roadrunner20

roadrunner20

Well Known Member
I incorporated my first conditional inspection with new paint.
Total time = 66.5.

Plugs showed running rich. Adjusted mixture on engine.
Superior normally sends out their engine on rich side.

Replaced brake pads
Approximately 150 landings.
I suspect this was due to the long taxis from hangar & qty of landings during phase 1.

Replaced right side O-Ring on brake cylinder.
Began seeping just prior to conditional.

Fuel filter clean, no debris found.

Oil usage: 1qt oil/9 hours
Oil filter, no metal found.

Fuel usage average 7.1 gl/hour, last 25 hours using 93UL

Otherwise, all control systems and fwf was as installed.
No change, no abrasions..., clean airframe.

Back to flying over the last 3 days to test post conditional.
Glad to have it back after being grounded for the last 5 weeks to prep for paint and inspection.

I plan on doing another conditional in December to avoid having any down time during such a great time to fly here in Florida.
 
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The Brakes

The brake pads on an "A" should be changed every year for safety margin. You haven't lived until you wear the pads down so far that the "O"-ring no longer seals and it lets the fluid leak out and you do a ground loop out of your parking spot. My bet is you did not need an o-ring unless you cut on the edge of the cylinder. Make sure you get the correct o-ring specified by Cleveland. Van's sells the correct part but Aircraft Spruce makes a substitution that is not approved by Cleveland and it is not the correct size - it will leak. I have gone through this with Cleveland and Aircraft Spruce but as Nevil Shute says in Round the Bend "You can't argue with stupidity".

Speaking of that I have my share of it. A couple of good fellows on this web site told me to use the rudder for taxi turns and I just couldn't accept it. I just knew that you had to turn the "A" models with brakes when you are down to taxi speeds. Well guess what... I was wrong. It is amazing how slow you can taxi and still turn an "A" model with the rudder. I am now doing my taxi turns with rudder whenever possible and saving brake pads I'm sure but I will still change them every year at least. They are cheap compared to a failure.

Bob Axsom
 
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Mel said:
You didn't mention new weight & balance. (Necessary after paint)
Click to expand...

My plan is to do the W&B after I apply the decals next weekend.
My original W&B was 1034 without gear/wheel fairings.
I don't really see the paint adding much weight on the few items painted.
We'll see.
You guys don't miss a thing. I'll report the difference once complete.
 
Bob Axsom said:
The brake pads on an "A" should be changes every year for safety margin. You havent lived until you wear the pads down so far that the "O"-ring no longer seals and it lets the fluid leak out and you do a ground loop out of your parking spot. My bet is you did not need an o-ring unless you cut on the edge of the cylinder. Make sure you get the correct o-ring specified by Cleveland. Van's sells the corect part but Aircraft Spruce makes a substitution that is not approved by Cleveland and it is not the correct size - it will leak. I have gone through this with Cleveland and Aircraft Spruce but as Nevil Shute says in Round the Bend "You can't argue with stupidity".
Click to expand...

I was really surprised I needed brake pads after 1 year.
I ordered Cleveland O-Rings from Aircraft Spruce but bought one at Napa for .75 cents. This enabled me to fly this weekend. Visually, I thought the old O-Ring looked good. Applying the new one, I knew immediately it would seal.

With this first conditional inspection, you begin to realize you need to begin to stock maintenance items vs building parts.

I'm starting to stock items such as:
brake pads, with rivets, o-rings...
 
Mel said:
You didn't mention new weight & balance. (Necessary after paint)
Click to expand...

Speaking of weight & balance....

I once drilled numerous holes in one of my 6A's precast elevator lead weight's to balance the elevators. Then covered the holes with fiberglass resin.

Yesterday and today, I drilled out the fiberglass; drilled offset holes to keep new molten lead in place; and added 5 oz. of "new" lead to balance out the new paint.

Initially, the elevators were balanced seperately. Once has a trim servo. Today, they're balanced as a unit, since I had no desire to add new lead to both sides.

