Airplane Owner Maintenance

A Maintenance Oriented Podcast For Airplane Owners, Pilots, and Mechanics

Tag: clarktrobaugh

215 – Vacuum Pump Adventure with Clark, my Airline Captain Friend

February 24, 2023 /

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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!

https://www.flymauihi.com/blog

https://www.thealoha360.com/podcast

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192 – We Always Knew He Had A Screw Loose!

November 20, 2021 /

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My good friend, Clark Trobaugh, flew into KSHD this past week, and while he was visiting with his family, I walked over to his airplane on the ramp and noted a few things that needed attention…

Here’s the one that prompted Clark’s brother Scott to send me a text that said, “Thanks for looking out for him. We always knew he had a screw loose and I’m glad you could fix it.” That made me laugh, for sure! These brothers have a lot of fun together.

It turned out the screw was the wrong one… it was a sheet metal screw and should have been a machine screw. Check it out:

And here’s the result after installing the correct screw:

I also discovered a panel chafing under the left horizontal stabilizer:

I removed the panel, cleaned the area, and reinstalled it:

Another item that needed attention was a shielding ground connection on the left alternator… check out this video:

And one more item I took care of for Clark was the left and right elevator trim tab connections… take a look at this:

Since there is a bushing in this location, the bolt should be tightened onto the bushing and the rotation happens around the bushing. I greased the bushing, reinstalled the bolt and nut, and installed a new cotter pin, for both trim tabs.

Here’s how the pieces look when taken apart:

And here’s the end result after reassembly:

Listen to the audio for this episode for more details on these items, as well as a tribute to Clark and Scott’s dad, Larry Trobaugh, who passed away in May of 2020. Larry was a great man, and I think so highly of him and his family.

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