Skip to main content

She's almost done!

I went out to the airport again yesterday to check on the progress and take some more pictures. When I arrived, the engine was already mounted and the mechanic was getting close to finishing the job of hooking everything up. I chatted with him and also with Preston. I'll summarize the current status.

The annual is complete. There were a couple of things that need to be fixed, but overall it wasn't bad at all. The most expensive thing is the nose wheel that I described in my previous post. The tire and tube also need replacing, and they already have them ready to go for when the replacement wheel arrives. The main gear tires were replaced a couple years ago, shortly before I bought the plane, so now it's the nose tire's turn.

There's a bracket that holds one of the pilot-side brake master cylinders that needs to be replaced. It's a very simple thing that they can fabricate on the spot. If I understood correctly, there's a reinforcement plate behind the firewall where one of the engine mount bolts goes that needs to be replace, also something they can fabricate easily. Other than that, it's all good.

The bolts holding the engine to the mount are the old ones which they're using for now to hold in place, but they will be replaced with new ones. I think he said the same for the bolts holding the mount to the firewall.

There are no guarantees, of course, but it's possible it will be done sometime this week. If not, it'll probably be done the following week. Regardless, I think I'll take week after next off from work and, hopefully, I'll be able to get some good break-in time in. Assuming the weather cooperates, of course.

Seeing that engine mounted on my plane, I felt that it was finally real, that I was within sight of the end of this long and frustrating wait. Fingers crossed everything will work out over the next two weeks.

Here are some pictures:

First, here's the nose wheel. Though it's not quite in focus, you can see where the crack is; it's on the side of the hole where one of the bolts that holds the two halves together screws in.

Here are some photos of the engine from various angles. The mechanic is visible in a couple of them.








Comments

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 ...

April showers....

I haven't been flying in a few weeks due to the weather. It has been a rather wet April and the alignment of rain showers with the weekend has been exquisite. I have nineteen hours on the engine so far. The plan is to run it to 25 hours, then do the first oil change. At that point we'll most likely switch to regular oil. I do have Camguard that I intend to use but my understanding is that, with a new or overhauled engine, you should run at least one oil change interval on regular oil without Camguard before starting to use it. If the weather is nice at some point during this next week, I may just take a half day off from work and go flying, then make up the time later.

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.