Annual thread 2013

[gotyacovered]

 

Gonna be better than last year. Sigh.

[RNC]

First week in June for me.

Motor mounts, tail cable/turnbuckle AD, prop balance, 530W antenna, and a ground problem between fuel tanks and oil temp gauge.  These are just what I know of and they probably add up to 3-4k or so!

[gotyacovered]

1. new carpet
2. new exhaust valve
3. new left main brake line
3. map light circuit board AD
4. exhaust swig bar bracket
5. rewiring some stuff coming off the alternator
6. hard wire 696
7. shimmy dampener bushings/bolts
8. On and on

[Pistol Pete]

1. new carpet
2. new exhaust valve
3. new left main brake line
3. map light circuit board AD
4. exhaust swig bar bracket
5. rewiring some stuff coming off the alternator
6. hard wire 696
7. shimmy dampener bushings/bolts
8. On and on

Do 182's have a shimmy problem also?

[gotyacovered]

Do 182's have a shimmy problem also?

Nah. They have a beefier Lord dampener available, but my actual dampener is fine; it's the bolts and bushings. It's about $3.50 in parts. Lord unit is $1200.

[gotyacovered]

Here's one for ya...

Mechanic fell into his pool cleaning it over the weekend. Broke shoulder waiting to get into specialist. Can lift it, much less work on my airplane. Bummed.

[RNC]

Wow, you and him have fantastic luck.

If waiting gets the best of you North Little Rock is an option.

[gotyacovered]

Wow, you and him have fantastic luck.

If waiting gets the best of you North Little Rock is an option.

Yep. I'm shocked I didn't win the power ball.

I don't have much of an option period, not sure what the going rate is for a traveling AI is but I don't want to know!

I have some parts in LR tho, you passing thru here anytime soon?

[RNC]

Early next week'ish.  Best bet would prob be ferry permit and bring it somewhere else.

[GusMcRae]

Here's one for ya...

Mechanic fell into his pool cleaning it over the weekend. Broke shoulder waiting to get into specialist. Can lift it, much less work on my airplane. Bummed.

Not cool.

[gotyacovered]

Early next week'ish.  Best bet would prob be ferry permit and bring it somewhere else.

If you'll bring my cylinder to me from LIT, and a mechanic to put it back on, ill address a ferry permit later.

[RNC]

Hah.  I'm coming through via DFW, not from LIT.  And when I get there my annual is due....

Could stop and take a ride on the way though?  You still haven't seen my plane.

[gotyacovered]

Hah.  I'm coming through via DFW, not from LIT.  And when I get there my annual is due....

Could stop and take a ride on the way though?  You still haven't seen my plane.

Would love too... What day?

[RNC]

Would love too... What day?

Prob Monday or Tuesday depending on the wx.

[gotyacovered]

Prob Monday or Tuesday depending on the wx.

cool. keep me posted--at the very least i want to see your rig.

[RNC]

Nevermind...yay tornadoes!  Might be stuck here all week.

[gotyacovered]

Nevermind...yay tornadoes!  Might be stuck here all week.

Yep, dad dropped my cylinder off here this morning, going straight to Houston and back, tomorrow doesn't look good

[gotyacovered]

I need a support group. I haven't flown my plane (or anyone else's) in 30 days. First time I can say that in ~2 years

[HawgPilot]

mine is leaving for Gainsville, GA for annual tomorrow.  Its my first in the 414 so I'm a litttle nervous about the cost.

[RNC]

It's only little green pieces of paper.

[gotyacovered]

mine is leaving for Gainsville, GA for annual tomorrow.  Its my first in the 414 so I'm a litttle nervous about the cost.

haha, yep. that is a whole diff world then me, though!

[HawgPilot]

haha, yep. that is a whole diff world then me, though!

its all relative my friend!

[HawgPilot]

It's only little green pieces of paper.

I agree but for some reason I have to work for those little green pieces of paper!!

[RNC]

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.  Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.  This planet had a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.  And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.

-- Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[bvillepig]

I need a support group. I haven't flown my plane (or anyone else's) in 30 days. First time I can say that in ~2 years

Gotya  I wish I could get down there. We could fly some approaches.  Sorry to hear of your trouble.

[gotyacovered]

Gotya  I wish I could get down there. We could fly some approaches.  Sorry to hear of your trouble.

