Belly Meets Blacktop requested Blog

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Belly Meets Blacktop – Blog part 58

Oct 12-18.

Monday – I sent the last of the Project Management updates because we were now down to single stream events. It was the start of the ICS convention in Dayton and we’d rented a car to drive over there. I could go on for quite some time on how excellent the convention was but that isn’t the focus here. I’ll just say it makes me want to go back to visit Dayton again and the organizers did an excellent job. As I said earlier, I'd promised the owners of the Dial Eastern paint shop (DESAPI) and Scheme Designers who helped Ken and me update the custom paint job Mom, famed race pilot Marion Jayne, designed that I would exhibit the Twin at the Dayton convention where they both were scheduled to speak. The promise was made before the Belly slide due to gear collapse on June 9. I pride myself on keeping commitments and now everything was in the hands of the paint shop. Dick held paint bay space for the Twin for 4 months just on the chance it would work out.

I will stick in one bragging-on-Mom comment. She had been nominated to the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton and apparently her opportunity is moving along well as it is up a couple of levels and the person I spoke with said that is a torrid pace compared to most nominations. I met fellow Twin owner David Vornholt who promised to see if he could help me bring it to final fruition and induction. She’s already been inducted into the Pioneer Aviation Hall of Fame and was named one of the 100 Aviation heroes for the first century of flight at the Kitty Hawk celebration with other luminaries such as the Wright Brothers.

The repairs took a bit longer than forecasted and we fought the weather getting to Ohio. The DESAPI paint shop crew voluntarily came in and worked incredible hours this week to feather the fiberglass nose to the bottom nose cowl that had been removed, repaired and re-attached and do all of their normal paint processes so the paint would adhere and last as long as the original now 39 hour old paint job they'd done last fall. They had to blend several areas and re-stripe the nose. Some guys came in at 4 am some days and others worked till 9 PM because of the various drying times of the numerous steps.

When Dick arrived at the convention he brought photos of the Twin’s belly. There were four areas of fuel stains. Now I’d been on a creeper underneath this plane and I hadn’t seen them after the test flight. I also know that I had overfilled the left aux in Abilene and again at our home airport. While I’d been watching for fuel stains, once I’d checked in California, I didn’t inspect as closely and when the fuel is on aluminum instead of white paint, they are harder to see. So the guys cleaned them up and there were no further leaks at the paint shop.

Astonishingly, they got it done the day before the Flagship competition but the weather between Dayton and Cadiz had icing from 1400' up and of course, you can't fly new paint in any precip because it will come off. It takes about 30 days to fully cure - and then there was the how do we get to Cadiz?

Zach Grant graciously consented to fly us to Cadiz in his 180 on Saturday. Wow, he is one smooth pilot. It was cold and the 180 cranked a bit hard but started and in light-ish IMC with a few granules of ice we made Cadiz.

The Twin looked gorgeous again and I asked Zach to wait in case the pre-flight and run-up was not successful. Only a couple of items and then we were on our way. Zach climbed back up to 6or8,000 and we were limited to under the 1,500' deck. We zig-zagged to avoid the light precip areas and throttled back when light, dry snow flurries slid over the nose. I was really hoping it was snow flurries and not paint. The visibility was fabulous. It was hard to fly so slowly when we were in a hurry. Just as we reached Dayton, the skies cleared completely and it makes you doubt that you'd just had to 'fight' your way back to Dayton. After over 4 months of effort from many people, we made it with about 45 minutes to spare.

All the effort was worth it as least two people who saw the Twin, asked Dick about painting their Comanches. They had to be interested because it was darn cold on the ramp with the wind out of the north to stand around outside and talk about a future paint project. It made me nervous that the 5 judges crawled over and under the plane at the same time.

Parked next to us on the ramp was a non-hangared Twin that DESAPI had painted 12 years earlier and it still looked great. I asked the owner if I could feel the paint. It was still pretty smooth but slightly porous so you could tell it was older – like our 19 year old paint used to be. It felt a lot like the paint on my Twin now. Pretty good, shiny but not the new paint finish you would expect for a hangared airplane with a now 50ish hour old paint job where the cover had left the residue. The new paint felt like new paint.

We got the Twin re-fueled, towed and tied down and I fueled Zach's 180 to his specs as well and headed for the hotel. Of course, I checked for fuel stains and there were none. Perhaps the other fuel stains were just the overfilling done by me. You know the rest of the story as seen in the Flyer ... the Twin shares the 2009 Best Twin trophy honors. Big thanks to all those who made this happen and special thanks to the DESAPI crew - they did amazing work on a very tight schedule without compromising quality.

On Sunday, I flew the Twin back to Columbus while husband Ken dropped our Tribe Chief at the Columbus airport for a commercial flight and then came to get me. I checked for fuel stains again and found none on the shiny new paint.

