I believe it when I hear it from the local radio shop... Our FSDO demands that even the remounting of a GPS antenna to be inspected and signed off.. I doubt that they shive a git what some administrator in OK city thinks... denny "Gene Kearns" wrote in...

Just an update on the ongoing saga...When we left Fat Albert he was leaking oil somewhere on the port (that's the left side of the boat when facing the pointy end, for you non sailors) engine acessory case... I had gone through several iterations of: clean the oil off, tighten everything I could...

Saturday we took Fat Albert and flew from mid michigan to Dayton, Ohio for the world famous Dayton Hamfest... My son and my old buddy Ed went with me... Took 1:45 going down in the early morning darkness, where the dawn is just a band of bluish light on the horizon... Smooth air... But 30 Knots...

Well, I just micturated away $58,868.13 into the loving arms of the state and feds this morning... Now where are those fat cat deductions that allow me to pay zero, that all the rabble rousers keep bringing up? denny

WIth 4 hours on the fresh top overhaul I decided it was time to balance the prop as we removed the weights when sending the props out for new studs... I was delayed a bit at my monthly meeting down in Grand Blanc and got back to the airport at a quarter to one... The Kid was chomping at the bit......

Well, my 2007 annual condition inspection ends tomorrow... Yee Old Crusty Mechanic has been increasingly hard to contact for the past two months and now has disconnected his phone, his airplanes are gone, and his hangar has been sold... I'm beginning to suspect that he does not intend to do the...

Well, Fat Albert still sits on jacks at Steve's shop... Not much happening... The vaunted new engine hoses have yet to arrive despite being paid for in advance... The #1 radio was sent out to the radio shop - the King KI-214 VOR heading had suddenly gone off about 12 degrees - though the ILS...

Well, Fat Albert goes for his annual condition check today... Not much on the punch list... Repair the trim tab indicator wire which has snapped - which requires someone to crawl all the way into the tail cone... Not fun and pushing near my seventh decade I decided discretion was the better part...

I just finished writing out paychecks... My employees are a mix of more skilled and lesser skilled folks... The higher skills are paid more obvious averaging a $100 a week more in gross pay... One my more skilled employees has a husband with MS (is on expensive drugs) and both of them continue...

We lost one off our field last Sunday... Mike is a nice guy who was regarded as a good pilot, calm, quiet, and safety concious... He has an older Skyhawk with the Continental 6 banger... He went up to Harrison, 80D, and was seen landing... No one heard or noticed anything after that... Later a...

The dreaded annual condition inspection time has arrived... Fat Albert is currently perched upon the wing jacks pending gear swing testing... I have put 500 hours on the fat boy over the past three years and one of the topics this year was the mags.... I had gone to the yellow newspaper and...

The starter on the starboard engine on Fat Albert the Apache went bad... I normally start the port engine first, per the handbook... A local on the field commented that the starter on the starboard engine was making grinding noises... Being inside the airplane with the port engine running I did...

I won't be able to be there, but the Seneca pilot did a nice job of planting it short... Still, 2000 feet is more than enough... denny and Fat Albert the Apache...

It turns out that the fouled plug I mentioned last week is oil fouled... I suspect that the rings have gone... I will borescope the cylinder for damage and check the seal on the intake valve stem, but I suspect the worst... It is burning a quart every 1.5 hours, suddenly... And the story gets...

Well, having to do a bunch of cross country flying moving grandchildren around, 20 hours over two weeks, means I had to put in 100LL at whatever backwater airport I happened to be at, instead of the cheap nasty mogas I usually burn... Of course, starting up on a remote airstrip mean't finding a...

I recently wrote about my adventures with Fat Albert the Apache and the session on the torture rack known as "the annual"... For a quick review: I replaced the Southwind with a new gas heater, and a new torque tube and actuator arm for the flaps, repaired a stuck valve on the port engine (my first...

Hmm, now I don't feel so bad that I have been unable to fly for 3 weeks now... Denny

N registered aircraft are required to have all work recorded in the airframe and powerplant logs, what you apparently call maintenance records... I have no idea why you would think otherwise... My 1957 Apache came with an armload of logbooks going back to day one... In this country a plane that...

Well, Fat Albert finally got liberated yesterday, just 6 days shy of two months in solitary at the mechanic's shop... The 'third times the charm' carburetor works like a champ... It didn't dump fuel all over the ramp... It didn't run lean on takeoff... It did shut down the engine when the mixture...

Fat Albert the Apache needed his annual exam... When I bought him the annual was in the summer and I have been gaining a month a year on that... This year we moved it into December 1st... The annual usually takes 3-5 days, but this morning he still sits in the shop with the starboard engine...