Me too! Hope all is well. Glad you stopped by, don't be such a stranger!!!

Hope to be done with it this week, by mid next week for sure. Got a slight upgrade will post pics.

[gotyacovered]

with any luck i will test fly Monday, possibly over the weekend.

getting my new "floor" installed today. removed the carpet and had a custom rubber mat made. it looks pretty good. will post pics when its done.

[RNC]

That's an interesting idea.

link for the rubber mat?

After my annual is done, if my mechanic buddy at Southwest will install and sign off on these, I'm gonna try it...

http://www.piperforum.com/f17/antenna-cleanup-3390/index2.html

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/antennasystems.php

This is what I'm talking about.  They do not need to be grounded.  The seller as you can see mentions mounting them horizontally with some acceptable signal loss, and keeping them a foot from the strobes if possible, but that's it.

Says he put the two in the tips for nav/comm and one in the plastic fin in the back for the ELT.

Lemme know what you find out, since they don't cost much it'd be a worthwhile experiment, if it works I have permanent antennas that don't break and a few more knots, if not, no biggie, only out a few hundred bucks.

The antenna farm on top of Cherokees is quite ridiculous.  A greased rock is more aerodynamic than the roof of my plane with all of those antennas sticking out.

If the above works on my plane as well as the guy in that quoted thread says it does that should gain me a few kts and eliminate failing antennas down the road.

[gotyacovered]

That's an interesting idea.

link for the rubber mat?

After my annual is done, if my mechanic buddy at Southwest will install and sign off on these, I'm gonna try it...

The antenna farm on top of Cherokees is quite ridiculous.  A greased rock is more aerodynamic than the roof of my plane with all of those antennas sticking out.

If the above works on my plane as well as the guy in that quoted thread says it does that should gain me a few kts and eliminate failing antennas down the road.

here is the stuff i ordered...

9x4 sheet $170 shipped. ordered it from:

Mike

Mikes Custom Car Care Products

1-800-498-7882
Mikerutt2690@live.com

[GusMcRae]

Link no worky

[gotyacovered]

Link no worky

fixed. i may or may not have been into the Jameson.

[GusMcRae]

fixed. i may or may not have been into the Jameson.

You're not saying you were, you're not saying you weren't.  Roger that.

Looks like a logical replacement for carpet.
Was curious if it was much heavier, did it change the w&b much?

[gotyacovered]

You're not saying you were, you're not saying you weren't.  Roger that.

Looks like a logical replacement for carpet.
Was curious if it was much heavier, did it change the w&b much?

13.8lbs heavier.

putting seats in today, will post before/during/after pics. i really like it. looks good. now i need the rest of my interior done

[gotyacovered]

Before:

After

[gotyacovered]

other than the bill, it is done. test flew over lunch... got about 40 mins of flying in... just wanted to keep going. dont realize how much you miss it until its gone!

[GusMcRae]

Gotya, I gotta ask,,,,, what in the crap have you been doing in there???


Love the new floor mat.

[gotyacovered]

Gotya, I gotta ask,,,,, what in the crap have you been doing in there???


Love the new floor mat.

yep, kinda gross, i know. the one under the pilots feet is coffee. that a story by itself. the real dark stuff in the back was there when i got it.

thnaks. i like it... already can see that the dirty hangar floor is going to drive me nuts.

[GusMcRae]

yep, kinda gross, i know. the one under the pilots feet is coffee. that a story by itself. the real dark stuff in the back was there when i got it.

thnaks. i like it... already can see that the dirty hangar floor is going to drive me nuts.

My hangar floor gets a layer of dirt on it every time the wind blows up here,,, and that's practically every day.  I have plans to find a small electric air compressor on sale at Tractor supply to leave in the hangar.  Can add air to a tire very conveniently, as well as blow that hangar floor clean when it needs it.  Beats sweeping.

[Pistol Pete]

Before:

After

Dayum! That looks very nice!

[GusMcRae]

other than the bill, it is done. test flew over lunch... got about 40 mins of flying in... just wanted to keep going. dont realize how much you miss it until its gone!

Have you gotten to fly anymore since your test flight?
I flew yesterday xc 182 nm to pick up my little one.  Step daughter and my middle son (the 2 recent HS grads) went with me.  First I've flown since 5-20 after returning from that KS trip.  Supposed to go back to KS again on 6-26 if wx is ok.  My annuals are due this month. Trying to schedule a owner assist on the 150, which will include an oil filter adapter install on it.  I don't think we're looking at much of anything on it. 
I need to have the same folks that annualed the 182 last year do it again this year in hopes that they will resolve the oil leak issue on the cylinder they replaced last year.

