Love At First Sight

Well, all "Mary Mods" to Amelia are complete. The plane is now flyable from either seat, by humans less than 5' 1" tall.
:D

Or 6' tall, as the case may be.

All service bulletins are complete, including the fuel pickup tube mod that took all day today, and sounded like the fourth level of Hades to perform.

Tomorrow the aftermarket axle and factory rebuilt autopilot servo goes in -- and then she's as perfect as can be. The 1400 nm delivery flight to the island (from MN) is slated for Tuesday.

Then, the real fun begins -- transition training! Yeehaw!
 
Jay Honeck said:
Well, all "Mary Mods" to Amelia are complete. The plane is now flyable from either seat, by humans less than 5' 1" tall.
:D

Or 6' tall, as the case may be.

All service bulletins are complete, including the fuel pickup tube mod that took all day today, and sounded like the fourth level of Hades to perform.

Tomorrow the aftermarket axle and factory rebuilt autopilot servo goes in -- and then she's as perfect as can be. The 1400 nm delivery flight to the island (from MN) is slated for Tuesday.

Then, the real fun begins -- transition training! Yeehaw!
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You best be investing in a GoPro so we can see how much fun your having. Any bites on Atlas?
 
AdamZ said:
You best be investing in a GoPro so we can see how much fun your having. Any bites on Atlas?
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A bunch of nibbles, no hard bites. One guy is trying to line up financing, but I doubt he will get far.

The aircraft market remains softer than a jelly donut floating in oil.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Well, all "Mary Mods" to Amelia are complete. The plane is now flyable from either seat, by humans less than 5' 1" tall.
:D

Or 6' tall, as the case may be.

All service bulletins are complete, including the fuel pickup tube mod that took all day today, and sounded like the fourth level of Hades to perform.

Tomorrow the aftermarket axle and factory rebuilt autopilot servo goes in -- and then she's as perfect as can be. The 1400 nm delivery flight to the island (from MN) is slated for Tuesday.

Then, the real fun begins -- transition training! Yeehaw!
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Tuesday is tomorrow. Let me know when to start tracking on Flight Aware. Are you still on schedule?
 
Originally Posted by Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe
You could fix and sign it off yourself.
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Jay Honeck said:
....Technically, no. Realistically, yes....
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Incorrect...Technically you can do all the mods and repairs on your EAB.

Realistically, without the proper training or skill set you maybe shouldn't...but you could.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Tuesday is tomorrow. Let me know when to start tracking on Flight Aware. Are you still on schedule?
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It won't be me flying, but the plane will depart Crystal tomorrow morning, enroute for KRAS.

Track N14EG.

Looking at the progs, I'm not optimistic -- but we shall see!
 
And...Amelia made it as far as Waterloo, Iowa before her brand, new alternator began displaying the same on-again/off-again behavior that the old one did.

Gee, think maybe it wasn't really an alternator problem? lol

Oh, well. Waterloo is a great place to break down, with good facilities. That's where we always took Atlas for avionics work, when we were Iowegians.

Hopefully it will be a short delay.
 
Hang in there Jay. I'm sure this is just killing you right now. It will be in your hands soon enough!
 
Jay Honeck said:
And...Amelia made it as far as Waterloo, Iowa before her brand, new alternator began displaying the same on-again/off-again behavior that the old one did.

Gee, think maybe it wasn't really an alternator problem? lol
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The classic (and even service bulletin classic) failure mode of on-off alternators is where the sharp edge of the diode plate (that's the large usually colored plate on the rear of the alternator) rubs through the insulation on a control cable and shorts the plate to airframe ground through the control cable sheath. Control cables in the vicinity are generally throttle, carb heat, mixture, or any of the cabin HVAC controls.

Just my 8% of two bits worth.

Jim
 
weirdjim said:
The classic (and even service bulletin classic) failure mode of on-off alternators is where the sharp edge of the diode plate (that's the large usually colored plate on the rear of the alternator) rubs through the insulation on a control cable and shorts the plate to airframe ground through the control cable sheath. Control cables in the vicinity are generally throttle, carb heat, mixture, or any of the cabin HVAC controls.

Just my 8% of two bits worth.

Jim
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Thanks for that.

I've had two previous airplanes with on/off alternator problems. Either it's me, or airplanes eat alternators a lot.

In both of those cases, it was a loose wire. That is apparently not the case this time, although I'm still betting on a bad ground somewhere.

I haven't heard any news, and I don't see him on Flightaware, so I presume he's still in Iowa..
:confused:
 
He's back up. One more chunk of crud to clear...

2egyjeha.jpg
 
Quicker. He's hitting 179 knots. :D

They couldn't find anything wrong with the charging system in Waterloo, but the alternator continued to pop offline going into Ft. Smith. Although he said it was fine the last 40 minutes.

