Annual Off to a Good Start

On 3/20/2007 4:06:14 PM, "Marco Leon" wrote:

Call them. The worst they'll say is "no" and you won't see them shaking
their head as they hang up the phone anyway

I did. What I quoted was pretty much the gist of the conversation.

--
Peter

On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:55:33 -0600, Newps wrote:


Somebody tell me again why a rubber bladder is a bad deal? At any time
you can get leaking rivets and cause yourself some heartache. Didn't
you just have some kind of tank repair not too long ago? I put in a new
bladder and I don't touch that tank for 30 years.

So what is the price of admission to watch you "put in a new bladder"?

Next question would be what is the price for a new OEM Bo' bladder?

TC

One of my favorite "you won't believe what they found in my airplane"
stories is that of a guy who kept hearing a clunking noise inside the wing
of his 182 when he flew with less than 1/2 fuel. It turned out to be the
2x4 that the bladder installer left as evidence of just how "easy" they are
to button down.
Jim

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:55:33 -0600, Newps wrote:


Somebody tell me again why a rubber bladder is a bad deal? At any time
you can get leaking rivets and cause yourself some heartache. Didn't
you just have some kind of tank repair not too long ago? I put in a new
bladder and I don't touch that tank for 30 years.

So what is the price of admission to watch you "put in a new bladder"?

Next question would be what is the price for a new OEM Bo' bladder?

TC

On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:03:46 -0500, "Jim Burns"
wrote:

One of my favorite "you won't believe what they found in my airplane"
stories is that of a guy who kept hearing a clunking noise inside the wing
of his 182 when he flew with less than 1/2 fuel. It turned out to be the
2x4 that the bladder installer left as evidence of just how "easy" they are
to button down.
Jim

Lot of Aztrucks flying around with a blind rivet in the center of the
groups of four rivets that secure the little brackets that the
bladder button clips into. Usually just on the ones that are farthest
from the access/close-out plate.

Have never drilled a "virgin" one myself, but allegedly have r&r'ed
some rivets that were already there.

The theory is to snake a piece of safety wire done through the skin,
through the bracket, through the loop in the button, back out the top
following the same route. Pull on the wire, the clip goes into the
bracket...

There are a couple on 182's that are a serious PITA.

TC

Sounds interesting for sure. All of our bladders were replaced during the
last few years prior to our purchase. I'm going to look closely for the
blind rivet heads.
Thanks
Jim

Sounds like everything is going well! Glad the engine is tight and the fuel
tank problem was easily repaired. Did you get hit by the Superior cylinder
AD as mentioned below?

Nope, we have once again dodged the latest of the dreaded engine ADs.
With our O-540 I have felt like the guy who has been told to "Dance!"
by the bad guy in the black cowboy hat, every time I get one of those
official-looking letters. So far, they haven't hit me!

:-)

Our leak saga continues. I had purposefully let the bottoms of the
wings get dirty for the last several months, so that we would be able
to easily track any fuel leaks/seeps back to their source. Yesterday
I found evidence of a larger leak than the ones we had fixed in the
main tank, which were obviously just seeps.

As you may recall, the first evidence of our leak (other than a faint
odor in the cabin when you first opened the door) was when Mary
spotted the rubber wing-root seal hanging down, fattened and gooey
from gas exposure. My wrench and I have puzzled over this, since the
leaks we had found (and fixed) seemed to be too small to cause this
type of damage.

So, while I was under the plane cleaning out the central drain filter
(the 235 has a central "pee-drain" in the belly, like the Cherokee 6),
I carefully tracked down every stain. With the wing-root inspection
fairings removed, and a mirror, I was able to spot a tip-tank hose
fitting that showed evidence of leakage.

My A&P proceeded to dislocate both his wrists getting a couple of
wrenches on that fitting, and was rewarded with an easy 1/3 turn to
make it tight. He is of the opinion that this was our main culprit,
and that by tightening that fitting we have resolved the last of the
fuel issues. I sure hope so.

