Belly Meets Blacktop requested Blog

[N3322G]

Here are the next 3 weeks.

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 34

July 14-17.

The rest of the week was getting more quotes such as the dynamic prop balance that would have to be done again and wasn’t in the original repair estimates.

I got photos from another ICS member of another twin that had just the right main gear collapse. The speculation was it was caused by a failed conduit – but that’s just speculation. It took 6 months but that Twin is flying again. They didn’t have to wait 6 weeks for props but did counter-rotate the right engine in the repair process. It was interesting to me that the right engine did have a cracked crankshaft but was ferried successfully to the repair shop.

The list for annual items – inspections, repairs and improvements - was getting worked on and Ken and I decided to add shoulder harnesses for the front seats. We were feeling quite lucky and very mortal. We decided on the inertial reels from Kosola and Associates for several reasons, including Bill Creech’s strong recommendation. Imagine my surprise when I went to the website and found PA30 STC but no STC for PA39s. Hmmm.

The same week I read about the AmSafe airbag seatbelts in the AOPA Cirrus. I contacted them to see if they’d 337 these into the Twin while it was down for repairs. This would supplant the need for the shoulder harness.

There is a lot that went on here wrt the shoulder harness and airbag seatbelts and even now, it isn’t quite finished, but this part has nothing to do with the gear/belly repairs so I’ll just summarize it by saying, with the help from Aircraftsman, we have a 337 for the Kosola inertial reel shoulder harness.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 35

July 20-24.

Normal in-hangar owner maintenance was being performed such as; monthly tire inflation, sheets cover the aircraft to protect the paint from dust, glue traps surround 3/4 of tires to prevent mice from entering aircraft from wheels, etc.

Coordination of address for prop delivery at Decatur, when and how the ferry pilot would arrive and how the ferry endorsement sign-off by the insurance company would be handled was being done. I expect most insurance policies have a process for ferrying an ‘unairworthy’ aircraft and you need to make sure you are in compliance. I also verified that the repair shop’s insurance covered the actions of the ferry pilot as he would not meet the insured pilot specs of the twin’s existing insurance policy.

I kept following up on the check for the props for Knots2U. Eventually, the adjuster sent us a form I had to sign for partial payment of claim. He waived the Notary Public signature verification requirement. I faxed it to him and then mailed the original. The underwriter had computer problems. I just kept checking daily until the check was issued. Since I ordered the props, I felt it was my responsibility to make sure the invoice got paid even though it wasn’t under my direct control. I also didn’t want any delay of prop shipping due to payment not being received.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 36

July 27-31.

The props shipped on schedule. Yea!!!!!! Finally, there is some positive physical progress towards repair. Thanks to the internet, I tracked their every move and was able to proactively get the local delivery done on Friday instead of the following week.

After a kind email from the Thumanns who’d had to repair hurricane damage to their Comanche, I replied, ” Hi Bruce and Tina, …..I appreciate your sensitivity. I left you two alone after the hurricane for the same reasons. [not a fun topic to think about] ……… I imagine you saw my post on Delphi this weekend. What I left out was our general feeling that while this feels major to us ... it is so, so, so minor compared to the loss of Harley. ………………..The first big step towards getting 22G flying came today when the props shipped from Hartzell. Counter-rotated props are rare ………………. ……Thanks so much for your kind thoughts and offer of help - in one way, you already helped by sharing your experience at the Liberal fly-in. It helped make me be appropriately skeptical of repair shops claims. Who knew, I'd need to use that knowledge so soon? The repair-shop-experts-at-doing-Comanches made some incredibly funny blunders - at least they are funny now. I am no expert, just a knowledgeable owner and when I know more than they do and they claim to be experts, I just have to laugh ... after they've left. My personal favorite was the guy who quizzed me for several minutes when I corrected him that the gear was not hydraulic ... are you sure? was his repetitious question. Makes me giggle. So thanks for sharing your experience as it made me wiser for this project …. Pat “

I put together the Keefer work on the list for the annual inspection items, repairs and improvements. I emailed the documents to Aircraftsman and they included a detailed sheet of care and handling of the twin – things like towing limits and paint protection. The package for the ferry pilot included the same care and handling page plus a copy of the POH (I kept the original), a copy of three years of logbooks and the AD compliances and the list or repairs and improvements in the same sequence as the copy of the Piper annual inspections due for the twin. I had to write all this stuff down instead of being at the annual to discuss it personally.

