What to look for - bringing an aircraft back to life

"Blanche" wrote in message
...
I'd wait on the pitot-static check until after the annual. You may
find lots of hoses and tubing that needs to be repaired/replaced which
requires another pitot-static check, wasting $200-300.

In fact, I'd wait until after the annual to do anything. The
annual should provide the "shopping list" what needs to be
replaced/repaired.


I'm having them look do the pitot-static check done because they have a
slot, and most if not all the hoses in that system are new. I dropped by the
log books to have them make the entries for the audio panel (replaced a
KMA-12 that had seen better days) and asked about the pitot static since I
knew it would have expired. I don't expect any problems in that department,
and if any are found, I'll have something to squawk when doing the annual.

As for what should be done...do you have the checklist from
Piper (in the maintenance manual, table III-I, Inspection Report).
That will be the starting point. You may want to have each item
on the seven pages evaluated.


That's one thing I do have. When we bought the plane two years ago, it came
with the maintanance manuals and the parts-list binder, which are handy to
have. I will look this bit of information up and make sure we follow it.
Thanks for pointing this out!

Who's doing it? Someone at BJC?


I was thinking of Mountain Air or possibly Legacy. My C152 is maintained at
Mountain Air and they seem to do a decent job. If it was flyable, I'd also
think about taking it up to Akron, as the guys at Hayes Aviation have always
treated me quite fair. The main thing is who has an opening in their
schedule, as I'd like to get things done within the next couple of weeks or
so. I'll then take it up to Greeley and put it in a hangar up there (we're
in the process of buying a home a bit south of RWY 34 at GXY) with the 152.

I'd be more concerned with looking for nests and other damage by
rodents, insects, birds, etc., since I once saw a plane that sat in a
hangar unflown for a couple years whose ailerons' movement were
severely restricted due to mud dauber (mud wasps) nests build inside
the wings on the control bellcranks. There were also rodent nests and
chewed wires in the aircraft.


It was in a hangar most of those two years, and I have gone out an checked
the plane during the time it's been on the ramp. I was mindful of this
because my C152 was nested by some wasps over a weeks time last summer.

Being a retract twin, I'd also have it put up on jackstands and make
sure all the landing gear mechanicals and electricals are in perfect
condition. I'd want to see the gear flawlessly perform a couple dozen
cycles while the aircraft sits on the jacks just to make my wallet
feel better before flying the plane.

When I get it annualed, the mechanics will hook it up to an external
hydraulic pump and we'll cycle them a number of times for both gear and
flaps. I was actually wondering how this was done without running the
engines, as you can do it with the hand pump, but figured it wouldn't be the
same. Mechanics called the external pump a mule? or some such animal, cannot
remember now. I guess it's a pretty standard thing to do when the gear is
hydraulic. The other thing I need to do some research on is the STC for dual
hydraulic pumps, as the Aztec only has one on one engine by default truly
giving it a critical engine.

--
Louis L. Perley III
N46000 - C152
N370 - PA-23-250

Couple of things that need to be done prior to the annual and most
importantly prior to even starting the engines......

1. Fresh oil change and at least 20 minuets on an external oil pump
for pre-oiling or if using a pressure type pre-oiler, then 10 fill
and drain cycles.


Will be doing this with the mechanic.

2. Battery replacement or charge check. If it won't hold a charge then
replace it.


Already ordered replacement batteries, I'll throw the old ones away. I
figure this is cheap insurance/preventative maintanance.

3. Gear swing and rig check and lube. Do it by the book and no
shortcuts....


I'll do this with the mechanic hooking up the aircraft to an external pump.
I've also planned on replacing the tires for the same reasons as the battery
above.

4.Power up the aircraft with external power and do a good sniff check.


I need to find someone who sells the plug for a Piper. I have one for the
Cessna, but it's a three prong, flat plug and the Piper one is round. One
nice thing about the Piper is that it's only 14 volts, so powering it via
the external plug is easier.

Once you've done this then fire up the engines and do some taxi
testing and get ready for the annual.


Will do.

--
Louis L. Perley III
N46000 - C152
N370 - PA-23-250

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 21:39:10 -0600, "Louis L. Perley III"
wrote:

I'll then take it up to Greeley and put it in a hangar up there (we're
in the process of buying a home a bit south of RWY 34


Hope its up wind from the farms.

P U.

z

The aircraft and I are based
at Jeffco (KBJC) in Broomfield, CO. I am really looking forward to
taking
a
flight in this aircraft, as I've owned half of it for 2.5 years and have
never flown it. I've seen those in the group who have been, or are in
partnerships, however the whole mess surrounding this one has made such
an
idea in the future somewhat unpalatable.


I missed the messy partnership story. Could you provide a brief recap -
hitting the high ...or low points? Thanks.

Also, you convinced your (plural) partner(s) to sell. And (they) agreed. -
yet you owned half of the plane? How many partners were there? Did you end
up getting stuck for half of the fixed costs?