So............ if you're flying un-painted, keep in mind, that the elevators are going to need some re-balancing before you muff up that new paint job :D

BTW-- I packed ice water laden rags around the counter-balance arms to protect the paint from the hot lead. Since the lead cools rather fast, I don't know if the rags were needed or not; but the paint came out okay!

L.Adamson
 
Ok, I can't bite my tongue any longer! It's not "conditional," it's a CONDITION inspection. You inspect the condition of the airplane. Sorry, but for me this is just a pet peeve like its/it's or their/there.

i.e. from our typical Operating Limitations:

"No person must operate this aircraft unless within the preceding 12 calendar months it has had a condition inspection performed in accordance with the scope and detail of appendix D to part 43"
 
dan said:
Ok, I can't bite my tongue any longer! It's not "conditional," it's a CONDITION inspection. You inspect the condition of the airplane. Sorry, but for me this is just a pet peeve like its/it's or their/there.

i.e. from our typical Operating Limitations:

"No person must operate this aircraft unless within the preceding 12 calendar months it has had a condition inspection performed in accordance with the scope and detail of appendix D to part 43"
Click to expand...

Sorry Dan, I guess I stand corrected "Conditional vs Condition". Must it be in uppercase as well?
I thought I was contributing information that others would find useful.
 
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So let's do it the CHECK-O-WAY! OK............ good thatz done.
..........but we still like you Dan...
 
I was wondering if I was the only one dan (C).......now, as a good moderator, you can edit the title of the thread!

Dan (L).....great report by the way, and don't let a little good-natured ribbing bother you....For some reason, the Condition vs. Conditional always grates on me too - I guess it's cause "I is an Engineer", and we like things precise. It's like...."so what is your inspection conditional ON?"

OK, so now can we get people to stop "transitioning" airports?! I hate it when people try to change airports into something else while they are flying over them.....I have no problem with them "transiting" them if that's what they want to do....or flying a "Transition" as part of an instrument aproach....;)
 
As long as we're being "picky"...

dan said:
Ok, I can't bite my tongue any longer! It's not "conditional," it's a CONDITION inspection. You inspect the condition of the airplane. Sorry, but for me this is just a pet peeve like its/it's or their/there.

i.e. from our typical Operating Limitations:

"No person must operate this aircraft unless within the preceding 12 calendar months it has had a condition inspection performed in accordance with the scope and detail of appendix D to part 43"
Click to expand...
It's "No person SHALL operate this aircraft....."
 
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...and while we're at it, it's (proper use of the apostrophe, I think) a lot, not alot.

Mark

and brakes stop planes, and planes break, right?
 
Mel said:
It's "No person SHALL operate this aircraft....."
Click to expand...
Mel,

That looked funky to me as well (I thought it should be "may"), but it's a direct copy & paste from my operating limitations. :eek:
 
DanLandry said:
I incorporated my first conditional inspection with new paint.
Total time = 66.5.

Plugs showed running rich. Adjusted mixture on engine.
Superior normally sends out their engine on rich side.

(snip).
Click to expand...

Dan, I'm a little confused by this.

I understand what "rich" plugs look like, but what do you adjust to change that?

Wouldn't you just lean more for cruise?

Do you ground lean for taxi?

I have adjusted the idle mixture to get the 50 RPM rise when I pull to idle cut/off, and I have swapped fuel injectors to get all 4 cylinders to peak at more or less the same point, but I'm not sure what you would adjust on an airplane engine to change the appearance of the plugs.
 
TALK ABOUT SERVICE!

Hey Dan,

Don't sweat the small stuff.

"Conditional or condition" inspection, wow, that's heavy stuff. Part of this business is deeling with verious and soundry bureaucrats who like t's crost at the corect angel and i's dotted presicly with no missedspelling.

The important item here is you are looking at your airplane and most concerned about the safe operation of it.

Beyond all that, you motivated me to take an early look at mine which is due one of those inspections next month. The brakes and tires definitely need changing so at 12 noon yesterday I got on the internet with Desser. At 10:30 this morning, FedEX came by with a box from Desser out of Memphis. What a deal and free shipping to boot!

