Well it was obvious (to anyone that has flown on the Gulf Coast for a lot of years) that it wasn't going to be a great day to get airborne. Low clouds to start, and sure, they'd lift to maybe 1500, but along with strong gusty winds...yuck! OK if you had to go somewhere, but otherwise...a good day to fix those "little things" (Besides, I flew over three hours yesterday...)
Yesterday when putting the -8 away, I noticed that one of the rivets holding the air intake "seal" fabric had pulled out of the airbox - again! This meant pulling both upper and lower cowls. Not a big deal, but not something I want to do on days I plan to fly, so this was a good one.
Well, of course when I got the cowls off, I noticed a couple of little oil drips - time to tighten up the hose clamps on the oil return lines (114.7 hours now). That wasn't too tough with the right screwdriver, and holding your tongue just right...Got all the little drips cleaned up, and she was spotless again!
Next, I noticed a little crack in the fiberglass intake "extension" - the part that you build up yourself to match the air box. I guess I didn't get enough layers of glass on there when I fab'ed it. No problem - just time. Cut an inch and a half strip of glass, mixed one squirt of West Systems, and wrapped it with two layers....
Gee, can't put that right back on...Oh yeah, I wanted to check the alternator belt! Yup, it had stretched a little since new - time to tighten it up. Of course, I had safetied the upper and lower bolts on the adjusting arm together, so I had to reach way up there under the baffling to re-do the upper one. Wouldn't have taken too long, except for three visitors (no one was flying)who wanted to kibbitz...but OK, got the belt adjusted, and the visitors approved the safety wire...
I guess I could clean the belly...I have figured that since it isn't painted yet, why clean it too much? Grady will have to do a total clean-up before paint in May...But I have already noticed some very, very tiny dots of white on the leading edges - very small corrosion sites - this salt air and high humidity can be nasty! I don't want to put any polish or wax on, since that'll make the paint job clean-up that much harder. I guess I'll just keep an eye on it. I've seen much worse!
What else...Oh, that's right, I had started out to fix that pop rivet! Well, the wide-heads I had were too short (the problem in the first place), so I used some longer pops with washers on both sides. That took five minutes - and of course, the epoxy hasn't set up yet, so close up the hangar and head home for some weekend chores.
Three hours later, another drive to the airport - cleaned up the new epoxy, buttoned up the cowl, listened to the AWOS...no, 15 gusting 28, 60 degrees to the runway is just not worth it....Gee, it's spring break week, not much on the schedule - maybe a day trip will present itself!
Paul
Yesterday when putting the -8 away, I noticed that one of the rivets holding the air intake "seal" fabric had pulled out of the airbox - again! This meant pulling both upper and lower cowls. Not a big deal, but not something I want to do on days I plan to fly, so this was a good one.
Well, of course when I got the cowls off, I noticed a couple of little oil drips - time to tighten up the hose clamps on the oil return lines (114.7 hours now). That wasn't too tough with the right screwdriver, and holding your tongue just right...Got all the little drips cleaned up, and she was spotless again!
Next, I noticed a little crack in the fiberglass intake "extension" - the part that you build up yourself to match the air box. I guess I didn't get enough layers of glass on there when I fab'ed it. No problem - just time. Cut an inch and a half strip of glass, mixed one squirt of West Systems, and wrapped it with two layers....
Gee, can't put that right back on...Oh yeah, I wanted to check the alternator belt! Yup, it had stretched a little since new - time to tighten it up. Of course, I had safetied the upper and lower bolts on the adjusting arm together, so I had to reach way up there under the baffling to re-do the upper one. Wouldn't have taken too long, except for three visitors (no one was flying)who wanted to kibbitz...but OK, got the belt adjusted, and the visitors approved the safety wire...
I guess I could clean the belly...I have figured that since it isn't painted yet, why clean it too much? Grady will have to do a total clean-up before paint in May...But I have already noticed some very, very tiny dots of white on the leading edges - very small corrosion sites - this salt air and high humidity can be nasty! I don't want to put any polish or wax on, since that'll make the paint job clean-up that much harder. I guess I'll just keep an eye on it. I've seen much worse!
What else...Oh, that's right, I had started out to fix that pop rivet! Well, the wide-heads I had were too short (the problem in the first place), so I used some longer pops with washers on both sides. That took five minutes - and of course, the epoxy hasn't set up yet, so close up the hangar and head home for some weekend chores.
Three hours later, another drive to the airport - cleaned up the new epoxy, buttoned up the cowl, listened to the AWOS...no, 15 gusting 28, 60 degrees to the runway is just not worth it....Gee, it's spring break week, not much on the schedule - maybe a day trip will present itself!
Paul