Good for another 2 years!

[Jim Burns]

To piggy back a thread from RAP, I'm good for another 2 years (as far as a
medical) and our plane is good for another 2 years also (as far as it's IFR
certification).

One of my partners flew the Aztec over to our local avionics shop on Monday
and it wasn't long before I got the dreaded phone call. "They say the
static system doesn't hold any suction at all, zero, and sounds bad." My
heart raced my stomach towards the floor as my head hit the desk.

"They want to know if we want to take the plane home, look for the leaks,
then come back some other time to do the rest." Hmmm.... nice of them to
offer, and I thank them for trying to save us some money, but I thought
"they" were the mechanics. Surely they would be able to find the leak
faster than we would.

I calmed my partner down and explained to him, (he isn't real mechanically
inclined) where they should start searching for the leak, hoping that they
would find it quickly. I told him the first place to look is behind the
instrument panel and that they could remove one of the outside side panels,
just aft of the exterior panel that houses the heater, to take a look. If
they didn't find anything, they could tear into the tail through the rear
baggage compartment and inspect the static vents and the lines autopilot.
He said "Ok, we'll give it a shot." This was at noon.

1pm.... no news.
2 pm... no news.
3 pm... no news and I'm daydreaming of $$$ floating out of our checking
account at breakneck speed.
4pm.... my nerves get the best of me and I call his cell.

"Everything went great, I'm already at home, plane is all tucked away and
refueled!! Cracked hose and T fitting behind the instrument panel took only
a few minutes to fix and everything tested fine."

WHEW!!! That made my day!

Jim

[Denny]

I had the ifr/static certification done last summer... Same deal,
static line would not hold pressure.... He found a static line that was
completely disconnected behind the panel... The plane had been flown in
hard IFR in the meanwhile... Luckily, the inflight air pressure inside
the cabin is only about 30 feet different than the static ports...
Looks to me like it was the mechanic at the 100 hour who had changed
the vacuum filter that did the deed... I will remind him about that
next month when the annual is due...

denny and Fat Albert the Apache

[Jim Burns]

> Looks to me like it was the mechanic at the 100 hour who had changed
> the vacuum filter that did the deed... I will remind him about that
> next month when the annual is due...

That was the first thing that popped into my mind because we had the filter
changed at annual. I told my partner that it could be that simple and that
I would hate for them to "give up" and bring the plane home only to find it
such an easy fix. Our airplanes are getting pretty old and I've come to
expect the expensive and complicated rather than the cheap and easy! :)
It's nice to be surprised once in awhile!.

Jim

[DL]

Please tell me what I'm missing here. What does the vacuum filter have to
do with the static system? Or is the point that if someone had done
*anything* behind the panel, they might have knocked loose part of the
static system?

DL
"Jim Burns" > wrote in message
...
>> Looks to me like it was the mechanic at the 100 hour who had changed
>> the vacuum filter that did the deed... I will remind him about that
>> next month when the annual is due...
>
> That was the first thing that popped into my mind because we had the
> filter
> changed at annual. I told my partner that it could be that simple and
> that
> I would hate for them to "give up" and bring the plane home only to find
> it
> such an easy fix. Our airplanes are getting pretty old and I've come to
> expect the expensive and complicated rather than the cheap and easy! :)
> It's nice to be surprised once in awhile!.
>
> Jim
>
>

[Steve A]

DL wrote:
> Please tell me what I'm missing here. What does the vacuum filter have to
> do with the static system? Or is the point that if someone had done
> *anything* behind the panel, they might have knocked loose part of the
> static system?

It is the inlet to the vacuum system. Don't really want dust running
through those expensive gyros.

Steve A.

[Denny]

The mechanic had to remove the static hose connection to the altimeter
to get to the vacuum system filter... He did not reinstall the static
hose connection to the altimeter when he closed up the panel... Of
course, he is only an API charging me $65 an hour for his expertise,
what could I expect...
And we shot an ILS approach to minimums not long after that, which is
200 feet above the ground... WIth 75 feet allowable error on the
altimeter and another 30 feet for the loss of static pressure I might
have been only 95 feet off the ground... Not much of a cushion to cover
my lousy flying technique... And it was 7 months later when I did the
static cert before it was discovered... Luckily, the altimeter tests
dead nuts on at 1000 msl so I only had the 30 feet of static pressure
error when I shot that approach... As the man says, "tis better to be
lucky than good any day."...

denny

[[email protected]]

Good way to check for leaks is to open a window in flight and see what
happens to your altimeter and airspeed.
If the system is tight, no change will be observed. If it moves, then
there is a leak.

Denny wrote:
> The mechanic had to remove the static hose connection to the altimeter
> to get to the vacuum system filter... He did not reinstall the static
> hose connection to the altimeter when he closed up the panel... Of
> course, he is only an API charging me $65 an hour for his expertise,
> what could I expect...
> And we shot an ILS approach to minimums not long after that, which is
> 200 feet above the ground... WIth 75 feet allowable error on the
> altimeter and another 30 feet for the loss of static pressure I might
> have been only 95 feet off the ground... Not much of a cushion to cover
> my lousy flying technique... And it was 7 months later when I did the
> static cert before it was discovered... Luckily, the altimeter tests
> dead nuts on at 1000 msl so I only had the 30 feet of static pressure
> error when I shot that approach... As the man says, "tis better to be
> lucky than good any day."...
>
> denny
>

[A Lieberman]

On 19 Nov 2005 04:09:16 -0800, Denny wrote:

> And we shot an ILS approach to minimums not long after that, which is
> 200 feet above the ground... WIth 75 feet allowable error on the
> altimeter and another 30 feet for the loss of static pressure I might
> have been only 95 feet off the ground...

Wouldn't you have corrected for the error by the time you intercepted the
glideslope / localizer and use these nav aids for for shooting the
approach?

Even by using these, by the time you reach DH, you still should be in a
reasonable vicinity to hear the middle marker (if appropriate) to make a
missed approach decision based on your altimeter reading.

Allen