Recurrent training for your Beech
As pilots, we know the importance of proficiency training. Those of us who can't exercise our flying muscles as often as we'd like begin to get sloppy after only a couple of weeks.
But what about the airplane you fly? Is it the same as it was when it left the factory? As it sits in its tiedown or hangar, atrophy is setting in. Hidden corrosion is worming through the skin, bolts have mysteriously loosened, and after years of use that elevator hinge is getting worn beyond tolerances.
Although many of these areas should be checked by your mechanic, he may not be familiar with the manufacturer's tolerances. Problems may be overlooked because your mechanic, who probably works on a wide range of aircraft, does not intimately know the areas requiring attention on your particular model of airplane. That is why the American Bonanza Society's Air Safety Foundation, and other type-specific clubs, hold service clinics. Think of it as recurrent training for your aircraft.
Begun at the ABS by technical consultant and former Beech engineer J. Norman Colvin in the late 1960s, the clinic has proven itself to be invaluable to owners, operators, and mechanics of Beech aircraft. According to current service clinic inspector Dick Pederson, Colvin used to perform the clinics through Beech. After he retired and began working at the ABS, he tried the clinic through his new employer. It turned out to be a hit and customer demand was great enough to send the clinic on the road throughout the country. Today, the clinics, available to members only, inspect about 400 airplanes per year in this country. According to Executive Director Cliff Sones, the ABS established service clinics and pilot-training programs in Australia and is in the process of setting up the same services in Germany and South Africa.
Pederson, whose experience with Beech products dates back to his childhood when he helped his father rebuild wrecked Bonanzas, says he tries to give the owner his honest opinion on the condition of his aircraft. "I'm not trying to nit-pick or make your mechanic look incompetent, I'm just letting you know what I would do if you brought your airplane to my shop," stresses Pederson. When not running the clinic, Pederson operates his own shop at the Rusk County Airport in Wisconsin where he works exclusively on Bonanzas but admits he can be persuaded to work on a Baron or TravelAir.
"Beech are the best-built aircraft out there," says Pederson. "Mooneys are good too, but I don't like working on them." Pederson and his wife, Karen, spend much of their time traveling around the country performing these clinics at the rate of one per month. Dick inspects the aircraft and dictates each squawk to Karen, who keeps a running log of your bad-news list. After witnessing so many inspections, Karen probably could qualify as an inspector herself. At each clinic, the couple inspects about 32 airplanes over a period of about four days.
"It's adventurous. You see a lot of nice airplanes, meet some interesting people and see a lot of different places," said Karen of her somewhat nomadic lifestyle. This particular clinic, held at Cap Aviation at the Reading (Pennsylvania) Regional Airport, was somewhat of a letdown for the program. Only three of a full docket of eight airplanes scheduled the first day showed because of tropical-depression-like storm spinning north of Reading. Pederson explains that many of the airplanes and their pilots who canceled were likely equipped for VFR-only flight. For that reason, extra aircraft are enrolled on a standby basis, but even the standbys didn't want to come. Arriving from the south, we were greeted by 600-foot ceilings and four miles visibility in fog.
We brought a 1968 D55 Baron, figuring that with an old twin we were bound to get our money's worth out of the clinic. Since its purchase by my father in 1971, the airplane has been through many mechanics' hands. After my father's passing in 1990, my two brothers and I took over ownership and have since been performing much of the maintenance ourselves with an A&P friend. We signed up for the clinic in the hope that it would provide us with essential knowledge about the way things ought to be on our particular airplane. Unfortunately, our mechanic could not join us — but we did bring a video camera to capture useful information.
Since we were the first and only party to show up for quite a while, it worked out to our advantage because we had Pederson's attention for more than two hours. For Barons, the inspection lasts about an hour and a half under normal circumstances and costs $150. Bonanza inspections cost $120 and generally take an hour. For an additional $55, the ABS will perform a complete AD search on your aircraft. The ABS inspection, however, is by no means a replacement for an annual or 100-hour inspection, so there is no logbook endorsement.
Legalities do not allow Pederson to perform any of the disassembly or re-assembly of the airplane. For that, the host shop, in this case Cap Aviation, calls in one of its mechanics.
"You learn a lot from four days of this clinic," said Shaun Dawson, Cap Aviation's designated A&P/IA for the clinic. No doubt he will be popular among Beech owners on the field after this experience.
After the formalities, Dawson uncowls the airplane and takes off the necessary inspection panels. Pederson begins at the left engine, where the first thing he touches gets squawked. "Its going to be a looong day," I think.
He informed us that the aircraft's original dipstick should be replaced with a later version. Apparently, the locking tabs on earlier dipsticks can break off and fall into the engine, causing serious damage. Pederson continues over the engine with his trusty Maglite and trained eye and finds a few fuel and oil hoses that are getting frayed and brittle and should be replaced. Meanwhile, I was crossing my fingers hoping the words "crankcase or cylinder crack" didn't come up. Barons with the Continental IO-520-C engines are notorious for cracking, but we have managed to miss a visit from that gremlin. According to Pederson, the IO-520 is an excellent, virtually trouble-free engine as long as you treat it with respect.
