It certainly looked like a crusty old engine when we removed the cowling for the annual inspection.
The exterior is one thing… but perhaps even more importantly, I wondered about the internal condition of the engine.
Surprisingly, the borescope showed the cylinders to be in amazingly good condition on the inside. Perhaps this was partially due to lots of consistent flying in the past couple years.
Since the airplane had been in Florida before it was sold, there were multiple areas of corrosion to clean and repaint. Just the other day, it was “spotty green,” as we had primed the bare spots in preparation for paint.
In this week’s podcast episode, we cover the first 30 squawks… we’ll continue through the list in another episode.
In today’s podcast episode, I talked about this specific SR22, and some maintenance I was involved in… scroll down for some related photos.
But first, I just wanted to say the SR22 is a great airplane! Here are some of the “wonders” of an SR22, as I see it:
It’s a beautiful aircraft!
It feels so natural, sitting in the pilot seat.
It has a parachute.
It’s composite-built.
It’s been around long enough to become “time-tested” and to have many of the bugs worked out.
The paint jobs are usually amazing.
It goes fast, but has fixed landing gear.
On the other hand, the SR22 also has some “woes.”
The nose gear and fairing have had issues.
Sometimes the nose gear fairing breaks apart due to shimmy (probably often due to poor maintenance and low swivel friction.)
Differential braking is required for steering, and sometimes the brakes overheat.
When the brakes overheat, you have to replace the o-rings in the brake caliper (and they are special, high-dollar o-rings.)
An airworthiness limitation requires replacing or repacking the parachute every 10 or 11 years, depending on the model, and this is costly.
And then there’s the maintenance… the SR22 definitely takes some maintenance to keep it in good condition.
And now here are some tasks I helped with on the SR22 at the top of this post:
Repositioning a loose induction coupling which caused full power RPM fluctuation (and probably a few other related things):
Magneto timing, and how I almost dropped one of the rubber drive bushings down inside the engine! It was barely hanging on the edge of a gear inside the engine!
Fixing a piece of baffling (fwd of cylinder #6) that came loose when its 2 attaching rivets failed:
Repositioning an ALT 2 wire so it would not chafe on the prop governor:
Resealing the right brake caliper and installing new temp stickers:
Tightening an oil plug and installing safety wire:
It was an adventure, and I look forward to the next time I get to work on an SR22… I really like those airplanes!
As promised, here’s the video that explains the electrical system in an SR22… I found it to be excellent training:
As usual, if I can serve you with any of your “airplane owner needs” I’d be happy to do so… you can check out my services on the “store” page for details about:
From left: Arthur, Dave, Mervin, Dean (I got to work with these guys last Monday at Classic Aviation., when Dave had me lap the exhaust valves in cylinders 3 and 5.)
Scroll down for more info about this valve lapping adventure.
Diamond DA40 annual inspection – here are some squawks we discuss in this episode:
Electroair ignition leads.
Nose gear issues, including a missing elastomer element:
This is the elastomer pack for the nose gear. The small elastomer element in the yellow circle is the one that we replaced since the old one had split and fallen out of position. The hydraulic press was very helpful in compressing the stack to get the nut started. The end in the yellow circle goes on the bottom end when installed on the airplane, and the rod end bearing at the bottom of the photo is actually the top of the stack, and attaches to the engine mount at the firewall.
AmSafe seatbelts
RG24-15M aircraft battery
Alternator 500 hour brush inspection
Alternator aux. wire terminal loose
Aft door warning light inop.
Prop governor nuts under-torqued
Bolt dangling from the induction airbox
Oil leak caused by the engine driven fuel pump:
Engine baffling issues
Loose brake caliper bolts
Aluminum dust on prop spinner bulkheads:
Aft avionics fan inlet filter badly deteriorated and filthy:
Rudder cable tension low
Wiring and baffle rod under right side of engine
Now back to the valve lapping project with the Bonanza – here are the exhaust valves from cylinder 3 and cylinder 5… #3 compression improved from 60/80 to 62/80, and #5 compression improved from 55/80 to 69/80. The real test will be when we see the results after another 25, 50, and 100 hours of operation.
The #3 exhaust valve definitely has some irregularities; hopefully it will return to a normal appearance in several hours of operation after lapping and installing a new rotocoil.The #5 exhaust valve looks quite healthy overall, with a very small questionable area at about the 1 o’clock position. We also lapped this one and installed a new rotocoil as a proactive measure.
By the way, these photos were taken with my new Vividia VA-400 borescope… I was very impressed with the photo resolution compared with my older borescope from a couple years ago.
There are various options, and if you want to display the images on your iPhone or iPad, I recommend the VA-400 WiFi Bundle #1: VA-400 and W01 wifi box (Model: VA-400W1)
When you purchase from Oasis Scientific and use the code “Dean” you will receive a 10% discount, and you’ll be supporting the podcast at the same time.
It was a great experience meeting Dave Ovad and working on his F33A Bonanza along with Mervin and Arthur.
It was also a pleasure to see Arthur’s P35 Bonanza that day:
Arthur has a really nice panel in his airplane as well… check it out:
I’ve just completed the installation for a B&C Specialties standby alternator system on an E33A Bonanza. It’s a fantastic system, and I talked about it in today’s podcast episode. Be sure to listen for a caution about the right magneto when installing a new oil seal in the drive adapter for the standby alternator.