The ferry pilot would be only the 10th pilot and the 6th non-family member to fly the Twin in its 39 years and I think the first person to ever fly it solo more than 50 miles. I documented the small operational items unique to the Twin. His ferry credentials were good – over 300 ferry flights with no losses or increase in damage. Because he is also an A&P/IA, if there was trouble en route, he could likely repair it. I could not - so putting emotion aside, he was better qualified to ferry the twin. He also knew exactly how to put the custom Comanche gear mods - unique to the repair shop - to secure the gear in a down and locked position. I figured even if he had a hard landing, I doubted there was much more damage that could be done to the landing gear. The last factor for me not taking this flight was consideration of the impact on my husband. It was hard enough on him when Mom and I did the world race when the twin was in great condition. This was the first time in our 34 year marriage and my 39 years of flying that he asked me not to fly. I honored that request.

I did electronic introductions of the ferry pilot/mechanic and the folks at Decatur because he was going to have to borrow equipment to jack the plane and put on the props.

The last part of the week was spent sending urgent emails to get the check issued for Aircraftsman that covered the 50% of labor and the 100% of parts expense. After several attempts to work with the adjuster on this for a month, I finally had to escalate this to my insurance broker who got it done within hours directly with the underwriter. The amount should have been about $29,000 but ended up at $48,500 because of communications issues with the adjuster.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

[N3322G]

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 37

Saturday, Aug 1.

Kind husband Ken had actually gone out to the airport yesterday to receive the props. They arrived in good condition but since they were drop-shipped from Hartzell, I had to make a separate request for the STC documentation.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted
Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 38

Monday, Aug 3.

Just as I’d tracked the props travel progress last week, I tracked the ferry pilot’s travel on FlightAware.com today. We met successfully at the DFW baggage carousel and Ken drove us the roughly 90 minutes to the Decatur airport. We showed him the twin and gave him the key to the hangar and dropped him off at his hotel with a food welcome basket I’d made. After 3 decades of travel for IBM across many time zones, I wanted to give him something to snack on in case sleep was elusive.

So far, so good but all that changed in the morning.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 39

Tuesday, Aug 4.

With human cloning technology yet to be perfected, Ken and I each took a project. He does better in the heat so he went to the airport and I stayed with the house construction project.

Ken called just before 8 AM to say the props wouldn’t go on the Twin. The backplates were incompatible with the new prop hubs. I’m wondering how could that be since I had carefully had Knots2U check each and every Hartzell number associated with the 1992ish 337’d props and the 2009 STC’d props. All part numbers were exactly the same. I called Hartzell. It turns out that in 1997 Hartzell changed the hub but left the numbers the same to save customers from having to change the hub on existing props. Hartzell sent me a PDF of a revision to the service manual 61-16-27 and I faxed it to Ken at Decatur. The ugly part was that it called for machining to be done on the backplates to remove about 6 sq in of material on each backplate but preserve the integrity of the bolt holes. This was not something easy to do in an enclosed T–hangar.

The guy at Hartzell blithely said, just do it in the field. I had too much experience with cracked backplates and all the work Mom had gone to - to work with Hartzell to get reinforced backplates to take this approach. The guy at Hartzell was dismissive of my concerns until I asked him if he’d seen the damage a spinner causes when it comes off the backplate in flight. In the case of the Twin, in 1992, it came off in pieces and it broke the windshield, dented the fuselage and creased the tail. It could have been much worse. Because of this experience and knowledge about this particular piece of the twin, I wanted to prevent future problems.

