Starter Troubleshooting & New Windows Arrive

I said I wasn't going to post again until closer to annual, but I did make an attempt to see if I could troubleshoot the starter.  I figured if there was some obvious wire that had come loose or had yeeted itself from its solid state that maybe I could reattach and it be good to go.  Since I had a plane that started great one flight, and then not at all in a matter of a single flight, it seemed like a worthwhile reason to go up to the Airport.  

I removed the top cowling, which is something I've never done before, so I was somewhat nervous with this.  I've had a battle with cowling screws since many of mine are non-standard, but I parked my 4Runner next to the plane and lined them all up as I removed them, including the non pointy metal screws that attach the cowling near the prop hub.  From there I removed the cowling and placed it in the back of my car.

A far less sexy "boys and their toys" photo

I started by investigating the battery by unclasping the top.  Nothing obvious there - the battery looked newer and the terminals did not appear to be corroded.  Plus the battery seems to be working fine, so I moved on.  

No I'm embarrassed, but I had to watch a YouTube video to identify the starter and solenoids.  When I did , I traced their wires around looking for anything obvious.  Nothing.  Near the battery the wires are all bunched together, and while the larger cord going to the starter appeared frayed, there was no evidence of separation.  I kinda prodded at the connection points to see if anything looked loose - like a guy trying to look like he knows what he's doing, but nothing stood out to me.  It had been recommended that I take a voltmeter to the electrical relay, but I don't really understand electronics, so I I figured that could be left to the A&P.  

After fiddling with things, I secured the cowling, including adding some of the correct cowl screws I had purchased.  Some fit the holes they were intended for, while other holes could only be secured by the original screws.  All told, I only have one cowl screw hole that isn't secured due to the hole being too large to fit any screw I had on me.  

Just for S&Gs, I did try to start the engine after sumping the tanks just to see if my rattling around of things made any difference.  It did not - still nothing.  No clicks, no chugs, no sounds of any kind.  Still seems like an electrical issue, but the plane will remain grounded for now.

Funny enough, the windows I ordered arrived about a week after I ordered them.  So much for "leave 2-3 weeks."  

Door windows have arrived

Box arrived in good shape and I pulled the windows and channel trim out to check for damage.  Everything looks good.  There is the possibility that I could install these myself with a bit of drilling and some light rivet work, per the videos out there.  I'll have to think on that as I have a work trip that will have me out next week.  Would be great if the plane could go in after that, but we'll see.

Starter Issue & New Windows

Took my son who is interested in a career in aviation to the airport on Sunday after his rowing practice for a quick flight to BQ1 for a $100 BBQ lunch at the on-site airport there.  I let him do the preflight with my guidance so he could learn a bit about the airplane.  Everything looked good, and I had the plane topped off before we arrived, which gave us 1 lbs of extra useful load on a low density altitude day.  Went to fire her up and ... nothing.

The flaps operated as usual, and the battery was showing a normal voltage level, so I don't think the starter is the issue, but rather the electrical connections.  The plane started up great the last two flights, but three flights ago I did have a start that resulted in a quick noise and then nothing.  Started just fine on the second attempt, which leads me to believe there's a loose wire somewhere.  Unfortunately, my A&P is swamped and won't be able to get to it for 2-3 weeks (so three weeks) when the plane goes into annual.  Asked the 150 boards if there are some troubleshooting things I can do until then and am waiting to hear back.

In the meantime, I decided to purchase new door windows for $300.  Since they take 2-3 weeks to manufacturer (so three weeks), I figured it was probably wise to go ahead and make that investment now so they're ready for when the annual comes around, rather than the A&P telling me it needs new windows and having to wait an additional 2-3 weeks for them to arrive.  The ones on the plane were identified in the pre-buy as being excessively glazed, and they are.  Spotting traffic through them is enough of a challenge that I want them swapped out, but didn't feel that it needed to be done at pre-buy.

So for now, she's grounded again.  Will follow-up with a post if I get a solution to the starter issue, but otherwise ... see you in probably three weeks.