While looking over the alternator, Pederson explains how the neglect of the direct-drive alternator bearings can lead to an expensive disaster. He recommends checking them at 300-hour intervals to avoid an alternator bearing seizure. If a seizure occurs, the drive gear grinds itself to a nub heaving all that metal into the crankcase. My father replaced an engine 15 years ago for that very reason. Rubber clutches can be installed in the alternator to avoid the disaster, but they cost $900 per alternator. Checking the bearings every 300 hours suddenly sounds a lot more attractive.
Pederson moves over to the right engine while Dawson recowls the left. A larger-diameter washer needs to be installed on the lever arm of the prop governor to avoid a possible separation and subsequent loss of prop control. A new cooling-air exit hose is needed on the bottom of the alternator to avoid restricting the cooling air going through the alternator. The hose which leads to the bottom (low pressure) side of the cowling is so beat up and frayed that it wouldn't allow cooling air to exit the alternator.
A popular squawk on Barons is excessive play in the cowl flaps. This is more of a problem in the models that have electrically-actuated cowl flaps. Pederson says this is caused by the wearing of the bushings and the brackets that hold them. The holes where the actuator attaches to the lower brackets are elongated, causing the slop. Replace the bushings, and the brackets if needed. Pederson says the lower brackets are fairly easy to replace, but the upper brackets may have to settle for new bushings only for now.
On to the airframe and page two of the squawk sheet, Pederson finds that all but one of the fuel vent tubes on the underside of the wing are bent incorrectly — which not only prevents the fuel system from pressurizing correctly but may cause the fuel to siphon out in flight. All the tubes should be bent 10 degrees forward.
Both wing flaps need new rubber upstop bumpers to keep the flaps from rattling around while in the retracted position. Too much play will place excessive wear on the rollers, guides, and actuators. According to Pederson, the bumpers cost only 50 cents from Beech.
The horizontal stabilizer and elevators have always been a source of trouble on Barons and this one proved to be no different. Pederson discovers a cracked rib where the left elevator attaches to the aft spar of the stabilizer, near the outboard elevator hinge. The cracked portion will have to be replaced and, while the elevator is off, Pederson suggests replacing the worn hinges as well. Pederson checks for worn hinges by lifting on the outboard edge of the elevator. There should be no up-and- down play.
Pederson then wiggles the horizontal stabilizer, which responds with a creaking noise that Pederson says is caused by either loose stabilizer attach bolts or the stabilizer spar scraping the fuselage skin. Do loose attach bolts mean the tail will fall off?
"No, it just means they have loosened over time or were never torqued to specs," Pederson says. He assures me that the self-locking nuts cannot simply back all the way out and fall off. Pederson explains that starts, taxi, runup, and shutdown transmit nasty vibrations, contributing to the Baron's rear-end problem.
Another of Pederson's disturbing discoveries is a loose wing- attach bolt. There are eight of these bolts, four on each wing. He checks one with a 10-inch wrench. If he can move it with such a small wrench it's too loose and all others should be checked. Again, Pederson explained it doesn't mean the wings are going to fall off; the bolts just aren't torqued to specs.
Concerned about years of bouncing this airplane onto grass strips, we were glad to see the landing gear come away with as few squawks as it did. A few of the upper trunnion bolts were loose and needed to be snugged. Not so simple to fix, the inner gear door hinge bolts are elongating the holes in the brackets of the wing rib to which they are attached — lots of metalwork, labor time, and money. The inspection ends with a check of all lights and pitot heat for operation.
Overall, Pederson says our airplane is in pretty good shape. Our 39 squawks took up 2.5 pages and were considered minor. What's interesting to note is how the effects of vibration have taken their toll on the airframe. In only 1,800 hours, vibration has managed to loosen screws and bolts, crack pieces of the tail, and trash elevator hinges.
At nearly 2 p.m., a 1987 F-33A taxies up to Cap Aviation's hangar for its turn at the flashlight. "Another victim," Pederson jokes. The Bonanzas are much easier to inspect, in part because the cowl does not need to be completely removed like the Baron. On the Bonanza, Pederson looks for essentially the same things as he does on the Baron, with the exception of things like missing or disintegrating flame cones in the mufflers, missing drain tubes in the belly fuel sump door and alternate- air doors that are stuck open or don't function at all.
Flame cones can disintegrate after 600 to 700 hours reducing back pressure in the exhaust and cutting the heater efficiency by as much as 50 percent. "The airplane was certified with those cones in there, so they should be replaced if they are bad," says Pederson.
The inspection is a real eye-opener for the owner and operator of Beech aircraft. But what if you own something besides a Beech? Many other owner associations such as the Cessna Pilots Association, the Mooney Pilots Association, and the Bellanca-Champ Club offer similar clinics for their members. Check the "Associations and Clubs" listing in AOPA's Aviation USA for listings on type-specific clubs for your model airplane.
Beech owners are a proud bunch and having a clinic like this available to them enhances the joys of owning one. The ABS's membership now tops 10,000, 99 percent of whom own or operate a Bonanza or Baron.
With the average age of the general-aviation fleet getting into its mid-20s we need clinics like these to maintain the safety of the airplanes we fly. Although many of the squawks that are discovered are minor, over time they can snowball into serious problems-leading to injuries to you and your wallet.
American Bonanza Society, Mid-Continent Airport, P.O. Box 12888, Wichita, Kansas 67277; telephone 316/945-6913; fax 316/945-6990.
Related Articles
