My Purchase Adventure

[Adam Frisch]

Great stuff - and a grass landing as well!

[donv]

Awesome! Congratulations!

[ghancock]

Thanks and yes, it is great to have her home finally.  I was hoping to go fly again yesterday but wanted to check her out good before I did.  The prop spinner bulkheads have slipped against the props again due to a warn spacer that I need to order and now have to remove the props to replace.  The front nose wheel steering cylinder is still leaking due to a fitting that I'm getting today.  The right starter is dragging and I'm ordering a rebuilt one today and the right mixture is so far out of whack the engine quit on my first landing.  It sputtered all the way home so literally being the first take off and first landing in that airplane (ever) I was a little scattered by the time I got her on the ground in Thomaston after an hour long journey.

I walked around the airport for about 20 minutes after putting 80 gallons into her.  That blew me away, 80 gals for 1 hour flight.

I am unable to lean the airplane at all because the left engine quits if you touch the mixture and the right engine was coughing all the way home.  The plane flew great though and I can see why everyone loves these things.  I'm going to get these few things fixed this week if I can get all the parts and have her flying again by this weekend (hopefully).

My camera went dead on the tail rig before I could land at 7 Lakes (2900' grass strip) but I'll have it on my next flight so will get a few shots of it.  The really cool thing was the airport had its annual meeting earlier that day that we missed due to you know, being out flying.  But everyone knew we were bringing the Commander in so they all hung around and watched.  The runway had cars and people all the way up like we were important :-)  I wish it was like that everyday. :-)

We removed the plugs and redid the compression tests and all of the cylinders were above 75 except one that was 71.  So at least we're good on that front.  Spoke with Morris and he's sent me pictures of his wrenches for adjusting the mixture so we're reading up on that process and hope to get that done this week as well.

Will open a new thread going forward to capture the eventures.. :-)

Glenn

[donv]

Does the pressurization work, or is that something you are going to hold off on for a bit?

[ghancock]

Well, according to the shop it works but I'm waiting to get the plane 100% before I start in on that side.  I installed 2 new fittings on the steering cylinder last night and got the leak there fixed.  We also pulled the prop last night and I took lots of pictures and plan to do a video on how it comes off and goes back on just so we have it for the future.  I'm currently waiting on Morris to see if he can find the bushings I need to lock the bulkheads into place.  The right one has moved so far that the bulkhead itself is smashing into the props now. 

My next project is tomorrow night I'll be replacing the starter on the right engine and will document that as well.  Already done it a few times so nothing major there.

Once that is done I'll start in on the throttle control problem and getting the mixtures set properly.  Then I should have her back in the air for the first takeoff on the grass strip.  This will be the step that I've been worried about. She's full of fuel but I'll be the only one on board so hopefully she performs like the books says.  If so we'll have no problems at all.

Stay tuned.

Glenn

[ghancock]

Update:

All skydrol leaks appear to be fixed and the new fittings are holding solid.  I tried out the pressurization system the other day and it seems to be working as well, although I've only got one pump working at the moment and may need to replace the one the shop worked on.  Going to try to bleed it in the next few days and see if I can get it going.

I had to pull both props and replace the bulkhead cones that keep it in place.  While doing so neither prop was torqured properly (required no effort to remove either one)!  Anyway, we replaced the cones and have run a couple hours since and nothing has moved so hoping that issue is gone for good.

The right starter was removed and a new one purchased but it ended up not being that.  So I kept the new one and put the old one back on so I have a backup now.  We then turned to the generator possibly making the noise but after removing it and purchasing a rebuilt one it ended up not being the issue either so I now have another backup :-)

I noticed the right prop governor cable was loose and got to looking and noticed that it actually only had 2 threads left where it passes through the rear firewall that obviously wasn't inspected.  None of the cables were oiled and the mixture control arms were both out of adjustment and were not moving from stop to stop.

We've made up new cables and installed them today and the cables were all oiled.  Also changed the oil just to be safe as I wasn't sure things were done properly and just wanted to be sure.  Probably wasted good oil but after all that I've been through I trust no one.

The heater smokes up the cabin when you turn it on so hoping the mechanics will get to look at that this week.  They are currently working on the heater on my 310 as it looks like I will have to fly that to Idaho next week.

I hope to get the mixture on the right engine adjusted this week as well and take her out for another spin. 

