Crap! Something Else Broke

ScottM

ScottM

Taxi to Parking
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iBazinga!
I was just thinking this morning before I went to the airport that at least I finally got on top of everything maintenance and the plane is operating well. I mean I just finished a 16 hour XC without a single squawk!!

But flying home today something else broke. I set my DG to my compass heading just before takeoff. After lift off I saw it reading 60 degrees off of what it should. So I went to readjust, even on the climb I could at least get it close. Seeing how I was VFR I was not that worried but I did look over at the vacuum gauge and I had a good pressure. When I pushed in the adjust knob, nothing happened and I could feel that something was wrong with it.

It seems as though the adjust gear may have come off of the shaft and now the DG card is just spinning away. I guess I'll start looking at replacement costs to get an idea of what the worst case is going to be.

Sigh!!! :(:(:(

Just needed to vent.
 
Thank you everyone. I'm beginning to feel much better about my new ride. Sorry, Richard, I feel for you. BTDT
 
Lessee. This spring I did two cylinders. One Boot. Got one fuel leak stopped. I thought the AP quit but it just went on on strike in protest of an agressive single interception (~600 fpm to altitude hold in a high workload situation).

Over at the club, the 172RG had the nosewheel gear centering bungee fail and the shimmy damper clamp fail.

It never ends.
 
Scott. This one is easy.
Never, EVER say aloud (or even think quietly to yourself).."Boy, the airplane is has had so few problems lately." Do not think the words, with a happy smile, "Nothing has broken in sooo long!"
Any of these are the airplane's signal to self-destruct some expensive component.
It knows, it listens, it is telepathic. It is waiting for you to make this false step before it cracks that vacuum vane, swallows that valve, or starts leaking some precious colored fluid.
Shhhhhhh!!!!
 
bbchien said:
Lessee. This spring I did two cylinders. One Boot. Got one fuel leak stopped. I thought the AP quit but it just went on on strike in protest of an agressive single interception (~600 fpm to altitude hold in a high workload situation).

Over at the club, the 172RG had the nosewheel gear centering bungee fail and the shimmy damper clamp fail.

It never ends.
Click to expand...

Don't forget the push to talk switch on the Pilots side crapping out at Gastons.:rolleyes:
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Scott. This one is easy.
Never, EVER say aloud (or even think quietly to yourself).."Boy, the airplane is has had so few problems lately." Do not think the words, with a happy smile, "Nothing has broken in sooo long!"
Any of these are the airplane's signal to self-destruct some expensive component.
It knows, it listens, it is telepathic. It is waiting for you to make this false step before it cracks that vacuum vane, swallows that valve, or starts leaking some precious colored fluid.
Shhhhhhh!!!!
Click to expand...

ROTFL!!

That is soo true. I took up a friend once and he was starting lesson. I was telling him about the electrical system when the alternator failed. Another time I was up shooting approaches and was tlaking about my standby vac system when the vacuum pump failed.

I will never, EVER mention anything about structural failures :eek::hairraise::eek:
 
Might as well go ahead and replace that DG with an HSI. :<)

Seriously, I'd check around at the local avionics shops for a deal on installing a used Century 360.

Len
 
Len Lanetti said:
Might as well go ahead and replace that DG with an HSI. :<)

Seriously, I'd check around at the local avionics shops for a deal on installing a used Century 360.

Len
Click to expand...

I'd pass on the NSD 360. IIIRC if you check with almost any gyro house, they hate working on the 360. And with the gyro inside the panel instrument, it's not as well protected from the shocks of "firm" arrivals as the remote gyro on virtually all other HSIs. Finally I believe that many NSD 360s are not slaved, and that's something I wouldn't want to give up.

Given all the mechanical HSIs coming out for EHSI installs, I suspect you can get a nice price on a good used KCS-55 complete with a new remote gyro.
 
lancefisher said:
I'd pass on the NSD 360. IIIRC if you check with almost any gyro house, they hate working on the 360. And with the gyro inside the panel instrument, it's not as well protected from the shocks of "firm" arrivals as the remote gyro on virtually all other HSIs. Finally I believe that many NSD 360s are not slaved, and that's something I wouldn't want to give up.

Given all the mechanical HSIs coming out for EHSI installs, I suspect you can get a nice price on a good used KCS-55 complete with a new remote gyro.
Click to expand...

Some NSD 360s models are slaved and some are not...which, for me, is part of the attraction....the non slaved ones appear to be the least expensive from an acquisition cost perspective. Also, I've thought that the remote gyro and remote "compass" box for the slaving adds to the installation costs.

I know of a few NSD 360s in a fleet of Grumman rentals...they appear to have held up well.

With regards to shops hating to work on 'em...I hear that shops hate to work on Mooney aircraft as well but my mechanic always appears to have a smile on his face when I taxi in.

Len
 
Len Lanetti said:
With regards to shops hating to work on 'em...I hear that shops hate to work on Mooney aircraft as well but my mechanic always appears to have a smile on his face when I taxi in.

Len
Click to expand...

Are you sure it's becuase he loves to work on it or loves the frequency at which he gets paid? :) I've been told that mechanics would joke about being able to get another boat payment out of a Beech driver. Maybe that applies to the Mooney crowd too. :D
 
Could not find an exchange DG so I am sending mine out for rebuilding. The cost is a lot lower than I would have thought. :)

I did look into the HSI idea but decided that it was not worth the expense right now.
 
Finally got this all wrapped up. The overhaul cost $360 for the unit plus I wall have to pay some labor to the maintenance guys. They were really nice and had put in a temp unit for me while mine was out for overhaul.

So it looks like I am all back up and running for the trip to 6Y9 this weekend. I am glad I will ahve my DG too, the temp did not have autopilot capabilities and I was hand flying the plane all over the place. Normally not a bad deal but I had an IMC flight that would have been nice to use that feature.
 
Glad to hear you are back up again. I would suggest you NOT talk about anything related to your flight ever again so you won't jinx it.
 
JRitt said:
Glad to hear you are back up again. I would suggest you NOT talk about anything related to your flight ever again so you won't jinx it.
Click to expand...

Well it really took a while. After reinstalling the DG the autopilot would not work. The DG was pulled and sent back out but the instrument shop returned it saying to all worked fine. The autopilot had no problems prior to the DG going out so I had doubts that it really helped.

The mechanics did some continuity checks and all was well. So the brought in a aviatonic technician. It took a few weeks to get him on the shcedule and he proclaimed all was well, but a few hours later when I went to check it still had the same problem. The problem BTW was that the autopilot would not track the heading bug.

So we called back the avionics tech who swore up and down that everything was fine when he left. But we resheduled him anyways. It took another few days (10 to be exact) to get him on teh schedule and then he did not show up, he did come the next day and replaced a lot of connectors and the thing finally started working with the rebuilt DG.

I have not seen a bill but my mechanic was almost as frustrated as me and is usually pretty good about these things so I am confident he will be fair.
 
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