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Latest Update from our Maintenance Officer:
"I just realized that it has been a couple of weeks since I got any info
out and decided it’s time to get an update to you on the status
of the work on the Yellow Rose. Despite the silence, we have been busy…
On the engine front, we’ve made good progress. Last update, I mentioned
carburetor problem and some confusion over the two carbs. Well, we have pretty well worked that out. Jim Liles made a run into San Antonio and met with the folks at Aero Accessories to discuss our situation. Jim came back with clear instructions on how to properly adjust the carb that was on the plane to give us the high RPM performance that was missing.
The adjustment made a huge difference and allowed us to get the engine speed up to the point that was required to check and set the oil pressure properly. The oil pressure is our focus right now, engine-wise, but we couldn’t get above 1700 RPM before the adjustment. We may still need to tweak the carb again before we fly but we can easily reach the 2000 RPM we need to set the pressure.
We were concerned about high oil pressure at startup, but the engine
overhauler assured us that it isn’t too unusual for a fresh engine with fresh oil to read a little high until the oil warms up. That is exactly what we saw and we now feel good about the high pressure of the engine. We were also concerned about the low pressure of the new engine being too low at idle. Once again we were assured that the 50 PSI we had adjusted it up to was OK, but that we just need to adjust it up a bit more to get the 70 PSI we’d like to see when hot at idle speed. We have a question about how much we run the engine before we fly her, and I already have a call in to the overhauler about this. When we get his answer, we’ll decide when to run her to set the oil pressure.
We are moving forward on the control cable front, also. Friday, we
received the aileron trim adjustment nut from California. I had taken the
aileron/rudder trim control assembly to Gary Gates when he was trying to reproduce the nut. He took the assembly apart, thoroughly cleaned it, stripped all the old paint, replaced the bushings and bearings, and had it painted with some paint that I took him with the nut. We will reassemble it Monday evening.
When we started looking hard at the control cables, we knew immediately
that it was WAY past time to replace many of them. I mentioned Mark in my last update and while I don’t want to pigeon-hole him, right now he’s our Cable Guy. Mark spent his first three and a half years as an A&P rigging cables on 707 aircraft for Continental Airlines. Again I have to ask, how lucky are we to have someone like that walk in the very week I begin to re-rig the cables in the left wing? Mark asked me what I wanted to do about the cables after showing me all he had found. Without hesitation, I told him that we replace them. All were loose, some were rusty, a couple were frayed. One actually broke while we were looking at some others.
While inspecting the cable situation we discovered that most of the small
pulleys associated with the control locks and the aileron trim were frozen
in place, most hadn’t turned in years. Again, the only right answer was to
replace them – all 20 of them along with 6 or 8 other larger ones. Finding
these involved looking deep into the trailing edge of the wings again and
we got some good news this time, no new corrosion was found.
Also, before Judy (squadron Finance Officer) has any seizures over my spending, we shopped for pulleys and while the high quote for the small one was about $25 apiece, we got them for about $8 apiece. It is her job to keep us in line financially and we really are trying to keep the costs down.
After adjusting the left engine propeller governor control cable, Mark
asked if I wanted him to check the right cable. I gave him a quick, “Heck yeah!” after all we’d seen so far. Well, it was so loose it didn’t even
register on our tensiometer (tool that measures cable tightness). When we looked closer, the control wheel on the governor was missing a big chunk of the aft rim. Fortunately, we had a replacement wheel. Once again, I found myself frustrated that we found another problem that had been lurking for who knows how long and, at the same time, happy that we found it and resolved it now, before it became a serious problem.
We expect to have the new cable and associated parts Monday morning and will begin replacing the old ones as soon as possible. I’ll try to have an idea of how long it will take to wrap up these two projects by the Tuesday night meeting. I’ll tell you what though, I sure wish I was one of the pilots of the Yellow Rose. With two fresh engines and a thoroughly, and correctly, rigged control system, I just know she’s going to fly like the day she came off the assembly line!
Please know that we are working hard, in some pretty brutal heat, to get
the Rose back in the air and she will fly again soon. My promise to the
Squadron when I accepted the office of Maintenance Officer remains the same: the work will be done right and the aircraft will be as safe and solid as possible before she returns to the air."
Ray Clausen
Maintenance Officer
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Mike
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