All of this was complicated by the fact that it appeared that the backplates had no part numbers on them. Good news, bad news about being the first to do something back in the early 90s. Later found part numbers when photos were viewed on 50” TV. I also learned that if we got new backplates, they may or may not align with the spinner’s holes. The difference in manufacturing techniques in 1992 vs 17 years later accounts for this potential problem. The attached photos show the issue with the existing backplate and the service manual diagram of work to be preformed. While we are on this subject, I'll jump ahead a month to show the tooling Mark Wilson personally developed and used to make the needed modifications.

I explored other solutions with Hartzell, a local prop shop, Knots2U and Ken. In the meantime the ferry pilot/mechanic was under pressure to get home. He cares for his aging parents and had arranged for his sister to come in during his absence. Those of us experienced in elder care can see how this works in theory but in practice, any change to the routine can really be a problem. Now, he was going to be delayed a day. The final solution was to fly the Twin without the spinners which effectively moves the problem to a better location (the repair shop) for a permanent solution. The engines run hotter that way but since the gear was going to be down, the engines would not be running full power anyway and open cowl flaps would be enough to keep them cool.

The bigger challenge of the day came when the FAA refused to issue a ferry permit. But wait, you say to yourself – didn’t she blog that she spent 45 minutes on the phone getting detailed instructions on how this process worked to get a ferry permit via fax. Yes, indeedy-do, I did. But hey, the world changes and the guy on duty that day declined to issue the permit. I tried to reach the person who told me how the process worked or the original investigator to engage their support but no amount of talking brought a change to the refusal. Plan B – what does it take to get a permit issued – an inspection. Thankfully, the inspection would be first thing the next morning.

Ken and I swapped places. He went home and I did airport duty. I got to run up the engines with the new props. I swept away the stones first. I drained and the mechanic verified the drains closed. Sure enough, I turned on the master and got nearly blasted out of my seat by the gear horn - again. It had been eight weeks to the day since the engines had been started and they turned over like it had been yesterday. They sounded good and had a perfect run-up.

It had been downhill getting the Twin out of the hangar. It took three separate efforts but the two of us huffed and puffed the twin back in the hangar. Yes, it was another 100 degree day. Part of me just didn’t care – the engines ran and they ran well.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

[N3322G]

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 40

Wednesday, Aug 5.

Two FAA mechanics (both had GA experience) arrived promptly at the appointed time. I briefed them for about 45 minutes on the twin and how I have it maintained, the qualifications of the ferry pilot and the current condition of the aircraft in the cool comfort of the airport conference room. They asked appropriate questions about the prop strike AD and how we were going to handle it. One gentleman had Twin Comanche maintenance experience and they other did not but had a 23-year perfect record of issuing ferry permits with no incidents or accidents and while he joked he wanted to keep that record, what he clearly was concerned about was if he issued a permit in error, it could cost a life. I recognize that as a major responsibility because I shared that concern whenever I launched dozens of race teams for cross country events I ran. I didn’t rest easy until each team was accounted for at the end of the day. The estimated 10 hour flight to California was much longer than the typical ferry flight – about 5-10 times longer.

While many people just like to bash the FAA , I am not one of them. I thought I’d done due diligence on the ferry permit process, however the complete truth is that the situation described in the original ferry permit conversation changed and with so much going on I had forgotten that fact. At the time I made that call, the plane was headed to Clifton, a one hour flight and the FSDO guy was the FAA liaison for Clifton Aero so he had personal knowledge of the mechanic who would prep the twin for flight. With all those factors, it was a reasonable risk to pass on the aircraft pre-ferry permit inspection. Now with a destination flight 10 times longer than originally planned – and six months of perspective from the heat of the moment – I find their request reasonable.

I suspect they decided to approve the permit after the briefing and before the visual inspection because I marshaled the facts I would want if I were in their shoes. Detailed discrepancy review of previous annual and any other maintenance since the annual, credentials of the shops that did the work, etc and I added the research I’d done with Charlie Melot’s Zephyr Engines recommendation based on his 3 decades of experience with these particular engines.

