Cessna 320

2. Email jen@cessnaflyer.org or kent@aviationgroupltd.com with your change of address request. 3. Go online to http://cessnaflyer.org/members/address-email-change.html and fill out the form for change of address or email. Note that you will need to be logged in to access the form. If you are a snowbird or are otherwise away from your primary address for a period of time, please let us know and we can hold your magazines or tem- porarily send them to an alternate address. Unfortunately for now, updating your address in your online profile does not update the address for mailing purposes. We are working on a solution for that. Wherever life takes you, we wish you tailwinds and… Blue Skies, Jennifer Dellenbusch THE VIEW FROM HERE continued on page 10... Letter-writer’s response to the author Hi John, Thank you for your reply. Your Cessna 170B project looks very interesting, basi- cally a recipe for the perfect airplane at least for [the] environment like we have here in Iceland—lots of rugged terrain and possibility to land almost anywhere in the backcountry. We are similar to Alaska without trees, except we regularly get high winds. [The] temperature in win- ter is normally around 25 to 35 degrees F and it is considered a heat wave if we get over 75 degrees in summertime; nor- mally it is around upper 50s. We here in Iceland have two Cessna 170Bs. TF-OMG (S/N 26715) is airwor- thy and TF-MOS (S/N 26785) will be airworthy as TF-TOM after restoration. [This aircraft was] damaged because of ground-loop and flipped upside down. Both of the aircrafts had ground looped but we finished restoring TF-OMG as [an] original C170B with O-300 [engine] but with C-180 landing gear last spring. We are gathering supplies for future TF-TOM [including] an engine. Now we know what propeller—MT three-blade. We have been in contact with Joni at Selkirk and would like to get [Selkirk’s] insulation and the bigger baggage com- partment. We are interested in putting in either MGL or Dynon EFIS in our aircraft. Good luck with your project, and I look forward to your article in Cessna Flyer once ready. Happy landings and blue skies. Best regards from Iceland, Julius Bjorn Thorolfsson “Looking Up” The View From Here by Jennifer Dellenbusch, March 2014 Dear Jennifer, Seems to me that one thing we could do is to publicize and to better educate the public and policymakers about the huge contribution that GA pilots provide flying humanitarian/public service/charity missions, such as patient transports for Angel Flight and Pilots for Patients, and animal rescue flights for Pilots N Paws. I flew 300 hours last year (it would’ve been more except for some uncoopera- tive weather and a couple of mechanical issues); all of those hours involved Pilots N Paws animal rescue missions. And I’m just one of many. After an online post about one of my recent transports (a five-leg, 14-dog mis- sion), a member of the non-flying general public responded, “I long ago stopped looking at small planes flying overhead. Now, I look up and wonder, ‘How many dogs are on board that plane flying to safety?’” Stephen Wade Roberts Friendswood, Tex. TF-OMG during first flight and landing after restoration (above and left) Will be TF-TOM once rebuilt (below) CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 10 Letters continued... New art to come served from noon to 2 pm to dozens of pilots who make the trip. Shop, eat and enjoy a fun day at the airport with fellow pilots. Contact Mark Wiesenhahn, 513-735-9100, ext. 338. Apr 19 — Arcadia, FL. Arcadia Municipal (X06). All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Breakfast. Sponsored by Friends of Arcadia Airport. You’ll get pancakes, sausage, orange juice and coffee all for only $6. (Free for pilots who do three touch-and-gos.) Rain or shine, 9 to 11 am. Str8 Up Aviation will also be on site offering helicopter rides—you could win a raffle for two free rides. Con- tact FriendsOfArcadiaAirport@gmail.com. Apr 23 — Frederick, MD. Accident Case Study: Live. The Air Safety Institute’s new seminar aims to put a new spin on safety- oriented accident analysis. Working with several compelling real-life cases, presenter and audience will play the role of accident investigator to figure out exactly what went wrong, and why. Held at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center at FSK Mall, 5400 Holiday Drive, in Frederick. 7 to 9 pm. Call 800-638-3101 for information. Apr 24 — Columbus, OH. The Ohio State University Airport (KOSU). Discover Aviation. 5:30 to 8:30 pm. Discover what it takes to be a pilot! Spend three hours at The Ohio State University Airport with our certificated flight instructors as they teach you the steps and skills required to pursue your private pilot certificate. Cost is $20. For information, visit osuairport.org. Contact Ann Dee Hamilton, 614-292-5473 or email ahamilton@osuairport.org. Apr 25-26 — DeFuniak Springs, FL. DeFuniak Springs (54J). Marvel of Flight. Attendees can tour B-25 “Panchito” and see aviation exhibits, World War II equipment, skydiving, biplanes, warbirds and a car show. Aviation judging; Friends of Army Aviation Helicopters. FAA WINGS seminar, EAA meeting. Food, live music, arts and crafts. Free kids’ activities. Admission fee: one canned food item. Visit MarvelofFlight. com. Contact Ryan Adams, 850-892-2000. Apr 26 — Essex, MD. Essex Skypark (W48). Essex Skypark’s Annual Fly-in/ Drive-in Pancake Breakfast. 9 to 11:30 am. Pancakes, sausage, danish, coffee, juice and tea; cost is your donation. Plenty of parking for aircraft and cars on field. Fuel available. Visit essexskyparkassociation.org, or con- tact Brian Dolan at essexskypark@hotmail. com or call 443-831-7609. Apr 26 — Mariposa, CA. Mariposa- Yosemite Airport (KMPI). Mariposa Air Fair and Family Adventure Day. Gates will be open from 8 am to 3 pm. Free airplane rides are available for youth ages 8-17 through the EAA Young Eagles program. Flight simulator, craft booths and other fun activities for the kids. Organized by the Mariposa EAA Chapter 1261. For more information, visit mariposaairfair.com. Apr 26 — San Marcos, TX. San Marcos Municipal (KHYI). AOPA Regional Fly-in. Come enjoy a traditional pancake break- fast and town hall discussion with AOPA President Mark Baker, meet and mingle with AOPA staff, take part in educational and safety seminars, and explore aircraft displays and aviation exhibits. Various fly- ing activities and clinics will also be offered, and for those who aren’t yet pilots come visit our learn-to-fly area. No charge for admis- sion and lunch is free for all AOPA members. For information visit aopa.org/fly-in. Contact Chris Eads, chris.eads@aopa.org. Apr 26-27 — Bossier City, LA. Barksdale AFB (BAD). Defenders of Liberty Open House and Airshow. Featuring Fighterjets, Inc.; USAF Thunderbirds. Contact Maj. Warren Carroll, 318-456-9845. Apr 28 — Hampton, VA. Virginia Air & Space Center. Accident Case Study: Live. 7 to 9 pm. The Air Safety Institute’s new seminar aims to put a new spin on safety- oriented accident analysis. Working with several compelling real-life cases, presenter and audience will play the role of accident investigator to figure out exactly what went wrong, and why. Contact 800-638-3101. MAY 2014 May 2-4 — Riverside/Rubidoux, CA. Histor- ic Flabob Airport (KRIR). SW Baby Cessna Roundup. Camping, food, awards, raffle and games. Flour drop and spot landing. For info, visit swbabycessnaroundup.com or contact Jim, 951-847-5600 or Tony 951-318-8387. May 2-3 — Princeton, NJ. Princeton University. 2014 New Jersey State Aviation Conference. 8 am to 4 pm. The 2014 New Jersey State Aviation Conference is a two- day event. The State Aviation Symposium “Seize the Day, Build for Tomorrow” will CFA EVENTS Save the date! Jul 25 - 27, 2014 — Waupaca, WI. Waupaca Municipal (KPCZ). The 10th Annual Gathering in Waupaca. CFA’s annual pre-OSH event with several days of fun, food and friend- ship. Just $95 if you register by April 15, 2014. The best value in aviation! Call 800-397-3920 or visit CessnaFlyer.org. Oct 9-12, 2014 — Boerne, TX. Boerne Stage Airfield (5C1). 1st Annual Texas Fly- in. Texas-sized fun and entertainment, ca- maraderie and good food. Multiple vendors will be on site. Exhibitors invited include Continental, ECi and Hartzell Propeller, with more to come. For more information, call Texas Skyways, 800-899-7597 or email jack@txskyways.com; or call Cessna Flyer, 800-397-3920 or visit CessnaFlyer.org. FEATURED EVENTS April 9 – 12 — Friedrichshafen, Germany. AERO Friedrichshafen, The Global Show for General Aviation. AERO Friedrich- shafen is the leading European trade fair for General Aviation and will welcome attend- ees from five continents of the world. In addition to the main decision makers and opinion leaders in the industry, thousands of aviation enthusiasts are meeting there. For more information, visit aero-expo.com. May 3-4 — Anchorage, AK. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (PANC), FedEx Hangar. 17th Annual Great Alaska Aviation Gathering. Presented by the Alaska Airmen’s Association. The largest aviation trade show in Alaska, and a must-see event. Over 23,000 pilots and aviation enthusiasts. For information, visit greatalaskaaviationgathering.org. OTHER EVENTS APRIL 2014 Apr 19 — Cincinnati, OH. Clermont County/Sporty’s (I69). Sporty’s Saturday Hot Dog Fly-in. Visit Sporty’s, the World’s Largest Pilot Shop, and a must-see for every pilot. Each Saturday in April, free hot dogs are continued on page 62 CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 12 Join us for our pre-OSH event July 25-27, 2014 The 10th Annual Gathering at Waupaca 2 days and 3 nights of fun, food, friendship and information... PLUS a dinner cruise, luxury motor coach to AirVenture on Mon, Tues and Weds, fabulous raffle prizes, and transportation to and from hotel to airport and Chain O’Lakes provided. For more information or to register, go online – CessnaFlyer.org or call – 800-397-3920 Early Bird Registration is just $95 per person through 4/15/14. Sign up today! Fly in to beautiful Waupaca (KPCZ). Two days of seminars by industry leaders. Evening dinner cruise on the scenic Chain O’Lakes. Helpuscelebra t e10years! You may need supplemental oxygen at lower altitudes. I found this out a few years ago, on the way home from a trip to Mexico. have required special arrangement with the Base Commander, who I doubt would have authorized it. Instead, three of us from Modesto drove to the base (about two hours by car). Some of the others, coming from the Los Angeles area (400 miles south) flew into Marysville’s airport (KMYV) nearby. The FAA discourages this in case you have an ear block or some other bad reaction in the chamber. However you get there, you’ll probably have to spend the night before training—you’re expected at 07:15 local time. On the way in, we had to pass through Beale’s main gate and have our identification checked by security police who issued tem- porary passes. Then we drove to the home of the 9th Physiologic Support Squadron, passing the “Reccetown USA” sign on our way—that’s a takeoff on “Fightertown USA,” Miramar Naval Air Station (home of “Top Gun”). (The Top Gun program was moved to Naval Air Station Fallon in 1996, and the base is now called Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. —Ed.) Beale is home to the U-2 reconnaissance airplane, which flies at altitudes above 70,000 feet. At those altitudes, not only is oxygen required, it has to be provided under pressure to the entire body, requiring a full-pressure space suit. The 9th is the central depot for U-2 suits for both the Air Force and NASA (which uses some U-2s for research