N951CC is flying again!

After 4 months of downtime, N951CC is finally flying again! Although there were some airplane fixes such as an exhaust leak and a fuel tank leak, it was really all the extras and new toys that made it take so long. Specifically, I had to wait over a month for a hose fitting for my backup vacuum pump. That kind of lead time can really extend a project.

I've been trying to do as much ground testing as possible along the way to ensure everything was working properly. The ground testing was going well and only found 1 issue, a burnt out low vacuum warning light. This was a new light that was dead on arrival, but fairly easy to replace.

When we were finally ready to run the engine, it ran pretty rough, but my mechanic quickly noticed that the right cylinders weren't firing. After working on that for awhile and checking different items, I found a slit in an induction tube that was leaking air into that bank of cylinders. It wasn't too long until that was replaced and the engine was running on all 6 cylinders.

I was able to take it for a test flight the next day after the fuel tank top panel was sealed back up. I came back with a new list of squawks. I had a hot mic, the fuel flow gauge was reading 0.0 GPH, the digital tach was reading high and the digital manifold pressure gauge was reading high. I was able to turn off the aircraft radios and use my portable in order to continue the test flight without the hot mic.

After inspecting the audio wiring, I was able to get the mic to disconnect. I'm not sure exactly what it was, which makes me worry that it could happen again, but I think it's the co-pilot push to talk wiring because it is in really bad shape. I've got a replacement cord on order. On the second test flight, I again noticed the high readings on the digital tach and manifold pressure gauge. I also found that I could not transmit on comm2. Comm1 worked completely, and I could listen and key the second comm, but not transmit.

I swapped comm1 and comm2 radios and the problem was still on comm2. I was down to thinking it was a bad audio panel or connection between the audio panel and comm2. A lot of wiring was moved/retied/pulled/pushed/etc behind the panel during the downtime so a bad wire between the audio panel and comm2 was a real possibility. I was really hoping that wasn't the problem because that would be a real pain to fix. I pulled out my audio panel while my mechanic was looking for a similar panel to swap for testing. While I was waiting, I decided to see if I could transmit from the co-pilot side. I had tested from the pilot and the factory hand mic, but not the co-pilot. While going through the logic of the connections, I was thinking that the co-pilot connections couldn't be the cause, but I decided to try while I was waiting anyways. Sure enough I was able to transmit on comm2 from the co-pilot seat! So I retested from the pilot and factory hand mic and they both now worked. Apparently the audio panel did not seat properly when I reinstalled it last time and it went in good this time. Comm2 problem solved!

Now I was down to high readings from the digital EI probes. I grabbed my mechanic's optical tach and an optical tach I have for model airplanes. The optical tachs seem to be right on, they read exactly correct when reading a light bulb and are identical between the tachs. I fired up the airplane and compared the factory mechanical tach, the 2 opticals, and the EI tach. Here are the results:

Factory / Optical 1 / Optical 2 / EI

1000 / 1080 / 1080 / 1100

1500 /1560-1590 / 1560-1590 / 1590

2000 / 2040-2070/ 2040-2070/ 2090

I'm not sure what to think of the optical tachs jumping back and forth between two values. They both jumped exactly the same way too! The documentation from EI says the RPM accuracy is 1% or better.

EI error assuming optical tachs are truth with 0% error

Based on average / Based on max

+1.85% / +1.85% @ 1000 RPM

+0.95% / +0.00% @ 1500 RPM

+1.70% / +0.97% @ 2000 RPM

So although the EI RPM probe is out of spec, it's not THAT bad. I figured my factory tach would read low, that's pretty common, but I expected the EI digital probes to be a lot closer to the optical tachs.