I know what you're saying about laying off for several weeks. 

[gotyacovered]

Have you gotten to fly anymore since your test flight?
I flew yesterday xc 182 nm to pick up my little one.  Step daughter and my middle son (the 2 recent HS grads) went with me.  First I've flown since 5-20 after returning from that KS trip.  Supposed to go back to KS again on 6-26 if wx is ok.  My annuals are due this month. Trying to schedule a owner assist on the 150, which will include an oil filter adapter install on it.  I don't think we're looking at much of anything on it. 
I need to have the same folks that annualed the 182 last year do it again this year in hopes that they will resolve the oil leak issue on the cylinder they replaced last year.

I know what you're saying about laying off for several weeks. 

actually logged about 6 hours or so, maybe a little less.

i had a passenger toss cookies in my new rubber floor. so glad the carpet was gone.

headed up to KBPK (Mtn. Home, AR) EARLY Friday morning, then to KHOT (Hot Springs, AR) for the weekend and eventually back home.

[GusMcRae]

i had a passenger toss cookies in my new rubber floor. so glad the carpet was gone.

This heat is not the ideal conditions to take someone who is new to aviation, or for someone that is motion sickness prone in general.  Hot and bumpy is even worse. 

I had almost full fuel yesterday when I departed, with the 2 teenagers, and I could certainly tell the negative performace affects during takeoff the 100 degree heat and +4000 DA was having on my ship. 
I kept telling them it would get better after we got off the ground and gained some altitude. 

Sorry your new floor mat got christened so soon.  But definitely better than having a mess on the carpet.  I carry a butter tub with a lid under the back seat. Haven't had to use it.  My youngest had to use some zip-lock bags that I was able to empty out into a little ice chest real quick.  So far he's the only pax to get sick on me.  That was in the 150, his first flight, and it was both hot and bumpy.

[RNC]

Just back from my test fly.

Redneck Engineering

a) motor mounts were bad and the bolts were wrong, they used ones that were too long and spaced them with washers, that explains my weird vibration

b) unknown home-fab aluminum plates behind the brake pads, no wonder I struggled to hold the brakes during run up.

c) oil cooler hoses 2 years out of time on AD to replace them

Otherwise everything ok, grand total 3030 dollars and change.  Can't complain with that being first annual.  Now on fresh prop overhaul, fresh annual from non-shade-tree mechanic, back in bidness.

[GusMcRae]

My annuals are due this month. Trying to schedule a owner assist on the 150, which will include an oil filter adapter install on it. 
I need to have the same folks that annualed the 182 last year do it again this year in hopes that they will resolve the oil leak issue on the cylinder they replaced last year.

182 is actually not due until the end of July, since it was July before they finished it up last year.  Talked to the mx that did it last year to get on the calendar for sometime in July. 

[GusMcRae]

Update, I started the owner assist annual on the C-150 this AM.  My job was removing inspection plates and such.  MX removed the seats and told me what all I needed to remove from inside the cockpit, one of which was the very back plastic panel that goes to the tail.  When he told me to do that, he mentioned that he would need to inspect all of the cables and would also need to check out the ELT, make sure it worked and check the battery.
So, when I get that panel off, there's no ELT even in there.
I visited with the MX in my state of confusion in regard to what the logbooks say, that it should have been checked at last year's annual, etc...  We checked the logbooks and the annual that was done in June 2011, prior to when we purchased it in Aug of 2011 (at Morrilton, AR - BDQ) did have documentation in the logbook that the ELT was checked and the battery was good through some date late fall of 2013.
The annual that I had done on it last year didn't mention anything about it.  So I called that MX to quiz them if they had any documentation they might have on some sort of checklist or something, and failed to put it in the logbook.  Said that they may have overlooked that item.   
I'm not happy about this.  I'll have to continue in another post.

