Even if your aircraft isn’t suffering from an air conditioning problem, be sure to follow these quick tips to keep your airplane healthy this summer!

• Switch to a 100-weight oil unless you use multi-grade.
• Have your turbocharger system adjusted for hotter weather.
• Avoid costly maintenance in the winter by remembering to run your TKS system for one minute after leveling out in cruise, on the first flight every month during the summer.

Did you know Cirrus requires their Authorized Service Centers to have 20% of their full-time mechanics undergo a Cirrus factory training course and the rest of the mechanics to complete web-based training? As part of our commitment to excellence, I recently returned from my factory training and will be bringing our full-time maintenance personnel up to 100% factory-trained. Why? Because our customers deserve the best!

If you’re looking for a way to spruce up your airplane this summer, here are a few additional services we offer:

• SureFly magneto conversions
• Aircraft detailing services
• Avionics and cabin heater add-ons for Tanis equipped aircraft
• BatteryMINDer quick connector installs
• Dynamic propeller balancing for a smoother ride and longer component life

We also perform annual inspections, aircraft detailing, maintenance record keeping, and we can create a management package specific to your needs. To learn more about all the services we offer, visit sweetaviation.com/maintenance or give us a call at (260) 267-5505.

Finally, we also wanted to share a couple of updates:

• Our maintenance shop is moving across the ramp to our larger hangar, giving it the opportunity to continue to grow and expand. The current shop will be converted as a place for charter staging and hosting events.
• Speaking of growing, we’ve also added a new face in the maintenance shop! Austin Scheiderer has joined our maintenance staff as an A&P and aircraft detailer.

The post Maintaining Your Aircraft This Summer appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

• If you’re not using a multigrade oil, it’s time to switch to a summer-weight oil. We can help you find the perfect oil for your aircraft for warm weather flying.
• SR22T owners — consider having your turbochargers adjusted for warmer weather. Call our maintenance professionals to get started.
• Did you use your TKS several times this winter? Consider a thorough exterior detail to remove the gray/white residue TKS can leave behind on textured stripes. Our detailing professionals use the finest products on the market for a completely polished look.
• Remember to exercise your TKS systems for one minute every month to keep the internal membranes from drying out over the summer. We recommend doing it in flight to avoid a mess on the hangar floor or airport tarmac.
• If you’re like us, getting into a cold airplane during the winter was an unwelcome shock. You might consider upgrading your Tanis engine heater with an Avionics/Cabin heater which we have done in many of our aircraft. The upgrade is easier on your avionics, and we enjoy the enhanced level of comfort during the winter. It’s a relatively simple upgrade — give us a call to schedule an appointment.

Sweet Aviation provides an abundance of services as part of aircraft management and will tailor an aircraft management package specific to your needs. Available services include annual inspections, aircraft detailing, maintenance record keeping, and more. Give us a call at (260) 267-5505, and we would be happy to craft a maintenance plan for your Cirrus.

Learn more about our aircraft charter service, maintenance services, flight school, and aircraft rental.

The post Springtime Aircraft Preparation appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

Below you’ll find information on preparing your aircraft for the colder months. If you have questions, require assistance with any of these tasks, or need your aircraft serviced or upgraded, our factory-trained experts are here for you.

• If you’re using a straight weight oil, get an oil change before late October. If you’ll fly less often this winter, consider adding CamGuard to ward off corrosion and inhibit engine deposits.
• Ground check your TKS panels to make sure they’re all wetting out completely, allowing up to 15 minutes or more if this hasn’t been done in a while. This is something you may be more comfortable having a professional do.
• It’s also a good idea to ops check your engine heater. With your engine cold, plug it in for an hour and either use your engine gauges to make sure your oil and each of your cylinders are well above ambient temperature, or remove your cowl and physically check to make sure they’re warm. If you are not comfortable doing it, we’ll be happy to test it for you. 
• If cold seats are not your thing, Cirrus sells an avionics heater add-on for your Tanis system that raises cabin temperature by as much as 30 degrees and preheats your sensitive avionics equipment. The kit is between $850 and $1,000 installed and well worth the investment for the improvement to both your safety and your comfort. Cirrus typically has to back-order them, so if you’re interested, don’t wait until it’s already winter to order.
• Don’t forget – we love detailing! Keep your aircraft looking like new with the special treatment of our extraordinary detailers. This is something we can do while it’s here for service or we can make a separate appointment for you.