The posted photo was taken by Chris at DESAPI, Dial Eastern States Aircraft Painting, Inc.

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

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The blog will continue in a few days.

Ken's Dad has died after 10 years of ill health. The last 90 days of frequent hospital visits and being on and off a ventilator makes the death a blessing for him. Nevertheless, the finality is always difficult.

Unfortunately, the Twin is in the shop for its third set of repairs so we'll be driving to Arkansas a lot.

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[Jay]

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[ics-12766]

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Below is a set of emails that contains a good idea on insurance that I may choose to implement next year. It came as a result of my response in trying to help Jim with a question he had -

"Dear Pat;

I’ve just read your Blog “Belly meets Blacktop”. Took me 4 hours! I’ve been there…several situations & times…..and I mean in similar aspects.

First, I asked on the Forum if anyone remembered the name of a sheet metal (skins) shop that several recommended a few months ago. It’s not the shop I’m looking for but an old friend from Lockheed I believe to be working there. But, thanks for responding.

Now to your Blog. On Page 32 you finish by “sleeping on it before sending David L’Roy’s prop swap conditions”. Did that work our for you? If not what did you do for ferry props? I got a “wrong turning prop” from Randy Hummel at Surprise Valley Aviation (bone yard) some years ago. Randy has now retired and tells me that Bob Webber got control of much of his inventory during the sale. Bob may have access to a prop for you and not even know it.

You never mentioned a satisfactory conclusion to the reason for your gear collapse. However, for what its worth, I repaired a turbo PA-39 which suffered a very similar circumstance. The pilot, an airline captain, flew from Santa Barbara to the San Fernando Valley and had a gear collapse on landing. Total surprise!!

The PA-39 needed new props, flap repair, belly skins, antennae, etc., just as you describe. It turned out that, on take-off, the end of the gear transmission snapped at the 3/8th clevis pin at the rear anchor point. (You mentioned “some difficulty” removing the gear cover because the gear box was deformed.) The gear motor ran the jack-screw assembly forward pulling the gear about half way up. When landing the gear went down, but not locked. It collapsed with the weight of the aircraft, the gear box was deformed at its aft end.

Regarding your fun with the Insurance Adjuster, et al. I crashed a Bonanza with a blown jug years ago. They did everything to wriggle out of paying, including researching my military record to find something they could get their teeth into to. I finally won, it took three years, and I’m still bitter from the experience. I only buy liability insurance since then.

I get a couple of quotes on hull insurance ever year, take the highest quote and deposit that amount in an investment account. I have almost $200K in that account.

I’m now two years into a complete ground up restoration on my Twin. A factory turbo C model. I’m finishing a Teflon push/pull (conduits) cable install right now.

Best regard Jim

James A. Smith
ICS #0517"

"Hi Jim,

Thanks for the affirmation that I am not alone in many aspects of the Blog.

May I post your email on the blog and answer the questions there? You bring out some good points about insurance and I'd like to share them. I would then answer your questions there.

I'll wait to hear from you and then post and answer or simply reply to this email with answers.

Pat"

"Pat, hi;

I emailed you privately because, in your blog, you seemed to dislike publicity. I’m not a great fan myself. But the Insurance situation was in the 1970s so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Jim"

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Jim,

I started writing about the belly flop because I'd promised the folks who'd helped me that I would share the experience in order to help others. Well, I couldn't get it distilled to article length and after almost 70 pages in a Word document, now I know why. I'll eventually get it there but not today.

To answer your questions and comments -
Sourcing C/R props - couldn't find any and once I knew the plane was going such a distance, it didn't make good sense to borrow David's so I waited until Hartzell could build them - about 6-7 weeks. Because I didn't need spinners and backplates, Knots2U was the best source and they placed the order with Hartzell. Be aware that 1992 reinforced backplates are not compatible with today's props but can be altered to fit.

Reason for the gear collapse - hmmm, it will never be 100% certain. After listening to many experts, in my opinion it was either a bent conduit that couldn't take it anymore or maladjusted recently-replaced micro switches or a combination of both. Because all gear work had been done by highly experienced Comanche-oriented mechanics, I encourage everyone to 'Trust-But-Verify' any gear work. $25 at Home depot gets a serviceable dial caliper to check switch adjustment. The Maurice Taylor DVDs give you guidance and Matt Kurke's Comanchegear.com website adds even more detail. For another level of information, the gear section in the Twin's Service Manual is 75 pages.

Finally, thanks for the consideration of the private email. In contrast to the blog I was asked to write about the Twin's paint job which was fun - this project was not fun and I found it difficult to write about so much negative activity. Since the Twin is back in its own hangar, I am more open to questions and comments. I can actually joke that the weather is supposed to clear for a nice flight tomorrow - but it is a Tuesday - do I dare?

Now I have my fingers and toes crossed that the next time the twin has to go to the shop, it is for a simple oil change.