Month: January 2023

211 – A Cold Flight in an Aerostar!

January 27, 2023 / Dean Showalter

I had an opportunity to fly in an Aerostar the other day… it was going to be a fairly long trip to the destination, with one fuel stop along the way.

As we climbed out of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia toward the mountains to the West, we discovered the combustion heater for keeping the cabin warm was not working. After a brief conversation about what to do, we decided to keep going. Our two passengers seemed willing to tolerate the cold if they could still get to their destination. Thankfully, it was not as cold as it could have been for a January day.

We arrived at the destination on schedule and although we were at a small town airport, there was a small general aviation maintenance shop there, and one of the guys agreed to take a look at our heater.

As he removed the spark plug from the heater, the ignition lead came apart and a piece of it stayed down in the spark plug. Amazingly, he had the necessary part to fix the ignition lead, and the heater lit right up, no problem.

The trip home was wonderfully smooth and uneventful… and the heater worked!

Although we don’t hope to repeat that experience any time soon, we certainly made a memory that day.

I wish I had the freedom to tell you about the town we were at… it’s a cool name, and the AvGas price was great ($5.00 per gallon!)

Also in this episode, I talked about our recent trip to Greensboro NC for a service center update to our avionics system. Since the weather cleared up quicker than I expected, I managed to snag a few photos of the King Air the morning we dropped it off.

Have a great week… see you next time!

The post “211 – A Cold Flight in an Aerostar!” appeared first at AirplaneOwnerMaintenance.com

210 – Cessna 172 Engine Install / Good ATC Talk

January 20, 2023 / Dean Showalter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Here are the highlights you’ll find in this podcast episode:

My latest assignment at Classic Aviation – Installing the freshly overhauled engine in a Cessna 172 that is almost complete after an extensive rebuild process.
Some emails I’ve received from listeners with fun feedback of multiple types.
Some listener thoughts about home simulator systems.
Some resources I’ve found helpful in sharpening up ATC communication skills.

Here are some of those fantastic resources:

Live ATC: Choose an ATC facility somewhere in the country, and listen in! LiveATC.net
Jeff Kanarish and ATCCommunication.com
Radar Contact Podcast by Jeff Kanarish.
Pilot Workshops resources at PilotWorkshops.com
Opposing Bases Podcast – 2 guys who are both air traffic controllers AND pilots, and they laugh a lot! This is a great resource to hear about real world situations between ATC and pilots, and how to deal with weird or out of the ordinary situations. OpposingBases.com

A big thank you to all the listeners who have sent information and thoughts about home simulators! This is a great way to practice instrument approaches without burning any gas 🙂

The post “210 – Cessna 172 Engine Install / Good ATC Talk” appeared first at Airp laneOwnerMaintenance.com

209 – Responses from Airline Pilots, and Finishing a Bonanza Annual

January 13, 2023 / Dean Showalter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

But first… My friend and podcast listener, Chris Wieczorek, flew into SHD recently and we ate burgers for lunch. It was a win-win. I provided the ground transportation, and he bought lunch!

https://oldschoolburgerbus.com/

The conversation was very inspiring to me, and Chris was kind enough to send more feedback later in an email, with some thoughts about the future of this podcast among other things.

Go ahead and listen to the audio for more of Chris’ thoughts.

Thank you Chris!

Oh, and he decided to go with the burger that is my wife’s favorite… the “Bacon ‘N Blue.” I stuck with my ‘ol favorite, the “Philly Cheeseburger.”

This episode also includes some concluding thoughts about this Bonanza:

Since I’m still working part time at Classic Aviation LLC, I’m able to continue with some selected maintenance like the annual inspection on this Bonanza.

I rolled it out of the shop the other day and did the post-annual engine runup. Here are some specific things I needed to check and why:

Check propeller for proper operation and no leaks (it was overhauled.)
Check prop heat for proper operation (new deice brushes and new heating elements on prop blades.)
Check alternator for proper operation (new alternator and drive coupling.)
Check analog RPM gauge (repaired broken ground wire connection.)
Check for no leaks at crankshaft seal (new seal was installed.)
Check the #2 EGT (a new probe was installed.)

Everything worked well, and the airplane is finished including the paperwork. Listen to the audio for more details.

In the second part of this episode, I shared the responses I received after sending out an email about the approach we flew into JFK recently. There were some really fun ones in there, including some airline pilots who have flown that very approach, the RNAV Z 13L approach into JFK. Thanks to everyone who sent feedback on that one!

Among the responses, Troy sent me a link for a great video to see what the “lead-in lights look like at night for that approach. Check it out:

Follow the lights to the runway! New York JFK 13L approach and landing!

Thanks Troy… that was super cool to see!

The post “209 – Responses from Airline Pilots, and Finishing a Bonanza Annual” appeared first at AirplaneOwnerMaintenance.com