Take care of these simple checks and changes, and you’ll be ready for the ice, snow, and freezing temperatures — or at least your aircraft will be!

If you’re not comfortable doing the steps above or just don’t have the time, call us at (260) 267-5505 to discuss your Cirrus needs and get your maintenance scheduled.

The post Preparing Your Aircraft for Winter appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

Personal maintenance cannot involve complex assembly, which, unfortunately, is left undefined by the FAA. Also, just like a mechanic, you are required to do the work in accordance with the latest manuals (you do have the latest revision of your aircraft’s MX manual, don’t you?), and you must ensure that all your tools function accurately and properly (which means calibrated, in FAA-speak). All parts installed on certificated aircraft must also be certified aircraft parts or made to aerospace standards, even screws and washers. So no running to a local or national hardware store for fasteners. Speaking of fasteners, item 26 says you are allowed “Replacement or adjustment of nonstructural standard fasteners incidental to operations.” Do you know how to differentiate between structural and nonstructural fasteners? For one thing, bolts are a no-go, but screws can get tricky.

For example, many Piper models have metal fuel tanks that screw into the leading-edge area of their wings. There are 70 screws per tank, and they tend to rust once the paint gets chipped off. Owners like to replace them with shiny, stainless steel, truss head AN526 screws. They look great, it’s easy to do, and why pay a mechanic for an hour of work just to replace screws? The problem is, the Illustrated Parts Catalog (IPC) lists those as MS27039 screws. Those are structural screws and are about 3x stronger than the AN526 screws. It turns out that once installed, the fuel tanks are an integral part of the wing’s load-bearing structure, plus they’re holding around 200 pounds of gas. Not only is the pilot/owner not permitted to change the screws, but they unknowingly weaken their wing structure by installing the wrong screws.

When in doubt, please, ask a mechanic. Here at Sweet Aviation, our technicians are more than happy to help provide professional advice. We love planes just as much as you do and will be glad to give you some advice or arrange a training session to teach you some simple, and legal, preventive maintenance services. This may or may not be a cheaper way to maintain your aircraft, but you are guaranteed the enjoyment and added value of learning more about your aircraft while spending some quality time with it in the hangar prior to launching into the friendly skies.

The post Preventive Maintenance Dos and Don’ts appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

It is important that you get down on your knees and position your head directly above the brake caliper, as this is the only way to get a good idea of the condition of the linings. The first thing to look for is lining thickness. The manufacturer states that the linings should be at least 0.10″ thick (approximately the thickness of a nickel). This thickness, combined with the proper thickness of the brake disc, makes it impossible to lose hydraulic brake pressure past the caliper O-ring. This minimum thickness also ensures that the rivets that hold the linings to the back plates are not making contact with the brake disc.

One thing to know is that the linings typically wear faster on the bottoms, where it is more difficult to inspect. Therefore, if the tops of the linings measure 0.10″, it is a sure bet that the bottoms of the linings are beyond the wear limit, and that the lower brake rivet is scraping the disc. The linings should be replaced if this is the case. (During an inspection, I use a mirror and a flashlight to inspect the bottoms of the linings, as opposed to looking only at the tops.) Another thing to look for is brake fluid dripping from the brake caliper. The presence of red 5606 hydraulic fluid means that the caliper O-ring is not functioning correctly, or it may have even popped out of its groove. If this happens, your brakes will not work properly.

The post Brakes – Safety Check appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

The post Blue Skies and Blue Gas: A Pilot’s Favorite Scenario appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

The post Seatbelts: Safely Connected, Ready to Fly! appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

Cruising
Though they are easier to start, carbureted engines are less efficient during flight. Since the fuel/air mixture in carbureted systems meet at the carburetor, the mixture is less precise for each cylinder. Fuel injectors are calibrated to force the same amount of fuel into each cylinder. Because of their precision, most fuel injection systems also permit monitoring of each cylinder’s EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature). EGT probes on each cylinder allow the pilot to create the ideal engine performance; saving fuel, as well as reducing wear on the engine. For these reasons, as well as many others, fuel injected engines are standard on most new aircraft.