My money is on a voltage regulator that fails when it gets hot. It's only $27, online. I just hope we didn't fry the new alternator.
 
Jay Honeck said:
My money is on a voltage regulator that fails when it gets hot. It's only $27, online. I just hope we didn't fry the new alternator.
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Or a breaker that has been overstressed once too often. Drag out the hair dryer and freon bottle to do a thermal stress test.

Jim
 
Hard to believe that an RV could have such a simple problem after hearing about all those mental giants who work on their own planes and can fix anything that's broke. :rofl:
 
I fully expected to see a "GONE FLYING" post appear in this thread by now, but alas, we are but an after though....

PUNCH HOLES, GOOSE! :yesnod:

(wait, is it Goose or did we settle on Gooseneck?)
 
We better have some pics posted here shortly. After the Spurs close out the Heat.
 
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wabower said:
Hard to believe that an RV could have such a simple problem after hearing about all those mental giants who work on their own planes and can fix anything that's broke. :rofl:
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Genuine mental giants know that there is a line of demarcation beyond which you call in better mental giants. Or at least ones who better understand the particular problem.

Otherwise, the bruises from pounding your head against a brick wall just get too painful...
 
weirdjim said:
Or a breaker that has been overstressed once too often. Drag out the hair dryer and freon bottle to do a thermal stress test.

Jim
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Wouldn't it be quicker to just replace it?
 
Jay Honeck said:
Technically, no. Realistically, yes.

Timewise, out of the question.

As long as he's got the plane apart, I'm having him do this sort of stuff. I won't like the bill, but it will be worth it.

Another example: I had him send one of the autopilot servos back to TruTrack to be rebuilt. It was indicating "Trim up" or "Trim down" all the way back from VT.

The altitude never varied, but it had no "null zone" where it was happy, so it would have driven us crazy. $250, just like that.

Like I said -- I hate airplanes. :rolleyes:
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Only 250? You do realize that's great, right????

I think we need a new unit
AMU=Aviation Monetary Unit = $1000
EAMU=Experimental Monetary Unit = $200 (estimated)
MMU=Miata Monetary Unit = $100 (just for comparison)

Getting a servo rebuilt on the Mooney once cost $2700.00.
 
kyleb said:
Genuine mental giants know that there is a line of demarcation beyond which you call in better mental giants. Or at least ones who better understand the particular problem.
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You mean including real mechanics who get paid for doing that stuff? I somehow missed all the homebuilt posts suggesting that anybody other than the owner was ever required for MX-related actvities.:p
 
She is the most beautiful plane I have ever seen. These pix simply do not do her justice. (Sorry for the screenshot. It's the easiest way to get pix into Tapatalk.)

Tom, our RV guru, arrives:

9e7e9epe.jpg


Atlas, meet Amelia!

uploadfromtaptalk1371614240082.jpg
 
weirdjim said:
In the biz that is called "shotgunning". Just shoot parts at the problem until one of them fixes it.
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Yep, I understand that (and thought about saying something about it in me post). And I usually don't like to do that, the engineer in me would want to know what part failed and why.

But wrt circuit breakers, I'm ok with replacing them after being tripped a few times. It's my understanding that circuit breakers are not designed for unlimited tripping.


weirdjim said:
The thermal test was for the regulator.
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Ah, I missed that.
 
Jay - how long did it take from the day you decided to buy an experimental to the day Amelia arrived at your hangar? I think I missed the thread where you decided, but I do recall you mulling it over.
 
weirdjim said:
In the biz that is called "shotgunning". Just shoot parts at the problem until one of them fixes it.

The thermal test was for the regulator.

Jim
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Depends, sometimes the shotgun is the economical solution. Not often the case with planes as the parts are some expencive but it does happen
 
Skylane81E said:
Depends, sometimes the shotgun is the economical solution. Not often the case with planes as the parts are some expencive but it does happen
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Downtime / loss of use for a biz jet is usually more costly then the part itself...:yes:
 
Jay Honeck said:
Quicker. He's hitting 179 knots. :D

They couldn't find anything wrong with the charging system in Waterloo, but the alternator continued to pop offline going into Ft. Smith. Although he said it was fine the last 40 minutes.

My money is on a voltage regulator that fails when it gets hot. It's only $27, online. I just hope we didn't fry the new alternator.
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Could you put a cooling fan in there?
 
N801BH said:
Downtime / loss of use for a biz jet is usually more costly then the part itself...:yes:
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Indeed, one of my teachers worked for a 121 operator, any fuel related issues with the engines got a fuel control thrown at it
 
AdamZ said:
Could you put a cooling fan in there?
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Most of the Rvs have a Van's or Plane Power internal regulated alternator. They need a blast tube to them to keep them cool. I had problems with my 7 until I did that and no issues since. Don
 
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