Here are some other items mentioned in this episode:
Jim Lanning (92 years old!) and David McCain, stopped at KSHD yesterday in a beautiful Great Lakes aircraft. Jim is in the front seat. Check it out:
A weird oil leak on a Diamond DA-40 I’m hoping we can fix and tell the rest of the story in a future episode.
Now back to the Bonanza with the standby alternator system. We also installed new nose gear rod ends and some other parts on the airplane as well. The old rod ends are hollow and have a grease fitting on the side, which has been seen as a factor in these old rod ends breaking and causing prop strikes and other damage. Check out the difference between the old hollow type rod ends and the new solid type:
The standby alternator system turned out very well… I installed the switch and the 2 circuit breakers in the pilot’s instrument panel:
There was an ideal location for the indicator light just to the left of the already existing warning light for the main alternator system:
The final product is going to work very well:
Be sure to check out all the resources on the “Store” page at AirplaneOwnerMaintenance.com
Don’t forget to click the “Store” tab above and check out the resources there. If you have any questions, click the button that says “Send Voicemail” and leave me a message.
Note: I’m offering a 30% discount on the new shock strut servicing video course from now until Monday night, July 12 at midnight Eastern Daylight time.
Use the code “STRUT” for a 30% discount and pay only $67 instead of the normal price of $97.
It appears they kept flying the airplane with an oil pressure problem, and the engine finally failed catastrophically.
I took a trip with my fellow A&P, Kenneth, and we ended up removing the wings and sending the airplane home to Virginia on a trailer. Check it out:
Before we removed the wings, we drained a little more than 1 quart of oil from the sump (it’s an 8 quart engine,) and we removed the oil suction screen, which had A LOT of metal in it. Kenneth also noted that the #1 piston was not moving in the cylinder when we rotated the prop… oh, and the first time we rotated the prop, we could hear metal pieces falling down through the engine… not a good thing!
There was no obvious external damage visible on the engine… the internal damage was a whole different story! (The only strange thing was the oil dipstick was missing.)
The whole ordeal has been challenging to figure out, but the engine data from the JPI-830 engine monitor has been helpful.
After observing the engine data on a computer screen, it’s obvious there was a big problem with low oil pressure when the aircraft departed on the flight that would end in a farm field.
It’s been a crazy busy week after returning home, and yesterday, I finally had time to remove cylinder #1 from the engine, but it would not come off! How frustrating!
We think the steel cylinder barrel was peened and deformed inside the crankcase, which won’t let it come out.
So this morning, I removed the oil sump, and it was full of all kinds of interesting stuff… the exhaust lifter, which was in amazingly good condition… pieces of the connecting rod that came off the crankshaft journal… and other pieces of debris.
That tube at the end of the lifter is the oil suction tube that goes up to the oil suction screen and from there to the oil filter.
So there’s the story… so far.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Troy Schlote sent me an encouraging email and let me know he’s trying to get the word out about the new location of AeroSport, LLC in Florida.
If any of you need light sport maintenance, Rotax maintenance, or GA maintenance in the Deland, Florida area, be sure to stop in and meet Troy.
Troy Schlote Director of Maintenance A&P / IA AeroSport, LLC www.fly-aerosport.com T: (888) 444-1970
Special bonus until Monday, July 5th at 12 midnight Eastern Daylight Time:
If you purchase the “Landing Gear Shock Strut Servicing” video course by that time, you’ll be included in two Q&A calls later in August, where you can ask me anything about shock struts or any related topics. I’d love to see you in those calls!
As promised, here’s a photo of the mix-matched brake parts I discovered this past week on a Piper Saratoga:
The metallic linings on the left are the correct ones; the organic linings on the right are the wrong parts! They were just sort of “riding free” on the pins of the backplate… it’s a good thing they didn’t fall out!
I think all my fellow A&P’s and IA’s out there will get a big kick out of this one… we see some crazy things in airplane maintenance!
One of my favorite memories from the 2019 show was on Saturday evening when Julie Clark gave her final Oshkosh performance in her T34 Mentor, as she was planning to retire.
The performance was absolutely incredible… so peaceful and smooth… the weather was perfect, and I also remember one of the songs that was playing during her performance… “God Bless America.”
In researching for this episode, I found a video of portions of Julie’s performance, as well as a phenomenal recording (not from Oshkosh) of the song, God Bless America. Perhaps you’ll enjoy these… I sure did!
Many of you have registered for the shock strut webinar coming up on Friday, July 2, 2021 at 8pm Eastern time. If not, you can learn more by clicking the button:
So far we have 72 people registered, so there’s space for 28 more.
I’ve got helpful photos and tips to share, but I also want to reserve plenty of time for questions as well.
If you know of someone who might want to learn about landing gear shock struts and keeping them serviced properly, I’d be grateful if you’d share this link with them:
Listen to the podcast episode to hear how Jeff bailed me out on this one! (The gasket between the halves of the turbo broke as I was trying to rotate the halves to reseal an oil fitting.)
We also talked in this episode about two upcoming opportunities:
I’ll be presenting a Zoom webinar on Friday, July 2. The topic is “Best tips for servicing an airplane shock strut.” You can sign up and register here: AirplaneOwnerMaintenance.com/shockstruts (There are only 100 spots for this presentation.)
Also on that same day, July 2, we will be launching the Shock Strut Servicing Video Training Course. There will be information during and after the webinar for how to take advantage of the video training.
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