MX Investment Check

With 4TV set to go into annual in a few weeks, I wanted to put together a list of MX to date, including work done in Indiana following the pre-buy, the prop overhaul, and fixing a few other things that have popped up.  Here's the exhaustive list thus far:

The grand total thus far is $7,461.  Since $3,000 was taken off the sales price to account for pre-buy items, that really equates to $4,461 in unexpected expenses - the biggest of which was of course the prop overhaul at around $2,600.  That at least is an investment that provides some incrimental values since it reset the prop overhaul clock, however, giving more value to it.  I did also forget to include the $600 deposit on my annual in this, but I'll add it to the overall annual expenses later.

Right now I have a mostly working airplane.  The nose gear shimmy is now gone, but we're going to have the pins replaced during annual since they're old and need servicing.  I'll need to replace the right side nav light since I found it INOP on my last flight.  There will be somewhere south of two hours of labor to install the tailBeacon as well.

As for the annual, I have my fingers crossed that it comes in under $5K.  The annual itself will cost $1,200 (including the deposit I made).  I'm expecting the biggest item to be the install of a doubler where the seat rail attachment is due to cracking the A&P found when he poked around my plane when it arrived.  He thought it was reasonable that the pre-buy A&P didn't see it since he knows to look for it given his work on the flight club's 152s.  Not a safety issue, but something he said would keep it from passing his inspection.  Estimating two days of labor for it, so about $2,000 is what I'm expecting.  

Lots of upfront costs, and more than I expected ... but if I get out of this annual with no major issues that will ground the airplane, I'll consider that a win as it'll allow me to start looking at avionics and other upgrades.

Right Seat Shenanigans

4TV had some work done to the nose gear, including adding some shims and servicing of the shimmy dampner.  The pins need to be replaced, but that can wait until the annual along with a few other things.  After waiting for the nose gear work I took the plane up today after work to test it out, and also to try my hand at right seat flying in preparation for the CFI.  

I had flown from the right seat once before - really just to do one landing, and it wasn't pretty.  That was years ago in an Arrow.  I have considered getting a CFI to ride left seat to help me transition, but figured since it's my airplane, I'd go ahead and give it a shot to see how tricky it would be.  The answer: VERY.

First time in the right seat did not go so well

Taxiing from the right seat seemed a bit off, but not too bad.  Departure was strange, but manageable, although I discovered I had way more right rudder in than necessary for some reason, which I presume is the sense that my nose is off center to the left from this new perspective.  Climb out and cruise were ... fine.  It didn't feel super comfortable, and I found I had to reference the instruments way more than normal to ensure that I was in the proper attitude.  I did have a moment where I realized that if I had an engine loss and needed to put it down, that it wouldn't go as well as it would if I were in the left seat.  That made me wonder if doing this solo was a good idea.

Two days later I procurred a 160 lbs CFI to sit in the left seat.  He's someone qualified to actually provide instruction for the CFI -Initial, so I'll likely use him for that.  With 15 gallons of fuel onboard, we were under max gross by about 10 lbs.  Plane flew well, though - climbing between 400-500 fpm at Vy.  Right seat felt a bit better this time around, and my landing at SCR was better too.  There were slight gusts coming from about 20-degrees off the nose, but even still it went OK, which was better than the day before.  We did some maneuvers at altitude and discovered that steep turns are best done at 2,500.  When we tried to do them higher than that, I couldn't seem to get enough power to hold altitude.

Came back to TTA and did another landing - this one also went OK.  Still have some work to do, but I do feel a bit better flying right seat solo now than I did after that first time.

uAvionix tailBeacon It Is (for now)

 According to my spreadsheets, I had spent about $9.3K on 4TV since purchase.  $4.8K of that was the initial maintenance after pre-buy that I had $3K knocked off the price for.  $434 was prop removal and cleaning the axles on the mains.  About $2.6K was for the prop overhaul, and $600 was the deposit for the annual.  So in total, about $8,400 on maintenance items specifically.  It's a lot - not a surprising amount, just more than I had expected to pay this early on - with only 8 hours actually logged flying the airplane.

