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Update on Ariel's upcoming maintenance

Yesterday I spoke with the shop manager at Harvey Field to further discuss the repair work I have scheduled, and to discuss the options for fixing my landing light. Assuming the bulb has burned out, he agreed that it made sense to replace it with an LED bulb. He asked if I wanted a bulb that includes the pulse feature. It would require running an additional wire to the bulb. I told him to go ahead and install a regular bulb so we don't have to worry about additional wiring. He replied that he concurred as he also didn't have to run any additional wires, but wanted to make sure I knew the option existed in case I wanted it. He should be ordering it today and, hopefully, it will arrive relatively soon. We're going with the AeroLED Sunspot 36LX bulb

I then asked about whether or not it made sense to replace the taxi light bulbs as well. He said, and I quote, "run them until they burn out." In hindsight, this was pretty refreshing. An auto shop would be more likely to recommend replacing additional parts even if it wasn't really necessary to do so at the time. Same with upgrading to a more feature-rich option like the pulsing LED bulb.

We also talked about the comm issue that I've been experiencing. I have a couple of additional steps I can try if it happens again. One suggestion was to disable the cabin speaker on the audio panel. The hypothesis is that it's overdriving the panel's internal amplifier and it's cutting out the headphones. I haven't yet tried plugging into the passenger side either so that's something to try next time.

As for the other work that was already scheduled, here's the plan:

  • As soon as he can fit me in, he'll take care of everything except replacing the left half of the trim tab. Most of this should be relatively quick and easy, though the red cabin light will require more investigation if it turns out not to be a burned out bulb.
  • He is ordering a new trim tab section from Textron. There are used ones available but he prefers to get a new one and I agree, especially given that this is a pretty important control surface. He said it will take about 70 days, which should be fine as the plane is still airworthy. I'm assuming this is because Textron doesn't keep a store of these around and instead manufactures them to order.

He has a key to the plane so he can pull it in to the shop at any time. He couldn't give me an estimate on when he'd be doing so, but he'll call me before he does in the event I have flying plans at the same time.

The annual inspection is due in June so, depending on when the trim tab replacement is done, I may just have him do the annual as well.

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