purposes). Our instructor for most of the day was Capt. Brian Musselman, USAF. He’s a 650-hour private pilot in addition to his Air Force du- ties. The attendees had a wide range of experience—we had several CFIs. Oddly, I seemed to have the most flight experience, with about 1,000 hours. Capt. Musselman told us that we were getting a very abbreviated version of the course given to U-2 pilots, which lasts nine days. The lectures pretty much reiterated—and expanded on—the short bit on flight physiology that we all get as part of our private pilot training. It included composition of the atmosphere, examples of what can happen to pilots who become anoxic without realizing it (I was particularly troubled by a case where two GA pilots had to make an emergency landing after running out of fuel... less than five miles from their destination airport on a CAVU day as a result of anoxia). We were shown video of an Air Force pilot in the altitude chamber who was unable to correctly identify playing cards after only a few seconds at 25,000 feet pressure altitude. The lectures weren’t limited to altitude effects—we were also given training on fatigue, spatial disorientation (including an op- portunity to experience it, in a special rotating chair) and effects of alcohol and drugs. After a nice lunch in one of the base cafeterias (we were advised to avoid beans and carbonated drinks) we were fitted for oxygen masks and helmets—required because military masks attach to the helmet rather than being worn directly on the face. For me, this was the most uncomfortable part of the whole experience. My beard probably interfered with getting the mask to seal, and I wound up with one that was really too tight for comfort—but it worked for the one hour I needed to wear it. How high can you fly? That’s a question that’s bothered me for quite a while now. The San Francisco sectional I use regularly has some green in the middle, where the California Central Valley is— but there’s brown on the chart, both for the coast range mountains to the west (elevation around 3,000 to 4,000 feet) and a lot more brown to the east, where the Sierras rise to elevations of 10,000 to 14,000 feet. Going north or south you’ll run into mountains as well, so if you fly any distance at all out here you’re going to run into altitude issues, which raises a question: How high can you fly? The book answer from FAR 91.211 is: up to 12,500 feet unless you have supplemental oxygen. From 12,500 to 14,000 feet, the pilot in command is required to use supplemental oxygen if the aircraft will be at that altitude for more than 30 minutes. Above 14,000 feet the required minimum flight crew (for most of us, the pilot in command) is required to use it; above 15,000 feet, everyone in the airplane must use it. And then there are re- quirements for pressurized aircraft, which I won’t get into here. In practice, though, you may need supplemental oxygen at lower altitudes. I found this out a few years ago, on the way home from a trip to Mexico. My IFR route ran through the Banning Pass, east of Los Angeles, with an MEA of 10,000 feet. Shortly after reaching that altitude, I began to feel ill. I asked for and got a lower altitude temporarily, but quickly got worse and actually declared an emergency. I was given immediate clearance to land at Ontario International (KONT) where emergency equip- ment lined the runway and I was taken to a local clinic. The diagnosis was gastroenteritis complicated by altitude. In plain English, I got a bad case of Montezuma’s revenge. The part of this that’s significant (aside from watching what you eat and drink south of the border) is my symptoms—which were classic for altitude sickness. First, I got a headache—then nausea. Then I started to lose my peripheral vision and was at risk of pass- ing out. That’s a heck of a feeling to get when flying an airplane without an autopilot! My wife took the controls (and not long after, started her flying lessons—she’s now a licensed pilot too) and by our next trip, I owned a portable oxygen bottle. I’m on oxygen any time I’m at or above 10,000 feet. Since doing that, I’ve never had any symptoms of altitude sickness in the air. I’ve also found myself less fatigued at the end of long legs. Curiously, it turns out I’m not the only pilot to enforce a rigid “10,000 feet or higher” rule—that’s the standard used by the U.S. Air Force. I learned that a few years ago on an all-too-brief visit to “Reccetown USA,” Beale Air Force Base. I was there to attend a one-day aerospace physiology class, which included about an hour in an altitude chamber capable of operat- ing at pressure altitudes up to about 75,000 feet (we only went to 25,000). I was one of a dozen private pilots attending training courtesy of the FAA’s Aviation Physiology Training program. I can’t tell you anything about flying into Beale—that would How High Can You Fly? John Ruley LEFT COAST PILOT John Ruley LEFT COAST PILOT CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 14 Then to the chamber: it’s a steel cylinder with jump seats along the walls for a dozen students. Each seat has a military oxygen regulator, into which the supply tubes for our masks were attached, plus audio plugs for the microphones and headsets built into the helmets. Three or four instructors were in the chamber with us, while more looked in from outside through windows. Once everyone was plugged in, masks were donned and checked, and the door was dogged down. Then pumps started up, and took us to 8,000 feet pressure altitude to verify that everything worked. Everyone checked out okay, and they took us back to surface pressure (at an apparent rate of about 2,000 fpm) to make sure ev- eryone could clear their ears—anyone unable to do so would have been dropped off at this point. We all put our masks on and “pre-breathed” pure oxygen for 30 minutes. That minimizes the risk of developing the bends—having bubbles of nitrogen form in the bloodstream—which can happen after rapid decompression. If you’ve ever wondered why the FAA doesn’t want you to fly for 24 hours after scuba diving, that’s the reason. With oxygen pre-breathing, and any nitrogen having (hopefully) been removed from our bodies, the pumps started up again, and this time we went to 25,000 feet pressure altitude—and we got there fast. The effective rate of climb was something like 3,000 to 4,000 feet. It also got noticeably cold. Once we “leveled off” the instructors checked to make sure that everyone was okay... and then told us to take our masks off. We each had a clipboard with simple questions and math problems. I took my mask off, got the clipboard and started at the top. The first few ques- tions were easy, but the math problems started giving me a headache. It was frustrating, looking at two numbers and knowing there was a simple way to multiply them, if only I could remember what it was... then I started to get a familiar feeling of nausea. I didn’t wait for anything else, and got my mask back on. “Good recovery,” came the word from the instructors. I looked around to find that I was the first one to give up—and that only about 30 seconds had gone by. Over the next minute or two, most of the others gave up, too— but we had a couple of holdouts who went the full five minutes before being told to put their masks back on. This backed up the information in the lecture: some people have a much higher toler- ance than others. These trainees remained conscious and alert for the whole time, though one reported a mild headache. By the end of the five min- utes, both had noticeably bluish lips and fingernails—which gained normal color in just a few seconds once they put their masks back on. Once we had all recovered, they took us down to 18,000 feet—at which point one trainee, a former Navy submariner—had trouble getting his left ear to clear. The descent stopped as soon as the instructors noticed his dif- ficulty, and they worked with him until he could clear. Then our descent continued. At 18,000 feet, the lights were dimmed and we were all handed plastic-covered sheets with a sectional chart on one side and a color wheel on the other. Then we were told to remove our masks. This time, I was able to go the whole five minutes, with no gross symptoms beyond a slight (but noticeable) headache. I had no trou- ble identifying the colors on the chart, but my visual acuity started to go, and by the end of the five minutes I could not read the print on the sectional. Most of the other trainees lost color vision. It was positively amazing how quickly things improved once I continued on page 63 1-800-647-6148 • www.ffcfuelcells.com All FFC fuel bladders are manufactured with REGISTERED TSO-C80 constructions... KNOW what you are installing. Quality products at competitive prices. TSO-C80 FUEL CELLS CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 16 Bring your old planes, your new planes, your red, white and blue planes... All makes and models welcome! Join Cessna Flyer in Boerne, Texas October 9-12, 2014 for the first annual TexAs Fly-inhosted by Cessna Flyer and Texas skyways ya’ll come for some Texas-sized fun & entertainment, camaraderie and good food. Multiple vendors will be on site. exhibitors invited include Continental, eCi and Hartzell Propeller, with more to come. Rental cars available. Special group rate for accommodations at Fairfield Inn, Boerne, Tex. For more information: Texas Skyways 800-899-7597 jack@txskyways.com Cessna Flyer Association 800-397-3920 kent@aviationgroupltd.com Hartzell Propeller, with more to come. group rate Inn, Boerne, Tex. jetliner’s transponder stopped signaling and the aircraft turned to the west. Flight MH370’s route was to have taken it over the Gulf of Thailand across Vietnam and Cambodia heading toward China. But Malaysia’s military radar showed the Boeing 777 turning around over the Gulf of Thailand and flying at least 350 miles off its planned course when it vanished from military radar over the Strait of Malacca almost exactly two hours after takeoff. Malaysia’s air force chief said the plane was last detected near Pulau Perak, a tiny island in the Strait of Malacca, a busy ship- ping lane on the western side of Malaysia. But no ship in the area reported seeing anything unusual. Authorities investigating the disappearance of the plane have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure; pilot error or suicide; sabotage or terrorism. Both the Boeing 777 and Malaysia Airlines have excellent safety records. As most pilots who have flown any distance know, neither radio nor radar coverage is universal, especially over water. In areas without coverage, airliners usually radio their positions at fixed times, to assure that controllers can keep aircraft separated. Flight MH370’s last transmission was one of those routine radio calls. In addition to radar, transponders and radio, modern aircraft like the 777 have computer gizmos that send engine performance and other technical data to the airline’s maintenance base. Air France used such signals to help figure out what happened when its Flight 447 disappeared over the equatorial Atlantic. Except for stories involving the Bermuda Triangle, there is no history of large aircraft just simply vanishing. But search and possible rescue can take time. Small pieces of debris from Air France Flight 447 were spotted in the Atlantic the day after the plane crashed in 2009, but it took five days to find the majority of that wreckage. Small aircraft may be missing for much longer if they are lost in remote areas. Steve Fossett, who set many aircraft and balloon records, crashed in Nevada in September 2007, but the wreckage and his remains were not found until October 2008. If Flight MH370 did not go down after it disappeared from radar two hours after takeoff, the Boeing 777 has the range to travel quite a distance before running out of fuel. If the disappearance was a hijacking, based on the original flight plan and fuel, the search area could eventually become much larger—nearly 3,000 miles in diameter—or stretch as far as India or into China. The area in question—Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam and China—is not unpopulated. I would think military air-defense radars from several countries would have been tracking the jetliner, however, if it continued past the Malaysian radar that lost track of it. The missing plane, which according to Boeing has a 200-foot wingspan and is 209 feet long, with a takeoff weight of 545,000 pounds, has a maximum range of 5,240 nm. One theory about the disappearance is in-flight breakup of such catastrophic power at flight level altitude that very little would remain of the jetliner for searchers to find. Those theorists point to the fact that the FAA has ordered checks on hundreds of U.S.