Carbureted systems are simple: less parts, less complexity, less maintenance. In fact, our carbureted Cessnas do not need fuel pumps since the fuel tanks are high (in the wings) and push the fuel all the way to the carburetor. One thing carbureted engines do need is carb heat. When activated, carb heat allows air to flow around the exhaust (to heat up) and then into the carburetor — bypassing the induction filter. The hot air melts/prevents ice buildup around the throttle valve. Fuel injected engines do not need carb heat, but they do need electric fuel pumps as a starting flow, as well as a backup for the engine-driven fuel pump.

The post Carbureted vs Fuel Injected appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

In the many studies done on frost, it has been found that a thin layer of frost, the thickness of medium coarseness sandpaper, will reduce lift by 30 percent and increase drag by 40 percent. In the smaller general airplanes we fly, we do not have the excess power to overcome that loss of performance. That doesn’t stop some pilots from trying it each winter and finding out the hard way that they still can’t overcome the excess weight and drag.

The airlines are required to make sure that the plane is completely clean of any ice/frost buildup before they fly. The same rules legally don’t apply to us, but it makes sense that the only safe airplane is a clean one. Even if it is legal for us to fly with frost, if something does happen, the FAA will still probably find you guilty of careless or reckless operation which is a violation of FAR 91.13

So now that we hopefully agree that frost and flying don’t mix, what can we do about it? If your airplane is parked in a hanger, you shouldn’t have any problems. If it is left out overnight and has a layer of frost, our options are to clean it off or wait to fly another day. A layer of snow or loose frost can be fairly easily cleaned off with a broom or ice brush, but care must be taken to not damage paint. At some airports you can have the plane de-iced with a glycol solution, but that is usually an expensive option. If that is not available, we can use automotive de-icer in a can. If you know you will have frost to deal with ahead of time and are set up for it, you can use Polypropylene antifreeze, the pink stuff used in RV’s. When sprayed on from a small garden sprayer, it can be quite effective (composite aircraft owners should test this on an out-of-the-way area first to make sure it doesn’t stain). If you pull the plane into a heated hanger for a bit to melt if off, make sure we clean all the water off before we take it back out. We don’t want all the just melted frost to re-freeze.

For further information, check out this ASF Safety Brief PDF.

The post A Frosty Situation appeared first on Sweet Aviation.

If you arrive on a brisk morning to find that your airplane was not plugged in overnight, don’t despair. There is faster pre-heating option. Sweet Aviation also owns a salamander-type propane heater. While it is more work, it is able to heat the engine much faster than simply plugging it in. To operate the salamander-type heater, the heater hose should be inserted slightly into one cowling inlet, while a cowl plug obstructs the other inlet to force the hot air down, instead of simply letting it exit the other side. When using this with aircraft with composite cowlings, care must be taken not to leave it in one side for too long as the heat will cause the composite to sag. The heat should be alternated side to side for several times until you can reach in and feel that the engine case is warm to the touch.

The largest grief-causing error I see during the winter the removal of the cowl plugs and unplugging of the engine pre-heater during the beginning stages of the preflight. This causes the engine to be completely cold again by the time they settle into the cockpit and ready to start. The cowl plugs should remain installed and the heater plugged in until the last possible minute before starting.

The engine is not the only thing the cold is hard on. Battery performance also suffers in the cold, and I recommend conserving electricity during the preflight and pre-start operations. This means leave the strobes off as long as possible, and don’t run the flaps up and down more than necessary.

Cooler temperatures are great for aircraft (and instructor!) performance, and winter is my favorite time of year to fly. Proper preflight procedures combined with engine preheating will help to ensure efficient and enjoyable flying all winter long.

The post Heating It Up appeared first on Sweet Aviation.