Next I was on to testing the manifold pressure gauge. First, we went around and took samples of MP readings on airplanes around the airport. We found 2 other airplanes that read the same as mine, 1 a half inch higher, 1 a half in lower and 1 an inch and a half lower! Obviously this was not going to help me verify the accuracy of the EI probe. After trying to figure out a way to get an accurate pressure reading to compare against, I found that I could correct the AWOS altimeter setting for altitude to obtain an absolute pressure reading. I also called EI for their suggestion and they emailed a troubleshooting guide that outlined the same calculation. Armed with the math, I calculated the absolute pressure and compared against the factory gauge and EI probe. The AWOS altimeter setting was 29.72 with a field elevation of 2457 feet so the calculated absolute pressure was 27.263 inches. With the space between 1 inch ticks on my manifold pressure gauge only about a half centimeter apart, the best guess of the factory reading was 27.3 inches. The EI probe was reading 27.9 inches, significantly higher than the calculated pressure. EI states the accuracy of the MP probe is 2%, but assuming the calculated pressure is 100% accurate, then the EI gauge is +2.2%. From the SuperAWOS website, there is a reference that states that the system meets accuracy requirements for Advisory Circular (AC) 150/5220·16B. I couldn't find a copy of this AC online since it was cancelled by 150/5220·16C, but 16C states a 0.01 inch root mean square error or 0.02 maximum error in the redundant pressure system. This equates to an AWOS error of 0.037%, which is an insignificant factor. Again, the EI sensor is out of spec on the high side, but not by much (0.2 percent above the spec).

I don't think it's worth sending the sensors back for new ones. I may just compare pressures and RPMs over time and develop calibration sheets. I expected the digital probes to be more accurate, but every measurement has it's limitations.

The EI fuel flow is still reading 0 and all of the ground testing looks good. I discussed my testing with EI and the confirmed the steps I took and also believe my wiring is correct and the error is in the transducer. After our flight on Saturday, we'll disconnect the transducer and see if there is anything blocking the turbine, but my anticipation is that we'll have to send the transducer out for a replacement.

Overall, I'm pretty happy that with all of the work completed, there has not been any lingering squawks besides the fuel flow, but we have a plan for that.

More videos from this summer

We flew down to Long Beach to attend an AOPA meeting. This was my first time this deep into LA and to Long Beach. I flew IFR and had no issues on the way in. After the meeting, we took a bus to the coast and watched Red Bull's Flugtag, where people push crazy parade style floats off a ledge and into the water. Most are just crazy, but the intent is to see who can fly the farthest. A friend was involved in the world record flight in St. Paul and although I saw the test flights of the glider, I didn't get to see it at the event; so we went to the one in Long Beach instead. You can see a video of the record breaking flight here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Im8VtLQgh4). After the flugtag, we took the bus back to the airport and flew out to Catalina and had their tri-tip buffet. It was pretty good, but it was very expensive and the line was long (and they charge a $25 landing fee). We made it past the mountains south of Palmdale just as it started getting dark and flew up the Owen's valley in the dark. I haven't done much night flying out here due the mountains, but it was a nice flight.

Katie learned her first magic trick!

Katie enjoying her first EAA Airventure. She was a real trooper for the entire time.

As we were waiting out bad weather at Jon and Kandy's house, Katie got some music lessons. I was a little late with the camera though because she was doing a lot better earlier.

Crazy college friends.

With the airplane, we were able to visit some Saia family down in Belleville, IL. I also got very lucky that there's a aircraft mechanic in the family who very conveniently was able to clean up a fouled spark plug for me - thanks Jim.

Looks like I never posted this video on the blog. Here was our camping trip in Payson. Payson has excellent campsites right at the airport, but there isn't much to do there. There is a supposedly a lake not too far that you can walk to. Not a problem, we were there to relax anyways. We also took the dogs and flew over Meteor Crater on the flight home.

Flying movies from our trip this summer

Since we were planning on flying through Colorado on our trip home, we decided to leave Thursday and fly to Grand Junction so that we'd be able to fly through CO on Friday morning and avoid density altitude and turbulence issues through the Rockies. It looked like some weather was rolling into the area so I left work a little early and we got out before it started to rain. It was hot and turbulent, but that was expected. We bumped around for 4.6 hours and made it to Grand Junction. We had an issue at the airport because the FBO didn't want to let us exit through their building, which was the only way out due to TSA policy, because we didn't buy fuel from them. I didn't realize the FBO didn't own the self serve fuel pumps. Luckily the manager came out and was really nice and not only let us through, but gave us a ride into town and let us in the next morning.

