Annual Off to a Good Start

Although I am starting to resent the whole annual inspection process.
More on that in a minute.

All compressions on our O-540 are 78 or better out of 80, so that's
always a relief. The oil filter was clean (as always), and the exhaust
system is sound. Those are three big-ticket items off the list --
always a relief.

As always, however, the inspection process itself has created some
problems. The stupid tail cone must be removed to inspect the
stabilator hinges and trim jack screw, which means torquing on
nutplates attached to plastic. (Whoever approved THAT **** on a
certified plane?)

Of course at least one of the nutplates has to twist off the old,
brittle plastic, resulting in a repair bill where none was necessary.
Same goes for removing the umpteen screws on the access panels. Does
a 4" by 6" inspection panel REALLY need 9 easily strippable screws to
hold it on? Wouldn't TWO (or 3?) done the job? Stupid.

My A&P could only smile and commiserate with me. He says that there
is a move afoot to make the "annual" inspection an every-other-year
affair, which makes good sense to me. It therefore has no hope of
approval.

More good news: I unscrewed the 6.3 million stainless steel structural
screws to remove the starboard main fuel tank, to search for our fuel
leak. (Classified as a "stain" -- not a "seep" -- by my A&P) My
forearms are still burning, because I didn't want to risk stripping
any of my expensive stainless screws, so I did 'em all by hand.

We found a problem right away -- a seeping rivet -- and were able to
fix it without resorting to sending the tank out for a complete
teardown and overhaul.

He used his rivet gun (while I bucked the rivets) to tighten down the
whole row of rivets around the offending rivet, and then applied fuel
tank sealant to the INSIDE of the tank on that rivet row. In an
amazing stroke of luck, that leaking rivet was accessible by reaching
through the fuel tank filler -- a one in a hundred chance.

Then we found another seeping rivet from under the sealant around the
fuel gauge sending unit. That simply required another dab of fuel
tank sealant, and (hopefully!) my leaky tank is now history.

Tomorrow we start on the interior, which means removing all the seats,
and the floor under the back seats. My A&P is eager to get back to
working on his P6 Hawk biplane, which is almost ready for its first
flight -- so we should be done with my annual in record time!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Good reports Jay.. our Pawnee with the O540 just started the annual today
also.. as it was just rebuilt two years ago, with the 250HP STC up from
235HP and fixed pitch prop... all is well so far.. just researching
AD20070419 to document that it does not apply (Superior Aircraft Cylinders)
ours are from 1999.

BT

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
Although I am starting to resent the whole annual inspection process.
More on that in a minute.

All compressions on our O-540 are 78 or better out of 80, so that's
always a relief. The oil filter was clean (as always), and the exhaust
system is sound. Those are three big-ticket items off the list --
always a relief.

As always, however, the inspection process itself has created some
problems. The stupid tail cone must be removed to inspect the
stabilator hinges and trim jack screw, which means torquing on
nutplates attached to plastic. (Whoever approved THAT **** on a
certified plane?)

Of course at least one of the nutplates has to twist off the old,
brittle plastic, resulting in a repair bill where none was necessary.
Same goes for removing the umpteen screws on the access panels. Does
a 4" by 6" inspection panel REALLY need 9 easily strippable screws to
hold it on? Wouldn't TWO (or 3?) done the job? Stupid.

My A&P could only smile and commiserate with me. He says that there
is a move afoot to make the "annual" inspection an every-other-year
affair, which makes good sense to me. It therefore has no hope of
approval.

More good news: I unscrewed the 6.3 million stainless steel structural
screws to remove the starboard main fuel tank, to search for our fuel
leak. (Classified as a "stain" -- not a "seep" -- by my A&P) My
forearms are still burning, because I didn't want to risk stripping
any of my expensive stainless screws, so I did 'em all by hand.

We found a problem right away -- a seeping rivet -- and were able to
fix it without resorting to sending the tank out for a complete
teardown and overhaul.

He used his rivet gun (while I bucked the rivets) to tighten down the
whole row of rivets around the offending rivet, and then applied fuel
tank sealant to the INSIDE of the tank on that rivet row. In an
amazing stroke of luck, that leaking rivet was accessible by reaching
through the fuel tank filler -- a one in a hundred chance.

Then we found another seeping rivet from under the sealant around the
fuel gauge sending unit. That simply required another dab of fuel
tank sealant, and (hopefully!) my leaky tank is now history.

Tomorrow we start on the interior, which means removing all the seats,
and the floor under the back seats. My A&P is eager to get back to
working on his P6 Hawk biplane, which is almost ready for its first
flight -- so we should be done with my annual in record time!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 3/20/2007 12:27:21 AM, "BT" wrote:

our Pawnee with the O540 just started the annual today
also..

