08Romeo Annual Day 2

Day two calls for another really hot shower to start my day, the way I ended day one before I went to bed. I'm also going to take an Advil with breakfast so I'm ready for wiggling into any position needed to fasten, inspect or reinstall aircraft parts. I'm soon southbound on Interstate 95 and traffic is moving rather quickly. When I arrived at the shop I found the door was still locked, woo hoo....I beat the guys in! Keith opened up the shop in just a few minutes and I walked in with my travel mug of hot apple cider ready to have at it. No donuts this morning, I was already amped up and sugar would have blown the roof off.

We soon picked up where we had left off at the close of day one. 08Romeo got fresh oil even though I only had 16 hours on the last change. It seems I have an oil screen vs the conventional oil filter, I'm not sure I like that set up. It's four screws that can be a bit hard to reach and the frequency of the change is more often then the filtered models. Anywho,I did want to change to a more appropriate weight oil for our north east temps. In Texas the previous owner was running straight 50 weight oil, I switched to 15W50. Aeroshell 15W50 is a premium multigrade ashless dispersant oil specifically developed for aviation piston engines. Ashless means that the product does not contain any metallic components - this is important because it reduces the formation of harmful metallic ash deposits within the engine. Dispersant means it will hold small particles in suspension if they do not dissolve, allowing these particles to be carried away from critical areas and filtered out. This helps keep the engine clean. The advanced additive package provides excellent protection to engines operating at extreme ambient temperatures. The ashless anti-wear additive package provides exceptional wear protection for camshafts and lifters and other wearing surfaces. I should also mention that 08R has a quick drain oil plug which really made things move quickly.

I moved on to reinstall the inspection plates under each wing and the tail cone since inspection was complete. Frank didn't like the way the tail cone was fastened so we changed the screws and added dimpled washers that sat in the predrilled hole much nicer and provided a much cleaner finished look. With the tail end completed we moved to the fuel system. I was back under the plane removing the gascolater/fuel strainer cover to make ready for removal and inspection. The fuel pump is also located under this inspection plate. While removing the gascolator we noticed some sticky residue and it turns out it was brake fluid. It had been there a good while since it was really more of a slime/sludge consistency. This started the trail to find the source. It seems a master cylinder had very minor leak on the right side rudder/brake pedal evidenced by the same sticky slime. We checked the hoses and cleaned the area and also rebuilt one master cylinder on the pilot side. Was fluid spewing out? No, but why wait for a problem to snowball.


We are still waiting for the ELT battery and the wing tip but for now I continue to button things up. Keith climbed inside to replace two filters behind the panel; the vacuum system filter and a relief valve filter. What I want to know is who designed this thing and placed it in the most out of the way, hard to reach space. Obviously aircraft design Engineers and roadway/bridge Engineers both forget about the field guys. I did get a good look behind the panel and things seemed very orderly. I also checked out the space available for the future panel mounting location for my Garmin 496, plenty of room. While Frank and Keith were hard at it I was assigned the reinstallation of the back seats and rear cover for the battery. I also took the headset plug apart so I could repaint the interior plastic piece that houses the two plugs. They had some scratches that will drive Mary and I nuts so now was the time to clean it up. Since the plane was still on jacks I had to use a step ladder to crawl inside. What a sight, to high to lift the new hip in a tight space so I did the belly crawl to get my butt inside the baggage area, thankfully there were no cameras taping this scary stuff.
Following afternoon break we were ready to hang the bottom cowl. The screws for the cowl were some sort of quick set, by that I mean a quarter turn and they locked, which was a good thing for there were many to address. Next, the left side landing gear was temporarily put back together. A high tensile bolt was placed through the Jo Bolt holes so we could lower the plane and prep for drilling the two new Jo Bolt holes. The Service Instruction (SI) detailed the replacement process. I should mention the Beech Aero Club (BAC) that has a very comprehensive list of Service Bulletins (SB) and SI's. If it's related to Beech aircraft they have it. The membership fee is worth the information available to any Beech owner, not to mention all the fly-in events they schedule and the people you meet.
We are pretty much complete for day two since we are waiting on parts. I will not be able to finish up since I am going back to work on Monday. I'll get a call as soon as the wing tip is completed and I will schedule pick up late next week. I'll have to bum a flight down or have Mary drive me down. I hope 08R is back in time for the North East Flyer's Lancaster lunch run on the 14th.