So when it comes to upgrades, I'm trying to be smart about those costs and do things incrimentally when possible.  For all of the ADS-B options I had detailed, the taiBeacon ADS-B Out is the best option right now.  Although I've seen them for around $1.5K-$1.7K lately from private sellers, Gulf Coast Avionics is actually running a sale on their uAvionix gear.  That meant that the Tailbeacon could be purchased for $1,985 with free shipping.  Given that I'm still paying down these unintended expenses, plus I'm anticipating upwards of $5K for the first annual, it would otherwise not be wise of me to put another $2K on my credit card for ADS-B when I don't absolutely need it.  Fortunately, Gulf Coast has a financing arrangement, and I took out the 12-month loan on it since it has no early payment penalty.  If the annual goes badly, I at least have 12-months to pay it off.  If it goes REALLY badly, I can sell the tailBeacon for 75% of what I bought it for to recoup some of that loss.

Will have the uAvionix tailBeacon installed next week

The tailBeacon arrives on Friday, and my A&P is going to have the plane in the shop sometime next week to look at my nose gear, so I asked if he could just install it then, and he agreed.  

While I wasn't too worried about flying without ADSB-Out since I had IN, the sale, combined with the opportunity to finance it, shifted my perspective.  With so many students out there relying on the fishfinder to look for traffic, it does provide great piece of mind - and will allow me to drop into the Class C airports near me.

Of course I can't go onto the uAvionix site without daydreaming about potential panel set ups.  Consistent with my intermittent upgrade strategy, I do like the idea of installing an AV-30 for the AI and an AV-20 at some point in the near future when finances allow it.  Having the AV-30 in place will help if my transponder poops the bed at some point, as I can then upgrade to the tailBeacon X and use the AV-30 to operate the internal stransponder.  As I mentioned before, I don't love the AV-30s transponder control interface, but my real priority here needs to be shedding weight since my 13-year old son is only going to be adding weight in the coming years.

So my hypothetical avionics plan right this moment, before something major screws it up, is:

1. Add tailBeacon ADS-B Out
2. Add AV-30 AI
3. Add AV-20
4. Upgrade to tailBeaconX
5. Add AV-30 DG & remove vacuum system
6. GPS?

Which got me thinking ... the AV-30 benefits from a magnetometer installed in the wing, and the AV-20 benefits from a temp probe.  So what if I just bought those accessories and had my A&P install them when the plane is torn apart for annual, eveven if the associated instrument insn't onboard?  One trusted source on the forums seems to think that's a good idea so far, but need to talk to my mechanic.

Also, I spent $42 from Aircraft Spruce to buy the cowl screw kit for the 150.  My screws were disappearing, and it was clear the previous owner used random ass screws of varying lengths.  In an effort to avoid my cowl flying off and damaging the airplane (or the new prop!) I'm going to try to install those next time I'm out.

Cowling screws from Aircraft Spruce

… And Grounded Again

Last Saturday I finally flew a pax - a kid I had been trying to coordinate a flight with via the organization STEM Flights with for months.  Great weather and a newly fixed airplane meant we were able to do the flight, which went great.  On rollout, however, the nose gear shimmy was more pronounced, with an embarrassingly violent shake (fortunately I had prepared the student for it.)

My A&P suggested we wait a month for the annual to diagnose, but I took to the Cessna 150/152 forum where it was recommended I start with checking the tire inflation.  Now while I had added air to the mains to get them to recommended (POH) pressure levels, I hadn’t checked the nose gear tire simply because it looked right.  So tonight I went to the airport with the intention of checking the inflation, adding air if needed, and test flying it if it did need air so as to see if the shimmy persisted.  Great plan … except for one problem.  The valve stem is conveniently located on the side of the tire OPPOSITE from where the wheel pant door is.

Conveniently, this is not the side the valve stem is on

Because removing the wheel pant requires removing the netire nose gear tire, there is literally no way for me to air up the tire on my own here.  More disturbing is that the pant has been in this position, presumably, since before I owned it - meaning nobody could air up the tire during that time.  A friend suggested that at this point the wheel should be balanced as well before flying again, so this is going to require me asking my A&P to remove the wheel pant and tire, then balancing the wheel, and reinstalling.  