We went to the hangar and they looked at the Twin. This is the part where I got quiet again as I had each time someone new looked at the Twin. The ferry pilot/mechanic and I had agreed he would answer a question only if it were directed to him and the FAA guys did not ask any so aside from introductions, he was quiet. After rolling under the twin on the creeper, seeing how the gear was secured and looking at the gear box from inside the aircraft – one at a time to keep excess weight off the gear. They said the following – practically in stereo:
• This was a very good landing and so there is relatively small amounts of damage
• This was a gear collapse
• The likely cause of the collapse was the broken gear motor/transmission bracket
• This was the best maintained Twin Comanche they’d ever seen

The ferry permit was issued with a three-day window in case of weather problems. On a personal aside, it was nice to hear the twin was the best maintained Twin Comanche they’d ever seen on the one hand. On the other hand I am mentally sarcastically saying – OK, if it is so well-maintained, why on God’s green earth did this puppy slide down the runway on its belly? It wasn’t prudent to ask that question aloud. Sarcasm and questions like that are a luxury of emotion that would not help accomplish the goal of getting the twin repaired. For those answers I was going to have to wait for the tear down and inspections. So, I simply said thanks, walked them back to the FBO and said good-bye and then set about faxing all the documentation to the right folks in the insurance world. The log books were done and it was time to say good-bye.

I took a couple of taxi photos. The ferry pilot said if it ran up well again and all looked good on take-off roll, he’d simply depart. I stood on a hill and watched – actually I could tell more by listening. I knew the moment the take-off roll started, it would be a full departure. The Twin looked good except the gear didn’t come up – there was a moment I wondered why and it was quickly replaced with reality and a teeny-tiny voice said, I’m glad I’m not the one having to fly all the way to California throttled back with the gear down and a headwind.

The last email of the day was to the most supportive ICS person, Kristin Winter. I haven’t blogged too much about Kristin as her support was more pervasive vs issue-oriented. You can tell by the brevity of the email we were in frequent contact, ” hi Kristin, ….. Many hurdles but 22G is being ferried as we 'speak' thanks for your help - hopefully soon, I'll be in the left seat. …. and thanks for the advice to Melissa.” [Melissa is my niece who needed advice about her second year of law school. Kristin kindly provided advice and was a perfect sounding board.]

Ken and I celebrated with pizza. I related the airport events of the day and he commented on the home projects. When I told him about the FAA inspectors comments about the good landing, he finally believed, he did make a good landing. It was about this time that he started sleeping better and as the person responsible for the plane’s maintenance, I started sleeping poorly.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 41

Thursday, Aug 6.

These emails cover today’s news.

Pat at 8:15 AM “Good Morning Mark, ….How did Roger and the Twin do yesterday? Did they make it to the shop?”

Mark at 10:10 AM “Hi Pat, ….Talked to Roger last night at 7.00 Cal time. ….As I warned you long ago, Roger is extremely cautious and gentle with the patient aircraft when he nurses ….it to Chino. Therefore he is traveling at about 100 MPH and is taking his time. ….He landed 400 NM East of Chino for the night, he is going to evaluate his temporary Ferry Fixes, refuel and depart about 8.00 AM. …..He expects to land in Chino shortly after lunch. …..I'll let you know when your baby arrives.”

Pat at 12:07 PM “Mark, I must have asked the questions incorrectly - No problem at all that Roger stopped short - expected it - was just curious. He doesn't like flight following or I would have just watched on Flghtaware.com and not bothered you but curiosity got the better of me. Told him before he left that should all of us be wrong about the Twin [and its engines] and he had to put it down - save himself, the plane can be replaced….. My true baby, sweet husband Ken, and I celebrated the Twin's first post-incident flight with pizza as I had planned.”

Mark at 1:11 PM “Hi Pat, …..Just tried to call you but the line was busy. …..Roger just taxied up but I have not yet gone down to greet him. …..I want to inspect the plane and de-brief him and then I will caal you.”

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted


Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 42

Friday, Aug 7.

It was with a smile on my face that I sent a quick email to the FAA guys who’d approved the ferry permit that the Twin had arrived safely at its ferry destination.

