We were grounded last week, after discovering a cracked exhaust pipe and
rotted muffler baffles during routine maintenance.

Amazingly, we discovered that Dawley Aviation (*the* exhaust repair station
in the Midwest, and the place my A&P recommended) is located in Burlington,
WI -- literally on the road to Racine -- which was where we were headed for
"Xmas II". So, we ripped off the old system and tossed it in the back of
the Subaru with all the luggage and presents.

Four hours after leaving Iowa City, we were at Dawley's VERY impressive
offices. They are clearly a well-established business, with a large, clean
factory floor, and a nice, clean front office area, housing half a dozen
office workers in private offices. It looked more like a bank than any
aviation business I'd ever had the pleasure of seeing before -- quite
different from most of these kinds of places.

Steve, their VERY knowledgeable sales manager, was there to greet us. It
was obvious that he (and the staff) weren't used to having customers drop
stuff off (a steady stream of UPS and FedEx trucks flowed in and out while
we were there), but he took it all in stride and seemed genuinely pleased to
actually SEE someone for a change.

It turned out that Steve had trained with the same CFI as I did, over in
East Troy, Wi, so we were instantly fast friends as we traded "Old Bob"
stories back and forth. He took the cruddy old parts from me, identified
what could be re-used, and said that I could pick the new system up on our
way out of town the next day. It was as easy as that, and we were soon off
to Racine for Xmas with Mary's family.

The next day we swung back into their office, and it was all ready to go.
Dang, they literally replaced EVERYTHING except one flange on both the
triple pipes and the muffler. Everything else is brand-spanking new.

Steve wished Mary and the kids a happy new year, gave each of us a bag of
peanuts (which they apparently always throw in the box -- it's a Dawley
tradition that goes way back to their beginning), and charged us $620. Not
cheap, by any stretch, but still way cheaper than new.

All in all, a very pleasant experience, and a real pleasure to work with a
guy that's so knowledgeable. In answer to questions, Steve went on at great
length about the metallurgy behind the work, and the reasons exhaust systems
fail. (Incidentally, he said that the best thing that EVER happened to
their business was everyone running "lean of peak" and driving their EGTs up
above 1500 degrees. As temperatures approach 1600 degrees, the metal simply
starts to fail, and you end up saving pennies on gas, and blowing dollars on
exhaust systems.)

My A&P put everything back together yesterday, and Atlas is now snug back in
his hangar, with a new exhaust, new oil/filter, new Iridium spark plugs, and
(hopefully) no more oil leak. Now all we need is some flying weather!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"