-registered 777s after reports of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath a satellite antenna. In an AD, it said the checks were needed “to detect and cor- rect cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.” The AD was approved in February 2014 and was due to take effect on April 9. Why Mystery Can Remind Us The vanishing of Flight MH370 is a reminder about self-reliance. It is good to be reminded—although the reminder is a tragic one—that mystery and the unknown exists in what is arguably humankind’s most technological endeavor: aviation. As I write today, weeks before you’ll read these words, my heart is with the families of the 239 passengers and crew of a Boeing 777 that has been missing and presumed lost for more than five days. But my mind is in the sky, flying alone. Excepting some miracle, if all aboard were killed, the loss of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200, would be the deadliest commercial airline accident since Nov. 12, 2001, when an Airbus flown by American Airlines crashed right after takeoff from Kennedy Airport (KJFK). By the time you read these words you and I will probably know what happened to the jetliner. But as I follow the story of its disappearance with pilot friends and colleagues what keeps getting talked about is how the 777 has not been found after five days, despite all the world’s technology, sophisticated satellites, military radars and international search and rescue cooperation. My non-pilot friends keep asking me, “How is that possible?” Because pilots are used to examining accident data to educate ourselves to fly more safely, those conversations have involved what the disappearance means to pilots of General Aviation aircraft, and have naturally also led to speculation about what went wrong. But strangely, in this weird new world of internet communication, it has also created increasingly wild theories. For instance (and I am paraphrasing the conspiracy theories that abound in the blogosphere): Obama engineered the vanish- ing to take our minds off his loss of face to Putin; the jet was stolen by the Chinese so they can examine the United States’ advanced aviation technology; Flight MH370 is “cloaked,”—hid- den with high-tech electronic warfare weaponry—the type of technology which is precisely the expertise of a company that has 20 employees on board the missing flight. And more folks believe the airliner was “taken” by aliens than I could ever understand. Asked by a flight instructor friend what I thought happened, I said, “If it wasn’t terrorists or suicide by pilot, it’s a reminder that pilots are really on their own no matter what they fly.” That’s what I take away from the news coverage, but more on that in a moment. First, in case any of you have not followed the story, here is what was known as this column went to press: Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in the early hours of March 7, with 239 passengers and crew on board. No weather problems were reported at the time. The last coordinates automatically transmitted by the jetliner were from level flight at 35,000 feet halfway between Malaysia and Vietnam. About an hour after takeoff, over the Gulf of Thailand, the David Hipschman HEADING BUG David Hipschman HEADING BUG CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 18 The missing Malaysia Airlines jet, registration 9M-MRO, was 12 years old, the airline said. The airline also said the aircraft was serviced on February 23, 2014, with further maintenance scheduled for June 19. It is not know if the scheduled work was for the AD. Most pilots tend not to give credence to wild tales, but the vanishing of Flight MH370 has enough untoward details to have even the most unimaginative among us scratching our heads. There have been reports that the Malaysian Airlines pilots of Flight MH370 had a history of hosting young women in their cockpit while in flight. More than one passenger aboard was traveling on a stolen passport. And as I said above, I have even read theories about flying saucers and aliens absconding with the plane and those aboard for heinous experiments. Complicating matters (and giving rise to rumors), military and civilian aircraft and ships from 10 nations are involved in the search but under United Nations rules if a plane crashes in international waters, the country where the aircraft is registered is in charge of the investigation. That’s Malaysia in this case. Investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, FAA and Boeing have traveled to the area and been talk- ing with Malaysian investigators. But published reports indicate that search has been hampered by a lack of coordination among all the nations and agencies involved. Orbiting spy satellites from both the United States and China have been re-tasked to search the area, and U.S. Navy ships there are using radars that could locate debris the size of a football. Yet other than an early report of an oil slick that didn’t pan out, and another unconfirmed report of a yellow life raft, nothing of the Flight MH370 has been located. Thinking about this as it relates to me as a pilot makes me realize once again that one of the things I have always loved about flying is the sense of self-confidence and self-reliance it fosters in me. With my hands on the controls, my life is literally in my own hands. The mysterious vanishing of Flight MH370 should remind pilots that we are eventually all on our own. That voice in our headphones can be a comfort, and there is technology that we have come to take for granted—from radio and air traffic control, to iPad apps and flight planning software, to GPS in our wristwatches and affordable personal emergency locator beacons. But electronics fail, technology can be offline, and governmental agencies can lose track of us. I think that reminding ourselves of these facts is an important thing—a humbling reminder that at bottom, we are on our own with only our knowledge and training to keep us company in the sky. David Hipschman is a private pilot, a lapsed newspaper edi- tor and retired police detective. He teaches journalism at the University of Florida, once served as the director of publications at EAA, and is the editor the National Association of Flight Instructors’ publications. He lives in Fort Myers, Fla. in order to be near his sailboat, which is named Piper. Send questions and comments to editor@cessnaflyer.org. CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 20 Steve Ells QUESTIONS & ANSWERS A cracked engine case, the often-overlooked suction screen, and replacing a deflector assembly death for an engine case. In Continental engines it depends on where the crack is and how long it is. Continental published Service Bulletin M90-17 in August 1990. It superseded two previous bulletins indicating that case cracking is not a new phenomenon on Continental engines. The title of this six-page bulletin is “Crankcase Inspection Criteria.” The bulletin announced that Continental had improved the metal casting methods in its crankcases. These methods reduced porosity and increased thickness in certain areas to improve structural integrity. It recommended that the new style cases be installed at the next overhaul for all engines models except the O-200 and O-470 engines. What isn’t well-known about this bulletin is its informa- tion about allowable cracks. Illustrations showing critical and Hi Steve, I’m bummed. My mechanic called to tell me that the engine case of the left Continental IO-520-M in my 1975 Cessna 310R is cracked. But he also said that he’s going to do some research to find out if it’s okay to fly with the crack. How can that be? Isn’t the case one of the most critical parts of these engines? I’ve taken a picture of the crack. (See photo, this page. —Ed.) —Dazed and Confused Dear D and C, No one ever wants to have their mechanic call with a report of a cracked case. However, a crack is not always the kiss of The writer’s IO-520-M. The engine case’s crack is in the lower right side of the photo. noncritical regions of the engine cases of each engine type (300, 360, sand cast 470 and 520, direct drive Permold 520 and geared Permold 520) are shown. I’ve included a page from the bulletin showing the critical (gray) and noncritical (dark gray) areas on your case which is a Permold direct drive 520 case. When a crack less than two inches long is found in a noncriti- cal area of the engine, the ends of the crack must be scribe- marked at its extremities and reinspected in 50 hours to see if the crack has grown. If the crack hasn’t grown in 50 hours, the interval for these repetitive crack growth inspections can be increased to 100 hours. All well and good—but the second a crack in the non- critical area grows to more than two inches in length, the case must be repaired or replaced. When a crack is discovered in the critical area of any case, the case must be repaired or replaced prior to further flight. When I compare the photo you sent with the Service Bulletin illustration it’s obvious that your crack is in the noncritical area of the case. But I can’t tell from the photo whether it’s more than two inches long. If it is, you will have to repair or replace the case prior to any further flight. If it’s less than two inches long, have your mechanic scribe a mark at each end of the crack and reinspect for growth in 50 flight hours. The bulletin also states that cases that are leaking oil (versus seeping oil) must also be replaced or repaired prior to further flight. Now, some would argue that you as the owner of an airplane operated for personal use are not required to comply with a Continental Service Bulletin—and technically they would be right. But if it were me I would immediately take steps to repair the crack or replace the engine. I would be very hesitant to fly it any farther than the nearest reliable maintenance shop. Sorry for the bad news, Steve Continental published Service Bulletin M90-17 with illustra- tions showing critical and noncritical regions of the engine cases of each engine type. Above are the critical (gray) and non- critical (dark gray) areas on a Permold direct drive 520 case. Hi Steve, Some of the guys around the airdrome here were “exchanging views” on oil changes. No one argued that the oil doesn’t need to be changed at reg- ular intervals, and in fact no one argued that the oil in engines with pressure screens needed to be changed more often than the oil in engines with full flow oil filters. The consensus seemed to be to change oil at 25 hours on screen-equipped