Ta all. Hawarden, the Airbus wings factory which is about 5 miles from my new employment base. I live in Sussex and commute up and down weekly so I hope to be able to avoid the M6 / M25 idiocy once in a while. ( Perhaps summer next year, well aware of my limitations at the moment! )
Wish I could do more maintenance, seem to have a penchant for getting oily or fitting bits and pieces.
@Nimbusgb wrote:
Wish I could do more maintenance, seem to have a penchant for getting oily or fitting bits and pieces.
If you own it as a physical person and operate it non-commercially, you can do it under the provisions of M.A.803 (EASA Part M). The scope of work you can do should be specified in the aircraft maintenance programme, though. In the first approximation, you can easily get approved to perform maintenance up to 50-hour checks.
Thanks Nomad.
I’ve been reading up on Part M. Aircraft is coming with a fresh Annual and ARC so at least I’ll have 50 hours to get up to speed.
Now acquiring some of the extra bits that I’ll need. Spare headset, A decent GPS and a cabinet to put in the hangar! Considering getting an 8.33 radio fitted while it’s in for its Annual.
:)
The 50hr check is easy. You need to be reasonably competent mechanically, and have a good engineer show you some tricks.
You also need to get yourself a toolkit. Spark plug torque wrench and the right socket, a spanner for the top nuts, oil filter wrench, a socket set (imperial), wirelocking pliers (get good quality ones), etc. A while ago I wrote a long list of tools, with URLs, for somebody and would post it but don’t have it anymore. LasAero.co.uk sell most of it. And a toolbox (a plastic-edged one is better). Ideally you carry the kit all the time, or at least the basic tools.
A jerry can to drain oil into. I would also do oil analysis, especially on a plane with previous owners.
Some tasks may be a de facto 2-man job e.g. on the TB20 you cannot get the lower cowling off on your own without damage. Plus the prop spinner needs to come off first.
Doing the 50hr checks yourself saves you a huge amount of money. And it teaches you to look out for issues, well before the Annual. For example when the plugs are out you can check for cylinder head cracks, easily visually. It also much reduces downtime; many owners put the plane in for the Annual and get it back 2 months later, partly because the company didn’t start ordering the bits they need until they get the plane.
Thank, great advice.
Over the years I’ve rebuilt a couple of cars, done an extensive yacht refit and quite a bit of work on sailplanes so tools are something I’m not short of! I work on the principle of ‘buy the best you can afford’ and it’s unlikely you’ll need to replace them. Some bits of kit go back 30 years or more including a pair of cleco pliers that I bought to build a BD-5 kit ( a loooooong, looong time ago in a galaxy far, far away as the saying goes ). ( I sold it before completion as we’d just had our first child and some of the test flight stories were bad. Pity the lightweight turbines of today just weren’t available. )
I do have a small borescope type video camera that has been incredibly helpful in looking in to very small recesses, might come in handy for cylinder inspection, I have used it to inspect the inside of the boats 7000 hour plus diesel donkey. Another handy tool is a Pela oil extraction pump. helpful to get oil out of sumps and into a container without making a mess.
I also have a recalcitrant 21 year old son if required to hold any cowlings …………. if i can get him to take his hands out of his pockets for long enough that is! :) :)
FWIW, here is the tool list I did for somebody a couple of years ago. Hope the URLs still work…
Oil filter cutter. This outfit is probably the best way to buy a good quality one
http://www.lasaero.com/site/products/article?id=Y038UQGET
Any maintenance shop should have this capability, but you need to trust them that they will actually do it. I know for a fact that sometimes this doesn’t get done.
Here is a video which shows how NOT to do it (using a hacksaw which puts a load of metal inside the filter).
But basically you cut through the paper element so it can be spread out on a newspaper. Any debris gets caught in the outside surface of it – so a lazy person can just inspect it by pulling apart the “gills” without doing any cutting of the paper element.
You also need to sort out a toolbox, with some essentials:
Other bits include the standard green dishwashing scourer pad for cleaning up the prop leading edge, spark plug thread lube, and of course Grease 7 which does nearly everything on a plane.
For lubing universal joints in control linkages (which cannot be dismantled) ZEP45 is one of the better products (not WD40 
).
For windows, use Plexus and a 99p Tesco facetowel 
which is totally absolutely guaranteed to not have been dropped on the ground. Similarly the aircraft cover must never contact the ground (with its underside surface and preferably not at all).
Nimbusgb wrote:
In my true tradition of going ‘all in’ I have acquired this little starter.
Oh well… Congratulations to you anyway.
Laughing so much it hurts…..well, best of luck Arne….eventually, when you close the deal, in a decade or so, you won’t regret it a second…. but your wallet might…;-)