I've purchased a Garmin 530 Waas to get installed in a couple weeks and during that will be moving some things around on the panel.  Really looking forward to this because it will get the plane equal to my 310 and more comfortable for me to start flying regularly.

I've still got a number of smaller issues I'm working through as quickly as possible but most of the big stuff is being tended to this week.  Sucks that I've spent the last 3 weeks fixing stuff on an airplane that spent its first 7 months in a shop, but the more I get to work on her the more comfortable I'm feeling.

One note for those of you that fly these birds.  After having to oil my own cables I noticed that on both wings where the cables route from the wheel wells into the fuselage, every cable was covered with rust and didn't seem to have ever been oiled by anyone in a very long time.  The channel they run through is impossible to see into without a scope and oiling anything inside there is very difficult to do, which is why I'm sure they were ignored.  However, you might want to stick a scope in there and do your best to oil them down.  There are no access panels so you have to try to get at them from the one end.

Anyway,  I've got some videos on removing and installing the props that I plan to upload soon and things are going pretty well with the plane.  I'm not looking forward to replacing the hydraulic pump on the left engine but if the priming doesn't fix it that will be done soon.  Everything else seems to be coming along nicely and hoping to get her off the ground again by Friday.

Here is the latest video on departing and landing at our 2900' grass strip if you didn't catch it on the other thread.

http://youtu.be/aulhbOKzzmQ

Glenn

[Bruce Byerly]

That is a great sound! Fun to watch the MLG work - they have such a smooth action.

[ghancock]

Figured I'd keep this going until I get it flying for real.

So I have everything almost ready and my tug shows up.  I hook it to the front and try to move the plane and nothing happens.  The tug isn't working.  After some research I figure out that it should be working so something else must be wrong.  The brakes are locked up on the which explains why my huge mower has been having issues moving it.

We take the brakes off to see if it is pressure or something else.  When Montgomery Aero in Athens TN rebuilt one of the calipers (which I purchased new), they used the wrong o-rings (which were too large).  That did not stop them though from putting clamps or hammers into play and just forcing them together.  This split the o-rings in half, jammed the pistons into place and locked everything up so that the pistons, once forced onto the wheel for braking, could not release pressure to allow the wheels to roll.  All pads are worn out and explains why we were getting smoking brakes in TN.

This is where it gets safer though, instead of fixing the issue the shop left all of the bolts that hold the calipers together loose so that things had more room to move around.  They had no safety wire on either side and I literally unscrewed the bolts with my hand.  When contacted about this they insured me that they had torqued everything which is where I asked how they accomplished this due to one of the bolts being completely stripped out.

Anyhow, we installed the correct o-rings, put the pistons in the lathe just to test things before ordering new ones and got the entire thing operating as it is supposed to.

The only thing I have not had to work on that the shop supposedly fixed is the floor and guess what I'm doing now?

I guess the good news is that I've had to redo the entire annual fixing things the shop missed so I know my airplane inside and out now :-)

Here are some pics.  The first shows the oring sliced and half sitting down inside the piston chamber.  The second shows the piston scared up where they jammed it into the caliper and it is missing its ring because they screwed it up during initial install.  Then you have metal from the piston floating around due to them forcing it in without aligning it properly.  Lastly, that is not 2 o-rings but 1 that was split in half during install.  All 4 o-rings were split perfectly in half and completely intact all the way around.  Just shows how much force was applied to install the pistons.  Oh and one of the Insolators was missing from the top of one of the pistons so it was metal to metal between piston and brake ring.


FUN STUFF!   $700 worth of parts I just ordered to fix it, that I'll never get back from them.


Glenn

[SKYFLYER]

WOW!!! you should have a look at the main gear linkage and make sure both sides are not damaged from the wheels being locked up on landing.. It is criminal what this shop has done or not done as it were...
You really need to file a formal complaint with the FAA and get a record on the shop's license as well as the A&P that did the work...

[ghancock]

I am actually working on that as we speak.  I'm done even talking to them because they lie to me everytime I ask them a question.  Or if they are not lying they just don't know what they did and didn't do.

Very frustrating situation.

Glenn

[Stephen Matusick]

Glenn, I've been gone for a bit, but I come back to this I'm glad she's home with you- and indeed now that you are going through her completely(again!!!) you will certainly know your way around! May you have good luck once she is settled.

Steve