Recently, Seth and I spent part of a weekend at a remote mountain cabin location, and we decided it would be a great time to record a conversation about the career changes both of us have made.
I love this conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as well.
I’m so proud of my son and the things he’s doing at 23 years old.
How about you?
Is it time for a change in your career or in your life?
Many of us eventually arrive at a place in life where we are longing for something different, especially in our careers.
If you’re feeling burned out, grumpy, and restless, perhaps it’s time for a career change… I encourage you to go for it, and see what new thing might be out there for you!
I’ve been deer hunting with my daughter McKenzie this week, and so far, she got a button buck, and I got a doe… she’s trying to get a good supply of venison in her freezer for the winter.
Last evening was one of the rare times we didn’t see any deer, but the sunset view sure was beautiful… check it out:
I’ve been thinking about how deer hunting is similar to small airplane maintenance… it takes practice, persistence, and patience to get really good at it.
Before McKenzie became interested in deer hunting, I had done very little of it. Her interest has pushed me to learn much more about the whole process, and now, I’m really enjoying the whole thing with her… this year has been really fun!
When it comes to working on your own airplane, like deer hunting, it’s a learning process. Good training and lots of practice are essential.
A few years ago, McKenzie had her grandpa (Pappaw) giving her instructions through FaceTime on how to field dress her deer… it was fantastic. Even though he wasn’t there physically, he could still help her with the process because of the wonder of technology.
I don’t know nearly as much as my father-in-law did about field dressing a deer, but I CAN help with showing you how to perform excellent safety wiring on your airplane, and I can also help with showing you how to service a landing gear shock strut with hydraulic fluid and nitrogen.
And that’s where my two video training courses come in… even though I can’t be there with you beside your airplane in person, I can be there with you in the step-by-step videos, where you can pause it any time you need to as you work through the process.
So, if you change the oil on your airplane, or you change a tire and need to re-safety wire the brake caliper, or anything else that requires safety wiring, I’d encourage you to check out my video training course, “Safety Wire Like A Pro!”
Also, if you have a landing gear strut that needs to be serviced with fluid or nitrogen or both, I have a training course for that as well… it’s called “Landing Gear Shock Strut Servicing.”
This course walks you through the process of safely servicing a shock strut. And even if you choose not to do the work yourself, but have your A&P do the work, it will help you understand the process and equip you to troubleshoot problems before you send your airplane to the shop.
A week and a half ago, I flew a Cessna 150 from KSHD to Hannah Field near Monterey, Virginia in Highland County. It was a Saturday morning coffee-and-donuts fly-in hosted by the owners of the private airstrip, along with our local EAA group. The Shenandoah Valley is full of all kinds of aviation enthusiasts! Thanks to Oren Heatwole and all the great people from our local EAA group, for such a great event! (The Cessna 150 is over to the side, out of view… by the time I left, there was quite a line-up of airplanes there.)
Other items in this podcast episode:
The deice valve I changed on an aerostar.
Capacity test on the King Air 350 main battery.
Lapping 2 exhaust valves on a Lancair engine.
Josiah’s Piper Arrow from Arizona! (He’s on an inspiring aviation journey, and is currently almost finished with training to become a flight attendant, with future plans to become an airline pilot as soon as possible after that.)
The post, “205 – My First Landing at Hannah Field in a Cessna 150” appeared first at AirplaneOwnerMaintenance.com
In this podcast episode, I’m sharing my experience of going through the training course for a Type Rating in the King Air 350. FlyRight in Concord, North Carolina was definitely the best choice for this training!
FlyRight is a very professional training center with a family-type feel about it. They specialize in King Air, Caravan, and Dash 8 training. I was so impressed with the whole program, and especially the people. They are friendly, they have extensive experience, and they are absolutely committed to your success.
I’m now working for a local company, and Tuesday was my first trip with them in the King Air. I really love this airplane!
I’m returning to Classic Aviation on Monday for 2 maintenance projects as a part-timer there:
The first one is a capacity test on our King Air 350 battery… it’s time to verify it’s still in good reliable condition, as we certainly don’t want to get stuck far away from home with a weak battery.
The second one is changing the surface deice valve on an Aerostar. The valve has been intermittently not pulling the wing boots down flush after inflation. It’ll be a good time to get that taken care of as we are getting into the Winter flying season.
See you in the next episode!
The post “204 – FlyRight King Air 350 Simulator Training was Awesome!” appeared first at AirplaneOwnerMaintenance.com
Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to visit NAS Pax River, a United States naval air station located in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay.
My friend, Trace Bowen, picked me up in his Cessna 310, flew me to St. Marys Airport, and drove me over to the base for a tour.
Up until that day, I knew very little about Pax River, so it was interesting to learn about the operations there.
The Pax River ITF mission is to effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct safe, secure, and efficient flight test to provide necessary and timely data to support program verification/certification and fleet operational requirements.
Trace is an F-35 Navy test pilot. There are three different variants of the F-35 Lightning, and they fly the B and C variants at Pax River.
It takes some very special gear to fly an F-35, and we learned about that during my visit as well.
CF-2 Flight 456. RTB to and over Wallops Flight Facility. Lieutenant William Bowen was the pilot on 18 June 2016.
What an opportunity it was to visit Pax River! Thank you Trace, for an inspiring and educational day. I really appreciate it!
Have you ever seen one of these? It’s a SureFly Ignition Module, or “SIM” for short:
I recently had an opportunity to install one on an E33A Bonanza, so I thought I’d do a podcast episode about it. Hopefully you’ll find this information helpful if you’re considering a SureFly, and for me, I find it helpful to document the process.
