Skip to main content

Feeling better about the situation

I went out the shop today and spent about half an hour or so talking with the shop manager about my plane. Much of the work is done, but some remains. The trim tab has been installed, but apparently the rivets are not ones they normally have a large supply of, as they're waiting for one more before they can finish the installation and paint it. Currently that rivet hole is occupied by a cleco. Some things still to be done are fixing the wing root seal, replacing the landing light bulb, and fixing the red interior light. He thinks it's not the bulb, so fixing it will be a bit more involved, but hopefully not too hard.

Regarding the metal in the oil, he said it appears to be steel, so he doesn't think it's from the bearings. Rather, it could be from a gear, or possibly the cylinders. Either way, it's not like it's going to blow up or anything. The original plan was to run it for a time on the ground, then check it again. However, he is now recommending that I fly it for two hours or so, and then he'll bring it in to look at it. If they can't get to it right away, I'm okay to fly it more, just as long as I get at least two hours in. That shouldn't present a problem. I feel better about the situation than I did when I first heard about it.

He estimates it will be done sometime in the middle of next week. Hopefully the weather the following weekend will be nice and I can get that flying in as soon as possible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Approaching the annual

I know I haven't been posting much, but that's mainly because nothing much of note has been happening. I've been flying, but not really going anywhere in particular. The engine continues to run very well, and the plane is still solid. I was hoping to do more "destination" flying this year but, for whatever reason(s), it didn't really happen. Next year, hopefully.... On the horizon, though, is the annual inspection. It's already scheduled for mid-December, since the last annual is good to the end of that month. I've also arranged for it to be an owner-assisted annual. I'm told that every airplane owner should do this at least once and I can certainly understand why that is the case, even before I do it. I will be learning about my airplane in a way that nothing else will match and, incidentally, save some money at the same time. I'm looking forward to it. Leading up to the annual, I have been compiling a list of squawks that I want to take care ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Not much going on right now

I've put about ten hours on the plane since I got it back from the shop last December. The weather has been generally poor so flying regularly hasn't been possible. For now, I'm focusing on putting time on the engine to continue breaking it in and get to the first oil change. Oil consumption has already dropped to normal, or near normal levels so it looks like break-in is going well so far. And that's pretty much it for now. I am looking forward to more regular VFR conditions as we move into spring and summer. I'm also looking forward to flying to other places for fly-ins and other get-togethers since I missed most of them last year.
Post a Comment
Read more

Thwarted

The plane is done being fixed again. Well, for the most part, but I'll get to that. The vacuum pump had indeed failed, so they replaced it. They also replaced the starboard fuel sump drain valve. Interestingly, I received an email yesterday from the shop with an invoice attached. It was for a credit to my account, which they gave me because they drained the fuel from the right tank. The invoice notes that 16 gallons were removed. The tank's capacity is almost 30 gallons, and I had filled it almost full on Sunday before my flight. So either they didn't credit me for all of the fuel in the tank, or it had continued to leak and had lost about 12 or so gallons over the course of a few days. I don't know which, but I'm not going to worry too much about it. I went out today to put some Camguard in the oil, run the engine, and possibly even go for a flight if the weather was nice enough. The grass runway and temporary taxiway are open so limited flight operations can proce...
2 comments
Read more