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

Tag: twincessna

128 – Should I Buy a Twin Cessna or a Beech Baron?

In this week’s episode, we are talking about upgrading to a twin, and some thoughts about choosing between a twin Cessna and a Beech Baron.

Thank you Simon Cail, for your email, and for permission to read the email in this episode.

Simon’s decision was between a Cessna 340 and a Beechcraft Baron 58.

The pictures above are of a Cessna 414 and a Baron 55. But I think they’re close enough for the purposes of this episode.

Listen to the audio for some thoughts about the two types of airplanes, especially from a maintenance perspective.

Simon, I wish you well in your upgrade to a twin… let me know what you decide. And thanks again for your email!

Links and Resources:

American Bonanza Society: https://www.bonanza.org/

Twin Cessna Flyer: https://www.twincessna.org/

Bob Ripley’s maintenance shop in Georgia: http://soaero.com/

Tony Saxton’s twin Cessna shop: https://tas-aviation.com/

“Rig it Right” twin Cessna landing gear rigging instructions: https://www.twincessna.org/OnLineStore.asp?p_num=P016

Baron and Bonanza landing gear inspection checklist and repair guide:http://www.flyabonanza.com/Resources_files/abs%20landing%20gear%20guide%20copy.pdf

126 – Magneto Trouble at Higher Altitudes

Corrosion in the towers of a magneto can cause high resistance, and the problem will be magnified as you go up in altitude.

This green corrosion could likely be cleaned up and it may improve some, but it may also indicate a good time to perform either a 500 hour inspection or an overhaul on the magneto.

Pressurized magnetos have an o-ring that seals the connection where the wiring harness attaches to the magneto. I found this one on a twin Cessna last week, while changing one of the magnetos.

Listen to today’s episode to hear about the details of this issue, and some things to think about for optimal magneto performance.

Thankfully, we got the twin Cessna running again, and the owner made 4 flights the very next day!

Have a great week friends!