In my first annual

[Yetti]

The CGR-30 would also get oil and fuel lines out of the cockpit.   Bonus points.

[Guest]

The CGR-30 would also get oil and fuel lines out of the cockpit.   Bonus points.

Agreed, however there are still fuel lines from the tank to the fuel selector and they are behind your left and right upholsrty panels, and then they continue under the pilots feet.

For those with fuel phobia, they invented the glider.

Clarence

[ryoder]

If I did an engine analyzer I'd want the six gague cluster out and also the mp, rpm, fuel pressure, vacuum, and egt gone. That is eleven instruments so the cgr won't work for me.

[Marauder]

Agreed, however there are still fuel lines from the tank to the fuel selector and they are behind your left and right upholsrty panels, and then they continue under the pilots feet.

For those with fuel phobia, they invented the glider.

Clarence

I think the point Clarence is that the oil & fuel lines attached to the instrument gauges are sitting there aimed either directly at you or your passenger.

[sreid]

If I did an engine analyzer I'd want the six gague cluster out and also the mp, rpm, fuel pressure, vacuum, and egt gone. That is eleven instruments so the cgr won't work for me.

 

The CGR-30p combined with an Aerospace Logic FL-202 fuel gauge will replace all of those things as primary.

[HRM]

If I did an engine analyzer I'd want the six gague cluster out and also the mp, rpm, fuel pressure, vacuum, and egt gone. That is eleven instruments so the cgr won't work for me.

 

Do an MVP-50. Basically clears the panel and is a joy to use.

[wombat]

Annual is finally complete and I went and got my plane yesterday.    

The new exhaust is awesome, I probably got 95 mph speed increase and burn 54 GPH less fuel.  (Just joking, it works just like before only doesn't have cracks spewing CO into the cabin)

The shop re-rigged the ailerons and flaps back to factory zero and the plane flies straight hands free now.  It used to have a noticeable bank to the left even with some right rudder.

The new prop cable (and re-positioning it between the throttle and mixture) is great.  The new cable even came with the standard blue vernier.

Idle RPM and mixture is fixed.   I now see about 75 RPM rise from 1000 RPM when I lean, and pulling the throttle all the way results in idle at 625 to 650 RPM.

 

Two new problems have cropped up.

The new fuel gauges seem to be quite temperamental; they both seem to indicate full when the tanks are full and empty when the tanks are empty, but everything in between changes second to second.  I can see the movement from fuel sloshing, but I can tap the gauge and have it go from showing 1/4 to 3/4 or the other way around.  I'll work on this over time.  I think I should be able to buy individual gauges to fit into the Garwin cluster for this model.   Also, the ammeter doesn't seem to show anything negative, but that's OK with me.

 

The flaps will no longer stay down.  It now takes 1 to 5 minutes for them to come up when they should be staying down, but they do tend to come up.  I'm hoping that this is just some debris in the valve that will flush away after a while.  If not I'll probably have the valve rebuilt.

 

So overall, despite spending a lot of money on this annual, I'm happy that the plane is now in good flying shape again and isn't worth less than it was before.  

 

I still wonder if I wouldn't have been happier with spending more on some upgrades, but I figure I can do that some other year.

The upgrades I would consider first are:

• Modern engine analyzer.
• Electronic ignition.
• Powerflow exhaust (despite my comments in another thread that I don't believe they produce quite the improvement the company claims, I do think the exhaust does produce some extra power by being tuned for a specific RPM and scavenging exhaust gasses out of the cylinders.)

So hopefully I'll know well ahead of time the next time I have a large expense coming up in one of these areas and I can make a little improvement in the plane.  

 

So now, on to flying!  The weather has been beautiful and if I wasn't stuck inside working all weekend I'd be conducting systems tests all weekend.

[Jim Peace]

Jim:   It's just an antenna.   Maybe should I just toss the plane and get an Ovation instead?   Do you throw the baby out with the bath water very often or only with other people's budgets?     No offense, but I think your solution is overkill.

I feel your pain on a extensive annual.  Mine is just coming out after being down 4 months.  One month of that was wasted waiting for a MSC,,but that is another story.

