Color Me Annoyed

I have found money to be the universal motivator..

Well, the Fat Boy is sitting up on jacks in The Kid's hangar... So
far The Kid has found two weak cylinders on the right engine that
weren't that bad last year, so the field overhaul is on for sure now -
1686 SMOH on a first run factory engine... Whether it will be a top or
a major remains to be seen... He will be pulling the cylinders today
and I am going there tonight after I finish my office hours to inspect
the engine...
He also found a hinge worn past service limits on the rudder trim tab
- not a surprise as Old Crusty and I had been watching it... And a
hard hydraulic hose behind the left engine - again not a surprise as
we had been anticipating that for this annual... And now I am going
to spring on him tonite that I want ALL the hydraulic hoses
replaced... I know he wants to get me out of his hangar this week as
he put off another annual in order to get me in - but hey, no one said
life is fair...
and he doesn't know that I cut a deal with the other plane owner
ahead of time. It never hurts to have a few friends in your pocket

Anyway, The Kid is the son of the original owner of the Fat Boy and
took over his dad's FBO business after he passed away... I've known
The Kid since he was snot nosed... Ward, his father, had been the FBO
and airport manager since the earth first cooled... I have rented
airplanes from Ward and had him work on my planes since the early
60's... The Kid is a good mechanic... He is starting to get cranky now
that he is getitng streaks of grey at the temples, just like his
father, and he is in line for a new moniker to celebrate his
crankiness, but for now he will remain, The Kid...

Anyway, things are looking up in Muddville..

denny

Denny wrote:

Anyway, things are looking up in Muddville..

Glad to hear that.

My plane went out of annual last Thursday night, and my guy is planning
to start it Saturday. We had some nice weather this past weekend, so I
now totally understand the feeling of a parfectly good airplane that
can't legally be flown.

On Jan 31, 6:38 pm, "Steve" wrote:
The pilots I know are willing to pay fair value for services rendered.
I'm guessing you didn't spend multi-million on a facility, $250 grand in
shop equipment and diagnostic analyzers. If you did you are likely to have a
1st class facility that would draw plenty of aircraft repair business that
would pay you $90 an hour. Heck you could publish a reasonable fixed rate
for inspections and I'm sure you can get plenty of business that way also.
But you sound like you have an unreasonable expectation of what a mechanics
should earn. Keep you A&P/IA to yourself, the world doesn't need another
service provider with a chip on their shoulder.

A friend of mine did exactly that, and lost it all. It's not that
simple at all. Airplanes cost money, and most owners don't have a lot
of it. The few that do got their cash by being stingy with it, not by
showering it on mechanics.
So as long as a guy can earn way more fixing trucks, with less
liability and no hassles getting paid, we'll find fewer mechanics
willing to put up with the hassle.

Dan (pilot/mechanic)

Well, The Kid just called at 10:45 AM... The jugs are off and the
bottom end looks good... The cam is clean... Looks like a top
overhaul only (whoo hoo).. He brightened up when I said lets just do
a top, figuring he would have it buttoned up by Friday... I have the
new Lycoming cylinder kits out in the truck to deliver to him...
So, then I dropped on him that I also want fresh donuts on both motor
mounts and a new crank seal - that caused him to hesitate... He can
see his February schedule going to pot anyway... I'll wait until
tomorrow to bring up the new hydraulic hoses for the landing gear...

In article Denny writes:

Well, it is 1 Feb and Fat Albert is out of license this morning, and I
am Mr. grumpy... First time in over 40 years of owning I have had my
airplane just sitting there in flyable condition, out of license...

Waiting months while the mechanic promised he would get to the static
system check "next week" was probably the thing that really turned the
corner for the demise of my plane. :-(

I heard later that he had had serious health problems (explaining why
he was so frequently not there). Hooking the plane to the car and towing
it to another airport was not really an option, so it waited. And waited...


Multiple comments read and noted... There are no easy answers to the
dilemma of GA... The increasing costs of everything are driving folks
out of flying...

