Day 5… Maintenance Day (aviation circle jerk)
Today was spent working on the bird. Most of the work was easy to take care of but time consuming. This is turning out to be a great shake down cruise.
Replace the Trio autopilot. I had inadvertently installed a A/P with old beta test software in it (I did a lot of development testing for Trio) and it was acting a bit flaky. They sent me a loaner overnight with the latest production software installed. What a great company. The dash had to come apart, but it gave Lee a chance to check out the wiring…fixed
Number 1 EGT probe was working but intermittent. I tracked it down to a connector that needed to be snugged up…fixed.
The lighting system need to be modified. I had hooked up a micro-switch wrong so the Aero LED lights weren’t functioning quite like I wanted…fixed.
Finally. the Lightspeed ignition was removed from the plane. It involve taking off some panels and a bit of interference, but it quickly came apart. When I built the plane, I was concerned about future maintainability so most everything can be easily taken out for repairs.
After pulling the cover of the electronics module, I found a power diode had split in half . This is why I had the burning smell and why the fuse did not blow. Interesting. I’ll be sending it back to the company for repairs as it is a very easy fix.
What an interesting day. Lee worked on Don’s plane (fixing a radio issue), I worked on Pat’s plane, Don worked on Lee’s plane. An aviation circle jerk.
I could go no further so Lee and I took off for home to see if UPS delivered the new ignition system and dinner. Ya!!! the system arrived. It’s late in the day and we are going out for dinner and margaritas, and home for a bottle of wine and some stories. The wine was gift from Ed and Sue Richards who gave it to me at RR for me giving them a prop after their plane hit a turtle on their runway on take off. It was HUGE, almost 18″ across. About like hitting a bolder with the plane. The turtle broke the nose wheel off, which went through the propeller breaking part of a blade off. The poor guy was eventually found with a big hole in it’s shell. I told Ed he should have saved it and mounted the shell and the prop on his hangar wall… unfortunately he had thrown it away. What a story….
Alcohol, aviation and good friends make for great stories.
