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I don't know whether to laugh or cry....

The replacement wheel from BAS arrived last Wednesday, almost a week ago. I didn't hear anything from the shop so I planned on heading out to the shop on Saturday to check in. Well, Friday night we had a fairly severe windstorm come through and the power went out in many areas, including my house. It was restored at my house around 9:00 or so the following morning, but it turns out it was still out at the airport. Therefore, the shop was closed so I had to wait some more.

I called yesterday, but Monday is a day off for most of the folks at the shop since they work on Saturday. I didn't get much info, but said that I had business out at the airport today and that I'd stop by afterward. The business in question was my Class 3 medical exam with the AME that has an office out at the airport. He's the same doctor I saw two years ago, and also back in 2002 when I first got my medical certificate.

The good news is he renewed my medical certificate for two more years. The bad news... well....

I walked over to the shop and spoke with Alex. What he told me about put my jaw on the floor. Yes, the wheel had come in, yes it is the right one. And... it is cracked in exactly the same place as my original wheel. It's almost incomprehensible to me that BAS would have shipped a wheel in that state. The only thing I can think of is that they simply never took the two halves of the wheel apart and looked at their interiors.

So now I have to call BAS and arrange a return. I brought the wheel home with me in its box; because I'm the one who ordered and paid for it, I'm the one who has to ship it back. I'm going to ask the following:

  1. Do they have another one? They had two when I ordered this one.
  2. If so, would they be willing to send it via expedited shipping?

And I'll ask them to make sure they take it apart and examine it for cracks before they send it.

But that's not all. I also asked if they'd run my engine. The mechanic who worked on my plane was there so he, Alex, and I chatted about it. Turns out my engine seems fine, it makes good oil pressure for example, but it's running really, really, really rich. So much so that it's not simply something that can be adjusted. I'm assuming the carburetor needs to be removed and opened up to find out what's going on. He said they were going to do that when Preston, the shop manager, got a call from One Stop Aviation, the shop in California that performed the overhaul.

Oh yeah, there's more. As it turns out, they did not rebuild or replace the mechanical fuel pump when they overhauled the engine. The man from One Stop called to ask Preston whether he wanted them to send him a new fuel pump, or remove that item from the invoice. Preston said he wanted the new fuel pump. The existing pump is only a couple of years old, but Preston recommends that we install a new/rebuilt one after the overhaul so everything on the engine is starting from the same baseline. I'm okay with that, especially since I've effectively already paid for it.

So One Stop is going to ship one up, it'll be installed, and then the mechanic will dig into the carb to correct the overly rich mixture. Preston did remark that they have to adjust the carburetor "all the time" after an overhaul so it sounds like this is something that's not rare, if not uncommon. Hopefully it will be an easy fix.

So, to sum up, instead of my plane being ready this weekend, I have to wait even longer because:

  • I still have to get a good wheel.
  • They have to replace the fuel pump.
  • They have to fix the mixture.

At this point, I'm doubtful it will be done by the end of the month and, to be honest, I think there's a good chance it won't even be done by the end of the year. Obviously, I hope I'm wrong but, the way things have gone, I honestly can't predict anything anymore.

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