Indeed. As another pointed out, the costs of owning have gone way up.
The cost of fuel has become painful for even a couple of casual pointless
hours in a 172.


The increasing regs and draconian penalties for
crossing an invisible line on the ground are driving folks out of
flying...

Indeed. We used to have freedom to fly, now we are treated as if
everyone in an airplane is a terrorist (other than airlines and a few
special blessed activities).


The decreasing hours flown are hurting FBO and mechanics...
It is a vicious circle...

As noted elsewere in this thread, many of us have to be price sensitive
about maintenance -- it is that or not own a plane. But the mechanic has
to eat and pay his rent, too.


Building an experimental is one solution... I am persuing that, but
working 12 hours a day seems to get in the way of my motivation...

If you have the space and time. I once read the note that if your goal
was to build an airplane, then build. If your goal was to fly, then building
was probably the wrong way to get there.

Considering the cost of space for the construction for the number of years
needed, and the time required, building can get pretty expensive. We don't
all have large workspaces and appropriate tools already available.


LSA is a partial answer - and might be in my future as I continue to
age (hopefully, I will continue to)

Prebuilt S-LSA might be an answer, though one has to do a 120 hour
class to be able to inspect/maintain one of them (and you will still
need the tools and space to do it). Even so, the price of the S-LSA
is pretty substantial as well.

As one who enjoys night flight, and likes to do cross-country a
little above 10,000 feet, LSA doesn't look like it really cuts it.


So with government restrictions (which will probably never go away),
and costs continuing up, I wonder if I will become another who has
left aviation, not to return.


Alan

On Fri, 8 Feb 2008 07:45:58 +0000 (UTC),
(Alan) wrote:

Waiting months while the mechanic promised he would get to the static
system check "next week" was probably the thing that really turned the
corner for the demise of my plane. :-(

I heard later that he had had serious health problems (explaining why
he was so frequently not there). Hooking the plane to the car and towing
it to another airport was not really an option, so it waited. And waited...

I've not followed this thread that closely, but if the only problem
was out of date paperwork, why not get a ferry permit and move it that
way? I understand trying to be loyal to someone who's done work for
you before and is making promises, but at what point do you say
"enough" when they haven't completed a 4 hour job, including the
paperwork (if you're talking about a 91.411/413 cert)? Mechanics
complain about owners, but it does work both ways when you have
situations like that.

Color me really annoyed... It took me a day to cool down enough to be
lucid...
The new Lycoming cylinder kits have turned out to contain the wrong
cylinders...%^$#*&!
When I ordered them I called Lycoming and gave the engine serial
number to the voice on the phone who cross checked it and he told me
what the correct cylinders/parts numbers were... Then when I called
AERO they agreed with Lycoming... Never the less, The Kid took one
look at the first new cylinder and said, "nope, won't work." and
simply walked away and went back to rebuilding a customers magneto...
crusty, just like his dad, and I hate it when he is right like that

I spent a large chunk of Wednesday afternoon on the phone with the
factory/supplier to solve this... and I even found that one of the
cylinder kits even has the wrong 'paperwork' inserted in the box i.e.
the 8130 certifies this to be different cylinder than it actually is
The nice lady on the phone took all of 3 seconds after I gave her
the engine serial number to agree that the kit I have will not work
why wasn't she the one who answered the phone the first time?
sheeesh


Long story short: The supplier is going to ship me 4 new cylinder kits
as soon as Chicago UPS can run their trucks through the snow - so it
will be at least another week before we have cylinders... And they
are going to charge my card for the cylinder kits and shipping
sigh... And then they are supposed to - next week - come up with a
way to get the original 4 cylinder kits returned and then supposedly
credit my card sigh...