So many folks have asked about how the belly slide impacted the new paint job, I’ll be including some details on that aspect. The paint job had 39 hours on it. As you saw earlier, I sent paint protection written instructions to the repair shop and with the ferry pilot. I also sent the old bed-sheets I use to cover it at home with the twin on its ferry flight. For those who read the paint blog last year, you know this is one of the recommended coverings for new paint. My only goal here is to try to protect the $20,000 and 10 weeks of my life I invested in this paint job.

When the repair shop said they were going to cover the plane with plastic, I did some double-checking and sent the following email titled, ‘Double checked with Paint shop’, “Just off the phone with Dick Guenther [paint shop owner] and they'd had paint mark when in contact with plastic up to a year after its been painted so he is fine with something under the plastic - as long as the plastic does not come in contact with the paint - we are good with that. thanks so much for the consideration…..Pat”

There was an intervening phone conversation and then more emails with a subject of “sheets vs plastic”

Pat, “Hi Mark, …..Thanks for the care you are taking of N3322G already……As I thought again about the sheets and the plastic, kindly only use sheets, towels, blankets to shield and store 22G and any removed painted parts. Plastic is OK for the interior components such as seats, carpet etc. I would prefer a towel over the instrument panel. …..If solvents are being used in proximity to the plane and you are concerned about damage, then please use the paper and blue painters tape used by paint shops to protect the plane - over the top of the sheets……Since the plane is actually not clean under the sheets, I ask that noting be placed on the wings, fuselage or stabs as the dirt underneath will scratch the paint. At some point during the project, I will come out, say Hi and wash the plane……
Thanks again for your care of 22G.”

Mark, “Hi Pat,…..I have spent a considerable amount of time researching speciality protective coverings and found a textile mill in new England who manufactures soft felt lined protective drop cloths specifically designed to protect custom paint finishes and other sensitive coatings……I ordered 1800 square feet of this special covering material to encapsulate your entire aircraft and protect it from all elements……I'll be able to custom fit a skin to your aircraft and all of the removed components……The product will be here on Tuesday and after long discussions with the company I feel I have chosen the perfect protective method to preserve your plane……Thanks, Mark”

Mark appears to be an email kind of guy and late in the day I got an email on two new issues:
• He commented that he’d gotten curious and pulled the floorboards on the Twin and found the nice new closed cell dense insulation installed when the interior was re-done in 1997 and then the old fiberglass insulation that had a tendency to wrap around the control cables so he recommended the fiberglass stuff be replaced.
• Gear conduits had not been safety wired at the jamb nuts. (I’d heard this from other mechanics.) We later discussed this and it was not a contributing factor to the gear collapse. The castle nuts had not backed off. I also had some discussion with the installing conduit shop who maintained it wasn’t required and others who said it was. The short version is Piper did not use safety wire when they built them and early versions of service manuals do not call for safety wire but current versions do. The actual reference is Sketch A of Figure 7-14, page 7-37 in the Service Manual., and note g. in paragraph 7-45, page 7-36.
• The number 2 nose-mounted comm antenna caused the lower portion of the right side of the nose firewall to be crushed. This hidden damage raised another decision to be made. Do we replace the whole firewall? If you go the replace route it would cause a huge new work effort to re-run all the stuff that goes through it. You don’t want to splice this stuff. The alternative is to use a doubler to repair this area and that was the decision we made. The costs still went up for this additional repair. While I’m on the nose compartment – the DME antenna was mounted under the battery box and it caused the battery box support to be cracked and that was an easy repair.

For those folks who are sending private emails and asking me to pinpoint the cause of the collapse – it is not easy (there are at least three potential causes) and it is complicated by the fact that my attention is still split between trying to relate the events as I promised I would and getting the twin entirely repaired. Writing the blog is helping to distill the information – as detailed as the blog appears - it only covers about half to a third of what occurred.