My wife thinks we live in the boonies but that simply isn't true when it comes to Desser and FedEx. :)
 
Maybe ACS sold you the right parts

The NAPA o-ring may be the correct size. ACS was making an "equal or better" substitution that is common in industry but the substituted Mil-Spec o-rings have a different crossection dimention than the Mil-Spec o-ring specified by Cleveland Wheel and Brake. When I installed mine they leaked. I ordered the correct o-rings from Van's and the worked perfectly. Beware.

Bob Axsom

DanLandry said:
I was really surprised I needed brake pads after 1 year.
I ordered Cleveland O-Rings from Aircraft Spruce but bought one at Napa for .75 cents. This enabled me to fly this weekend. Visually, I thought the old O-Ring looked good. Applying the new one, I knew immediately it would seal.

With this first conditional inspection, you begin to realize you need to begin to stock maintenance items vs building parts.

I'm starting to stock items such as:
brake pads, with rivets, o-rings...
Click to expand...
 
DanLandry said:
I was really surprised I needed brake pads after 1 year....
Click to expand...

Yes, that is a little short on time.

You could have a problem with dragging brakes due a restriction with the in and out sliders of the brake system.

One set of my pads is worn down to the rivet head, the other had a 1/16" of an inch to go. It could be I use the left brake more or it is slightly restricted in movement due to the aluminum tube loop around the strut and not completely released with no brake pressure. I am going to rebend the tube slightly. These pads are 4 years old and have at least 500 landings. Same for the Air Hawk tires. They still have tread but are replaced and with "no-leak" tubes, which cost more than the tires. I hope they hold air. We find out.
 
flyeyes said:
Dan, I'm a little confused by this.

I understand what "rich" plugs look like, but what do you adjust to change that?

Wouldn't you just lean more for cruise?

Do you ground lean for taxi?

I have adjusted the idle mixture to get the 50 RPM rise when I pull to idle cut/off, and I have swapped fuel injectors to get all 4 cylinders to peak at more or less the same point, but I'm not sure what you would adjust on an airplane engine to change the appearance of the plugs.
Click to expand...

I adjusted the spring loaded mixture setting on the engine mixture linkage. 1/2 turn did the trick.

Yes, I do lean for cruise to LOP, and lean for taxi.
 
I modified the original post to read "Condition".

I won't make that mistake again, although, "Conditional" seem to be more semantically correct. Or maybe, "Annual"?
 
DanLandry said:
I adjusted the spring loaded mixture setting on the engine mixture linkage. 1/2 turn did the trick.

Yes, I do lean for cruise to LOP, and lean for taxi.
Click to expand...

OK.

I was taught to adjust that setting so that there was a 50 RPM rise at idle as you pulled from full rich through peak EGT (to ICO). I thought that only affected the idle mixture.

Since you have full manual control of the mixture when the throttle is open, why not just change your operating procedure? It would seem of the plugs are loading up, that you may be spending too much time with the mixture full rich.

I'm not picking (I'm not an mechanic) but I'm curious. The only times I have ever seen aviation plugs that looked "too rich" was during engine break-in, when running dead rich at high power settings for hours at a time.
 
DanLandry said:
I modified the original post to read "Condition".

I won't make that mistake again, although, "Conditional" seem to be more semantically correct. Or maybe, "Annual"?
Click to expand...

Annual is more correct but there is a problem in that only a certificated mechanic can do an annual inspection as per Part 43.

Repairmen are authorized to do a condition inspection. It's the same inspection as an annual, just called a condition inspection because of repairman certificate limitations. Both should be done in accordance with Part 43, Appendix D.
 
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You are inspecting the condition of the aircraft. Therefore "condiditon inspection". Are you inspecting the conditional of the aircraft? I hope not.

I usually sign them off as: I certify that this aircraft has been inspected I/A/W an annual Condition Inspection... blah blah blah
 
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