For this installation, a “Tach 2” device was also required, to convert the rotation of the SureFly to a signal that’s usable with the previously installed Horizon Instruments P-1000 tach in the airplane. Here’s what the Tach 2 looks like:
The SureFly is powered through a fuse right off the hot side of the battery contactor:
I had to gain access to the back of the ignition switch for some of the required wiring… I removed the existing P-1000 digital tach wire from the “L” terminal of the ignition switch, and attached it to the “Tach 2” unit for the SureFly. I also attached the necessary wire between the “L” terminal of the ignition switch and the “L P-lead” terminal of the Tach2 unit.
This E33A Bonanza now has a SureFly in the left mag position!
You guys know I love out-of-the-ordinary things, and my recent flight review definitely qualifies as one of those!
First, my good friend and excellent flight instructor worked me over in the ground portion of the flight review. Here are some things we covered:
VFR sectional chart information and interpretation.
Briefing an IFR approach plate.
Working a weight and balance for a Bonanza.
Other useful information.
Then, we flew that amazing tail dragger above… we did steep turns, stalls, slips, landed on 2 grass runways, and returned back to KSHD.
It was such a great flight review and opportunity for continued learning.
Flight reviews are NOT a nuisance… they are a good opportunity to become an even safer and more proficient pilot. So, if YOUR flight review has become just a check mark in the requirement box, maybe it’s time to shake things up a bit for your next one, and find a new flight instructor or do something a little different. I think you’ll be glad you did!
Another recent highlight was an email I received from Craig, a podcast listener… I read his email in this episode, so be sure to listen to the audio. I’m calling Craig and his wife the “Airplane owners of the week!” Here they are:
These two have a really inspiring aviation story… listen to the audio to hear a portion of it. Craig likes to say his wife is the “Chief Pilot” and he’s the “Copilot and Director of Maintenance!”
Another surprise adventure was an opportunity to fly in my friend Bob’s B55 Baron last Saturday… totally unexpected, but it made my day! Thanks Bob!
And back in the shop on a different airplane, I recently cleaned a fuel strainer that looked like this inside:
It made me wonder when this one was last cleaned!
I also got to help the owner of a Zenith 750 who was stranded at our airport the other day with a bad oil leak… check it out:
I helped him install some serviceable oil cooler hoses and he was able to get home to Pennsylvania before the weather hit!
And here’s a puzzler to finish this episode:
I saw this device on an A-35 Bonanza out on the ramp, and I was trying to figure out what it is… if you know, please leave me a voice message over there on the side of the page, or send me and email to dean{at}airplaneownermaintenance{dot}com and let me know what it is. I have a guess, but I’m not totally sure.
I recently inspected a Piper Saratoga, and I found the following condition on the right exhaust collector:
Earlier this week, I sent this photo to my email subscribers and asked if they would change this piece of exhaust if it was on their airplane. I received a huge response about this, with a large range of thoughts and opinions. Thanks to everyone who responded, as it really helped me think through the issue in a much more comprehensive way and I think you’ll find it helpful as well.
I read all the email responses in this episode of the podcast, and listed some lessons for us to learn from this exhaust story.
Today, I removed that exhaust collector and all three of the risers. When I looked on the inside, it became clear to me why it was bulged and deformed. The inside was eroded and thin in the area of the bulging, and I was glad we decided to change it.
I was reminded that when a piece of exhaust shows something like this on the outside, there is likely something happening on the inside as well. Here’s a close-up of the inside:
That’s evidence of many hours of exhaust gases rushing down on this area and going out the muffler.
It was definitely time to change this one. After reading all the responses and thinking about this all week, I’m convinced it’s much better to err on the safe side with exhaust systems.
Dave Ovad provided a link to an accident report where a Beech Debonair crashed because of a muffler failure and subsequent engine fire caused by the exhaust gases. It’s a startling reminder of how important it is to give special attention to exhaust systems. Here’s the link:
Dave, along with at least one or two others, also pointed out that it’s very important to fly with a good quality CO detector, to help prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
Thanks so much to all of you who contributed to this episode by sharing your thoughts with me!
For more information about exhaust systems and carbon monoxide dangers, check out episode 035:
Chris Saindon, a podcast listener and owner of a Cessna 172G, contacted me with a different, and important perspective that I had completely overlooked.
I recently told of a landing gear light in a Piper Seminole, and how the pilots had done some in-flight troubleshooting when the right gear down light did not illuminate. I’ve often thought in-flight troubleshooting was a great thing, but Chris reminded me that I need to also communicate the danger of in-flight troubleshooting and the potential for pilots to be distracted from flying the airplane. Before we get into the story Chris shared with me in a voice message, I wanted to share a photo of his Cessna 172G:
Nice airplane, Chris!
Now back to the dangers of in-flight troubleshooting…
Years ago, a large passenger jet descended ever-so-slowly and gradually on a dark, moonless night, down to a crash landing in the Everglades where 101 of the 176 passengers and crew were killed.
The cause? A burned out bulb in the nose gear down light, which caused the 3 active crew members to get distracted.
This accident was a huge catalyst for the beginning of CRM (crew resource management) training in the airlines and beyond. If an accident like this could happen to a 29,000 hour captain, it could happen to anyone.
The following video is startling, but totally worth watching… and all of us can learn some valuable lessons from it.
Chris Saindon is uniquely qualified to remind us of the importance of using great caution and wisdom whenever in-flight troubleshooting is required. His experience includes the following:
Retired US Navy Captain
Navy P-3 pilot
Director of aviation safety programs for Navy and Marine aviation
Airline pilot and airline instructor pilot
Owner and pilot of a 1966 Cessna 172G
…AND, Chris is logging time toward getting his A&P!
I’d say Chris qualifies as the “Airplane owner of the week!” Congratulations Chris!
Chris, thank you for making us aware that in-flight troubleshooting is something we should approach with careful consideration to make sure we avoid the dangerous distractions that can happen.
Recent Comments