engines and at 50 hours on filter-equipped engines. When I discussed this later with my mechanic he said that there’s another screen on the engine in my 1998 Cessna 172S that has to be cleaned. What’s he talking about? None of the guys talked about a second screen. —172 Flyer Dear Flyer, Your mechanic is right. There is a Lycoming-recommended second step to each oil change. The second step consists of removing and inspecting what’s called the suction screen. This “screen” is actually a brass tube with round holes that’s about three to four inches long and about an inch in diameter. It’s under a screw-in plug down near the aft end of the oil sump. The holes present a very coarse “fil- ter” at the oil pump pick-up tube in the sump. It “filters” large chunks of metal from the oil pump. Unfortunately, the suction screen is often quite difficult to access and consequently it’s sometimes ignored. For instance, to remove the plug and the tube on my airplane, I have to remove fasteners and pull some bracketry out of the way. Lycoming Service Bulletin No. 480E lists Lycoming’s proce- dures and intervals on filter change and pressure screen inspec- tions. Lycoming wants the suction screen inspected at every oil filter change and oil screen inspection and cleaning. Lycoming Bulletin 480 also establishes an oil change interval of every four months regardless of the number of hours on the oil. Happy flying. The suction “screen” is actually a brass tube with round holes. The holes present a very coarse “filter” at the oil pump pick-up tube in the sump. CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 22 Hi Steve, As I was pushing my 1974 Cessna 180 back into the hangar after the last flight a square piece of aluminum fell out of the cowl flap area. It’s only about two inches by two inches, had a slight bend in the middle and a couple of hogged out holes near the middle. Can you tell me what it is? —Metal Man Dear Metal, I’d bet the farm you’re describing one part of what’s called a deflector assembly. These small pieces of metal are posi- tioned to act as heat deflectors to protect the induction sys- tem rubber couplings from heat radiating from the exhaust pipes on each cylinder. The original Cessna deflectors were made of aluminum shields like the one that fell out of your cowling. These are riveted to brackets and held in position as the brackets are captured under the clamps securing the rubber couplings. Unfortunately these small parts don’t always get the attention they need, and mechanics often have to replace them. The original Cessna part number for the assembly is 0750121; the new part number is 0750143-1. The Cessna as- sembly can be purchased for around $125. I’d recommend buying the FAA PMA approved deflector as- sembly from McFarlane Aviation instead. It’s made of stainless steel and costs around $27. Happy flying. Know your FAR/AIM and check with your mechanic before starting any work. Steve Ells has been an A&P/IA for 39 years and is a commercial pilot with instrument and multi-engine ratings. Ells also loves utility and bush-style airplanes and operations. He’s a former tech rep and editor for Cessna Pilots Association and served as associate editor for AOPA Pilot until 2008. Ells is the owner of Ells Aviation (EllsAviation.com) and lives in Paso Robles, Calif. with his wife Audrey. Send questions and comments to editor@ cessnaflyer.org. Resources Continental Service Bulletin M90-17, Lycoming Service Bulletin No. 480E PDFs available at CessnaFlyer.org McFarlane Aviation Products mcfarlane-aviation.com High power dual LED lighting on your Cessna 206 dramatically enhances day and night traffic recognition and landing safety. > Available for 206G and 206H/T206H (piston or Soloy turbine) > Adds second light source to right side of 206H/ T206H complementing factory left side source > Mounts light on both wings of 206G while retaining factory nose cowl lights CESSNA 206 DUAL LED RECOGNITION AND LANDING LIGHT KIT .........SEE AND BE SEEN. > Converts aircraft to vastly brighter LED illumination > 1000+ lumens at 45W of power. Same as 1000W of halogen light with half the required power of original equipment > 50,000 hours of operation > Pulse light capability or constant dual illumination > Diffused recognition lens casts wider beam, while landing light is narrower and focused LED lighting gives you more for less Any way you want better visibility SEEING IS BELIEVING! VISIT SOLOY.COM AND WATCH THE VIDEO WWW.SOLOY.COM | 360.754.7000 | SALES@SOLOY.COM Another bright idea from Robin Petgrave is an 18,000-plus hour ATP helicop- ter and airplane pilot. He was recently named to Ebony magazine’s “Power 100” list as one of the 100 most powerful and influential African- Americans. CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 24 kids knew something like this was desperately needed. Petgrave quickly found out that when you meet these kids on their turf, exiting a shiny and expensive helicopter in a form- fitting flight suit, you grab their attention. And almost before the rotor stopped turning, Petgrave began making an impression on the students and even the teachers, and it was a simple lesson about skin color and possibilities. “On one school landing,” he explains, “I brought a white student with me and when we got out of the helicopter, all the kids—and most of the teachers—thought my student was the pilot. Their reactions were priceless when I explained that an African-American man was the pilot, flight instructor, owner of the helicopter, and even owner of the company that owned the helicopter. Everyone was blown away to see someone who looked like them doing what I did and in the position that I was in.” Petgrave’s work landing on elementary school playgrounds for career days soon drew the attention of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. They had the idea of doing more to help youth in one of L.A.’s roughest school districts, and as a pilot with the ulti- mate respect for this famed group of aviators, Petgrave decided in 1998 to honor the Tuskegee Airmen by building a place in Torrance, Calif. where kids could get introduced to aviation as an alternative to drugs, crime and a life of hopelessness. In 2001, when Compton’s Mayor Eric Perrodin invited Petgrave to relocate the organization to the Compton/Woodley Airport, the renamed TAM consisted of a small staff of two and a few desks with computers in a 7,000-square-foot hangar. “I envisioned TAM’s Compton airport location as being an entry point for underrepresented youth,” Petgrave explains. “Our purpose was simple: teach inner city kids about flying, support their academic achievement, and instill in them the importance of their education. “Although we do so much more now, at our core, this purpose remains the same. We use aviation enrichment as a catalyst to in- spire, motivate, change young minds; and while on the ground, we support student academic achievement through our partnerships with area schools, one-on-one tutoring and college preparation.” TAM is much more to these kids than just an education. “When a youth joins TAM,” he says, “they not only join a family, they become part of a cultivation process designed to empower them to excel in their personal, academic and future professional life. We believe this is how you change a commu- nity for the better—by bettering the next generation. “When all is said and done, we envision a place where all community youth receive the support they need to graduate high school, go to college and become future contributors in the fields of science, aeronautics, technology and to the well-being of society.” As I search our aviation family to find aviators who are reshaping the world with their perfectly-executed and brilliant ideas, I occasionally find one person who is doing what most people would say is the impossible. These super-motivators have made it their life’s work to never listen when others say something can’t be done, and they refuse to let seemingly insur- mountable hurdles slow them down in their quest to achieve great outcomes against incredibly challenging odds. The actions of everyone who contributes to a better society are noble, but if you want to see how it’s done—how one person can change and literally even save lives—stop in at Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum (TAM) in Compton, Calif. and spend a few hours with Robin Petgrave, TAM’s founder and executive director. Petgrave is an 18,000-plus hour ATP helicopter and airplane pilot, Gold Seal Flight Instructor and president and chief pilot of Celebrity Helicopters, and has flown in production roles including stunt flying for the Los Angeles film industry. But where Petgrave really excels is in a classroom surrounded by at-risk youth where he can say he believes in them, and they know he means it. Standing in front of kids who might be kicked to the curb by others, Petgrave can look a future gangbanger in the eye and cut through the lip and attitude to show that young boy or girl a path forward to a better life. TAM’s core mission is to bring aviation history to life and empower the dreams of youth to take flight. At the Compton campus—which is called a “living classroom”—there are inter- active exhibits that look at racial diversity and the evolution of flight; a nonprofit flight academy; and an after-school program that offers programs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) enrichment as an alternative to drugs, gangs, violence and other self-destructive activities. After a childhood in the Boston area where he noticed the lives of people around him crumbling from drugs and alcohol, Petgrave made a personal decision to avoid self-destructive behaviors at all costs and become successful. After moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career he found himself drawn to flying, and earned his commercial rotorcraft license and flight instructor’s certificate. Fast-forward to about 1991 and imagine standing in a South Central Los Angeles schoolyard watching a Bell 206B JetRanger helicopter coming in for a landing. At the controls is Petgrave, bringing his new Positive Vibrations program right to where it is needed most. Yes, landing in a schoolyard was bold, and it required plenty of forethought and planning. But since these schools didn’t usu- ally get this kind of help from the private sector, school officials allowed the landings because everyone involved with at-risk The A-List Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum has been helping at-risk kids in Los Angeles for over 20 years and someday, this inspiring program could even go national. David Hipschman HEADING BUG Dan Pimentel AFFIRMATIVE ATTITUDE Can you dream big? Really big? Because Robin Petgrave can. He is currently dream- ing of a program such as TAM’s that is taught during the school day in Compton’s schools as part of a regular curriculum. The significance of this cannot be overstated. And with the right support, Petgrave envisions his programs going na- tional, reaching even more school districts and more kids. To set this in motion, TAM has enlisted major sponsorships from some of the largest aviation and aerospace compa- nies in the business. Names like Boeing, SpaceX, UPS, and numerous major air- lines are supporting TAM’s Legacy Gala, a lavish fund-raising event being held at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach, Calif. on May 3, 2014. This star-studded event will set Petgrave’s next-level plans in mo- tion, and you can be assured aviation’s A-list will be in attendance. In December 2013, Ebony magazine named Petgrave to its “Power 100” list as one of the 100 most powerful and influ- ential