Since Friday is the only day I get to share off-topic stuff I thought I would take this time to share something cool that happened to me this weekend. I drove to school in my '91 Carat Vanagon (mandatory Vanagon content). We have been working on a Beechcraft A90 KingAir for about a month now at school. This is a plane that the school got a couple of years ago (drug siezure) and it sat at the local airport for over two years shut up tight. Upon opening the AC we found it to be full of corrosion due to all the condensation of two years. It was so bad that the rudder pedals were eaten almost all the way through. Anyway, we have been working on this AC everyday for the past month. Cleaning it up, troubleshooting systems, with the final goal of starting her up and hearing those two PT6 turbine engines whir to life (these are turboshaft motors as the AC is a turboprop). Well on wednesday all our hard work finally paid off. It felt great to sit there in the cockpit, to here the starter wind up the motor to 20 % and then the elation when the flame lit and the engine began to self accelerate up to 65%. We finally pushed her up to 90% and the whole plane began to pull against the securing chains (these engines have over 500 shaft horsepower each)! I really wanted to share this with the List for two reasons. First I know there are a bunch of old aircraft folks on this list who would really be interested. Second, I wanted to let you know that the troubleshooting methods and work methods that I used to help get this seemingly very complex aircraft, up and running were the ones I developed while working on VWs (Vanagons mostly). You see all of the massive twists of wiring in this aircraft and the wiring in your van is the same. It all works on the same principals. Source, Path, and Load. If you learn these three things needed to have an electrical circuit you can get your van back on the road or work on the spaceshuttle. Fuel, Intake, Compression, Ignition, and Exhaust. If you learn that these are needed to keep your van engine running then you could also use this knowledge to help you troubleshoot a turbine engine. So my advice to this list (and what I try to help folks get in there minds here) is to learn your systems. It makes that thing in the back on your van less scary and allows you to have more confidence that if something happens and the van won't start, you can troubleshoot the problem and get it back on the road as quickly (and cheaply) as possible. Ken Wilford Van-Again John 3:16 |
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