Is it time for a new mechanic?

[Timothy Quigley]

I’m a relatively new Comanche owner (and first time plane owner) so I’m traversing some fairly unfamiliar ground and would like some advice.

First, some background. The plane is a 1966 260B with Lo Presti Mods (cowling and a few others). It has 4000+ hours total time and about 1400 on a remanufactured engine done in 1998. It’s seen relatively steady use over that time and seems to perform well.

I first purchased half the plane from a friend and existing owner last fall. Then, this spring, the current owner decided to get out completely so I found someone to purchase the other half. Given the way I purchased it, I was able to meet and get comfortable with the mechanic, review logs, see how the original owner handled maintenance (no cutting corners), etc., so I just kept working with the same mechanic.

During the annual in May, we did the Aussie Horn install (with help from Heritage Aero), had to repair the left gear trunion (found some hairline cracks which I understand are somewhat common), and took care of a small list of other minor items.
In the time I’ve flown the plane, I haven’t had any out of the ordinary issues crop up and I’ve put nearly 100 hours on the bird in the last 10 months. That is, until last week.

Late last week I traveled north for a conference. I was on a 2 ½ mile final into Philadelphia International. When I went to drop the gear, I lost all power in the plane. I aborted the landing, diverted towards a small field to the north, trouble shot the issue and couldn’t get power back, so I did a manual extension and landed.

Turns out the negative battery cable broke at the eyelet that attaches to the battery. The mechanic that repaired the plane up north noted the following:
- The negative cable was undersized (4 gauge instead of 2), had some cracks in the housing, and signs of corrosion.
- The battery was loose in the battery box which allows it to shift around a little

While resetting the landing gear, he also noted the following:
- Loose shimmy dampener
- Bracket holding shimmy dampener is flexing too much
- Broken/missing steering stops on front landing gear (apparently from over steering by some overzealous ground crew tugging the plane in the past)

This mechanic was fairly adamant these items should have been picked up on the annual in May and strongly suggested I “have the plane looked over” when I got home. He basically said if my home mechanic missed these items, there’s no telling what else might be lurking. When I asked if I should be concerned about flying home he said, no, but that I should have it looked over. Not exactly what you want to hear when 4 hours from home and your last flight ended with no electric and manual gear extension.

When I returned home, I reviewed the airframe logs for the last 10 years or so. I found mention of the positive cable being replaced about 8 years ago (before prior owner bought the plane) but nothing since (and nothing regarding the negative). The current mechanic has been working on the plane for about 5 years, been in the business all his life, has years of experience with another Comanche on the field, always insists on flying the plane after he works on it, and flies with me and my partner all the time (mechanic is an instructor too). I’ve also seen him walk away from jobs were the owner doesn’t want to comply with recommended (or even mandated) repairs.

Given all this, I suppose I can think of this in one of two ways:
1) These are obvious issues that should have been caught by my mechanic, so I should be looking for someone new to look things over and take care of the plane going forward.
2) Taking a plane to a new mechanic will almost always result in issues being found. These items aren’t a huge issue. Talk it over with the mechanic and move on.

At this point, I’m looking for opinions on this. I’m in a small town so there are not a lot of choices when it comes to mechanics with Comanche experience. The mechanic has been very responsive and seemingly competent thus far so I don’t want to overreact. On the other hand, I want my bird taken care of properly.
Thoughts?

Tim

PS. Attached photos show the broken battery cable and the nose gear where the steering stops should be.

[N3322G]

Timothy,

First, way to go on handling the emergency well!

This is a tough issue and one I have struggled with in the past.

I started getting very involved with maintenance after the left engine failed on take-off while my husband was single pilot. As the owner I am ultimately the responsible party for aircraft maintenance. The Twin has been in the family since new so I had certain expectations about what would be handled on annuals. Because I'm a trust-but-verify kind of person, I started reading the maintenance manual which is online on this site under the tech tab for any item that came up during annuals - not to avoid the expense but to make myself comfortable that I wouldn't become a widow because "i" didn't maintain the plane correctly (or my husband become a widower). One of the lists I have read often is what is supposed to be done on the annual and Ii can say with certainty for a Twin, the battery is supposed to be checked for exactly the kind of problems that were found.

I have found no mechanic is perfect but I do subscribe to what my current shop does Clifton Aero - no matter who does the work, owner or not, the work is always checked by another licensed mechanic before that area is closed. Still, when the opportunity came up for Heritage Aero Cliff Wilewski to look the plane over while at a CTPT Maintenance session, I had that done. The session was held at Clifton and to the credit of the Clifton team, they left Cliff alone to essentially inspect their work. Nothing major was found but a few minor things were included at the next annual. No other aircraft at this session fared as well.

Simply put, I could site example after example of why I now fly the aircraft to Clifton for all work. Once had an annual (longer story) done where they told me they were zero squawks or repairs. The aircraft was on jacks, I walked up to the engines and immediately saw the alternate air doors were not properly adjusted - a source of many engine failures for Twins. I'm no mechanic but I do learn about any repair that has been made, the cause of any previous failure and how to avoid it in the future.