African-Americans. Says Petgrave, humbly, “I was chosen not for what I have, or for where I come from, or for how many people know me, but rather for what I do. “The May 3rd fundraiser will enable us to enhance the lives of millions of kids. Our accomplishments impact people around the world in a profound way. They start to believe they can do anything.” Going forward, the work being per- formed at TAM by Petgrave and his staff must stay on our collective radar screens. It must. Because people that can perform this kind of magic do not come along every day. If you are in a position to help this cause with a sponsorship or donation, I strongly urge you to visit tamuseum.org or call (310) 938-2727 and pledge your support, because this program has serious possibilities and even national implications, and we all want to know where it leads. Dan Pimentel has worked in journalism and graphic design since 1979, and is the president and creative director of Celeste/ Daniels Advertising and Design (celest- edaniels.com). He’s an instrument-rated private pilot and has been writing the Air- planista Aviation Blog (airplanista.com) since 2005. You can find him on Twitter as @Av8rdan. Send questions or com- ments to editor@cessnaflyer.org. A little Attitude for Everyone “The D1, I’ve decided, is perhaps the perfect emergency backup flight display.” - Stephen Pope, Flying, October 2012 Introducing the new D2 Pocket Panel - with a little more attitude. Feeds data to your iPad, tablet, or smart phone aviation app, plus adds a second display page G-Meter. www.DynonAvionics.com info@DynonAvionics.com Seattle, Washington NEW - Low price on D1, Now only $1,195 NEW - D2 with Wi-Fi & G-Meter Flying over Kansas can seem like a never-ending view of wheat fields from horizon to horizon. That is a good situa- tion if you are looking for an emergency landing place… but many of you may wonder what is down there. The city of Hutchinson is just 30 miles northwest of Wichita on the northeast side of the Arkansas River. Hutchinson Municipal (KHUT) has a great FBO— Wells Aircraft—and in the middle of this city of 42,000 is Cosmosphere, one of the best space museums in the entire United States. Arrival Taxing into Wells Aircraft you will be met by courteous and helpful line person- nel. The on-site restaurant, Airport Steak House, is a local gathering place that of- fers sit-down service with a full menu. To find out more about the FBO and read firsthand endorsements about Wells’ service, visit the entry for KHUT at airnav.com. The notes about the FBO’s and restaurant’s service and courtesy go on and on. Space enthusiasts already know a world-class museum exists in America’s heartland, but did you? By Charles Lloyd DESTINATION: SPACE (via Kansas) A D V E N T U R E S W I T H B I L L CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 26 Hall of Space Museum The museum is structured to be a walk through the history of rocket science and space exploration. The space artifacts are not located in a single large room but are displayed in connecting corridors arranged chronologically from the begin- ning of rocket research to current-day space exploration. The tour starts with a panel honoring Robert Goddard as the father of liquid- fueled rocketry. His work went largely unnoticed in America and was even ridiculed by the U.S. press, but Dr. God- dard’s findings were studied by German rocket scientists and quickly adapted by Wernher von Braun and his colleagues. German technology The German Hall shows the develop- ment of rockets and the Germans’ focus on the inexpensive V-1 flying bomb (or “buzz bomb”) that was an early cruise missile with a crude guidance system. Fixed-direction launchers sent the V-1 on its way, and the only control was a spin- the top of the wing along the entire length of the aircraft. Duck under the nose and look into the wheel well and then along the entire belly from nose to tail. Tucked up high in back of the Black- bird is a T-38 Talon, sometimes called the “astronauts’ toy.” The T-38 was used to keep astronauts flight proficient and as transportation around the country to various space facilities. The ticket counter is in the lobby, or you can purchase advance tickets online via the Cosmosphere website. Adult admission is $22 for an all-day Mission pass; the price is $20 for kids ages four to 12, seniors (age 60 and older) and members of the military. Tickets are also available for individual venues. Cosmosphere is no duck-in-for- 15-minutes-and-be-on-your-way attrac- tion. There are enough items of interest to keep you enthralled all day if you have the time. Consider spending the day to explore all the attractions and make plans for an overnight stay. Cosmosphere Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center is part of the Smithsonian Institution Af- filiations Program and rivals the Smith- sonian is its depth and breadth of space artifacts. Cosmosphere had a humble beginning when Patty Carey, a local civic leader, brought a planetarium to Hutchin- son in the early 1960s. The facility has expanded and now houses an interesting space artifact collec- tion. Cosmosphere’s campus features the Hall of Space Museum, Carey Digital Dome Theater, Justice Planetarium, Dr. Goddard’s Lab, a seven-passenger motion simulator, gift shop and food court. As you walk up to the Cosmosphere facility you’ll see a Jupiter launch booster with a Mercury capsule on top. On the other side of the museum is a Titan Gemini combination that looks like it is ready to go into space. Entering the lobby you are immedi- ately confronted with the nose of a SR-71 Blackbird. As you walk to the front of this huge aircraft, you can look up over 01: When you enter the lobby of Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, you’ll be immediately confronted with the nose of a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. As you walk to the front of this huge aircraft, you can look up over the top of the wing along the entire length of the aircraft. 02: The entrance to Dr. God- dard’s Lab. This experiential exhibit is designed to explain rocketry. A presenter dressed as Dr. Goddard explains propulsion through experiments that show action and reaction, plus how fuel and oxidizer combine to create thrust. 01 02 03: Civic leader Patty Carey brought a planetarium to Hutchinson in the early 1960s. 04: A young Dr. Wernher von Braun carries a research rocket. 05: The V-1 flying bomb (or “buzz bomb”), was an early cruise missile with a crude guid- ance system. 06: A closer look at the descent ladder on a lunar lander. 03 05 04 06 “The museum is no duck-in-for-15- minutes-and-be-on-your-way attraction. There are enough items of interest to keep you enthralled all day.” application for these rockets but the Eisenhower Administration opted for a civilian launch rocket—that was Van- guard. After Sputnik 1’s surprise success and Vanguard’s initial failure, von Braun and his team got their chance. During the early day of the Space Race, the Russians had the advantage with their larger rockets that were necessary to launch heavier nuclear warheads. The Americans were at a severe disadvantage with smaller booster rockets used to propel lighter warheads. The Mercury program was a start; President Kennedy’s speech committing to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade was the inspirational impetus for getting the U.S. space program underway. Dr. von Braun was one of the few people ca- pable of under- standing all of the pieces necessary to make the Apollo program a success. What size booster rockets were necessary, and what else was necessary to get to the moon and return to earth and land safely? In parallel pan- els, the Cosmosphere museum chronicles the American-structured approach to the Space Race—from Mercury to Gemini and finally, Apollo; these programs culmi- nated with exploration of the moon. Russian artifacts Cosmosphere is truly an international space artifact exhibit. Its collection of Russian space artifacts is the largest out- side of Moscow. During the mid-1960s the Russian program seemed to lose direction and never got close to a moon landing. The truth (discovered later) was that the Russians lost a cosmonaut when the Soyuz 1 capsule’s parachute failed to deploy and the capsule crashed, killing Col. Vladimir Komarov. The massive N-1 booster, equivalent to the Saturn V, suffered many technical de- lays and never successfully launched. The Soyuz parachute failure and delays with the N-1 booster ended the Soviets’ chance to reach the moon and return. It was now a U.S. race with no other challengers. Spaceworks restorations and displays Cosmosphere has the largest collection of space artifacts outside of the Smith- sonian, and is the only other museum to display actual capsules that made flights into space. Spaceworks is the in-house restoration facility that received Gus Grissom’s Lib- ning propeller on the nose that controlled the fuel shutoff that sent the bomb plum- meting to the ground. The more complex V-2 rocket was the first ballistic missile. It was powered by a liquid-fueled rocket motor with guide vanes in the exhaust stream (patterned after Goddard’s pioneering research) and created a high explosive delivery system that was unstoppable. The V-1 program was a technical triumph—and a strategic disaster for the German war machine. Germany invested $3 billion in V-1 and V-2 development, which was twice what the United States invested in the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. If Germany had allocated its resources to the Me 262 jet fighter and their ever-improving air defenses instead of the rocket program, D-Day may have not happened. As it went, though, the Allies did have air superiority over the beaches at Normandy. Panels in the exhibits depict the deci- sions that the German scientists had to make as the war came to an end. Peenemünde, a village on the Baltic Sea, was the location for the majority of the V-2 development work—and it was in the direct path of the Russian Army. Von Braun and a number of his col- leges decided to head west and surrender to the advancing Americans rather than be captured by the Russians. This deci- sion set the foundation for the future American rocket program. American soldiers stumbled onto the underground V-1 and V-2 assembly plant near Nordhausen, 550 miles to the south of Peenemünde. After surrendering to the U.S. forces, von Braun and the scientists revealed where they had buried blue- prints and other technical data. The Americans started a mad scramble to liberate the Germans’ data, tooling and completed V weapons from an area that was to be part of Russian-occupied territory. In nine days, American troops removed 341 trainloads of material leav- ing an empty factory for the Russians to occupy. The material removed from Nordhausen gave the American space program a significant boost. The Space Race The captured V-2 rockets were the precursor of the Redstone rocket. Von Braun lobbied for a space exploration The innovative exclusive features of Tempest's Spark Plugs and Oil Filters makes Tempest the Supplier of Choice for Continental Motors! Selected by the Gold Standard Discover true engine performance, Upgrade your engine to Tempest today! Aviation Spin-On Oil Filter Aviation Aviation Spin-On Spin-On EXCLUSIVE FEATURE: Magnetic Secondary Filtration Aviation Spark Plug EXCLUSIVE FEATURE: Fired In Resistor - Guaranteed to Never Exceed 5k Ohms “Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center rivals the Smithsonian is its depth and breadth of space artifacts.” CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 29 07 07: A display shows