We've fixed some other nagging problems. In the cabin, on the front of
the back seat (where the calves of your legs rest) is a control that
allows us to "pee" the gas tanks out of the belly drain. This is
covered with a cheesy plastic panel, with an even cheesier metal door,
retained by an even cheesier spring. This thing is so bad that there
is an AD on the door, because EVERYONE catches it with their feet
getting in the back seat. (You can't just remove the dumb door,
either, since without it you could conceivably have a passenger catch
his pants leg on the pee-drain control lever itself, which would cause
you to dump all of your fuel overboard in flight...)

On each flight I tell my kids "Be careful of the fuel door" -- but it
still gets broken. We have repaired the damned thing (with JB Weld)
at every annual since we bought Atlas, but it's such a cheap design
that this year I asked my mechanic -- a champion homebuilder -- to
invent a better mousetrap.

So, he looked at it for about 30 seconds, went over to his metal
press, and started cutting aluminum. 20 minutes later, I had a legal,
metal-reinforced plate holding on a MUCH stronger metal door. We
then spray painted it to match the interior, and voila! Hopefully, I
won't be screwing around with that little bugger again.

(Doug Vetter, if you're reading this, IMHO this is an example of the
type of repair your A&P could have done with your battery box, and
saved you $700.)

My A&P also reinforced the tail-cone screw attachment points by
putting in a "ring" of aluminum down the line of screw backing
plates. No more metal backing plates screwed into brittle plastic!

Here's a true but all-to-common sad tale of my owner-assisted
annuals: As I was reinstalling the gas tank (by finger screwing in
the 3.2 million stainless steel screws that hold it in the wing) all
was going well -- until the VERY LAST SCREW. That one just fell in
the hole, and would NOT tighten.

This couldn't possibly ever happen on the FIRST screw, or even the
20th screw -- it HAS to be the last one. So, I had to take them all
out, jostle the tank a bit, and start over. Story of my
life... ;-) (I'm just glad I had only finger-tightened them. If I
had driven them all home, I'd have committed hari-kari on the spot...)

Today I'll put the interior back in (all was well there, just needed
some cleaning/lubing of the control pulleys, as always), and button
Atlas up. Other than the fuel leak, this has been a really easy
annual.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Antisieze seals the thread from further corrosion and does wonders for
the next time they have to be removed. Stainless screws especially
need this treatment, as they too will corrode in the presence of
aluminum.

Thanks for the tip!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I'm ready for a nap after reading that.
Don't ya just hate it when the very last screw "screws" you? BTDT many
times.
Would have putting Clecos in the tank screw holes helped you line them all
up before starting the screws?
Jim

I replaced a bladder a year ago. 42 gallon tank in the left wing. Bo
bladders cost the same as Cessna bladders of similar gallons when you
buy from the three main aftermarket sources like Eagle or Floats and
Fuel Cells. No idea what Beech charges, probably horrendous. But
nobody buys a bladder from Beech or Cessna. That would be stupid,
they're buying them aftermarket, why pay the up charge? Labor for a Bo
is less than on the 182 I had by several hours. First reason is because
you are standing on the ground and not always going up and down the
ladder. Second is all the snaps are easily reachable. Third all the
connections are easily accessible, no dissasembling the headliner to get
at the sender, etc. Fourth the tank is easily removable. How do you
get a Cherokee tank out? Derivet? Remove a wing?

wrote:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:55:33 -0600, Newps wrote:

Somebody tell me again why a rubber bladder is a bad deal? At any time
you can get leaking rivets and cause yourself some heartache. Didn't
you just have some kind of tank repair not too long ago? I put in a new
bladder and I don't touch that tank for 30 years.

So what is the price of admission to watch you "put in a new bladder"?

Next question would be what is the price for a new OEM Bo' bladder?

TC

On 3/21/2007 11:29:54 AM, Newps wrote:

I replaced a bladder a year ago.

Thanks for providing your experiences. I had been thinking that the only
major issue I had left to encounter with my Bonanza (after replacing the
engine, overhauling the prop, and various avionics repairs) would have been
fuel bladder replacements. It seems from reading your narrative that it is
not quite as bad as I had envisioned.

--
Peter