Just a quick update: it looks like the CDI and GPS stopped talking to each other. That makes the GPS no longer legal for IFR navigation, which isn’t ideal. Fortunately, it’s headed over to Aerial Avionics today for what I’m hoping is a quick fix.
Month: February 2016
Verical card compass is installed
And there it is! A new PAI-700 vertical card compass now adorns the glareshield of N194SP. No more squinting to read the compass.
The heading bug miscalibration should also have been fixed today, but I did not actually get a chance to check it.
Vertical card compass arrives
It won’t go in until the 100-hour, which should be near the end of the month. But it’s here and waiting for some downtime to get it in! Less than a month from saying goodbye to a dim, shaky, backward-reading wet compass.
UPDATE: The timeline moved up! Looks like it should be in and working by this weekend. No, I didn’t get 100 hours that quickly, but instead the TFR over KRHV provided an opportunity to do this while the plane wasn’t flying. The heading bug/autopilot misregistration should be fixed at the same time.
January was slow
Poor weather seriously affected the number of hours N194SP flew in January. At only 17.4 Hobbs hours (12.4 on the tach), it wasn’t enough to overcome the fixed costs of keeping the aircraft at Trade Winds. I owed them $370, resulting a total loss for the month of about $2300. So far, not a great start to this leaseback thing. However, that was a known risk. The combination of having a plane to work bugs out of and winter weather meant a loss in this business.
February is liable to be slow due to the Superbowl TFRs, continued wet weather, and a short month. Additionally, I’m coming up on the 100-hour inspection, which will pull the plane down for three days at a minimum. It may happen in February or it may happen in early March. It’ll also be at that time that the plane will get a new vertical card compass and have the seat upholstery fixed!
In the maintenance side of things, the aircraft was actually quite reliable. I’ve updated the squawks page with the newest items. Basically, the flatspotted tire continues its saga, with the other tire now replaced. Pricing has gotten better, so this only ran $240 including labor, which is a nice improvement over last month’s $295.
Wheel bearings on this ex-Florida plane continue to be a problem. Both the nose and the remaining main gear bearings were replaced. This should end the mess with wheel bearings, as this means all new bearings at every location in landing gear. $575 corrects this problem for the foreseeable future.
The rest of the items were very small. The compass card become unreadable and was replaced. The AI needed a tweak to level it. The pedestal lamp bulb burned out. All that was less than $50. It consumed only one quart of oil at $6.50/qt.
The plane consumed fuel at the rate of about 11 gallons per tach hour. Sadly, I didn’t fly the plane myself for even one hour. I’m correcting that in February, as I already have a Valentine’s flight set up with my wife.
N194SP 