Must be that time of year. My Bonanza is also in for its annual this week.
One day in to it and a cracked spinner starts off the "unexpected big ticket
item" list.

--
Peter

"Peter R."
Must be that time of year. My Bonanza is also in for its annual this week.
One day in to it and a cracked spinner starts off the "unexpected big
ticket
item" list.

Mine's going in the third week of April. As a datapoint, my insurance
company agreed to pay for my cracked spinner last year. Despite its
appearance coinciding with a trip where an FBO handled the plane, they
concluded it was probably normal wear and tear (so YMMV).

Good luck to you and Jay.

Marco

It normally takes many many loading cycles or even hi-cycle vibration
to create a crack. A single overload (from bad ground handling)
simply creates a dent - which can eventually turn into a crack of
course, but the dent evidence should still be there.

On 3/20/2007 1:30:25 PM, "Marco Leon" wrote:

Mine's going in the third week of April. As a datapoint, my insurance
company agreed to pay for my cracked spinner last year. Despite its
appearance coinciding with a trip where an FBO handled the plane, they
concluded it was probably normal wear and tear (so YMMV).

You certainly had me excited there for a moment.

Me: "Hello, insurance company? My, uh, mechanic told me that he heard that a
cracked spinner might be covered under my insurance policy. Is that true?"

Them: "Ummm... No. That is considered normal wear and tear and therefore
*not* covered. But you have a great day, OK?"


--
Peter

"Peter R." wrote in message
...

You certainly had me excited there for a moment.

Me: "Hello, insurance company? My, uh, mechanic told me that he heard that
a
cracked spinner might be covered under my insurance policy. Is that
true?"

Them: "Ummm... No. That is considered normal wear and tear and therefore
*not* covered. But you have a great day, OK?"

I think I'm pretty thorough when I preflight and the crack was not there
from one flight to the next. It appeared on both sides of the spinner
simultaneously. I will also add that my original spinner was not fiberglass
as I understand that fiberglass ones are much more durable. I honestly
thought it was done by a lineperson so I was not trying to pull one over
their heads.

Call them. The worst they'll say is "no" and you won't see them shaking
their head as they hang up the phone anyway

Marco

Jay, Our Annual is about done.. should be able to pick up the Tug tomorrow..
Monday AM to Fri PM.

Biggest hit was $1AMU, for the right side parking brake valve. The 1x1x2inch
box had a crack in the fitting and was seeping fluid at the rate of
requiring a brake top off every 3 months.

We were clean on the Superior AD20070419, and clean on the lift strut
AD99-04-16. I knew we would miss the Superior AD, it is for cylinders
manufactured in 2005. Although we overhauled the O-540 in 2005, we kept our
1999 cylinders.

Just a lot of nit noid clean up work on the fuselage and fabric.

I get to ferry it back home tomorrow evening.. sure is nice to have DST a
few weeks early. No night flying in that beast. About 30 miles direct, but
about 45 miles as I need to fly to get around the Class B.

BT


"BT" wrote in message
...
Good reports Jay.. our Pawnee with the O540 just started the annual today
also.. as it was just rebuilt two years ago, with the 250HP STC up from
235HP and fixed pitch prop... all is well so far.. just researching
AD20070419 to document that it does not apply (Superior Aircraft
Cylinders) ours are from 1999.

BT

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
Although I am starting to resent the whole annual inspection process.
More on that in a minute.

All compressions on our O-540 are 78 or better out of 80, so that's
always a relief. The oil filter was clean (as always), and the exhaust
system is sound. Those are three big-ticket items off the list --
always a relief.

As always, however, the inspection process itself has created some
problems. The stupid tail cone must be removed to inspect the
stabilator hinges and trim jack screw, which means torquing on
nutplates attached to plastic. (Whoever approved THAT **** on a
certified plane?)

Of course at least one of the nutplates has to twist off the old,
brittle plastic, resulting in a repair bill where none was necessary.
Same goes for removing the umpteen screws on the access panels. Does
a 4" by 6" inspection panel REALLY need 9 easily strippable screws to
hold it on? Wouldn't TWO (or 3?) done the job? Stupid.

My A&P could only smile and commiserate with me. He says that there
is a move afoot to make the "annual" inspection an every-other-year
affair, which makes good sense to me. It therefore has no hope of
approval.

More good news: I unscrewed the 6.3 million stainless steel structural
screws to remove the starboard main fuel tank, to search for our fuel
leak. (Classified as a "stain" -- not a "seep" -- by my A&P) My
forearms are still burning, because I didn't want to risk stripping
any of my expensive stainless screws, so I did 'em all by hand.

We found a problem right away -- a seeping rivet -- and were able to
fix it without resorting to sending the tank out for a complete
teardown and overhaul.