How you proceed from here depends upon your goal. If you want to keep the relationship with your current mechanic, you might walk him through the most recent flight experience, the repairing mechanic's comments, show him the line item on the Piper annual checklist and ask for his thoughts. I have to say when I asked a former mechanic (used to write articles in the ICS Flyer, I thought he ran a good shop - I was wrong) why he knowingly put my aircraft in an FAA unairworthy condition by disabling the Piper CHT probes, he got pretty nasty about it. He did it without my knowledge, permission or approval. He is no longer in business. I share this not to scare you but to let you know, you are not alone.

Our flight instructor told us about a Cirrus client of his that had a Cirrus certified mechanic comply with an aileron AD. On the return to home base flight, one aileron fell off in flight. Before he lost the second one, he pulled the cord and floated safely to a golf course he'd chosen. So it is not just Comanches.

An alternative is to do what some mechanics have told me in the past - every few years, have another shop do the annual - just for another set of eyes - prepare for spending more money. It is why all folks on this Forum recommend a pre-buy from a third party Comanche experienced mechanic. Heritage Aero at KRFD and 7F7 Clifton Aero have great Comanche experienced staffs. http://www.heritageaero.com/ http://www.cliftonaero.com/

Watch for CTPT http://www.comanchetraining.com/ options.

Hope this helps. It is your life - what is it worth?

[Kristin Winter]

Some mechanics like to build themselves up by trashing others. Cracked terminals are hard to notice. The shimmy damper slop is wear in the bearings, and that is a judgment call. Most Comanches have the nose stops dinged. It is great to say that it should be repaired, but you would be spending an AMU every year or two taking the nose gear out, and sending the trunnion to be repaired. Of course, if there are cracks then it needs to be done. I have to confess that Maggie's nose gear stops are slightly dinged.

Pat's advice about a second set of eyes is not a bad one. Here's a thought! I don't think that CFF has done a seminar in Atlanta, ever. Put one together, get CFF to chip in some shekels, and put on a maintenance seminar. I could be bribed to come and teach a class on how to perform an annual and generally maintain a Comanche. You could donate your plane as a demo. I have done several where the owners are encouraged to bring their IA's. It is lots of fun.

[Timothy Quigley]

Thanks for the feedback. Lots to consider. One idea that comes to mind...our annual is currently set for June. We planned to do month-end annuals for the next few years to get it into the fall or winter. Maybe we should just go early this fall/winter with another mechanic.

Kristin...great idea on the seminar. I'd love for something like that to happen. I'll look into it and see if we can make it happen.

All the best,
Tim

[Kristin Winter]

Tim,

Mike Foster (ditchdigger68@gmail.com) is the President of CFF and probably the person to speak to about getting CFF funding. I am not sure who you would contact at the SE Tribe. You need to figure $2,000 to $2,500 to get someone to come with Powerpoint and show and tell to put the seminar on. It would be an all day event. Lunch can be done for anywhere from $3 to $10 a head. You can charge $20 to $30 a head, or perhaps more. I have had up to 85 people at one of these, but 50 to 80 should be easy, if you have a fall or spring Saturday. Your mechanic might be willing to host it in his/her hangar as it is good publicity.

[JIMICS2452]

Phillip Hobs is the president of the SE tribe. His phone number is 704-651-9417. We discussed a CFF session at our annual meeting in June.

Jim Hiatt

[Michael Duncan]

I'm based at 2M8 here in Memphis, count me in for the mx clinic in the Atlanta area if one can be put together. Know a couple more Comanche owners in the area. Kristin does everyone who brings their airplane get it looked over also or do ya'll just pick a single and a twin out and use one of each?
Mike

[Kristin Winter]

Mike,

I usually use one aircraft for show and tell, but then if time permits will walk around to the participants aircraft and point out what I see. We have done clinics where we cycled through a dozen aircraft and put each up on jacks and checked a number of specific things. That was an undertaking that we did back in 2009 in Laughlin, NV. I needed a number of inspectors for that one plus a crew to help move and jack. We had two stations and did about a plane an hour.

[DAVEG24]

I'm not all that familiar with the 260, but looking at your picture of the broken negative ground cable raises some question in my mind. From what I can see in the parts manual, it appears that all Comanches use a braided ground cable, that attaches directly to the ground side of the battery and does not have a crimp on connector. I may be totally wrong on this, but if I'm right, somewhere along the way, someone replaced the braided cable with a standard wire cable and used a crimp on connector. Hopefully, someone that is more familiar with the 260 model will chime in with some guidance on this issue.

As for the broken stops, you should probably have this repaired as it could possibly lead to a problem when the gear is retracted if the gear aligning roller got outside of the guide. Not likely, but I have heard it can and has happened.

Enjoy your airplane.

Dave Gitelman

[Zach Grant L1011jock]

Dave,
It looks like the aircraft may have been modified with the Bogert battery box kit and or copper wire kit. Both require the use of a non braded coper cable with the crimp on connector similar to the one in the picture. Just mentioning a possibility.
-Zach

[DAVEG24]

Thanks Zach. I hadn't considered that possibility, and have not had any experience with the Bogert battery box conversion. My personal opinion is it's pretty hard to beat the reliability of a braided ground strap, that does not have any crimp-on connectors that can fail or corrode.

Dave Gitelman

[Matt Bogard]

Dave,

You should see the shape my old braided cable was in from years of bending, before I replaced it with the Bogert mod!

[DAVEG24]

Matt,

I can imagine.

Dave Gitelman