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2009 Winter-AWA-PA
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AWA-PA
Annual Inspection
Annual Inspection
by Eric Engen
Over the past two years, AWA-PA has developed a relationship with Penn College of Technology, an arm of the Penn State University system. They once again offered to do the annual inspection on our Cessna 150 trainer, 9197U, as part of their Airframe and Powerplant class work. We knew of only minor things that needed attention this time, and thought that we would have 97U back in service well before Christmas. It didn’t quite work out that way.
I delivered 97U up to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, one windy mid-November morning, and caught a ride back home in an Archer with Samir Sorano, a private pilot who did his initial training at AWA-PA. The A&P students at PCT got to work on it right after Thanksgiving break, doing the normal engine compression checks, changing the oil and filters, inspecting the seat tracks, checking the ELT battery, checking the static system, and so forth. The nose strut was losing compression, so they tore that down and replaced the seals. They completed their work right before the semester break in mid-December.
For a long time, we have been wanting to replace the directional gyro, since the old one had a nasty habit of precessing 20 or 30 degrees at a time. We got quotes from various avionics shops of up to $900 for the gyro, and labor on top of that. But through a little investigating, we found the shop that had sold us the original (rebuilt) gyro 18 years ago, and they were still in business! They gave us a price of $400 for a rebuilt instrument. We called the PCT instructor, and he said to have them send the rebuilt gyro directly to him, and he would install it for us as part of the annual, and at no additional cost!
One other thing on our wish list was to get an IFR static system check. This was another item that the avionics shops charged for—usually $300 for the check, then parts and labor to repair any static system leaks, and there were sure to be leaks since it had never been IFR certified before. Well, PCT had the equipment to perform this check for us, too. They fixed all the leaks, and also included it as part of the annual at no additional cost.
Even though the airplane was ready, we still had to bring it back to BMA. Sam Lairson, a friend of AWA from New Jersey whose daughter attends BMA, flew in to give me a ride to Williamsport in his Cardinal RG. We got about ten minutes into the flight, but kept running into lowering ceilings, and with temperatures close to the freezing level, we decided to scrub the mission and return to base.
Christmas vacation, snow and ice on the runway, and inflexible schedules kept interfering with subsequent attempts to retrieve 97U. But finally, everything came together, and in mid-February, I caught a ride in a Warrior with a commercial student from another local flight school, and brought 97U back home, nearly three months after taking it in for the annual.
Why couldn’t things have worked out so that we could have our airplane back sooner? At first we had the airplane, but no flight instructor. Then we had a flight instructor, but no airplane. I have learned not to question God’s timing. It seemed like a long time to wait, but AWA-PA now has an IFR certified trainer that was kept in a heated hangar during the worst three months of winter weather. Praise God for the way he works things out. His timing indeed is best.
I delivered 97U up to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, one windy mid-November morning, and caught a ride back home in an Archer with Samir Sorano, a private pilot who did his initial training at AWA-PA. The A&P students at PCT got to work on it right after Thanksgiving break, doing the normal engine compression checks, changing the oil and filters, inspecting the seat tracks, checking the ELT battery, checking the static system, and so forth. The nose strut was losing compression, so they tore that down and replaced the seals. They completed their work right before the semester break in mid-December.
For a long time, we have been wanting to replace the directional gyro, since the old one had a nasty habit of precessing 20 or 30 degrees at a time. We got quotes from various avionics shops of up to $900 for the gyro, and labor on top of that. But through a little investigating, we found the shop that had sold us the original (rebuilt) gyro 18 years ago, and they were still in business! They gave us a price of $400 for a rebuilt instrument. We called the PCT instructor, and he said to have them send the rebuilt gyro directly to him, and he would install it for us as part of the annual, and at no additional cost!
One other thing on our wish list was to get an IFR static system check. This was another item that the avionics shops charged for—usually $300 for the check, then parts and labor to repair any static system leaks, and there were sure to be leaks since it had never been IFR certified before. Well, PCT had the equipment to perform this check for us, too. They fixed all the leaks, and also included it as part of the annual at no additional cost.
Even though the airplane was ready, we still had to bring it back to BMA. Sam Lairson, a friend of AWA from New Jersey whose daughter attends BMA, flew in to give me a ride to Williamsport in his Cardinal RG. We got about ten minutes into the flight, but kept running into lowering ceilings, and with temperatures close to the freezing level, we decided to scrub the mission and return to base.
Christmas vacation, snow and ice on the runway, and inflexible schedules kept interfering with subsequent attempts to retrieve 97U. But finally, everything came together, and in mid-February, I caught a ride in a Warrior with a commercial student from another local flight school, and brought 97U back home, nearly three months after taking it in for the annual.
Why couldn’t things have worked out so that we could have our airplane back sooner? At first we had the airplane, but no flight instructor. Then we had a flight instructor, but no airplane. I have learned not to question God’s timing. It seemed like a long time to wait, but AWA-PA now has an IFR certified trainer that was kept in a heated hangar during the worst three months of winter weather. Praise God for the way he works things out. His timing indeed is best.
