New Skymaster Owner

[TomM]

Good morning all! I have been lurking for many years and have just reciently become a member as well as a new Skymaster owner. The road to this point has been less than exciting and filled with road blocks. However, you cant kill a dream about owning one of these remarkable aircraft!!

The first road block was the Bells............After talking to them and getting ready to utilize them for my flight training I was all fired up and ready to go! However, when they found out I was still looking for a plane, they offered me the one they have for sale. I respectfully declined as it was not what I wanted. The very next email from them was that any other skymaster will require $50k to make airworthy and that they would not subject their employees to flying an unariworthy aircraft so I better find another instructor.

Injured, but not down I continued on........

Found a plane I liked but couldnt get the price right. However, the owner is the absolute nicest guy you would ever be able to meet. Turns out he is a CFII and even though I didnt buy his plane, he was eager to train me AND has a DPE that will do a center thrust rating......life was looking way better!

Found another plane and ignored the warnign signs......took forever to get the logs, non responsive in general and minimal descriptions in the log entries. But I attributed that to the fact that he was an A&P/IA and figured he took great care regardless of the quality of the log entries. I may have been mistaken about that......

Hired a mechanic for the prebuy and gave him a long list of skymaster specific things to look for. Prebuy came back good with no major issues.

The plane was flown 1.5 hours from its home base to the delivery point. And that was that, with no issues reported. However on the next engine start up, the rear prop would not feather below 2000 rpm, oil pressure was low, brakes didnt work.....all this within 1.5 hours after a prebuy.......and none of these issues are skymaster specific.......seems strange significant items like this would just "pop" up....

Brakes were shot and getting relaced, not a huge deal. The rear engine oil pressure is somewhat bothersome. We are checking the oil pressure relief valve as the oil temp is up as well and since the relief valve is before the oil cooler, that condition tends to increase the oil temp.

I remain undaunted!

Thanks to the members of this group, I have a full budget on stand by for the first few annuals and things like this. I am just hoping the low oil pressure is a quick fix and not an engine tear down.

I was (still am) excited about starting training this weekend if all works out.

After 1500 hrs of SE flying I am really looking forward to becoming one of you guys and continuing to learn more through this site.

Thanks a ton!!

[Dan schultz]

Welcome

I am doing the annual on my P337 that I acquired in October, I am an A&P doing the work myself, will probably be 30k in parts and repairs without labor since the aircraft has not been maintained properly in the last 20 years, but in the end is a great aircraft. Mine is a 74 model, all three tanks in the left wing cracked, and assuming the three tanks in the right wing are also cracked, tanks are flimsy with no baffles.

Dan
N67S

[frank.oconnor19]

Owning this airplane is a labor of love. Learn to do some of the stuff yourself, will save you a ton, and you will learn more about the plane.

When my partner, John Cooper, and I purchased our plane, the rear engine was a problem for heat as well. We did a couple of things, that depending on how long your plane sat, I highly recommend.

1. Get the oil cooler serviced, this will help
2. If you can get the correct socket, John and Bruce( local mechanic) used a grinder to get the thickness of the correct socket thin enough to get on the Oil Cooler valve.
3. Make sure you plug the holes and gaps in the rear engine baffles.

Be a crazy person about keeping the engine cool enough, slow dow a few knots, make the engine much happier.

And for others here, correct me if I am wrong, but the oil pressure has everything to do with how well the propeller feathers. Change the oil, have it looked at.

Finally - where are you based?

Frank

[TomM]

Frank:

I am totally planning on doing as much as I can. I am a highly capable mechanic/engineer. The issue is that I am in Iowa, and the plane is in Oklahoma. I have been troubleshooting with the mechanic down there. I asked him to pull the oil pressure relief valve as it is located before the oil cooler. So if it is dumping oil, there is less oil getting cooled leading to higher temps. See the attached pics. Needless to say, this was a good call. Cleaned the port, ordered the new style adjustable relief valve. Since I will not be back down there for a week or more, I am going to have him pull the oil cooler and send it to QAA for an exchange.

On the propeller side of things, we have to keep in mind that constant speed props work just the opposite of feathering props. CS props rely on pressure to INCREASE the pitch, and feathering props rely on pressure to DECREASE the pitch. That is why if you have a full engine stoppage, you can still feather the prop on a twin. In addition, the governor has a high pressure pump in it, so as long as it gets oil, the governor will boost the pressure to the prop. The SUPER NICE guys at H and S propeller have worked on the props in the past so I called them. He said it is very common to have to adjust a screw on the side of the governor to allow the prop to de-oil faster in feather mode. He said that my prop feathers at a higher RPM because the counter weights in the prop are helping push the oil out. He gave me a test to run, but wants me to send him a picture of the governor so he can walk me through the adjustment.

I am headed down to OK to putts around with it this weekend. I am still very excited about the whole deal. I totally expected this to be a labor of love, so no worries there. I just wish people were more up front about issues instead of trying to hide them. Even if I can't fly this weekend, I am totally stoked to sit in it and make engine noises........you all cant see it, but I have a huge grin on my face right now!!

You guys are great!

[patrolpilot]

Welcome, Tom! You will get through this and be on your way! Any pictures of your airplane?

[TomM]

Thanks for the welcome! Here is a pic......its needs a splash of trim color to offset all that orange! Now you guys dont start calling it the pumpkin.....