Let’s see—we’ve got avgas in the tanks and air containing oxygen all around us. Somehow that air and avgas have to combine in a roughly 15 to 1 ratio—by weight—in the engine’s cylinders. Then they can do their suck, squeeze, bang and blow thing to make the prop go whirling around. Enter the humble carburetor, […]
In researching this article we got feedback from owners of turbocharged airplanes who reported that they had to overhaul the turbos at about 1000 hours of operation and an equal number who said that their turbos ran fine all the way to when they overhauled the engine. We came away with the opinion that an […]
Full disclosure—we have a bias when it comes to turbosuperchargers. We like them. A lot. After flying them for more than 45 years and using them to get to altitudes that allowed a safe flight when we could not have even launched in a normally aspirated machine, we think that they are we’ll worth the […]
Hail-damaged aircraft are what salvage deals are made of. If you’ve dealt with hail damage as I did with my Grumman after an isolated thunderstorm peppered it on a transient ramp in Wisconsin, you know it can be ugly. Shredded fabric, trashed windshields and gaping holes in the skin are an expensive reality. But minor […]
A few years have passed since the unleaded avgas discussion came full circle, but we’re still pumping 100LL. Make no mistake, it’s still an EPA focus. We could find ourselves modifying engines to make unleaded gas work in our airplanes. It’s worth a Q&A discussion, which I share here. DEVELOPMENTAL SIMMER Full disclaimer: I was an […]
Who has been working on this airplane? That was the question we would often ask in the shop when an airplane would come in for autopilot troubleshooting and we found control cable tensions so low you could strum a tune with them. Oftentimes it was to troubleshoot pitch and roll problems where the autopilot would […]
In my early days of airplane ownership, I might have been naive by today’s standard when it comes to engine oil. But it was stone simple—I flew my airplane, it needed oil, I bought some and changed it. Repeat. Today, web forums are packed with endless threads where owners fret about filters, additives, change intervals, […]
Recently on a transient ramp I watched a pilot dousing the cabin and cockpit of his turboprop with a can of Lysol disinfectant spray—and he wasn’t being gentle. The FAA’s Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin NM-20-17 (Nov. 4, 2020) was written for folks like him, and the bulletin contains some worthy guidance for the rest of […]
The paint shop survey report in the August 2020 Aviation Consumer was timely because I was ready to drop big money on a custom paint job for my Grumman. In addition to reading all of the magazine’s paint shop articles over the past two decades, I came up with an involved planning process, and my […]
Assuming you have an accurate way of measuring it, there’s good reason to fret about high and even low oil temperature. As you read this December issue, your current goal might be moving (and keeping) the oil temp needle into the green, but think beyond the calendar. There could be a variety of reasons you […]
Shops know it’s a chore that needs to be done, but the truth is compass swings are often forgotten during the final stages of avionics projects. Compass calibrations can be time consuming, but done properly the task can pay back big time if the instrument was your only means of backstopping the aircraft’s true magnetic […]
We got a call awhile back from the seller of a light twin who was in a panic when the aircraft was snagged in a prepurchase inspection because an old AD wasn’t signed off. The lack of AD compliance rightfully raised some red flags about the overall upkeep of the airplane, and the buyer was […]
