Aviation-deprived Depression

[gkey]

I should know, as this is in my line of work, but I have never in all my years come accross a condition called "Aviation-deprived Depression". But I should patent the idea, or at least coin the phrase.

On March 16 '08 (you'll soon see why this date is important) I dropped off GKEY for her annual. That was my first 1.5 hours for 2008. All went fine, and I replaced a new battery and a few other things as I always do with annuals to keep the plane "new". I picked her up a few days later and flew her home. My second 1.5 hours for the year. Total thus now at 3 hours in GKEY for 2008.

So far, so good. The next day the hangar owner where I rent called me and reported a red stain by the left main gear on his (new!!) floor. Great. I found out that when the brakes where changed, they forgot to place the brakelines back into their clips, and the left one got pinched during cycling of the gear. GKEY had to go back for repair (at their cost). My mechanic flew it up there. Me? Still no flying.

Then I could not get my work schedule (or anyone else's) configured to go fetch GKEY for over a month. So still no flying. Then, one day, the shop called me to report a "little mishap". They towed GKEY with a big-@ss tug, and turned a little too tight and the landing fork cracked right there by the axle. It will take ahwile to get a new one in, but they will fix it (at their cost).

Still no flying. (Are you getting a little anoyed too by now?)

Then the new fork was installed and painted to match, a month later. Good job, I must say. But then they noticed the camber was out grossly on both tires (2 year old $$$ Michelin's) and suggested rightly so that we correct the camber and replace the tires too. So we ordered Goodyear Flight Custom II with Michelin inner tubes. Yahoo!! More $$$, still no flying. By this time I am convinced that I am developing Irratible Bowel Syndrome.

They then by the mercy of God found someone who can ferry GKEY back home - Great! On his way over here the alternator lights went on (both) and the overvolt light went on. The volt meter read 34 volts. Not so great. He turned around to the shop, because something has obviously happened. Turns out the front alternator seized to work. We have to get a new alternator. It took almost 6 weeks for the new alternator to make it up here from Texas. They installed it, and tested the system - it works wonderful.

But they can only get another ferry pilot in 4 weeks. And still my schedule does not allow me to go get it, and apparently I have too few friends...

And here we are, in August 2008, with only 3 hours flying time on GKEY for this year. And in the meantime I am writing cheques like I have to improve on my calliographic skills and algebra, the house is starting to close down on me, Windows FlightSim has developed an epileptic condition as soon as I load up my 337 add-on, the dog remains just outside my kicking range and God has decided that on my off days (exactly when the shop is closed, mind you) the skies will be blue so that I can look up and lust at the yonder.

Not fair at all. Now you tell me this is not Aviation-deprived Depression.

[stackj]

I accept your phra$e and rai$e you 42 kilobuck$!

I had a minor heart attack on Janurary third. That has grounded me for the last six months. I was fortunate, however, because my wife also flys the Skymaster. With her in the airplane, I was able to touch the controls and reduce the depression.

But then, along came rear engine and dual prop overhaul time. The airplane went into the shop on March 28 (12 days after your trip... Is there something in the air? - no, nothing in the air... at least not our birds). We were expecting to get the airplane back in six weeks. That would allow us to have it home two weeks before needing to tear it down for the annual. You can see where this is going!

14 weeks later, the airplane was ready to come home. A friend flew us to pick up our bird. We had obtained the ferry permit a little too early and it expired on the day we went to pick up the airplane. Jenny test flew the airplane (I couldn't go on the test flight since a ferry flight only allows required crew to be on the airplane - As a mechanic, I was not required.) Jenny brought it back for some fuel adjustments and then prepared to head home with it. On her takeoff roll the rear engine quit... Maybe the adjustments were not quite right!

The mechanics began running the engine to make further adjustments. They ground ran the aircraft so long that the oil thinned out and the rear prop went into feather. Well, it Was a hot day. We ended up leaving the airplane and our friend flew us back home empty handed.

The following week, another friend flew us to the airplane. Once again, Jenny test flew it. The indications and controls were so badly split between the two engines - like two inches difference in the mixture control positions in order to balance the engine gauges. This was fixed by adjusting the fuel controls on the front engine... Funny, we hadn't had any trouble with it.

Anyway, It was close enough that Jenny flew it home. How do you think it impacts your Aviation Deprivation Depression when your wife is flying your airplane home on a ferry permit, and you, the protective male mechanic, can't go?

Now the airplane is home and it's time to tear it down for the annual. Well, something went right. The only thing we found was a broken muffler bracket on the front left muffler. And what is this!!?? we actually had a new one in the hangar.

New bracket installed... Airplane re-assembled... weekend is here and we get to fly finally. We did about a three hour flight. About halfway through the flight, the gyro in the HSI decides to tumble. We were VFR, but were about half way across the Chesapeake bay with low visibility... i.e., no shore line visible. (Did you know that a Garmin 530 makes a wonderful heading indicator?)

After arriving home we started tracking down a replacement. The following week we were at Oshkosh (which was previously planned) and we were able to track down an overhauled NSD-360. We had to order it through our avionics shop as the overhauler would not sell directly to the customer. I removed the old one, took it to my dealer, picked up the new one and headed home with it (This was only an 85 mile drive each way.) I installed the instrument and re-assembled the panel. I powered up the avionics buss and everything looked great. I reached for the heading set knob and discovered that it would not turn the heading indicator. Arrrggghhh!

I removed the HSI and tried adjusting it outside of the aircraft. It would move the compass card slightly, but continued to slip badly.