He used his rivet gun (while I bucked the rivets) to tighten down the
whole row of rivets around the offending rivet, and then applied fuel
tank sealant to the INSIDE of the tank on that rivet row. In an
amazing stroke of luck, that leaking rivet was accessible by reaching
through the fuel tank filler -- a one in a hundred chance.

Then we found another seeping rivet from under the sealant around the
fuel gauge sending unit. That simply required another dab of fuel
tank sealant, and (hopefully!) my leaky tank is now history.

Tomorrow we start on the interior, which means removing all the seats,
and the floor under the back seats. My A&P is eager to get back to
working on his P6 Hawk biplane, which is almost ready for its first
flight -- so we should be done with my annual in record time!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Sounds like everything is going well! Glad the engine is tight and the fuel
tank problem was easily repaired. Did you get hit by the Superior cylinder
AD as mentioned below?
Jim

Sounds like everything is going well! Glad the engine is tight and the fuel
tank problem was easily repaired. Did you get hit by the Superior cylinder
AD as mentioned below?

Nope, we have once again dodged the latest of the dreaded engine ADs.
With our O-540 I have felt like the guy who has been told to "Dance!"
by the bad guy in the black cowboy hat, every time I get one of those
official-looking letters. So far, they haven't hit me!

:-)

Our leak saga continues. I had purposefully let the bottoms of the
wings get dirty for the last several months, so that we would be able
to easily track any fuel leaks/seeps back to their source. Yesterday
I found evidence of a larger leak than the ones we had fixed in the
main tank, which were obviously just seeps.

As you may recall, the first evidence of our leak (other than a faint
odor in the cabin when you first opened the door) was when Mary
spotted the rubber wing-root seal hanging down, fattened and gooey
from gas exposure. My wrench and I have puzzled over this, since the
leaks we had found (and fixed) seemed to be too small to cause this
type of damage.

So, while I was under the plane cleaning out the central drain filter
(the 235 has a central "pee-drain" in the belly, like the Cherokee 6),
I carefully tracked down every stain. With the wing-root inspection
fairings removed, and a mirror, I was able to spot a tip-tank hose
fitting that showed evidence of leakage.

My A&P proceeded to dislocate both his wrists getting a couple of
wrenches on that fitting, and was rewarded with an easy 1/3 turn to
make it tight. He is of the opinion that this was our main culprit,
and that by tightening that fitting we have resolved the last of the
fuel issues. I sure hope so.

We've fixed some other nagging problems. In the cabin, on the front of
the back seat (where the calves of your legs rest) is a control that
allows us to "pee" the gas tanks out of the belly drain. This is
covered with a cheesy plastic panel, with an even cheesier metal door,
retained by an even cheesier spring. This thing is so bad that there
is an AD on the door, because EVERYONE catches it with their feet
getting in the back seat. (You can't just remove the dumb door,
either, since without it you could conceivably have a passenger catch
his pants leg on the pee-drain control lever itself, which would cause
you to dump all of your fuel overboard in flight...)

On each flight I tell my kids "Be careful of the fuel door" -- but it
still gets broken. We have repaired the damned thing (with JB Weld)
at every annual since we bought Atlas, but it's such a cheap design
that this year I asked my mechanic -- a champion homebuilder -- to
invent a better mousetrap.

So, he looked at it for about 30 seconds, went over to his metal
press, and started cutting aluminum. 20 minutes later, I had a legal,
metal-reinforced plate holding on a MUCH stronger metal door. We
then spray painted it to match the interior, and voila! Hopefully, I
won't be screwing around with that little bugger again.

(Doug Vetter, if you're reading this, IMHO this is an example of the
type of repair your A&P could have done with your battery box, and
saved you $700.)

My A&P also reinforced the tail-cone screw attachment points by
putting in a "ring" of aluminum down the line of screw backing
plates. No more metal backing plates screwed into brittle plastic!

Here's a true but all-to-common sad tale of my owner-assisted
annuals: As I was reinstalling the gas tank (by finger screwing in
the 3.2 million stainless steel screws that hold it in the wing) all
was going well -- until the VERY LAST SCREW. That one just fell in
the hole, and would NOT tighten.

This couldn't possibly ever happen on the FIRST screw, or even the
20th screw -- it HAS to be the last one. So, I had to take them all
out, jostle the tank a bit, and start over. Story of my
life... ;-) (I'm just glad I had only finger-tightened them. If I
had driven them all home, I'd have committed hari-kari on the spot...)

Today I'll put the interior back in (all was well there, just needed
some cleaning/lubing of the control pulleys, as always), and button
Atlas up. Other than the fuel leak, this has been a really easy
annual.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"