 

As far as the ELT, it is not throwing the baby out with the bath water.  In the big picture of $$ spent it makes sense.  The 121.5 is no longer monitored by satellites.  Hopefully you never need an ELT but if you do you have to many things going against you with the old style.  Minutes count when injured.  Do you want your location to maybe never be known or would you want your location to be known within minutes and within meters?  Maybe you will be lucky like me and just need a drop in replacement and fast GPS hook up like the ACK brand.  The battery lasts 5 years...doing some math it is not the biggest expense we have...

 

Good luck,,,,I will be writing a post in the coming weeks about my $10,000 plus annual.....mostly due to the last owner blindly trusting a person who had IA in front of his A&P number.....sadly being an IA does not mean anything anymore.  

[aaronk25]

Annual is finally complete and I went and got my plane yesterday.

The new exhaust is awesome, I probably got 95 mph speed increase and burn 54 GPH less fuel. (Just joking, it works just like before only doesn't have cracks spewing CO into the cabin)

The shop re-rigged the ailerons and flaps back to factory zero and the plane flies straight hands free now. It used to have a noticeable bank to the left even with some right rudder.

The new prop cable (and re-positioning it between the throttle and mixture) is great. The new cable even came with the standard blue vernier.

Idle RPM and mixture is fixed. I now see about 75 RPM rise from 1000 RPM when I lean, and pulling the throttle all the way results in idle at 625 to 650 RPM.

Two new problems have cropped up.

The new fuel gauges seem to be quite temperamental; they both seem to indicate full when the tanks are full and empty when the tanks are empty, but everything in between changes second to second. I can see the movement from fuel sloshing, but I can tap the gauge and have it go from showing 1/4 to 3/4 or the other way around. I'll work on this over time. I think I should be able to buy individual gauges to fit into the Garwin cluster for this model. Also, the ammeter doesn't seem to show anything negative, but that's OK with me.

The flaps will no longer stay down. It now takes 1 to 5 minutes for them to come up when they should be staying down, but they do tend to come up. I'm hoping that this is just some debris in the valve that will flush away after a while. If not I'll probably have the valve rebuilt.

So overall, despite spending a lot of money on this annual, I'm happy that the plane is now in good flying shape again and isn't worth less than it was before.

I still wonder if I wouldn't have been happier with spending more on some upgrades, but I figure I can do that some other year.

The upgrades I would consider first are:

• Modern engine analyzer.
• Electronic ignition.
• Powerflow exhaust (despite my comments in another thread that I don't believe they produce quite the improvement the company claims, I do think the exhaust does produce some extra power by being tuned for a specific RPM and scavenging exhaust gasses out of the cylinders.)

So hopefully I'll know well ahead of time the next time I have a large expense coming up in one of these areas and I can make a little improvement in the plane.

So now, on to flying! The weather has been beautiful and if I wasn't stuck inside working all weekend I'd be conducting systems tests all weekend.

The powerflow does do what they claim. I picked up 7kts! 20-30 cooler CHTs too. Great system!

Why would you doubt they do what the company claims when a quick search of the threads here on MS show otherwise? Just curious.

The price tag, well that's another thing....

[wombat]

I doubt their claims because they don't have statistically significant data available that proves their claims and they have financial incentive to overstate the benefits of their product.  I would like to put their exhaust on, but it's a gamble to do so...  Will the cost of purchasing and installing the exhaust and the extra time the aircraft is down waiting for it pay off in fuel savings, engine savings, increased airspeed sale price?  If they had more data I'd be able to make a more informed opinion.  But without that data I am just going on my pessimistic opinion of humanity and wild guesses. 

 

As for the ELT; a new 406MHz ELT is a lot more than the $47.50 that it cost to replace the antenna on my existing one.  On Aircraft Spruce it was $579 for th ACK.  So I saved myself $520 on this annual.  Yes, it would be safer to have the new one.  It would be safer to have a new engine.   And a new airframe.  And a second engine. And a full-time CFII-MEI.   And a second GPS.   And a third VOR, and redundant attitude indicators...  And on and on.  There is no end in sight.     We each have to figure out where our budget intersects with our desire for safety and speed and comfort.   This year mine crossed at a new antenna.  Maybe when the battery runs out it'll cross at a new ELT.