I drove back to my avionics shop and demonstrated the problem to the radio man... or tried to. Of course, the compass refused to fail in his presence. Fortunately, he believes that I am pretty honest, and he is pretty patient. He had not yet shipped back the original failed unit, so we were able to compare operation of the two units. I discovered that holding the OBS knob while turinig the compass card knob would duplicate the failure on the overhauled unit. That failure would not occur on the original unit. We packed the old and new units up for shipment from the right coast back to the left coast (one day air, of cour$e.) I called the overhauler and was able to describe the symptoms to one of their technical people. This was a good move, as they had been unable to duplicate the failure. This method of creating the failure became known as the "NNN Avionics method of troubleshooting". They were able to identify and resolve the problem.

The overhauled unit was shipped back to the right coast (It now had 9000 more miles on it... more than the airplane it would go in will get in the next three months... if we fly a lot.)

Once again, I installed the HSI, re-assembled the panel and tested the HSI. All appears OK. We flew the airplane both Saturday and Sunday (about 9 hours total) and... IT WORKS!

Is there any such thing as Manic Aviation Deprived Depression???

[gkey]

I'm intensely happy to report that the long dry spell with GKEY is finally over.

She's back at her base airport, and I got a chance to fly her for 0.9 hours and got 4 perfect landings in before nightfall with a friend who has extensive experience on 337's as my safety pilot. As per my self inflicted personal minimums, my rule is that I fly for an hour or two with a safety pilot when I have not flown a specific model plane for more than 3 months.

[Gord]

Good deal !! Was that you the other day that flew over Vermilion? - when I heard Skymaster I paid attention, but missed the call sign. If you ever want to go flying, give me a call, I have a couple thousand hours Skymaster time and you can reach me by looking up Irma ( CFU8 ) in the Flight Supplement. I fly a C-340 now and would love to go up in yours. Also, Doug over in Wainwright has a P337 ,,,, Gord

[gkey]

Gord,

No, that was not me. I was doing pattern work in Bonnyville. Glad to see there are more 337's in the province though; I thought of calling my self "The Alberta Lone Ranger"! I will be doing a few trips to CYXD and back this next week.

Why don't you give me a shout at my email address: jed-at-incentre-dot-net.

[CO_Skymaster]

I would like to extend a few comments and words of appreciation.

I am a new member to this board and I am a Skymaster owner. I bought my aircraft in March 07.

This site helped me track down electrical problems in my aircraft. My aircraft’s electrical system would trip offline some times; twice my battery drained completely causing my electrical system to shut down. It was taking a lot of time to track down the problem and I was ready to replace every electrical component I could find. After reading a post years ago about another Skymaster owner who had similar problems, I found the battery was very weak, it would start the airplane, but was not easy to charge once drained. I also opened the cowling, replace the voltage regulators, and cleaned all the connections. The electrical system is much more stable now, but after a lot of testing I determined that my rear alternator was broken.

Even though I have made progress on my Skymaster I have been frustrated because although the airframe and engines are in good shape, many small issue keep showing up. I knew I would have to have extra money for repairs that I couldn't find when I bought the aircraft. The first annual took care of all the repairs I could see. I flew from Colorado to California last Christmas, where a few more problem were shaken out.

The price of maintenance, cost of parts, and tracking down issues has been a problem, but my major frustration comes from the time it takes to get any repairs completed. I had to wait a month to get into the shop and now my annual is going into its seventh week. It had three fuel line that were starting to crack and the company they order from only ships once per month (waiting). They bought the new rear alternator, which worked fine on the bench and installed it in my aircraft, but when they took it out to start the engines and test it, it had a short that would not allow it to work on my engine. They had to get my old alternator core back to see if they could send that one out to be overhaul (more waiting). So in the shop it still sits and I am beyond anger and frustration because all the problems I had since I bought it where nothing catastrophic, but it has keep the aircraft grounded most of the time. It seem that quick service and good customer service just doesn’t exist when dealing with aircraft.

So I am at the point now where I am ready to cover it up, just forget it exists for awhile and go back to renting aircraft. At least if they have an issue, I can bring it back and forget about it.

All I can say it Argggghhhh!!!!

I think most of my bugs have been worked out, I just didn’t expect it to take so long.

Karl

[skymstr02]

Karl, sorry to hear about your shop problems. I think that you have chosen the wrong shop to work on your plane. You are paying for the learning curve on these guys. I'm performing my annual this month, and granted, I am intimately familiar with my plane, but yours seem to be taking too long to complete.
Those guys should be making up the hoses as they go along. I've been changing the fuel hoses in the engine compartments this year, and it takes about 10 minutes to make each hose. This isn't rocket science.
The alternator is a standard off the shelf unit, its not special. It sounds as though the shop left a ground strap in place for the field circuit.
You should talk with the shops owner and get to the bottom of his problems before you get disenchanted with Skymaster ownership through check book rape.

[John Hoffman]

Karl - sorry to hear your problems but I second the resonse re. the shops learning curve mabey at your expense. If you are based somewhere along the front range there should be plenty of shops to choose from, mabey Cessna Pilots Assn could help you locate one thats handy to your location. I am in the Cincinnati Ohio area and have fortunately not had any of the delays being reported here. I have used 4 shops in the last 10 yrs. and they have been pretty much all business next day kind of service. Just got the annual done, took 8 days cause of misordering one small part. The annual included rebuilding a couple of actuators and changing motor mounts but no major repairs, point is they have been working on skymasters for probably 15 yrs and can be counted on to get the job done.

[WebMaster]

Karl,
I third the repsonses above. I once had my plane in for months, with a tech that didn't know a position light from a strobe. They ordered fuel and hydraulic hoses for the rear engine, at a huge cost, and none of them fit. They ended up getting them made locally. My checkbook was truly taken advantage of. You need to find a new shop, one that has experience with skymasters, and get rid of the old shop.

[Sport]

John,

What shops have you had the best luck with in Cincinnati?