTs are 1450, your engine is not rich enough. Have you ever seen an O360 that would generate a peak EGT of 1700? Regardless of thermocouple position, certain things are obvious from raw numbers.

I also have it on good authority that raw EGT numbers are meaningless. Apparently some of these NA engines peak in the high 1600 to 1700 range...

A lot of NA IO360s will go run acceptably at 100LOP at low altitude, there's just no operational utility in doing so. Down low in cool weather I can lean to a second EGT rise just before it starts to miss. That's typically a bit beyond 100LOP. At lower MP it gets a bit buzzy for my taste beyond about 60LOP. So many of these engines will smoothly run quite a bit leaner than is needed for the power being produced.

I have it on good authority that these engines don't need more fuel flow...

Weird set of symptoms. I would think intake leaks would be most prevalent at idle. I don't think he'd see the 50rpm rise going to ICO if unmetered air was entering the system. Nevertheless the coughing and sputtering during ground ops reads like an intake leak. Seems like starting at the air box and filter and working back would be a cheap first step. As would doing a leak test.

TAT system is not even close to 38". It's a standard NA engine with a turbo normalizer. Max MP is likely something like 31". Given the higher C/Rs, TIT limits are likely not an issue for the TAT system. Those guys would run 80-85% power in LOP cruise. My guess is that it's challenging to run high power LOP in most K models below MP redline and no one wants to climb at 65% or less.

Seems likely that this is an issue with the instrument and not the fuel system. My mechanical gauge reads rock solid in flight at about 27psi (IIRC), turning electric pump raises pressure to a hair under redline (30psi). I would be bummed to be dealing with your issue. I rely on a timer and the gauge to run the tank to (near) empty on long XCs. I get the alarm and sure enough see the needle bobble within a minute or minutes if my estimation was conservative.

For those of us that fly NA Lycomings, The RSA fuel injection does reduce FF as available MP decreases. The system is not perfectly precise, but it does hold a ballpark air/fuel ratio once set by the pilot. The mixture does not really get richer and richer so much as the mixture set at lower altitude is more rich than needed for the power produced as MP decreases in climb. LOP climbs are not really worth it for a high performance single, too much fiddling with the knob for a short lived, minor gain in efficiency and reduced climb performance. I would think the opposite would be true when you have a turbo that can hold a constant MP up to cruising altitude. As I recall both Walt Atkinson (RIP) and John Deakin (RIP) spoke of using LOP climb settings when operating their TN'd Bonanzas. Something else must be a play. Are you not able to run sufficiently lean to keep temps in check? It's as if you're saying that when LOP in cruise, CHTs and ICPs are lower but not when the aircraft changes to climb pitch and airspeed. I know you don't believe that, so I am curious what the issue is.

Nice job on the fabrication! I’ve always thought of windlace as decorative finish rather than functional barrier to the elements. It’s good that it muted your wind noise. You might look closely at the door seal to see if it’s torn or deteriorated.

Mine says the same, but I’d not be happy with it. Currently I see about a 50 rpm drop and no difference from mag to mag. now that I reread the OPs post, chasing an extra 30-40 rpm drop is not worth the effort if all else is well.

That’s my understanding. I priced both when I needed overhaul. Talking to Ole sold me. I posted details of that conversation and my initial impressions in 2019. They’ve done a good job of holding prices. $450 in 2019 and $500 in 2023