Globe with the words Around the Pattern cured around the top half.

Ramblings about flying for fun and profit

Aircraft Maintenance

  • Progress on the Swift Maintenance – at Last

    Installing an aircraft radio is not as tedious as trying to put your watch back together, but it still seems as though this project is taking forever. My day job is taking up way too much of my time. I checked my logbook  (I use Logbook Pro in addition to keeping a paper copy) and…

  • Swift Maintenance

    My time at home in April was split between catching up on the usual home and office duties and working on the interior of the Swift. I bought a new Garmin SL-30 communications radio for the plane along with a new Comant CI-121 VHF communications antenna and RG-400 cable to connect the two. About a…

  • Aircraft Engine Pre-Heat

    I mentioned my engine pre-heater in my last post and received a request to explain it in a little more detail. Engine manufacturers and engine overhaul facilities such as Mattituck strongly recommend pre-heating the engine whenever the temperature is below 20° F. and some sources recommend pre-heating when the temperature is below 32° F. However,…

  • Big Tow Little Tow

    Traffic was backed up a little as we were leaving Tokyo the other day which meant we had to to wait in line on the parallel for our turn to take off. We happened to stop just abeam a parking apron where a maintenance crew was readying a 747 for tow. They were using one…

  • A Conversation with MEL

    The last trip I flew didn’t start out very smoothly. We were scheduled to fly from Japan to Hawaii with an evening departure.  The flight was long enough that we were manned with an extra pilot who had just finished the exterior inspection of the plane and came back to the cockpit followed by one…

  • Globe Swift Brake Master Cylinder Rebuild

    When I finished the rebuilding of the Swift landing gear struts, actuators and downlocks I thought I was finished with the hydraulic system for a while. Not so. While I was in the wheelwells cleaning things up for the re-installation of my newly rebuild parts, I took out the aluminum hydraulic lines and polished them…