If you are concerned about your Comanche’s gear. 1) I suggest using the Maurice Taylor DVDs to personally inspect your aircraft and I’d add the recommendation to purchase a dial caliper. 2) I suggest making sure your switches are adjusted to about 0.525 inches or buy the Comanchegear.com documentation for more detailed information and here is the link http://comanchegear.com/landing%20gear% ... nesses.php 3) I would suggest checking your conduits for linear alignment and 4) I would suggest checking specifically that your gear is over center using the DVD’s process. My personal decision, if I find a discrepancy in any one of these, is that I will not fly until it is resolved.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

[N3322G]

[N3322G]

[N3322G]

[md11flyer]

[N3322G]

[N3322G]

[N3322G]

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 48

Sept 1-3a.

This is the part about the on site visit to the repair shop. I’ll do my best to focus solely on the repairs instead of the twitter approach of commenting on every moment of every day. Allow me to add a bit a humor. It was an early set of flights, DFW to Houston and Houston to California. I was fortunate to have an empty seat next to me and the other person in the row was the 10 year old in a family of 4. The rest of the family was across the aisle. I was studying the gear section of the Service Manual and she noticed that I looked out the window and asked where we were. I had just recognized El Paso and took out the airline route map and showed her where El Paso was in relation to our destination. While the question was slightly different each of the next several times she asked, it was the equivalent to, ‘Are we there yet?’ I found it humorous because I was just as anxious as she was to get there and evidently showed it by looking out the window a lot - instead of staying focused on my reading.

My first view of the Twin was a surprise. I don’t know about you but there are few surprises in aviation that are positive. The photo I had - showed it covered as requested with sheets and then plastic and this was no longer the case. Most of the surface was covered with some other material. With all of the communications, no one ever mentioned that anything but sheets were touching the new paint job. It took all my self-control to check the negative comments. I had been told material had been ordered but not that it was on the plane. I’ll come back to this point.

I spent the rest of the day listening and learning. There were about a dozen aircraft in various stages of repair and about 7-9 folks so not all planes had work being done on them at all times. The owner showed me some of the Comanche tooling and some of the parts that came off the Twin - and of the greatest interest to me was - the test stand where he had checked the gear switch settings. Of course he knew I was coming so he left the right one set up and this story is best told in the pictures below.

As folks crossed our paths, he introduced me and this is when he also showed me the tooling he’d built to comply with the SB on the prop backplates of which I have already posted photos. I cleared it with the owner to take photos as long as I didn’t interfere with work on the Twin and I planned to do that the next morning on Wednesday. He told me there would be no work done on the Twin on Thursday which was perfect as I wanted to wash it and this could be done now and I wouldn’t get in anyone’s way or slow any progress on the twin.

Since photos all post at the bottom of the post, I’ll finish my comments first. The photos of the right micro-switch showed that the right main gear would not be over center at the 0.42 inches adjustment setting. The bench setting shown would not allow for the continued inertial movement so it is not a perfect simulation of how the gear would move in flight as all forces were not represented. However, it was the opinion of the shop owner that this could be a contributing factor and/or the cause of the gear collapse. Before you rush to judgment, be sure to look at the conduits. The right one is significantly bent. Was it bent before the collapse or as a result of the collapse? Was it slightly bent and then bent more when the gear collapsed?. We just don’t know.

The gear transmission and motor came back with the expected repairs and was identified as a potential cause of the collapse but again, there was no conclusive proof. If the motor had stopped early, before the gear was over center, we would not have had a green gear light. Since we did have a green gear light, the evaluations lead us to believe it was either the switch adjustment and/or the conduit. These are the two items I now watch like a hawk.

Then there’s the question on - if it was the switch adjustment settings, and the gear was not over center but still showed a green gear light, how did we get 38 happy landings over about 6 weeks since the new switches were installed? The 38 landings included two IPCs, one BFR and an hour session with instructor to practice cross wind landings and then normal travel. The instructor on the crosswind landing practice was the same guy we just flew the rental twin with and he is precise in his ‘demand’ for good flying – just as we are. After a decade of flying with him, we trust his judgment. I remember he commented that the need for the crosswind practice was questionable as all techniques were good and the pilot did not put any sideload stress on the gear.