[GusMcRae]

So anyway, the mx that did last year's annual went on to say that they have a couple of planes on their regular annual list that don't have ELTs, and it is supposed to be documented if one is removed, but once that documentation has been made, then they don't document anything about it..... So I pointed out that there was an ELT in there according to the 2011 annual logbook entry,,, and apparently they just didn't check for it at all.   Nice!  Effing nice! 
So, I have 3 theories:  #1  Previous owner at BDQ needed an ELT for the plane that he upgraded to, knew that we probably wouldn't check that out at pre-buy, it would be June 2012 before we would even have  a reason to have that panel off,,, and he could claim, well it was in there when you bought the plane.
#2  A not so lazy thief caught my plane unlocked (right side door lock has to be jerry-rigged to make it lock, and this plane stays in the County hangar along with 10 or so other planes) took that panel off, got my ELT, and replaced the panel afterward.  OR same type scenario happened while at BDQ as it was in an open hangar port.  (my gust lock is missing from that plane and I do think that someone with sticky fingers got it, just not so sure a thief would go to the trouble of replacing the panel)
#3 The mechanic that did my annual last year pulled a fast one on us, didn't document, took the ELT, and figured they were going to be doing the annual on it for years to come and we would be none the wiser. 

I'm going with theory #1.

[RNC]

I would also go with #1.  #3 has a license to lose, #1 can just say "oops I had it out to check something on it and forgot to put it back".

[Pistol Pete]

So anyway, the mx that did last year's annual went on to say that they have a couple of planes on their regular annual list that don't have ELTs, and it is supposed to be documented if one is removed, but once that documentation has been made, then they don't document anything about it..... So I pointed out that there was an ELT in there according to the 2011 annual logbook entry,,, and apparently they just didn't check for it at all.   Nice!  Effing nice! 
So, I have 3 theories:  #1  Previous owner at BDQ needed an ELT for the plane that he upgraded to, knew that we probably wouldn't check that out at pre-buy, it would be June 2012 before we would even have  a reason to have that panel off,,, and he could claim, well it was in there when you bought the plane.
#2  A not so lazy thief caught my plane unlocked (right side door lock has to be jerry-rigged to make it lock, and this plane stays in the County hangar along with 10 or so other planes) took that panel off, got my ELT, and replaced the panel afterward.  OR same type scenario happened while at BDQ as it was in an open hangar port.  (my gust lock is missing from that plane and I do think that someone with sticky fingers got it, just not so sure a thief would go to the trouble of replacing the panel)
#3 The mechanic that did my annual last year pulled a fast one on us, didn't document, took the ELT, and figured they were going to be doing the annual on it for years to come and we would be none the wiser. 

I'm going with theory #1.

I hate that happened... that kind of stuff drives me nuts. No one to specifically point the blame to.

[RNC]

Do you have old invoices?  Old annuals?  Anything that will list the serial number from it?

If you can catch that guy stealing your ELT you have a legal case against him, not only that but the FAA will be none too pleased with him removing a required equipment from a certified airplane and not telling anyone.

For that matter if you can find it on him you have a case against the mechanic from last year's annual.

Threat of reporting them to both the FAA and the local DA might catch their attention...

[gotyacovered]

So anyway, the mx that did last year's annual went on to say that they have a couple of planes on their regular annual list that don't have ELTs, and it is supposed to be documented if one is removed, but once that documentation has been made, then they don't document anything about it..... So I pointed out that there was an ELT in there according to the 2011 annual logbook entry,,, and apparently they just didn't check for it at all.   Nice!  Effing nice! 
So, I have 3 theories:  #1  Previous owner at BDQ needed an ELT for the plane that he upgraded to, knew that we probably wouldn't check that out at pre-buy, it would be June 2012 before we would even have  a reason to have that panel off,,, and he could claim, well it was in there when you bought the plane.
#2  A not so lazy thief caught my plane unlocked (right side door lock has to be jerry-rigged to make it lock, and this plane stays in the County hangar along with 10 or so other planes) took that panel off, got my ELT, and replaced the panel afterward.  OR same type scenario happened while at BDQ as it was in an open hangar port.  (my gust lock is missing from that plane and I do think that someone with sticky fingers got it, just not so sure a thief would go to the trouble of replacing the panel)
#3 The mechanic that did my annual last year pulled a fast one on us, didn't document, took the ELT, and figured they were going to be doing the annual on it for years to come and we would be none the wiser. 

I'm going with theory #1.

I have diff theory, similar to three. He never checked it last year at all. Say what you do, and do what you say doesn't apply to all, unfortunately it's voluntary.

On a diff note what's a new ELT cost?