After some breakfast, we took off for the "long day". The flight through the Rockies was smooth and easy and the scenery was excellent. We flew past the Great Sand Dunes National Park and landed at La Junta, CO to pick up some fuel. The scenery in La Junta was amazing flat, especially since we just flew the Rockies. From La Junta, we flew to Butler, MO then on to Belleville, IL. We had to dodge some cloud build-up on the last 2 legs, but the weather was pretty good overall.

After visiting family in Belleville, we flew up to Flying Cloud, MN to visit some college friends. We stopped at Rochester along the way for fuel.

I don't have a movie of our flight from Flying Cloud to South St. Paul to visit some more college friends, but it was a very short flight.

After our MN visits, we flew down to Madison, WI to visit my brother Jon and his family.

Due to thunderstorms, we were not able to fly to Kiel, WI to visit Joe, but we were able to spend some time with them later in our trip. We were planning on flying into Airventure again this year, but we were going to fly in formation this time with the Cessnas2Oshkosh group. The staging airport was Juneau, WI so that was our next stop. After eyeing a gap in the weather and seeing it get bigger and bigger, I decided to call flight service one more time (I had been calling them throughout the day) while we were out getting some lunch. The flight to Juneau is very short so I didn't need a big window, but I'm pretty conservative when it comes to flying. The next wave looked like it was all the way back over Dubuque, IA almost 100 miles away. Although the weather looked as if it were improving, the briefer said several things were aligning to produce a large storm including tornadoes. That was the first forecast of tornadoes, but that forecast was enough for us to head back home for the day. I decided to call Madison and see if they were able to put my airplane into a hanger. Just as the FBO returned my call saying they got it in the hanger, the tornado sirens started going off. There was something like 7 or 9 touchdowns within the county. The next day, we made our flight uneventfully into Juneau on an IFR flight plan through some minor clouds.

I don't have a video of my flight from Juneau to Waukesha, WI, but that was also in light IMC.

Mark and Carley wanted to go flying and take the kids, so I took them up in turns and we were able to find their house as well as a corn maze.

This was my first real flight in IMC. We entered the clouds around 1200 feet and I was IMC the until about 800 feet on approach.

I was able to take Joe and Amber up for a flight, we lucked out with some really smooth flying. We flew around Woodland Dunes for a bit, then headed over to Kiel and found their house.

All trips have to come to an end at some point, so we were on our way back home. We had to dodge some pretty big storms on the way and 1 of the legs ended up being 4.6 hours. I've got over 6 hours of fuel capacity so that wasn't an issue, but that's a long time flying without stopping. We had planned at stopping near Salt Lake City for the night, but stopped short and landed at Evanston, WY due to thunderstorms. We lucked out coming into Evanston because thunderstorms were popping up in the area, but there none between us and the airport, although one wasn't very far to the north. You can see some lightening in the movie if you watch closely.

After 42.7 hours of flying over 22 days, we finally made it home.

N951CC goes down for annual and upgrade

There's been no updates with flights for awhile since my airplane has been down for maintenance for almost 2 and a half months with no near end in sight. The engine is still holding up and passed annual although it still has signs that an overhaul is coming in the next few years. That is OK since the engine is quite a bit past its expected life and I have anticipated an overhaul since I bought the airplane almost 3 years ago. We found 2 items that needed to be addressed during the annual, a fuel leak and an exhaust leak. The fuel leak has been addressed, but the exhaust has been more challenging. Hopefully we can have that all fixed up soon.