the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The Opportunity rover was built for a three-month mission on Mars, but continues to return valuable scientific data 10 years later. CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 30 erty Bell 7 after recovery from the ocean floor and restored it for museum display. The Apollo 13 Command Module, Odyssey, carried Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise around the moon after an explosion canceled the mission’s lunar landing—and focus turned to getting the astronauts safely to earth. The movie “Apollo 13” portrays the drama and problem solving necessary to manage one crisis after another, and Spaceworks restoration lab was a major resource in creating authentic sets for this movie. After Odyssey’s historic return from space it was returned to the manufacturer and disassembled. Parts were sent to subcontractors and there was nothing left but a shell. As the country came to real- ize the value of preserving this national treasure, the Cosmosphere got the task to reassemble Odyssey for display. One of the best books describing what the ground support crews did to keep things going smoothly on the ground to support the astronauts is a memoir by Gene Kranz, the primary flight director of the White Team during the Apollo 13 mission’s emergencies. This book, titled “Failure Is Not an Option,” threw me right back into the days when I was in a small way contributing solutions to the Space Race. More on that in a minute. Today you can see Liberty Bell 7, Gemini X and Odyssey on display in the halls dedicated to the trip to the moon. Other highlights include two Soviet space capsules: Voskhod, the first Soviet three-person cap- sule; and Vostok, which held a crew of one. Personal involvement in the Space Race I was a Mechanical Engineering gradu- ate student at the University of Alabama in 1961. All of the university research was focused on supporting NASA at 08: The Russians’ Sputnik 1, launched in October 1957, was a surprise success. 09: The Eisenhower Administration opted for a civilian launch rocket for its Vanguard Project. The first launch in December 1957 was a failure, but of the 11 Vanguard rockets which the project attempted to launch, three successfully placed satellites into orbit. 08 09 Engine Preservation System Model Nos. AA1000EPS, AA1000EPS-INT (international version) Condensation build up inside your engine can and will cause oxidation, resulting in rusty corroded internal parts. Tempest’s engine preservation system (EPS) could save you hundreds of dollars in repairs by reducing engine condensation that results in corrosion. Kit Includes: EPS system, 1 lb of desiccant, oil filler adapters for both TCM and Lycoming. International version includes all this plus 220V convertor and all adapters for various plug-in styles. Model Nos. AA1000EPS, AA1000EPS-INT condensation that results in corrosion. Huntsville, yet my classmates and I did not think of this work as any big deal at the time. My advisor mentioned to me that Huntsville was interested in the pressure decay and temperature drop in a set of series connected spheres located on top of the rocket fuel and oxygen tanks in Saturn V. I told the professor that I would look into how to model these tanks. I couldn’t find any research on the subject, so I started to model the connected tanks with a set of nonlinear simultaneous dif- ferential equations. The problem was that there were no hand-derived solutions. These were the early days of digital computers and I needed to get a solution right now in order to graduate. The solution was to program the analog computers in the uni- versity lab to create a solution, and then confirm the results with a set of tanks designed to simulate the Saturn V tank installations. When I described the environment of the mechanical engineering program at the university and detailed to my wife what I had solved, she snickered and told me I was a rocket scientist. Looking back, I now understand these were heady times and not just another day at the office. Other displays and exhibits From the main lobby you can look down on a lunar lander, and when you exit the museum you’ll have another view of the lander. Looking at this space traveler I was amazed at how fragile the structure’s skins look. Sure, the land- ing legs are sturdy, but the outside skins almost look like aluminum foil. These parts did not need to carry any aerody- namic load so there was no reason to make the skins any heavier than necessary. As a corollary, look at how fragile some of the structures are on our aircraft. Dr. Goddard’s Lab is an experiential exhibit designed to explain rocketry. A presenter dressed as Dr. Goddard might have looked 100 years ago explains pro- pulsion through experiments that show action and reaction, plus how fuel and oxidizer combine to create thrust. It’s the perfect arena to expand the mind of an intermediate school student and even guide them toward pursuing a scientific or engineering education. Cosmosphere also offers summer space camps for children which may inspire them to further possibilities for a life profession. As you leave the main lobby on the way to Dr. Goddard’s Lab, you will see www.acairtechnology.com / 885.884.7222 / info@acairtechnology.com acairtechnology.com AC Track Tech “The World’s First Remote-Control & Portable Aircraft Tug” This device easily tows any 5,000-pound aircraft; tailwheel or nosegear. Just throw it in the backseat of your airplane and take it anywhere with you! ALL MODELS ARE REMOTE CONTROL • T1 for aircraft up to 5,000 lbs • T1X for aircraft up to 8,000 lbs, recommended for challenging hangar doors and steep inclines • T1C and T1XC for aircraft with wheel fairings (also suitable for non-wheel fairing aircraft) • T2 for aircraft up to 21,000 lbs • T1H for helicopters up to 5,000 lbs • Tail Draggers: Order tail dragger adapter, compatible with T1, T1C, T1X, T1XC This tug weighs 48 pounds and has a loaded duration of up to 1 hour continuous use on a 3-hour recharge. Portable Aircraft Tug” easily tows any 5,000-pound aircraft; tailwheel or nosegear. the backseat of your of your of airplane and take it anywhere with you! CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 32 many examples of current moon and in- terplanetary rovers, those configured with tracks and those with wheels. Diagrams show how they arrived at faraway plan- ets and descended to a successful landing to carry on scientific experiments. Nowhere else in the world There is no other space museum like Cosmosphere other than the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Some of the exhibits in Hutchinson, Kan. aren’t available anywhere else in the world. If you find yourself traveling across the Great Plains and need a place to stop, consider lingering a while in Hutchinson, Kan. You’ll have great airport service and you can even take a trip to space and back at the Cosmosphere. Charles Lloyd has logged 10,000 hours since his first flying lesson in 1954. He worked for Cessna Aircraft for 16 years. Lloyd retired as captain of a Citation Encore Plus for a major fractional aircraft ownership company. He flies a tricked-out 1966 Cessna 182—also known as Bill—that is a great business tool for his real estate investment company. Send questions or comments to editor@cessnaflyer.org. Resources Airport services Hutchinson Municipal Airport (KHUT) airnav.com/airport/KHUT Wells Aircraft, Inc, Hutchinson Line service offered 8 am to 7 pm 620-663-1546 888-496-5545 hut.wellsac.com Information and attractions Hutchinson/Reno County Visitors Bureau visithutch.com Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center cosmo.org Further reading Robert H. Goddard wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/his- tory/dr_goddard.html “Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond” by Gene Kranz. Simon & Schuster, April 2000; 416 pages. Available at amazon.com and other retailers 10: An X-1 twin rocket motor assembly. The X-1 motor was later used as a four-pack for initial X-15 rocket research flights. 10 PowerFlite® Alternator Approved on Cessna 172R, 172S, 182S, 182T & T182T Direct identical FAA/PMA certified replacement • Identical mounting points and drive pulley • No modification necessary • Lower "Come-In Speed" • Competitive cores accepted • Available in new and overhauled condition • 2 year warranty on all new units Approved on Approved on Approved Cessna 172R, CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 34 Photo: Jim Russell Fleet, but fleeting Cessna 320 Skyknight by CFA Staff CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 36 In 1961 Cessna debuted its first tur- bocharged twin-engine aircraft: the 320 Skyknight. Cessna engineers had been experimenting with turbocharging for a number of years using the 310 airframe. The prototypes—fitted with the new Con- tinental Motors TSIO-470 engines—were subjected to flight testing at Continental and at Cessna’s headquarters in Wichita. The engineers and test pilots faced a couple of unique challenges. Here’s how Daryl Murphy, longtime aviation writer and author of “The Planes of Wichita: The People and the Aircraft of the Air Capital,” describes it: “Since the one unique advantage of turbocharging is its ability to develop power at all altitudes, the biggest challenge for test pilots was engine cooling, because indicated airspeed is coupled with thinner air at the more desirable higher levels.” The short but significant history of Cessna’s first turbocharged twin. Murphy continues, “A second problem was designing a combustion air inlet sys- tem with minimum restriction. The 310’s sheltered inlet screen within the engine compartment needed to be replaced with an external inlet that could retain almost full impact pressure. The solution was an inlet in the wing leading edge just inboard of each nacelle. From there, the air was ducted to the compressor, which was located behind the engine.” Certified on May 24, 1961 with two Continental TSIO-470-B engines, the Skyknight was sold as a 1962 model. The aircraft was similar in appearance to the 310G but had a different nacelle design and slightly different cabin height. Cessna introduced the new model in the May 1961 Cessquire magazine. Here is an excerpt: The Skyknight is a turbocharged twin- Photo: Thomas Block CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 38 A father/son team with 86 combined years of aviation maintenance experience with A&P license/commercial pilot We Will Help You Troubleshoot Your System Exchanges, Overhauls and Free Testing Turbochargers • Controllers • Wastegates • Pressure Relief Valves OVERHAUL / EXCHANGE Turbos balanced at 50,000 RPM by VSR Test Machine... Visit our website to see the VSR in operation! In this business for 23 years Teaching subject at FAA endorsed events Gary Main • Bill Main • Main Turbo Systems, Inc. 234 South Cotta Court, Visalia, CA 93292 • Hours: 6 am to 6 pm PST 1-888-847-8008 • (559) 635-3322 • Fax (559) 627-1960 www.mainturbo.com • info@mainturbo.com engine airplane with speeds up to 260 miles per hour. It is a fast, roomy, five- passenger airplane which will occupy the top position in the Cessna 1962 line…. With turbocharged engines, the Sky- knight will have available the full 260 horsepower of its engines to 16,000 feet, providing greater takeoff and single-en- gine safety at high altitudes. Single-engine service ceiling is in excess of 17,000 feet. The Skyknight has been specifically designed to fly long distances at high altitudes topping weather conditions over 27,000 feet, and will offer business executives high-speed flight in comfort, with outstanding visibility at altitudes where