Clark and his family came to Virginia to visit his mom recently, and on the way up from Florida, the right vacuum pump quit working… as often happens when a vacuum pump quits, the drive shaft had sheared off, saving the engine from catastrophic damage.
In times like these, a good question to ask is, “What does this make possible?”
In this case, it made it possible to tackle a maintenance project with a good friend!
You can listen to the audio in this week’s podcast to hear about how I got to know Clark, and how he became the kind of friend I would want to go the extra mile for, whenever I can.
We changed the broken vacuum pump, installed new filters, and got him all set for the trip back home. (Ask him if he got to fly much on the trip… the answer would be no, because his wife is learning to fly and she took over the controls for most of the trip 🙂
It’s always fun when you can get an airline captain turning wrenches! Clark is very mechanically inclined, and I think the whole experience put a big smile on his face.
Another highlight recently on a Saturday morning was when I took my mom for an airplane ride… she’s 86 years old and still very happy to get in a little airplane and go flying! We had a great time flying around the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. You’ll hear about this story in this episode as well.
And finally, my wife Maria and I have an exciting trip planned in just over a month from now… we’re going to Hawaii for the first time! Our friends, John and Leslie Caubble, operate a flight school on Maui, so we’re going to visit them and I get to help work on the flight school airplanes… we’re super excited about this adventure!
You can learn A LOT more about John and Leslie through their two podcasts, The Aloha 360, and Fly Maui. They are simply GREAT people!
This is a good looking exhaust valve with a nice concentric appearance. However, the compression was very low at 8/80.
I lapped the valve, hoping it would improve the compression test result… it only came up to 10/80, and that was after running the engine again and getting it nice and hot.
Although the valve face showed a healthy appearance, the seating area was telling a different story. Check out the following borescope photo of the seating area showing a possible leaking area:
It appeared there was abnormal wear on the valve seat, and the valve was not able to seal well, causing an unacceptably low compression result.
Listen to the audio for more details on this one.
I asked the question, “Borescope or compression tester… which one is better?”
Let me know what you think after listening. I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
Just click the button over to the right and record a brief audio message for me.
Thanks!
We ended up sending cylinder #5 out for repair, and then reinstalling it.
We did a test flight today, and everything went very well… ready to go for another year!
Here are some links to information on cylinder / engine break-in procedures:
Have you started flight training, but stalled out along the way?
Did you finish that instrument rating?
How about the commercial certificate, or CFI, or even CFII?
Ever dream about getting your A&P?
Have you wanted to be an airline pilot for years and years?
Did you give up along the way when you ran out of money?
Maybe you want to be a fighter pilot.
Maybe you want to ferry airplanes around the world.
Or some other crazy, wonderful dream!
If you resonate with any of the above, you just might be an excellent candidate for aviation career coaching with Carl Valeri.
Last year in 2022, when I was feeling grumpy and restless in my full time A&P/IA job (and longing to fly more,) I signed up for a career coaching session with Carl Valeri.
It was one of the best decisions I made in that time of transition.
Now, I have a pilot position flying for a local company in their King Air 350, and I work part time in my previous A&P job, and I’m loving it so much more!
As I’ve shared about my work transition, I’ve heard from a fair number of people who have also thought about pursuing a flying job, or getting their A&P, etc.
My encouragement it this: If it’s in your heart to do it, and you can’t stop thinking about it, then go for it!
I know there are all kinds of obstacles to get past like fear, doubt, money, nay-sayers, etc.
But you don’t want to look back years from now and regret not going for it and at least trying to reach your dream.
Carl is uniquely suited to give wise counsel to people pursuing an aviation career.
He’s an airline captain and airline training instructor, aviation podcaster, and aviation career coach, with such a wide variety of experience in aviation. He certainly has his finger on the pulse of aviation at this current time.
Carl helped me sort through my ideas, put me in touch with some key people for me to talk with, and gave excellent recommendations for how I could move forward.
I’m super grateful for his wise counsel.
How about you?
Could you benefit from talking with Carl about your aviation dreams?
If yes, then sign up here: (Be aware, you may need to sign up weeks in advance since Carl’s schedule fills up quickly.)
In my opinion, Carl Valeri is one of the best aviation career coaches in the world… he really helped me last year when I paid for an hour of his coaching. It’s a super valuable resource, and I highly recommend him… it is money very well spent if you are trying to decide the best way to reach your aviation career goals.
If you want to get to know Carl before you sign up for coaching, the best way to do that is by listening to both of his podcasts:
How long should the battery last in a small, piston-powered airplane?
That’s a great question, and we are talking about it in this week’s podcast episode.
Tune in to hear the story behind this 24 volt battery in the photo, as well as the story of another battery, a 12 volt one in a Citabria owned by our good friends, Leon and Wynne Johenning. (Find out what prompted him to replace the battery.)
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