AX-O
Well Known Member
You have heard it before, you will hear it again. I am familiar with the concept and have used it. In fact, before my first flight, I had about 8 folks look at "Dilemma" before the DAR inspection.
Last week I identified that I had a leak on the manifold side due to the engine having troubles idling and the MP only going down to 13 inches vice approx. 10 inches during idle. The plan was to remove and replace all my gaskets on my fuel servo and intake tubes because everything else was fine. Not really a hard job but time consuming. A buddy (nameless to protect the innocent) wanted to come down and spend the day talking planes. So I told him ?you can come down but we are working?.
As we are going over the plan of attack we kneel down next to the motor and he pulls one of my MP lines and it falls out on his hand. As Homer Simpson would say, "Dohhhhh". How embarrassing!
This particular line had a number 2 aluminum hard line flared and connected to an AN fitting on one side then a ?plastic? type line over the OD of the aluminum line going towards the MP gauge. The aluminum line remained inside the AN B-nut but the flare was completely separated. So from the outside looking at the line/fitting it looked fine. We ran a rubber line directly from the engine MP pick up to the MP gauge and the plane idled fine. I later replaced all my lines with new rubber lines. His trip saved me a few hours? worth of work and head scratching.
The story does not end there. As my bud filled his aircraft with fuel I was looking at the trailing edge of his flap where it meets the fuselage (as we all do when we are trying to figure out how you will work on your own aircraft). I noticed that his flap had a small crack starting to form on the trailing edge most likely due to the flexing caused by when the flaps are retracted and they meet with the fuselage. I pointed it out to him and he was not aware of the issue.
So, the moral of the story. Have someone look at your work periodically and volunteer to do the same. When you identify something make the owner/pilot aware of the issue in a tactful way so no one?s pride gets hurt. And at the end feel good about the fact that you helped your bud be safer, you mitigated an issue, and potentially reduced EAB accidents in general.
Go check your MP lines and flap trailing edges.
Last week I identified that I had a leak on the manifold side due to the engine having troubles idling and the MP only going down to 13 inches vice approx. 10 inches during idle. The plan was to remove and replace all my gaskets on my fuel servo and intake tubes because everything else was fine. Not really a hard job but time consuming. A buddy (nameless to protect the innocent) wanted to come down and spend the day talking planes. So I told him ?you can come down but we are working?.
As we are going over the plan of attack we kneel down next to the motor and he pulls one of my MP lines and it falls out on his hand. As Homer Simpson would say, "Dohhhhh". How embarrassing!
This particular line had a number 2 aluminum hard line flared and connected to an AN fitting on one side then a ?plastic? type line over the OD of the aluminum line going towards the MP gauge. The aluminum line remained inside the AN B-nut but the flare was completely separated. So from the outside looking at the line/fitting it looked fine. We ran a rubber line directly from the engine MP pick up to the MP gauge and the plane idled fine. I later replaced all my lines with new rubber lines. His trip saved me a few hours? worth of work and head scratching.
The story does not end there. As my bud filled his aircraft with fuel I was looking at the trailing edge of his flap where it meets the fuselage (as we all do when we are trying to figure out how you will work on your own aircraft). I noticed that his flap had a small crack starting to form on the trailing edge most likely due to the flexing caused by when the flaps are retracted and they meet with the fuselage. I pointed it out to him and he was not aware of the issue.
So, the moral of the story. Have someone look at your work periodically and volunteer to do the same. When you identify something make the owner/pilot aware of the issue in a tactful way so no one?s pride gets hurt. And at the end feel good about the fact that you helped your bud be safer, you mitigated an issue, and potentially reduced EAB accidents in general.
Go check your MP lines and flap trailing edges.