Fortuitous Failure?.

[Ironflight]

I hate it when things break on the airplanes, but we all REALLY hate it when things break on a trip! Today was a good reminder that if you are planning on your big annual trek to Oshkosh, it might be a good idea to do a little local flying and some systems and airplane checks to make sure everything is ready to go.

I am headed out on a flying trip tomorrow to visit some companies and fly some airplanes ? the trip will end up with Airventure so I?ll be on the road for two weeks. The Valkyrie is the plane of choice for this trip for a number of reasons, and since I had a bunch of things to get done today to get ready to be gone, Louise volunteered to run it over to Carson City to fill it up with fuel so I can leave for points east before sunrise tomorrow. When the phone rang about twenty minutes after she left, I figured we had trouble.

?The starter is just whirring?? she said over the phone, having filled up and hit the starter to head home. Now about two months ago, I had the same thing happen, removed the cowl, and gave the solenoid a tap with a hammer. All was well after that, and I simply forgot to put this on my maintenance list. Since it is only a fifteen minute drive over to Carson, I grabbed a couple of tools, took the almost-new starter off the RV-6 (which has the cowl off for a baffle upgrade), and headed her way ? she was going to uncowl and give the hammer tap a try.

Ian Murdock and his ?Mighty Hammer? (You call that Mighty?!) to the Rescue!


Sure enough, by the time I got there, she had rounded up Ian Murdock (Dayton Murdock?s son), gotten the cowl off, and done the magic tap ? and the engine turned over great. But, since the cowl was off, and the starter has 1800 hours and nine year on it?.and I am headed out on a long trip and had the spare along, we figured ? why not change it? We taxied over to Dayton?s hangar to find some shade, and of course, we had to remove the alternator to get to one of the bolts. No matter ? good company and an extra hour?s work, and the airplane is ready to travel.

The moral? You can fix just about anything on the road, but it is SO much easier to do it at home, so if you are headed on the long trip to Aviation?s Mecca, and you have a nagging maintenance issue, you?ve got a little less than a week to get after it. Some failures can be fortuitous!
(We?re going to replace the 1800 hour SkyTec LS that came on the engine with a Sky Tec NL ? that?s? what is on the other two airplanes, and fleet commonality is always nice. I?ve had great luck with the LS?s, but like the shear pin on the NL.)

Paul

[RV10inOz]

PD

That is sound advice indeed.

We operate our -10 with a near 100% dispatch rate. If something even hints at trouble it gets fixed straight away.

The only time we had a no go was an electric boost pump that failed. I was able to steal one from a friend and depart next day, but even that was awfully frustrating at the time.

I know some folk are happy carrying items for a while?..but not me.

Great post! Have a great trip to OSH?.We leave next Friday

[sprucemoose]

Of course, if you do have to break down on the road, OSH is about the best place on the planet to do it. Between Emergency Aircraft Repair volunteers, all the major vendors being there plus a few thousand fellow builders milling about, there ain't much that can't be made right.

[RV6_flyer]

I started earlier this month doing the shake down for the OSH trip. Glad your fix was easier than mine. Had 80/80, 67/80, 80/80 and 79/80 hot with air coming out the carb. I found a burnt intake valve in my ECI Titan Steel cylinder after about 700 hours. With the cylinder off, also found the chrome coming off of the top compression ring. New exhaust guide, new valves, cut seats, lapped valves, new rings, honed cylinder, and bushed rocker arms later, everything is back together with Phillips 20-50M in the engine for ring break in.

Ground run and break in was text book. At about 6 minutes (0.1) on the hobbs after takeoff, I saw the cylinder temp of cylinder #2 drop 18 degrees to just 2 degrees warmer than cylinder #1. At 1.5 Hobbs hours, I landed with all engine parameters similar to what they were before the cylinder valve problem.

I also have had a few Skytec starter issues like you. I have a spare solenoid that I carry with me just in case. The present starter has about 700 hours on it and has eaten two solenoids so far. About ready to bite the bullet and buy a better starter.

[David Paule]

At a fly-in, I saw a Fleet biplane with this stenciled on the coaming:

"Almost getting there is half the fun."

Dave

[scard]

Ahh, yeah. Thanks for the message. I had to explain the concept of how we achieve "our" acceptable rate of "dispatch reliability" to Cookie a number of years ago. This is how it goes, a team with a kick in the pants to not forget about that little question... It isn't fixed without hours of proof.

[Walt]

Originally Posted by RV10inOz

PD

We operate our -10 with a near 100% dispatch rate. If something even hints at trouble it gets fixed straight away.

The only time we had a no go was an electric boost pump that failed. I was able to steal one from a friend and depart next day, but even that was awfully frustrating at the time.

I know some folk are happy carrying items for a while…..but not me.

I'm with you RV10 Oz, perhaps it's my airline training but I'm a firm believer that 100% dispatch reliability is achievable and anything less is just unacceptable. If I even have a hint of a problem with something the part is replaced or repaired at the very next opportunity.

9 years and 1400+ hours later I'm happy to say I've not had a single maintenance related issue while "on the road".

A good sound maintenance schedule and not waiting for things to totally fail before addressing them is the key to success. Almost all components that are getting ready to give problems will give you some indication of impending doom, but you can't ignore the signs.

For example I just got done with a major panel upgrade, my airplane relies heavily on electrical power as most do, even though I have 2 alternators I sent the main B&C alternator off for overhaul because I felt it was time to have a look at it at 1400 hrs even though B&C says they are good to TBO and it was working perfectly. I try not to wait for things to fail, if they reach what I consider to be a reasonable time limit they come off and get overhauled or replaced BEFORE they start causing problems.

[rph142]

Funny you bring this up... This will be my first trip to Oshkosh and longest cross country by far. I've had a rough idle and a "cool" cylinder for a little while now so I decided what better time to dig into it. Upon removing the cowl I discovered tell tale blue dye around the intake tube gasket! Ten dollars worth of gaskets later and the engine hums like new at idle and has uniform cht's.

[woodmanrog]

If you want to see what really can go wrong with an airplane on a long trip, read my wife and her partners blog about this years Women's Air Race Classic. It really turned into an adventure.
here is the blog address:
www.clouddancers.us

[1flyer]

I remember back in the day when I was an Engineer on C-141's, most of the starter valves (air) had dents from light hammer blows used to free-up the valve so we could start the engine. Must be something universal about starters and hammers.