Learning from an owner annual

Its quite depressing to see my plane
in so many pieces. I've also discovered that its extreamly irritating
that the aircraft parts places are closed on weekends.

What I like is when you have everything in neat little tupperware cups
underneath the appropriate parts of the plane -- and then the shop
moves the plane. Or they pull an extension cord under your plane, and
lasso all the parts buckets. Or they get kicked over. THAT is my pet
peeve about doing an annual.


Get your mechanic to come to your hangar.

This worked really well for me, I had the plane all taken apart,
lubricated, etc., by the time Jim came over and did his IA thing.

No parts were lost, the plane wasn't pushed around, etc. Worked really well.

Of course, I'm having one hell of a time finding a Jim Equivalent Person
here in NC now, so I'm slowly starting to fret about this year's annual.

Say Jim, I send you an airline ticket...

-jav

BTIZ wrote:
What I like is when you have everything in neat little tupperware cups
underneath the appropriate parts of the plane -- and then the shop
moves the plane. Or they pull an extension cord under your plane, and
lasso all the parts buckets. Or they get kicked over. THAT is my pet
peeve about doing an annual.


That's why you have all those little cloth "tea" bags, with paper tags and
tie strings, to tie the screws/parts etc to the nearest screw hole, they are
not left lying on the floor in bins to tip over.


Yep. Available at Aircraft Spruce (they call them tobacco bags) for a
very reasonable price.

-jav

RST Engineering wrote:
Do you s'pose a website dedicated to names & contact info for IAs that will
do owner assisted annuals would be a good thing? Maybe with a little info
about the mech like price structure, do it in your own hangar, etc?

That'd be superrific!

How can I help get this online?

-jav

Get your mechanic to come to your hangar.

This worked really well for me, I had the plane all taken apart,
lubricated, etc., by the time Jim came over and did his IA thing.

Great idea, but for one little detail: It's colder than heck here in
March, when my annual is due!

Our hangar is unheated (unless you call our Jet-A powered torpedo
heater "heat". It scorches a 5 square foot area, and everything else
is still freezing!), and my extremities just don't handle the cold very
well anymore. Fine motor skills -- like those required for screwing in
a hundred little screws -- are the first thing to go...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
news:EZF9g.20244$ZW3.18025@dukeread04...
I've heard of owners replacing the standard fasteners with
nice shiny stainless steel screws. Trouble is you can get
dissimilar metal galvanic reactions and then you have to
drill them out.


I am aware of galvanic corrosion, which often corrodes aluminum when it is
in contact with steel, especially if in the presence of moisture and even
more especially moisture with salt. The use of stainless fasteners should
AFAIK greatly reduce corrosion of the fasteners but am unaware of any change
to the galvanic corrosion rates on the aluminum. Are you suggesting an
increase in galvanic action between a stainless fastener and a plain steel
nut? Please expand.

I would also appreciate comment on the use of thread lubricants like
'Nevr-Seize' which IMHO allow increased clamping force and also greatly
reduce thread seizing from corrosion.

So next year do the bulk of the annual on the 31st of March and screw in the
last nutplate on the 1st of April, when the signing takes place. Following
year 30th of April and the 1st of May. Now your annual is due in May. Or
June. Or July. Whatever fires your rocket.

Jim



"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
Get your mechanic to come to your hangar.

This worked really well for me, I had the plane all taken apart,
lubricated, etc., by the time Jim came over and did his IA thing.

Great idea, but for one little detail: It's colder than heck here in
March, when my annual is due!

I don't mind setting it up and writing it, but I'd prefer it not be a subset
of the RST webpage (i.e. www.rstengineering.com/ownerannual or something
like that). How can we do this on the cheap, whether it be a standalone or
a subset of some other website?

Jim




"Javier" wrote in message
...
RST Engineering wrote:
Do you s'pose a website dedicated to names & contact info for IAs that
will do owner assisted annuals would be a good thing? Maybe with a
little info about the mech like price structure, do it in your own
hangar, etc?

That'd be superrific!

How can I help get this online?

-jav

I used a torque limiting powered screwdriver once on the PK screws into
tinnermans to put my Cessna back together. I learned a lessons after a
flight when several were missing. I use the power screwdriver to run the
screws in and the torque by hand. No problems since.

Ross

wrote:

You know what? I've been through this one so many times, but it's been
a few years, and I just don't have the energy to fight this fight
again.

There is NO "torque-limiting" power screwdriver-type tool that has both
the ability to prevent over-tightening, and allow sufficient "torque"
to be applied to screws installed into aircraft nutplates.

A slightly boogered screw or nutplate will NOT be tightened
sufficiently, or else other screws will be over-tightened-there is NO
middle ground.

In most cases, a quality torque-limiting screwdriver set at minimal
torque can be used by an experienced operator to run screws and
initially secure panels. The final "ginch" needs to be performed by a
human that knows what the **** he/she is doing.

There is a large portion of the "certified technician" population that
isn't smart enuff to use the proper bit for the type of screw to be
r/r'd, let alone to use power to drive it. It's not much of a stretch
to say that this applies to owner-performed maintenance also.

TC

The disassembly of the aircraft is part of the annual
inspection that needs to be performed by or under close
supervision the AI, the reassembly can be done by any A&P or
the owner and approved.



--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

"Javier" wrote in message
...
| Its quite depressing to see my plane
| in so many pieces. I've also discovered that its
extreamly irritating
| that the aircraft parts places are closed on weekends.
|
| What I like is when you have everything in neat little
tupperware cups
| underneath the appropriate parts of the plane -- and
then the shop
| moves the plane. Or they pull an extension cord under
your plane, and
| lasso all the parts buckets. Or they get kicked over.
THAT is my pet
| peeve about doing an annual.
|
|
| Get your mechanic to come to your hangar.
|
| This worked really well for me, I had the plane all taken
apart,
| lubricated, etc., by the time Jim came over and did his IA
thing.
|
| No parts were lost, the plane wasn't pushed around, etc.
Worked really well.
|
| Of course, I'm having one hell of a time finding a Jim
Equivalent Person
| here in NC now, so I'm slowly starting to fret about this
year's annual.
|
| Say Jim, I send you an airline ticket...
|
| -jav

Jim you might try this http://www.frappr.com/


"RST Engineering" wrote in message
.. .
I don't mind setting it up and writing it, but I'd prefer it not be a
subset of the RST webpage (i.e. www.rstengineering.com/ownerannual or
something like that). How can we do this on the cheap, whether it be a
standalone or a subset of some other website?

Jim




"Javier" wrote in message
...
RST Engineering wrote:
Do you s'pose a website dedicated to names & contact info for IAs that
will do owner assisted annuals would be a good thing? Maybe with a
little info about the mech like price structure, do it in your own
hangar, etc?

That'd be superrific!

How can I help get this online?

-jav