Recall the conduits were about 20 months old and done at the same time as the 1000 gear AD. I asked that the gear AD be done again in conjunction with the repairs so that every aspect of the gear I could think of was being inspected. If the conduits were bent, how did we get 20 months of happy landings? We’ve had some memorable landings in the twin but none in this timeframe.

So now you know what we know. The green gear light came on in about 4-5 seconds; the gear gave every appearance of being down and locked. All required gear maintenance was done and proactive replacement of wiring and conduits were done. The sequence on the collapse was right main tire gentle touch and wing settle as the gear horn goes off. The left main tire touches and that wing settles and then belly slide. I have received several private emails on why the gear collapsed and this is the time to express any opinions.

I will continue the blog on the repairs and insurance company interaction until we get to the first destination flight. Remember to double click on the photo to see it clearly.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

[N3322G]

[N3322G]

[N3322G]

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 51

Sept 1-3d.

Overall, it was a pleasure to meet the folks at the repair shop and I thanked them for the work I saw done and being done on the twin. I was especially pleased to see the attention to detail shown by the new rubber gaskets and adel clamps replaced in the belly area. This is the third time I’ve seen the twin in a bizillion pieces. The first time was the engine overhauls, the second was when 100 pieces were taken off for paint and now, this state of disassembly – I didn’t even bother to count how much of the plane was in different places because I expected it. If you go through this process and don’t have this background, be prepared to have some emotional reaction.

By the nature of the work, the shop will get dirty every day and so will your plane. There will also be collateral damage. For us, this was most evident in the interior plastic window sills that had to be removed to install the shoulder harness hardware. 40 year old plastic is pretty darn brittle. This plastic cracked when the interior was re-done in 1997 and was repaired. It did not do so well with these repairs. There are now large chunks missing around the screws holes. Our take was they needed to be replaced anyway and we did not hold the shop responsible for the additional damage that happened as a result of removal.

The paint job and windows are a different story. The hardest part was what was discovered when I washed the Twin. When the twin is in for maintenance and I’m waiting for it, I bring two buckets, lay down sheets on the floor to prevent a mess and to provide traction to avoid accidents and wash the plane – a section at a time. The custom covers that the owner had decided to make and were partially done were removed and so were the rest of the sheets. I always start by washing the windshield with my hand and clean water. Hmmm. In 39 years of washing the windshield I hadn’t felt this before. As background, when the twin was being raced, it was my job to care for the exterior. Since any bug would slow the plane down and these were speed competitions, I washed that windshield each time we landed so in a week of competition, I washed it 8-10 times. The point is that I personally have a great deal of experience washing this particular windshield and now, the surface felt rough. I tried three times and still I couldn’t get whatever was on the windshield to come off.

I moved to the stabilators and had the same trouble. Here, I used soap and my normal techniques and still, the surface of the paint was noticeably rougher on top than the bottom. I’d washed the twin with the same techniques multiple times since it came from the paint shop 39 hours prior and had not had this difficulty. It had sat on ramps and gotten jet fuel residue and other dirt on it and had always come clean – but not today.

After I finished washing, I pondered what the problem could be and noted that the sections of the plane that were covered with sheets came clean as usual – only the sections that came in contact with the partially complete new material cover had a problem. This was a tough spot. The owner was trying to do something nice but had inadvertently put something on the twin that left a residue on every surface it touched. Ugh, now I had to share this observation with the shop owner. Before I left to return to Texas, I told the owner I’d check with the paint shop to see what the best course of action would be.

It remained to be seen if the residue could be cleaned off and I didn't have the time or tools to work on that. Hopefully, it didn't bond with or permeate the paint. Just recently in the household construction project, we’d had a new light fixture damaged in an analogous situation. Painters’ plastic used to cover a newly installed colored glass ribbed fixture that had two 100 watt light bulbs burning for long periods of time fused with the glass or the colored surface of the glass. The plastic could be removed but the discoloration could not and the glass had to be replaced. Who would have thought a piece of plastic could damage glass? Thinking about the airplane, I worried that the new fabric covering had outgassed in the hot desert climate and interacted with the still relatively new paint just as the heated plastic adhered to the home light fixture.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

[N3322G]

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 52

Monday, Sep 7.

