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Well, It's now 9 months since I slightly dinged N333EX's
Prop on a the third bounce of a bad landing. Nine months
and I am about the fire the engine up for the first time.
Here is what I learned:
1. always, Always, ALLways, ALLWays, ALLWAys ALLWAYs
yes, ALWAYS go around on the first bounce.
2. Beware the bargain engine. In fact if you do buy a zero time
bargain engine take some of those savings, go to a local shop,
split the case, and have everything inspected. Some of you may
remember that Dick Waters at Airtec supplied my engine without
a plug for the constant speed oil. He took the engine right back
after sitting in my shop for 9 years and fixed the problem. He
picked up the cost of everything. Well, again Dick stood behind his engine. This time he supplied me with a new crankshaft and
new accessory gears and other little tidbits that my 68 hour engine
required to get a yellow tag. Thang was these parts were not dinged
in the first, second or third bounce. 3. Never, ever, let anyone take your engine apart unless you can see
the whites of their eyes. Back in January, I sent the engine to Lynn's aircraft engines of Mohave Valley, Az. They have a good
rep with LPM, Aviation Consumer and my insurance agent. In short
order I became the customer from hell. How could you believe the
phone report after calling multiple times that the engine had bad
parts. Lot's of them. In fact so many bad parts that these guys did not even want to pull the heads apart because of a reported colony of worms that were roosting there within. By the fourth month you begin
to wonder if these guys were making deep sea vent worms out of nematodes. After the sixth month I knew that whoever I called at
Lynn's had to be in the mood before they would my call. Insisting
that Lycon port the heads and Airtec supply the high compression pistons did not improve their opinion of me. But then, when all my
valves suddenly came up missing, my opinion of them did not change,
much.
4. Hire an A&P to reattach your newly revised engine on the airframe.
Sure, you did the whole thing yourself the first time. But remember
how long it took? Justin, my local A&P at KOAK had the engine
on plumbed and wired in two days. Not 100% done but no way would I get that much done in that short of a time. I learned alot by working
side by side with him and Eric.
This has been a long enough post so far. I'll have a flight report once I
get the critter back in the air and see if I have any flight skills left after
these nine months.
Did I mention ALWAYS go around on the first bounce?
Gerard Cerchio
N333EX
LML website: http://www.olsusa.com/mkaye/maillist.html
LML Builders' Bookstore: http://www.buildersbooks.com/lancair
Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.
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