flying is at its finest. A combination of four seating arrangements, including a lounge, will be available. While it shared its good looks with the 310, the 320 was a step up in perfor- Photo: Thomas Block Photo: Thomas Block CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 40 mance; in fact, it was the reputed to be the fastest GA aircraft of its day. Besides the airplane’s top speed of 260 mph at 16,000 feet, it had a maximum cruising speed of 244 mph at 24,000 feet—17 percent higher than the com- parable 310 model. The 320’s gross weight was only about 100 pounds more than the 310, and it had similar fuel consumption at economy settings. A Cessna Flyer Association member and owner of a 1967 320E reported that at 60 percent cruise power, the light twin cruised at 180 knots at 10,000 feet; 190 knots at 15,000 feet; and 200 knots at 20,000 feet—all the while consuming fuel at the rate of 28 gph. Sea level takeoffs took less than 1,500 feet of runway, land- ings at sea level took less than 2,000 feet. Canted tiptanks replaced the tuna- Photo: Thomas Block “ “ THE TYCOON Like its sibling the 310, which figured prominently in the popular TV show “Sky King,” the 320 Skyknight was featured in its own television program. “The Tycoon,” which debuted in 1964, starred Walter Brennan as businessman Walter Andrews. As chairman of the board of the Thunder Corp. (which he’d founded but no longer actively ran), Brennan played an eccentric and cantanker- ous millionaire with a Cessna 320 Skynight who helped promising persons in need. The TV show—much like the 320 itself—never really caught on, and ran for only 32 episodes before going off the air. Source: Wikipedia.org Only 577 Skyknights were built over its seven-year run. By all rights, the performance and relative economy of the twin should have made it more popular. Photo: Keith Wilson CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 42 shaped tanks in 1963, along with an increased gross weight of 5,200 pounds and addition of nacelle baggage lockers the next year. For the 1966 320D, 285 hp TSIO-520-B engines boosted top speed to 275 mph, service ceiling to 29,000 feet, and allowed an increase in gross weight to 5,300 pounds. Only 577 Skyknights were built over its seven-year run. By all rights, the performance and relative economy of the twin should have made it more popular. Perhaps buyers were frightened away by the extra care and maintenance the turbocharged engines presented. The original Continental TSIO-470Bs were carrying a recommended TBO of only 1,400 hours compared to 1,500 hours for the normally aspirated 470s of the time. Service life of the turbochargers was vari- able and highly susceptible to operator misuse. Whatever the reason, the 320 was valu- able in developing turbocharged systems and components. Nearly every improve- ment that was made for the 320 found its way into the 310, and not coincidentally, the Turbo 310—with 320 wings and engine—was introduced in 1969. Photo: Thomas Block Cessna 320 A-C SPECIFICATIONS GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS Crew: 5 Empty weight: 3,190 pounds Gross weight: 4,990 pounds Fuel capacity: 102-133 gallons Powerplant: (2) 260 hp Continentals PERFORMANCE Maximum speed: 265 mph Cruise speed: 245 mph Stall speed: 77 mph Initial rate of climb: 1,850 fpm Service ceiling: 27,200 feet Range: 855-1,430 miles Takeoff distance (over a 50-foot obstacle): 1,470 feet Landing distance (over a 50-foot obstacle): 1,770 feet Cessna 320F SPECIFICATIONS GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS Crew: 4-6 Empty weight: 3,273 pounds Gross weight: 5,300 pounds Fuel capacity: 102-184 gallons Powerplant: (2) 285 hp turbocharged Continentals PERFORMANCE Maximum speed: 275 mph Cruise speed: 256 mph Stall speed: 78 mph Initial rate of climb: 1,924 fpm Service ceiling: 29,000 feet Range: 845 miles Takeoff distance (over a 50-foot obstacle): 1,190 feet Landing distance (over a 50-foot obstacle): 1,513 feet SKYKNIGHT VARIANTS 320 Skyknight, certified May 24, 1961 Six seats, larger cabin than the 310, and two 260 hp Continental TSIO-470-B turbocharged engines. 110 built. 320A Skyknight, certified May 10, 1962 Stabil-tip fuel tanks and minor changes. 47 built. 320B Skyknight, certified May 16, 1963 Two 260 hp Continental TSIO-470-C engines, nacelle baggage lockers and minor changes. 62 built. 320C Skyknight, certified April 24, 1964 Two 260 hp Continental TSIO-470-D engines, longer cabin, optional seventh seat and minor changes. 73 built. 320D Skyknight, certified April 9, 1965 Two 285 hp Continental TSIO-520-B or TSIO-520-BB engines, reshaped rear windows. 130 built. 320E Executive Skyknight, certified July 26, 1966 Pointed nose, single piece windshield, modified landing gear, increased takeoff weight and minor changes. 110 built. 320F Executive Skyknight, certified May 10, 1967 Minor changes. 45 built. Sources: Wikipedia.org; FAA.gov. Photo: Cessna Aircraft Co. CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 44 smoothing out minor rock nicks and removing and replacing one. All other maintenance tasks must be done by an FAA certified propeller repair station. One such repair station is American Propeller in Redding, Calif. Established and under the same ownership since 1976, American Propeller is a full-service prop shop. The early days Kerry Dawes and Dennis Praegitzer started American Propeller together. Praegitzer was working in a prop shop and wanted his own shop; Dawes met him through friends, and a deal was struck. In October 1976 the FAA issued a propeller repair station certificate to American Propeller in Redding. Propellers take a beating. During operations that range from the instant takeoff power is cranked on to power-off stalls and descents, blades continually flex due to changes in aerodynamic loading. Props also endure years of light damage due to rock, ice and rain impacts. In spite of being within degrees of separation from the top spot on the most highly stressed parts on an airplane, props are so dependable it’s probably no stretch to say that the average GA owner pays as much attention to his prop as he does the ground below his feet. The FAA considers propeller mainte- nance to be so critical that even the most knowledgeable FAA certificated airframe and powerplant mechanic isn’t allowed to do any propeller maintenance, save Ameritech Industries: American Propeller and Eagle Engines In business since the 1970s with a dedicated workforce and a growing line of services. By Steve Ells #1 for Aircraft Parts Support Since 1984 Same-Day Worldwide Shipping We Price Match! PARTS AVIONICS ENGINES PROPS OVER 5 MILLION IN-STOCK PARTS! OVER 5 MILLION IN-STOCK PARTS! Search our Parts for Free 24/7 DODSON.COM CALL US TODAY AT 785-878-8000 At times the going was rough. After setting up shop, the airport author- ity wanted to build a new terminal on American’s site. It moved. Then on Sept. 25, 1995, Dawes and Praegitzer got a call at 2 a.m. saying the business was on fire. Due to the firefighters’ belief that the shop contained toxic and explosive chem- icals, efforts were restricted to protecting surrounding properties. The building, 19 years of tooling and equipment and 160 propellers were lost. Due to excellent insurance and the fact that all records survived the fire, every prop and every prop blade that was destroyed in the fire was replaced to each owner’s satisfaction. With American’s customers taken care of, it was time to restore the business One factor in the success of Ameritech is its stable workforce; for example, Chris Dishong (above) has been with the company since 1984. In addition to a dedicated workforce and stable management, Ameritech has also invested in a lot of new equipment. CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 46 charges for engines and props shipped in from out-of-truck regions when the ship- per coordinates shipping with Ameritech. Todd Marinkovich, when asked about the state of American Propeller, said, “Volume-wise, we’re the largest prop shop on the West Coast.” Eagle Engines takes care of the shipped-in engines that require overhaul. The engine segment of the busi- ness was established by Dawes in 1990. When Lou Pierard, a highly qualified and well known piston engine technician and builder became avail- able, Dawes decided the time was right to go into the engine building business. Pierard moved to Redding and set up shop. He has since retired, but not before airport. Now we utilize our vast network of Ameritech Service Centers throughout the West to provide those services,” said Bob Honig, corporate sales manager at Ameritech Industries. Ameritech Industries (comprised of American Propeller and Eagle Engines) sends three trucks on the road every week to pick up and deliver propellers, governors and engines. These trucks cover five west- ern states—California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona—and are beginning to cover Idaho and Utah. The Ameritech pickup and delivery trucks eliminate shipping charges for engine and prop overhauls in those states. Ameritech also pays one-way freight itself. Todd Marinkovich, the service manager of American Propeller, found an existing propeller shop at Dallas Airmo- tive that was for sale. He surveyed it, bought it and loaded everything in the back of two semitrailers for the trip back to Redding. Within four months, American Propel- ler had relocated to its present off-airport place of business and was again up and running. Despite the complex logistics of recreating the entire business, Ameri- can’s management took a people-first approach. “The hardest part was making sure that all our technicians were taken care of,” said Dawes. Truckin’ “We used to be able to provide removal and reinstallation services and prop bal- ancing service when we were based at the “The two things that we made it on are quality and customer service,” said Kerry Dawes. establishing Eagle Engines’ reputation as a top-notch engine overhauler. His son Bobby is now working as shop foreman. Family connections The Lou-and-Bobby family connec- tion is just one of the family ties that run throughout Ameritech. Kathy Dawes, Kerry’s sister, came to work at American Propeller before marrying Praegitzer; they still work there. Tony and Tracy are Todd Marinkovich’s brothers, and Tyler is a nephew and Tracy’s son. They all work in the prop shop. One factor in the success of Ameritech is its stable workforce. Mike Crowell is the Chief Inspector; he’s been at Ameri- tech since 1999. Chris Dishong has been with the company since 1984; Todd Marinkovich since 1986; Chuck Baist since 1989; Tony Marinkovich since 1990. Doug Booth, the PPG trained and certified painter who cranks out the FAA approved, customized paint schemes for Ameritech’s Designer Prop, has worked at Ameritech for 14 years. The new guy in the prop shop is Travis Drake. Drake has been aboard for 16 months and is in training to take a place next to Kevin McGuire—the “Blade Mas- ter”—who goes at damaged and out-of- spec blades with a grinder and files to get compromised blades back into compli- ance with the manufacturer’s require- ments for width, thickness and twist. Grinding and filing is dirty, noisy work. “Nobody wants to cross-train for that job,” said Drake as he manipulated the probe of an eddy current tester to check for corro- sion and cracks in the bore of a blade. Each propeller is evaluated for damage upon receipt. Then it’s disassembled, cleaned and further inspected. New equipment Ameritech has invested in a lot of new equipment in the past year including an AeroScan machine in its prop shop. The AeroScan makes short work of measur- ing each blade for