The Monday email update went like this ... (and the normal project management document was also attached but there isn’t enough change to merit posting it again.)

‘You have received this email and attached Project Management Repair Report because you are a current stakeholder (or you were a stakeholder during the past week or you just are interested in the progress) in the repair of N3322G. I plan to issue this report each Monday, make phone calls as needed and make checkpoint phone calls to the week's key participants on Wednesdays. You are welcome to email or call me at any time.

Current Critical Path items:
• IRAN (Inspect, Repair As Needed) for engines and engine baskets
Next critical path items will be getting the engines and engine baskets to the west coast from Zephyr Engines and Kosola respectively located on the east side of the country.

Comments:
• Visited the Twin and saw the excellent repair work first hand. Belly repairs are nearly complete with current work being the forming of inspection panels. Flaps are next and then the big job of putting about 100 pieces back together.
• Mechanic who did the annual inspection found no discrepancies which is unusual and supports what the FAA inspectors had to say - that this is the best maintained Twin Comanche they'd seen.
• With the plane vertically secure for the first time I was able to wash only the attached parts and discovered additional paint damage and divots that were camouflaged by the few bug splatters. This is in addition to the unavoidable paint damage to the nose itself caused by having to remove the bottom nose skin to repair the hidden firewall damage. The paint estimate may or may not need to be adjusted.

• Quarterly Checkpoint:
o Schedule – forecasted times appear to be on target however there is still risk to the schedule because not all inspections are finished and not all parts are on site.
o Finances – there will likely be some variance from the original estimates because of the hidden firewall damage and the additional surface/paint damage now known and possibly some yet to be discovered.

Hope everyone had a lovely Labor Day.”

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted

[N3322G]

Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 53

Sep 7-13.

While the engines and baskets were headed back to the west coast, we had another decision to make. I’d been told by Zephyr that the massive spark plugs had about another 25 hours of happy operation and then they’d need to be replaced. At the April 2009 Clifton, Texas fly-in we’d heard a presentation by Champion about the benefits of fine wire plugs. I priced them out and oh baby, they were a LOT more expensive. I used this Forum and the Delphi Forum to ask if others who are now using the fine wire plugs felt the expense was worth it. Forum posters rarely agree on anything so you get a broad perspective of opinions – except the responses came back 100% for fine wire plugs. Ka-ching, the Keefer just spent another $1,713 on the Twin. We bought the fine wire plugs now instead of having to do more maintenance in another few flights.

I’d sent the photos of the additional paint damage to the paint shop. They were holding a slot for the Twin in early October. Slots at a paint shop are like airline seats – once the seat goes empty, the airline can’t get income from it. Since the gear was so completely disassembled, the paint shop recommend having it painted at the repair shop and kindly shipped some of their custom paint mix to the repair shop.

The prop governors had been overhauled and were now on their way back to the repair shop from Hartzell.


Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 54

Sep 14-20.

We hit a snag at the repair shop. Comanche flaps use a single long skin on top and under the bottom of the left flap and they were longer than the machines that the repair shop had to fabricate that part. The top skins were OK. The repair shop asked if it was OK to splice or patch bottom skin. Since flaps are not considered a control surface like the stabilators and ailerons are, patching is permitted. We made a different decision than we did with the belly skins where we said it was OK to ‘patch’. We asked that the repairs be done with like to like skins. The repair shop evaluated having Webco do the work or have a local shop do the work and later decide the best course of action was to modify one of their own machines and do the work themselves.

Like homing pigeons, all the IRAN’d parts arrived at the repair shop by the end of the week. I made a point of including a thank you note in the next Monday’s update because I knew a number of people had made an extra effort to make sure the Twin’s parts got shipped out promptly after the work was done.

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted