Mag drop---no-go?

[Tom-D]

Re: the cessna 195 I bought which was not as advertised. Among other problems was a miss that showed up sometimes on run up. The mechanic at home base..said...l." Aw ....l.it just needs runnin, it's just fine!" I climbed it to 4000 feet above the runway and after a bit , flew it to a much better mechanic. After searching for an hour he took the ring off the engine which housed the wiring harness. (It had been sold to me this way ) the harness literally fell out in pieces , ( 1953 harness!) it was shot. Trust no one and find a mechanic that knows what he's doing. Some do not.

Let's flip that coin.. You bought it that way .

Explain " fell out in pieces"

Here is what he's talking about, just in case one has never seen a harness.

 

[Jimmy cooper]

Let's flip that coin.. You bought it that way .

Explain " fell out in pieces"

Here is what he's talking about, just in case one has never seen a harness.

Yes I did buy it that way......after a lousy mechanic who professed great radial knowledge did a prebuy. ( the same one that told me it was "ok, just needed flying.) the excellent mechanic called and told me he had saved the old one and when I got there it was not back together with the old one laying on the floor. The insulation was shot in places , inviting a short. It's a wonder it flew as well as it did. Two spark plug connectors broke off as he removed them. After I had the plane for a time I easily separated the know it all ( also a drunk I found out) from the well trained, very sharp mechanic, but it proved an expensive lesson.

 

[deyoung]

Either, because of the fact that you went ahead and flew the airplane knowing there was something wrong and are showing that you will ignore problems OR he knows you have an outstanding airplane that is never in need of repair. I'm leaning in one direction.

Alright, that's fair. In my defense I'll say that I'm still relatively new at this and learning how to evaluate how serious a given problem might be, but I'm willing to get slapped around a bit if I can learn from it in the process.

(And to answer the original point, my A&P has actually seen it quite a few times since the annual and will again this month for a list of little things, but there are always more...)

In this particular case, I replaced all the spark plugs and haven't had the problem since. I haven't gone through all the old ones with an ohm-meter yet, but will, since I'm curious.



"How do you make good decisions?"

"Use good judgment."

"How do you learn good judgment?"

"Make bad decisions."