angle, thickness and twist. It completely eliminates tedious hand measuring. After McGuire “tunes up” divergent blades, the result is a closely matched blade set in each overhauled propeller. Matching like this generates equal thrust profiles from each blade; this creates a smooth prop. In addition to the capital investment in the AeroScan, Ameritech has also re- cently installed blade airfoil shot peening equipment. Shot peening is a mechanical process applied to the surface of propel- www.aircapitoldial.com sales@aircapitoldial.com If your cockpit panel components are faded, need repairs or just need some touch-up, we’re ready to serve you. We’re an FAA Certified Repair Station. Call us, we’ll take care of you. Air Capitol Dial 877-269-2483 Air Capitol Dial Specialists in Repair and Refurbishing 406 MHz ELTs Tel: 914-235-9400 Fax: 914-576-7075 Email: emergencybeacon@verizon.net www.emergencybeaconcorp.com Manufacturer of Top-of-the-Line Products FAA REPAIR STATION #EYCR588X EBC-406 AP Portable, Cabin-mounted No Remote Control Monitor EBC-406 AF Fixed, Tail-mounted Has Remote Control Monitor EBC-406 H Helicopter models in both portable or fixed versions ELTs, DFs and Batteries for EBC, DEFT-1 and SHARC-7 ELTs Approved in Canada! CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 48 ler blades that strengthens the metal and increases fatigue life. “Since we can do shot peening in- house, that, plus our pickup and delivery service presents a substantial reduction in shipping charges for some customers,” said Honig. He also pointed out that this capabil- ity often relieves customers of the need to buy new blades when more powerful powerplant retrofits are installed, since some propeller manufacturers allow the existing blades from the lower-horsepow- er installation to be used, provided they have been shot peened. American Propeller sends its technical team and a truck with propellers to the Reno Air Races every year to provide on-the-spot propeller changes and minor maintenance for racers. Eagle Engines Eagle Engines has moved on from initially offering two boutique engine From L to R: Bob Honig, Dennis Praegitzer and Kerry Dawes. Honig is corporate sales manager at Ameritech Industries; Praegitzer and Dawes started American Propeller together in the mid-1970s. American Propeller, along with Eagle Engines, comprise Ameritech Industries. 800-536-2011 forestagency.com Nicole Forbear, Aviation Division Account Manager nforbear@ forestagency.com A friendly place to do business. ly balance-checked; reciprocating compo- nents such as piston sets and connecting rods are also balance-checked. Hydraulic lifters are matched by bleed- down rate and cylinders are port matched and checked for efficiency to exceed factory-new engine specifications. In addition to these quality and expe- rienced-based standards, Eagle Engines has the ability to flow match cylinder sets to within one percent and to balance reciprocating components to within 0.5 grams. These two services are available upon request and result in further charges on the final bill. During my visit, Bobby Pierard told me that the engine shop was awaiting delivery of two new pieces of equipment. A Super- Flow 600 is currently in use but will soon be replaced by the faster SuperFlow Pro SF- 1020. According to the SuperFlow website, the SF-1020 “measures and records air flow at OEM engineering accuracy, faster than any other flowbench on the market.” upgrades and now offers one high-quality engine overhaul with a limited menu of options and upgrades. “Today’s overhauls feature all the best we can offer at a very competitive price,” said Honig. Every engine that goes out the door at Eagle Engines is built to new engine toler- ances. Every engine part is inspected us- ing state-of-the-art nondestructive testing (NDT) on ferrous and non-ferrous parts. Every part listed in the engine manu- facturer’s “required new parts at over- haul” bulletins is new, although Eagle Engines does substitute parts built by specialty companies such as ECI and Superior Air Parts. These parts are all FAA approved under Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA). The list of new parts always includes camshaft, lifters, pistons, all valve train parts and all bushings, bearings, critical fasteners as well as gas- kets, seals and hoses. All engine case halves are lapped and line bored. All crankshafts are dynamical- Oregon: 1-541-476-6605 - CSR#D3BR270J Florida: 1-386-873-4123 1301 Brookside Blvd Grants Pass, OR 97526 813-A Flightline Blvd Deland, FL 32724 7am-5pm PST / 8am-5pm EST • 30 Years Experience • Knowledgeable Staff • Same Day Shipments • Two Stores - Faster Service 1-800-447-3408 TOLL FREE ORDERS Avionics - Tires & Batteries Engine Accessories - Instruments Maintenance Supplies Pilot Supplies WWW.CHIEFAIRCRAFT.COM FREE Shipping on Most Items Over $500 Ameritech Industries sends three trucks on the road every week to pick up and deliver propellers, governors and engines. These trucks cover five western states—California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona—and are beginning to cover Idaho and Utah. CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 50 the overhaul of the Lycoming 180 hp O-360 A1A engine in my Comanche. According to this quote, it would cost less to install new Superior steel cylinders than to overhaul my existing cylinders. If I wanted new Lycoming cylinders? $963 more than the Superior steel cylinders. New ECI Titan Steel cylinders? $243 more than Superior’s steel. How about new ECI Titan Nickel+Carbide cylinders for added corrosion protection? $664 more than the steel cylinders from Superior. Those charges are to replace all four cylinders. Typical engine overhaul turnaround time is four weeks unless the crankshaft is in such bad shape it needs to be reground. Due to California’s environmental laws, the nitriding process that’s required after each crankshaft regrind can’t be done at Eagle. Crankshaft regrinding must be sent out of state. Electroair electronic ignition Ameritech Industries is also bullish on the advantages gained through the installation of an Electroair electronic ignition system. The majority of certified airplane engines are still equipped with magnetos; magnetos, with regular maintenance, are depend- able—but electronic ignition means starting is easier due to a much hotter spark. In addition, an Electroair system actively advances the spark timing to reflect changes in manifold pressure and engine speed. The second new item is a Serdi 2.0 machine. This device simultaneously and automatically cuts three angle valve seats that optimize airflow past the valves. The machine delivers valve seats that are 100 percent concentric every time. Pierard told me that the Serdi machine will eliminate what he calls the “Barney Rubble”—the old valve seat grinding practice that is somewhat variable since its success is entirely dependent on a technician’s skills and well maintained tooling. “I’m like an expectant father waiting for that machine to come in,” said Pierard. Other employees in the engine shop in- clude Bill Orr (15 years); Chris Hasley (2.5 years) and Lance Tomblinson (19 years). Every engine is test run on the Eagle Engine test cell for one to 1.5 hours with an actual propeller instead of a test club. Using an actual propeller loads the engine during testing, and this insures more thorough pre-release testing. During these break-in runs, a small amount of dye is added to the oil to detect oil leaks. No engine is released until Eagle’s strict requirements are met. Owners’ cylinders can be overhauled, but it costs only a little more to install new cylinders. Honig told me that 90 percent of the engines the company over- hauls go out the door with new cylinders. James Bridgeman, the service manager at Eagle Engines, worked up a quote for ENGINE PREOILERGet Oiled Before You Start & Reduce Engine Wear Up to 70% of engine wear is caused by insufficient lubrication during start. Install a Preoiler and... Lubricate Bearings • Pressurize Lifters Lubricate Cams • Lubricate Valves PO Box 5284 Englewood, CO 80155 (303) 770-0175 (303) 793-0493 Fax 1-800-343-7623 oilamatic.com FAA STC/PMA Electronic ignition also supplies a much longer duration spark that results in more complete combustion. The result is a bet- ter running engine and fuel savings. Some users report a 10 to 15 percent reduction in fuel burn. The Electroair system does depend on aircraft electrical power; a magneto runs fine without any electrical power. One Electroair system and one magneto is the perfect setup: a single electronic ignition system for smoother starting and opti- mized operation, combined with a tried- and-true backup system that automati- cally supplies spark in the unlikely event of a complete electrical power loss. Electroair systems have been installed on thousands of noncertified aircraft and are now approved for installation on hundreds of four-cylinder engines installed in FAA certified airplanes. Approvals for six-cylinder applications are increasing. Since each Electroair system has a 2,000 hour TBO, it makes a lot of sense to install electronic ignition at engine overhaul. In my experience, your engine will run better and you’ll start saving money immediately. Keys to success It’s gratifying to find an aviation services company that has weathered the industry’s storms so well for so long. When asked about the secrets of success at Ameritech, Dawes answered, “The two things that we made it on are quality and customer service.” This was echoed by Honig when he told me that when a customer calls with a problem, “that problem or that warranty claim becomes our number-one priority.” Other keys are Ameritech’s stable management team and workforce, and its recent capital investments in equipment that will further increase quality and better serve customers. That’s a winning combination. Steve Ells has been an A&P/IA for 39 years and is a commercial pilot with instrument and multi-engine ratings. Ells also loves utility and bush-style airplanes and operations. He’s a former tech rep and editor for Cessna Pilots Association and served as associate editor for AOPA Pilot until 2008. Ells is the owner of Ells Aviation (EllsAviation.com) and lives in Paso Robles, Calif. with his wife Audrey. Send questions and comments to editor@ cessnaflyer.org. CES SNA F LYE R A P R I L 2 014 52 NEWS * (compiled from press releases) SOUTH ST. PAUL, MINN., Feb. 13, 2014 – Wipaire, Inc. has named new leaders to its engineering and manufacturing management. Tim Hendrickson has been appointed as Wipaire’s new direc- tor of manufacturing and brings over 15 years of manufactur- ing expertise to Wipaire. Hendrickson is skilled in manufactur- ing management, analysis and planning, and has a background in manufacturing engineering. “Tim brings knowledge and experience from working at large corporations, both publicly and privately owned,” states Chuck Wiplinger, president and COO. “We’re sure he will be an excellent asset for Wipaire.” Chris Woken has been named as Wipaire’s new engineering manager. Woken previously held the position of composites engineer at Wipaire and brings extensive experience in aviation, composites and regulations. As a pilot, Woken is able to relate to the operational considerations of the products Wipaire designs and manu- factures. His wealth of experience is sure to benefit both Wipaire and its customers. “As an engineer, Chris has a unique combination of sophisti- cated engineering capabilities coupled with knowledge of man- agement and the General Aviation industry. This background makes him a valuable member of our management team,” notes Wiplinger.