It’s been a long and in-depth annual inspection, along with the extensive list of squawk repairs. But it’s a great airplane, and I’d love to fly it if I had the opportunity!
In today’s podcast, we cover the remaining squawks on this airplane, concluding with scale weighing the aircraft, and sending it back out into the blue skies yesterday!
I’m confident the owner will get many happy and safe hours of flying out of this amazing airplane.
Be sure to check out the store page to learn more about the services I provide. If I can help you in any way, leave me a voice message by clicking the tab over on the right side of the page or send me an email to dean{at}airplaneownermaintenance{dot}com
In episode 188, we covered the first 30 squawks on a Cessna 172 that’s in the shop for an annual inspection and a bunch of repairs.
In this episode, we are tackling another chunk of the squawks and repairs.
Here’s a sampling:
Under the pilot instrument panel, some wiring was tied to one of the fuel primer lines… a bad idea. I secured the wiring away from the primer line.
Here’s another one: the owner did not like the old, large throttle knob, and was ready to change the whole throttle control cable. Instead, I found a new knob that worked very well, and looks much nicer. (The knob in my hand is the old one.)
And another one: the instrument panel shock mounts were sagging, cracked, and broken:
In the next episode, I’m planning to finish the Cessna 172 squawks, and by then, the airplane should be back in the air!
As always, if I can help you with evaluating borescope images, reviewing maintenance records, or one-on-one consulting, you can check out the options on the STORE PAGE here on the website.
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.
A good friend from another airport recently bought this Piper Archer, and I’ve had the opportunity to do a little maintenance on it and take a look around.
This is one of three airplanes I’ve had an opportunity to look at recently… all three were in annual inspection, but I noticed a few things that could use some attention. We’ll save the Archer for last.
First, a Cessna 172:
I noticed the fuel strainer (gascolator) was safety wired backwards!
The same Cessna 172 also had a small oil leak… I later discovered the rocker box oil return fitting was loose and needed to be resealed:
The bottom cowling was telling a story about that oil leak… it’s always a good idea to look for oil in the bottom cowling and then try to determine where it’s coming from:
Second, a Beech Bonanza:
No pictures for this one, but here are a few things I found on this one:
No copper safety wire on the emergency exit window pins.
No safety wire on the fillister head screws in one of the ruddervator hinge brackets.
One loose ruddervator hinge bolt.
One worn ruddervator thrust bearing.
Listen to the audio for more details on this one.
And third, a Piper Archer:
One of the brake hoses was leaking – the nut was only finger tight!
The cabin door hinge pins were worn and the door was hitting the frame when closing. New pins and some shim washers fixed the problem.
The carb heat door shaft grommets were worn:
The left cowling pin bushing bracket was loose:
And finally, the fuel primer nozzle was really dry and stiff:
I always love to discover things on airplanes that need attention.
What about you? Could you benefit from having me look at your airplane? Send me an email to explore the options. dean{at}airplaneownermaintenance{dot}com
Or, go ahead and set up a Facetime consulting call and we can look at your airplane together and discuss any issues you might have:
Schedule a FaceTime call with me in 2 simple steps
Go to my calendar and pick a time spot that’s good for you.
On the scheduled day, I’ll call you and we can discuss and examine your airplane concerns. (Many prefer FaceTime for this.)
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
PilotWorkshop.com – This is a great place to help you stay sharp as a pilot… be sure to sign up to receive the “Tip of the week,” a short, 2 minute or less, valuable tip to make you a better pilot… and it’s free!
The post “154 – If I Looked at YOUR Airplane, What Would I Discover?” appeared first at AirplaneOwnerMaintenance.com
In today’s episode, I’m super excited to introduce John and Leslie Caubble to you!
They’ve become good friends of mine in the last couple years, and they have a really inspiring aviation journey.
We put together some Cessna 172 maintenance related questions, and I thought it would be a lot more fun to have them join me for this episode, rather than me talking about these questions by myself.
In a future episode, we’ll have them back again to talk about their personal aviation journey.
Thanks, John and Leslie, for being a part of this episode!
To learn more about John and Leslie and what they’re doing, check out the following links:
You can also find flymauihi and thealoha360 on Instagram.
I thought this might also be a good time to provide a free resource for owners and operators of Cessna 172’s… it’s a list of commonly needed parts, along with part numbers.
It’s completely free, and I’m confident can save you some significant time and frustration… grab a copy at the following link:
Engine oil leaks are a common problem on small airplanes with piston engines. But how much oil leakage is too much? Here’s an indicator: If there’s oil on the nose tire, and it paints a stripe on the pavement with each revolution, that’s too much oil leakage.
This was the case the other day on a Cessna 172, so we did some detective work to see where the oil was coming from.
After removing the cowling, it was obvious the oil leak was significant, and it appeared to be coming from the left side of the engine.
Here’s what we discovered about the rocker oil return line on cylinder #4:
The wire that holds the engine baffles in place under cylinders 2 and 4, had cut a hole in the bottom of the rocker cover oil return line. When the engine is running, this line continuously returns oil from the rocker arm area back to the crankcase. With engine vibration, this is a common area for chafing to occur, and is an important area to inspect.
Here’s a closer look at the oil line after it was removed. The spiral wrap was a previous attempt to prevent chafing, but the wire still cut through the line.
After removing the spiral wrap, the chafed area was clear:
It doesn’t take a very large hole to make a big oil mess!
This story reminds me of some helpful principles for evaluating engine oil leaks:
If engine oil is dripping on the nosewheel, it’s probably not normal and needs to be checked.
If something changes, check it out. Example: engine breather tubes sometimes drip after shutdown, but if you notice a dramatic increase, make a further investigation.
When troubleshooting oil leaks, go to the highest point on the engine where you see oil. Oil can run down on lower components and lead to wrong conclusions about the source of the oil leak.
Verify all connections and fittings are tight.
Listen to the audio in today’s episode to hear about some other loose fittings that recently caused problems… one on a Piper Turbo Arrow, and one on a Piper Saratoga.
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