In addition the the typical annual, I'm doing some upgrades which has caused it to be down for so long. I've replaced all the switches, removed the ADF including the top and bottom antennas, receiver, indicator, and associated wiring. I also removed a lot of dead wires along the way. I've installed wiring harnesses for a UBG-16 engine monitor that I won this year at the EAA and a FP-5L fuel flow gauge. I also installed a mux box to download the monitor information as well as RPM, fuel flow, maniforld pressure, and outside air sensor accessories. I'm also going to hard wire my garmin 296 into the system so it won't use the cigarette lighter anymore and will provide GPS data to the mux for download and to the FP-5L for fuel economy calculations. To install all of this stuff, I had to add a new fuse panel where the ADF receiver used to be. I also disconnected some old headphone jacks that weren't connected to the radios anymore although the intercom was connected through them so the intercom was reconnected to the proper jacks. I installed a comm antenna splitter where the old headphone jacks were so I can use my aircraft comm antenna with my handheld radio for better signal. I also replaced the primer o-rings and replaced the co-pilot vent. I also found a used electric backup vacuum system online. I'm installing that between the back of my luggage compartment and my air conditioning system and running a hose up to tee into my existing vac system. Separately I bought a low vacuum warning light that tees into the vac gauge line and turns a light on when the suction drops below 3.5 psi.

That's all I can think of for now, I'm sure I missed some things. It's been slow going because my A&P has been allowing me to help with the work, but I can't get out to the airport during the week so I'm only out there working on the weekends. I'm really lucky to have a mechanic that works 7 days a week.

I wish I had taken some "progress" pictures, but I didn't; I even have a camera out at the airport...

You can tell your airplane has been down for too long when it's 100+ when you start and you need a swamp cooler and now it's in the mid 30s and I need a heater...

N951CC movie night camping at Oceano

Michelle and I fly to Oceano their movie night and to go camping for the night. We flew early to fly some practice approaches in the marine layer. We landed in San Luis Obispo, ate lunch at the airport, and took the courtesy car to the home brew store while we waited for the fog to clear up for us to fly into Oceano. We watched a movie about the Oceano day in May, a video of a hang glider in Yosemite, and the Rocketeer. Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun.

Finally catching up on some older flights...

BBQ Lunch at Lake Havasu with AOPA pilots.

Corona for breakfast and Lancaster poppies on the way back.

WI trip 2010, 1 of many

We've made the beginning part of our trip with minimal issues. We left Inyokern, CA Thursday afternoon with building cumulus clouds in the area, a pretty good sign of turbulence. They ended up getting thunderstorms after we left. We were able to get above the heat on the way to Las Vegas, but we were in the bumps. Between Vegas and Grand Junction, it got hotter and hotter and eventually it was the crappy flight we expected; hot and turbulent. We were on the ground at Grand Junction, where it was still 100 degrees, after 4.6 hours of flying. We ate at Applebees and Katie was so crazy from being in her car seat for so long that it was impossible to get a picture of her. We stayed overnight at the Quality Inn, which was just fine for the night. Unfortunately, Michelle told me that we didn't need our "camping bag" so I left that at the airport, but that had our swimming suits in it. We could have really used a dip in the pool to cool down after that flight.

I really need to start calling FBOs ahead of time to confirm services and times. It's really annoying since our flights can be so variable due to weather that it's difficult to call every possible FBO we could end up landing at. When we landed, we bought gas at the self serve, then taxied to parking. A line guy came out and told us that the tie-down was owned by West-Star and that the self-serve wasn't so that I'd have to pay $15 to tie-down or move over a couple of spots over for free parking. So I moved down a couple of spots and then the same guy comes over and says that since we aren't using any West-Star services, they won't let us out or in their security gate! The self-serve company doesn't have anybody around to let you in/out their gates so now we're locked in! How stupid is this, If I had known... I would have just tied down at West-Star and bought their fuel, but how was I supposed to know. Eventually Kraig from West-Star came out and was sympathetic to our dilemma and was very helpful. Not only did he say he's let us use the West-Star gate (this one time), but he actually drove us into town instead of having to call a cab. In the end, West-Star was very nice and helpful, but they are pretty strict about their policies, even the ones you don't really have any way of knowing unless you call ahead and ask the right questions.

On our way. These cumulus ended up producing thunder storms.

Climbing over Trona, CA

Michelle and Katie excited to be on our way.

Lake Powell

Lake Powell

Mountains on our arrival into Grand Junction, CO

SPOT messenger track.