Which leads to another problem - I'm having doubts about my A&P.  You will recall that the noise coming from the mains that I had him look at was resolved with cleaning of the axles, but did not fix the noise.  When I asked the A&P about it, he responded that they had heard the noise when towing it as well.  Uhm, 1) That's what I brought it in for, and; 2) You didn't think that was worth mentioning to me?

When discussing the prop overhaul on the forums, it was noted that the 3.2 hours of labor I was billed for the prop reinstall was excessive unless a dynamic balance was done.  That wasn't mentioned by my A&P, and it's not noted in the log, though I would have wanted one if asked.  So now I have to go back and ask why I was billed 3.2 hours of labor when other A&Ps are telling me that anything beyond an hour would be unusual.  

So the airplane is grounded again.  I don't feel comfortable flying it with the shimmy this strong, and without being able to check the pressure in the nose tire.  I'm going to contact the A&P about this, but I expect he's going to tell me to wait until the annual, which would mean the plane sitting for at least 3-4 weeks.  Fun.

*As an edit, the A&P called and we chatted - the extra time was for his guy to go pick up the prop in Burlington, so that makes sense, as it's cheaper than the delivery fee.  I feel good about that.  He also said they'd take a look at the nose gear in the next week or so, so that at least helps with that too.  I feel better now.

Back in the Air

Wednesday afternoon I received a call from the A&P that the prop was back on the aircraft and it was back on the line.  Received the invoice for the work, which was a bit higher than I thought.  The quoted $2K to overhaul the prop was actually $2.2K.  Maybe transport, tax or some combination thereof?  Not a big deal, but I did send an e-mail just to follow up for my own knowledge.  

My frustration the last week in waiting to get the prop reinstalled was apparently a bit unfair, since the labor to do that was 3.2 hours.  Out of ignorance, I had thought that it was a 30-minute "put it on, bolt it on" type job, but that clearly wasn't the case.  Understandable how it took a few days since it was nearly half an A&Ps day to do it.

Newly overhauled prop installed

The new prop looks amazing - I mean it looks brand new, without an imperfection to be found, so I'm really impressed by the work they did.  I mean I guess that's what you should expect with a quality shop, but I'm so gun shy on these type of things these days that my expectations sometimes waiver.

It was now time to do a shakedown flight to make sure everything still worked.  I don't know why I was concerned about the airplane lighting up after seven weeks of sitting, but as I hit the master switch, I was relieved when all of the fans turned on.  I dropped the flaps, remembering that I had asked the A&P to bend back the inside corner that was scraping the fuselage, which he had in fact done.  No more contact there.  

Pre-flight was good, and it was time to light the fires.  It was 59-degrees, so I gave it three hits of the primer and engaged the starter - boom, fired right up.  No coughing, no chugging - just solid ignition and power.  Another sigh of relief.  Upon taxi I continued to hear the sound from the mains that sound something like a stuck calipar or brake pad.

The flight itself was great.  My climb performance on the 80-95ish degree departures when I brought the plane home was sluggish - in the neighborhood of 300-500 fpm, but this time she took to the air like a homesick angel, and I was getting around 700 fpm at between 60 and 65 KIAS.  In fact, at one point when I was pitching for Vx I noticed 1,000 fpm and felt like I was at a ridiculously steep climb angle for this airframe.  Not sure how much of this was the new prop vs the change in temperature, but either way, it felt great.

Flew to Siler City at 2,500' and tested a few things along the way.  I'm still getting the slow roll to the left, so clearly the airplane is out of rigging, which will need to be addressed during the annual.  Also, the ball is deflected slightly to the left during cruise, meaning it's yawing right.  Maybe adverse yaw from the rolling motion, except it seems to happen even when I keep the wings level.

The radio was still giving me the pulsating interference that seemed to be coming from one of the lights.  Through trial and error I determined it to be the flashing beacon on the tail, as when I had it on, other people's radio calls were getting the disruption.  Went away when I shut it off.

Upon touchdown at KSCR I had a return of the nosewheel shimmy I noticed on one of my landings months before.  Got better when I pulled back on the yoke, but clearly something's up with the shimmy dampner.  

