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9th Condition Inspection

N941WR

Legacy Member
This year's Condition inspection was a big one. It took two months to complete and I'm still waiting for some parts to arrive but the plane is airworthy and flying again.

A couple of things of note:
I have Dynon Capacitance fuel senders and LOVE them. They are very accurate, regardless of how little fuel is in the tanks. For two years I have been struggling with my right sender. It would work fine and then the level would drop to zero, come back up again after some time and then maybe start dropping again and then come up. It was intermittent and random as to how long it would stay at zero or at the correct level (It never over reported the fuel in the tank.).

I thought for sure it was a bad connection so over the past two years I rewired the thing, twice! Each time, on local flights it worked fine. So I thought I had it fixed. Then on longer flights it would drop out again.

It finally dawned on me that the sending unit on the tank might be bad so I ordered a replacement and installed it.

On inspecting the old unit, there was a very small nick on the wire going to the center of the BNC connector. It is possible that the wire would touch the fuselage or a screw for the fairing, which is right above it. Or that the electronics were overheating.

The good news is, the replacement unit seems to be working fine, after a couple of hours of testing. More, longer flights will tell for sure.

Next up was my Catto prop. There were a bunch of very small stress cracks by the hub, which Craig said not to worry about. However, after removing the prop, the back side, where the prop exited the spinner, the spinner back plate had rubbed the composite material off the prop and exposed the wood.

Off to Catto for refurbishment. (I have been flying with my backup prop.)

The only thing I did in the engine compartment was to remove the deflector shield in front of the #2 cylinder and trim it by 1/8". Now all my temps are within five degrees of each other in climb and cruise. (I did a climb test yesterday at Vy from our 1100' AGL airport all the way up to 12000' and everything was perfect. My hottest cylinder in climb was 410*F. In cruise they were down to 385*F on a VERY hot day.

While doing the spar service bulletin, I noticed the outboard aileron hinges were SHOT! To fix this I had to remove the wing tips. (I made sure my painter did not paint over my screws and I remove the tips every Condition Inspection.) Drilled out the two rivets that hold the bearings in place, pried open the aluminum aileron hanger, inserted the bearings, and squeezed the replacement rivets.

You will only find this if you move the aileron at the leading edge, not the trailing edge. If there is a lot of vertical play, replace your bearings.

The rubber seals for my Sam James cowl need to be replaced but are still serviceable. Replacement neoprene is on order from Will James.

I hope to buy some fresh paint this week and touch up the plane.
 
How many hours TTSN

Hi bill. How many hours do you have on the aircraft? Curious due to the need to replace aileron bearings. Thanks
 
Hey Bill, thanks for the update. That is concerning about the aileron bearings. Did you lubricate them periodically? (not trying to be an I-told-you-so if you didn't; just want to know what the course of action is to make mine last a long time!!).

I'm glad you've nailed the CHTs. Mine are really nice in cruise, but still get hotter than I like in initial climb on a hot (95 degree) day.
 
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Hey Bill, thanks for the update. That is concerning about the aileron bearings. Did you lubricate them periodically? (not trying to be an I-told-you-so if you didn't; just want to know what the course of action is to make mine last a long time!!).

I'm glad you've nailed the CHTs. Mine are really nice in cruise, but still get hotter than I like in initial climb on a hot (95 degree) day.

Every year, and sometimes more often with LPS 2.

There is a debate if you should run them dry or lubricate them. My preference is to lubricate them.

Replacing the bearings is very easy. Probably the biggest challenge is taking off the gazillion screws that hold each wing tip on.

Once the wing tip is off, it is easy enough to drill out the two rivets, drop out the old bearing, put in the new one, squeeze two rivets, and reinstall the wing tip.
 
Hey Bill,
I'm gonna do my inspection soon and will check out the aileron bearing issue you experienced. Also, are your cap sending units from Princeton Electronics? I had the exact same trouble with my left tank unit. Tried everything before replacing the unit which solved the problem. Soon after, the right unit started the same nonsense and my new sending unit will be installed this week. Time on units were about 8 - 10 years (about 900 hrs)
 
Hey Bill,
I'm gonna do my inspection soon and will check out the aileron bearing issue you experienced. Also, are your cap sending units from Princeton Electronics? I had the exact same trouble with my left tank unit. Tried everything before replacing the unit which solved the problem. Soon after, the right unit started the same nonsense and my new sending unit will be installed this week. Time on units were about 8 - 10 years (about 900 hrs)

Bruce, give me a call later today.

My senders are from Dynon.

I can't say enough positive things about the accuracy of the Capacitance Senders!
 
...

I'm glad you've nailed the CHTs. Mine are really nice in cruise, but still get hotter than I like in initial climb on a hot (95 degree) day.

BTW, I have a Sam James cowl and cooling plenum. So, I made the cylinder blast shields removable.

They all get hot in climb. The best thing we can do in climb is go full throttle which dumps fuel in to keep cylinders cool.
 
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BRW, I have a Sam James cowl and cooling plenum. So, I made the cylinder blast shields removable.

They all get hot in climb. The best thing we can do in climb is go full throttle which dumps fuel in to keep cylinders cool.

I've got the same setup, and while my CHT's are in the 350-370 range in cruise, they will definitely get hot in climb. I can keep them at 400 by pouring the fuel to them and opening the Anti-Splat cowl flap, which does help quite a bit.
 
One new squawk to fix.

During one of the three flights I had over the weekend, my fuel pressure was reading at the top of the SkyView scale.

I checked with Dynon and they said the older pressure sensor I have fails with a max pressure signal.

A replacement is on order from Aircraft Spruce.
 
One more thing.

I installed AN3 eye bolts pointing up on the tailwheel steering horn snd pointing down from the rudder horn. They are holding up well but it was time to replace the spring clips.
 
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