The other issue is that we now can't get Lycoming cylinders for this
engine, so we had a choice between Superior and ECI... The Kid was
campaigning for ECI Nickel cylinders, but they only have 3 on hand..
In the end, we settled for 4 ECI Steel cylinder kits... Which raised
another complication, the lycoming kits have a wrist pin but no rocker
arm pins, so we had sent the rocker pins out for rebuild along with
the rocker arms... The ECI kits come with rocker arm pins and no
wrist pins so I had to order new wrist pins and I will be left with a
set of freshly rebuilt rocker arm pins I have no need for... (oh hell,
it's only pieces of paper with green ink on them)

For those who are still awake at this point and are wondering - I
recycle rocker arm pins because they never break that I know of but
I always install new wrist pins - because they do break...

denny

On Feb 8, 5:55 am, Denny wrote:

I spent a large chunk of Wednesday afternoon on the phone with the
factory/supplier to solve this... and I even found that one of the
cylinder kits even has the wrong 'paperwork' inserted in the box i.e.
the 8130 certifies this to be different cylinder than it actually is.

Just be glad you don't have one of those Lycoming cranks that the
last AD demands be scrapped immediately. You *don't* have one,
right??

Dan

"Denny" wrote in message
...
Color me really annoyed... It took me a day to cool down enough to be
lucid...
The new Lycoming cylinder kits have turned out to contain the wrong
cylinders...%^$#*&!
When I ordered them I called Lycoming and gave the engine serial
number to the voice on the phone who cross checked it and he told me
what the correct cylinders/parts numbers were... Then when I called
AERO they agreed with Lycoming... Never the less, The Kid took one
look at the first new cylinder and said, "nope, won't work." and
simply walked away and went back to rebuilding a customers magneto...
crusty, just like his dad, and I hate it when he is right like that

I spent a large chunk of Wednesday afternoon on the phone with the
factory/supplier to solve this... and I even found that one of the
cylinder kits even has the wrong 'paperwork' inserted in the box i.e.
the 8130 certifies this to be different cylinder than it actually is
The nice lady on the phone took all of 3 seconds after I gave her
the engine serial number to agree that the kit I have will not work
why wasn't she the one who answered the phone the first time?
sheeesh


Long story short: The supplier is going to ship me 4 new cylinder kits
as soon as Chicago UPS can run their trucks through the snow - so it
will be at least another week before we have cylinders... And they
are going to charge my card for the cylinder kits and shipping
sigh... And then they are supposed to - next week - come up with a
way to get the original 4 cylinder kits returned and then supposedly
credit my card sigh...

The other issue is that we now can't get Lycoming cylinders for this
engine, so we had a choice between Superior and ECI... The Kid was
campaigning for ECI Nickel cylinders, but they only have 3 on hand..
In the end, we settled for 4 ECI Steel cylinder kits... Which raised
another complication, the lycoming kits have a wrist pin but no rocker
arm pins, so we had sent the rocker pins out for rebuild along with
the rocker arms... The ECI kits come with rocker arm pins and no
wrist pins so I had to order new wrist pins and I will be left with a
set of freshly rebuilt rocker arm pins I have no need for... (oh hell,
it's only pieces of paper with green ink on them)

For those who are still awake at this point and are wondering - I
recycle rocker arm pins because they never break that I know of but
I always install new wrist pins - because they do break...

denny

You might check with RAM Aircraft, 254-752-8381 ask for parts sales, they
carry a lot of new ECI cylinders for Lycoming. I would stick with the
nickel if I had the choice.

Allen

On Fri, 8 Feb 2008 07:45:58 +0000 (UTC), in rec.aviation.owning,
(Alan) wrote:

In article Denny writes:
LSA is a partial answer - and might be in my future as I continue to
age (hopefully, I will continue to)

Prebuilt S-LSA might be an answer, though one has to do a 120 hour
class to be able to inspect/maintain one of them (and you will still
need the tools and space to do it). Even so, the price of the S-LSA
is pretty substantial as well.

As one who enjoys night flight, and likes to do cross-country a
little above 10,000 feet, LSA doesn't look like it really cuts it.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but...if you hold a private certificate,
flying an SLSA doesn't restrict you to light sport piloting rules, does it?
If the plane's equipped and able, why not fly high at night?

IIRC there's at least one IFR equipped SLSA out there.

-Scott