I'm not doing any maneuvers until after the annual, particularly with the rigging issues.  Safe to fly, but I don't want to risk stalls and spins until the rigging is righted.  Upon landing back at KTTA I parked the airplane and noted the times - except I realized that the Hobbs had not changed since when I departed, so clearly it's not working either.  No big deal as I had the flight times, but something else to note.

So 1.0 more hours on here, bringing my hourly operating cost to a cool $1,3563 per hour at the moment (acocunting for all MX to this point).  Going to work to get that down.

Planning for ADS-B Out

Allegedly, the propeller should be put on today, which should be seven weeks from the time I brought the plane home.  If you told me I would have gone without being able to floy the plane the entire month of September, I might have reconsidered buying it, but here we are.  I'm scheduled to take a young woman up as a part of Stem Flights on Saturday, which means I need to do a shakedown flight on either Thursday or Friday, so if it isn't ready by then, I may just call a mobile mechanic to install the propeller for me.

So what have I done these last seven weeks?  Mostly study for the CFI-Initial, but also strategize about next steps with 4TV.  

I made the decision to do the annual inspection early in November.  It's not technically due until May, but there are enough lingering questions about the aircraft and what's going on inside that I want the assurance of a thorough annual before putting the plane through stalls and spins, and before doing some longer cross country flights with it.  The A&P had openings in November, so I put down a $600 deposit.  That also means that I'll only be able to fly it in October before it goes back in, which isn't ideal, but seems the best move right now.

The other reason for doing the annual now is that I want to know that the aircraft is mechanically sound before investing in upgrades.  I've had a lot of time to think about upgrades, and have been itchy to make investments, but the sensible play is to just to confirm that there isn't anything that's going to ground the airplane long-term.  Based on the pre-buy and my A&P's initial look around, I'm not expecting that, though I do know two days of work is going to be required to add doubles to the seat mount where it has cracked based on my mechanics visual inspection.

So what's first on my wishlist?  ADS-B.  While I have an ADS-B In solution in my Sentry, I do like the added safety of having Out as well - particularly in a world where so many FNG pilots look to traffic displays as their primary means of seeing and avoiding.  Also to enable me to fly into Class C & B airspace.

Before I got the plane, I inquired with a local avionics shop about options, and they recommended the GTX335, which is a solid solution from Garmin with a nice interface and easy to use functionality.  The quotedc price for the transponder, equipment and installation came in around $5K - reasonable, all things considered.

Garmin GTX335 ADS-B Out Transponder

While $5K is reasonable, there is a less expensive option - the uAvionix tailBeacon (tail) or skyBeacon (wingtip).  Each runs $2.2K new, though Gulf Coast Avionics has them on sale for $2K.  You can also find them on the used market for about $1.5K on average.  The advantage here is that these options only take about 2 hours of install time (or less), so we'll save roughly half the price.  Additionally, they would both integrate seemelessly with the AV-30 artificial horizon and DG if I were to decide to go that way.

uAvionix tailBeacon TSO

Which brings forward another option.  uAvionix also makes the tailBeaconX, which integrates the transponder with the unit.  The tailBeaconX weighs 3.5 ounces, compared to the GTX335 which weights about 3 pounds.While it's not much, on the 150, 3 lbs is 3 lbs, and the idea of freeing up that space in the panel is nice.  The tailBeaconX does require an AV-30 as a transponder control unit, however, and combined the two are packed together for $4.6K.  The AV-30 would also require what I've heard is around four hours of installation time.  As the AV-30s become even more reliable with upgrades from uAvionix, I'm inclined to go that route when it's time to switch to glass to kill the vacuum pump, so this is a viable initial option with benefits down the line.  The only drawback with this is that the AV-30 transponder interface is a bit clunky and requires more steps than just typing in numbers into a transponder's buttons.  But for the weight and cost savings, I've decided it's likely an ok tradeoff .

A middle of the road solution would be to purchase the standard tailBeacon for $2K and then either trade it in for $1K in credit to uAvionix or sell it to a third-party towards the eventual taibeaconX/AV-30.

Good options to consider - and I might invest in the tailBeacon now simply to have it during the month of October while it's on sale, or potentially keep waiting - not sure at the moment.  That's why I'm so interested in having the annual done (right) to see what I'm up against.