Sunday, November 12, 2006

Mike Hotel Annual Update

Well, the annual on Mike Hotel is just about done. All compressions were acceptable (lowest 72, rest were 75+), oil looked good, tires only needed routine servicing, landing gear retraction test were normal.

MS experienced some surging of the fuel flow (pressure remained steady) during his last flight before the annual. It smoothed out when he turned on the electric boost pump, so we initially thought we needed a new fuel pump.

When our A&P pulled the cowl, however, he ran across something else that he thought was causing the problem: a fuel leak. Seems that the gascolator on the Arrow is a piece-of-junk design. Apparently it got jostled (probably when the alternator was replaced), and was leaking. He convinced us to replace it with an STC-PMA approved new design. Only $195 from our good friends at Aircraft Spruce, plus $40 to the rats at UPS for overnight shipping.

He installed it in good order, and it's a beauty.

But it didn't solve the surging problem. So now we'll return to the original plan, and replace the engine-driven fuel pump.

The only other item of note is the strobes. We're going to try replacing the bulbs to see if they are past their useful life, but if that doesn't solve the problem, we'll be doing some electrical work replacing the power supply.

All in all, not too bad. We'll keep our fingers crossed to see what the final damage is to our wallets.

Oh, the bill for the garage door repair came in at just under $200. And the co-pilot ate the mini-blinds in my son's room. He's grounded until further notice.

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