Well, the story, even in short form is pretty long because of the time
and people involved, but the short version that explains one of the main
reasons is as follows. I setup a company for the sole purpose of owning the
aircraft. I was a 50% shareholder, with the remaining 50% divided up equally
among three other parties. One party worked for a Part 135 operation, the
other was a multi-engine-Instructor rated pilot and A&P, with the third
being my former instructor for my PP-ASEL. From a corporation standpoint, I
was the president and secretary (since I knew what to do with the paperwork,
etc.) with the other three being the VP of operations, VP of maintenance,
and VP of instruction respectively. Overall I thought that together we put
together a pretty good mix and had all our bases covered. The problem came
when the VP of maintenance started the annual. It took forever, with many
promises as to when it would get done and it never getting finished. My
problem was that since the company was more or less 50/50 (did I mention the
fact that the VP of maintenance is married to the VP of instruction, who is
the daughter of the VP of operations?). Anytime I'd try and get something
done, it was countered by the other three (usually with promises of "You
don't need to do that, we'll get the annual done"). After trying this for
two years, I finally got fed up and had a maintenance shop on the field
begin an annual. In my mind, it was coming out of my pocket, so it shouldn't
have been an issue, and all would benefit. It was not viewed this way by the
other three who called the mechanic and ordered him to stop immediately. The
shop didn't want to get involved and so stopped working on the airplane. I
called a meeting to discuss and was again promised two weeks to complete the
aircraft by the VP of maintenance. Well, two weeks passed and while there
was more work done on the airplane, it wasn't completed (and to this day
hasn't been), and it took the rest of the summer to work on getting
everyone's agreement to buy them out. There is alot of detail missing from
this brief explanation, but if anything is to be learned by others from my
experience, is to never leave a partnership/corporation in a state where
there could be a deadlock. I always figured that to get something done, I'd
only need to have one other person agree with me and we'd have the vote to
do so. Or conversely I figured if the other three were in agreement, that I
should concede based on their additional experience compared to my own in
such things. Well, such is life and now I know better.

--
Louis L. Perley III
N46000 - C152
N370 - PA-23-250

"zatatime" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 21:39:10 -0600, "Louis L. Perley III"
wrote:

I'll then take it up to Greeley and put it in a hangar up there (we're
in the process of buying a home a bit south of RWY 34


Hope its up wind from the farms.

P U.

z

Spoken like someone who knows the area I've been out there a number of
times and haven't noticed any latent odor from the feedlots in the area.
It's only 5 minutes outside of town, but it feels a lot more remote than
that. I live closer to Jeffco now, but it actually takes more time to get
from my home to Jeffco than it will from our new home to Greeley Weld. It's
also amazing the cost differential from a storage perspective. I'll have my
aircraft in a heated hangar up there for what it costs me to tie-down at
Jeffco.

--
Louis L. Perley III
N46000 - C152
N370 - PA-23-250

Louis L. Perley III wrote:
"zatatime" wrote in message
wrote:

I'll then take it up to Greeley and put it in a hangar up there (we're
in the process of buying a home a bit south of RWY 34

Hope its up wind from the farms.
P U.

Spoken like someone who knows the area I've been out there a number of
times and haven't noticed any latent odor from the feedlots in the area.

My problem is I always "detect" them before I see them!

(Craig) wrote in message news:

Couple of things that need to be done prior to the annual and most
importantly prior to even starting the engines......

1. Fresh oil change and at least 20 minuets on an external oil pump
for pre-oiling or if using a pressure type pre-oiler, then 10 fill
and drain cycles.

2. Battery replacement or charge check. If it won't hold a charge then
replace it.

3. Gear swing and rig check and lube. Do it by the book and no
shortcuts....

4.Power up the aircraft with external power and do a good sniff check.

Once you've done this then fire up the engines and do some taxi
testing and get ready for the annual.

Craig C.


And see how old those fuel and oil hoses are. Ten years is the
outside limit, and five is more reasonable. They get brittle and crack
with age and can cause some serious second thought.
The oil filters should be checked after a couple of hours
running. Running the engines on the ground a few times puts a whole
lot of moisture into the case and causes acid formation and corrosion.
If the bearings/journals and pistons/rings have been roughed up by
corrosion there might be metal in the filters.

Dan

And see how old those fuel and oil hoses are. Ten years is the
outside limit, and five is more reasonable. They get brittle and crack
with age and can cause some serious second thought.
The oil filters should be checked after a couple of hours
running. Running the engines on the ground a few times puts a whole
lot of moisture into the case and causes acid formation and corrosion.
If the bearings/journals and pistons/rings have been roughed up by
corrosion there might be metal in the filters.

Dan

I plan on replacing all the hoses and such, again, as a preventative
maintanance type thing, it's a bit more cost for quite a bit of insurance in
my line of thinking, plus if I get it done now, it shouldn't be an issue for
the next few years.

On ground running the engines. I thought that as long as you ran them on the
ground long enough to get them up to operating temperature then it wasn't a
problem? Something about getting the oil hot enough to evaporate the water
or something. Is this just simply incorrect information?


--
Louis L. Perley III
N46000 - C152
N370 - PA-23-250

"Louis L. Perley III" wrote:

On ground running the engines. I thought that as long as you ran them on the
ground long enough to get them up to operating temperature then it wasn't a
problem? Something about getting the oil hot enough to evaporate the water
or something. Is this just simply incorrect information?

Fifteen years ago, that was conventional wisdom. Now, you'll get lots of argument
about it.

As for getting the oil hot enough to evaporate water, on my Lycoming O-320, getting
into the green arc won't do the trick. You need to get the temp at least half way up
the scale and keep it there for 15 minutes or more. I can tape over my oil cooler and
manage to get it there on the ground in July or August, but the rest of the year,
ground operation won't get the engine hot enough.

Further, running the engine at all puts acids into the oil from a combination of
blowby and condensation. Unless you immediately change the oil, that acid is going to
sit in your engine. Of course, if you don't run it much (as you didn't), you won't
get much acid buildup, but it's still a problem. It's really best to just pickle the
engine if it's going to sit.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.