Sunday, August 15, 2010

Another Trip to the Spruce Goose Cafe

Flew a friend up to 0S9 for breakfast this morning. The Seattle temperatures were forecast to be in the 90's so we wanted to get an early start before the temps got too hot. Turns out things weren't that cool in the morning with the OAT pegged at 85F at 9:30 am and temps aloft weren't much cooler. We were in trail of a Beaver Amphib in the pattern at 0S9 and on the ground I talked to the pilot and he had come from Seattle where his plane is docked outside his house on Lake Washington. The Spruce Goose Cafe was packed and we waited 20 minutes for a table, but completely worth the wait for a huge plate of breakfast food. We made a leisurely trip back with a flight over Snoqualmie Falls and Rattlesnake Lake.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

The Joys of Airplane Ownership?

The airplane is finally back from the mechanic after waiting six weeks for a new starter drive assembly from TCM. We opted to buy a genuine factory part vs an overhauled part just for the peace of mind that we weren't buying someone else's broken part restored to 'factory' standards. If an overhauled alternator for your car fails its no big deal, but a failure with an overhauled airplane part might end up being a big deal. We've also purchased overhauled parts in the past and ended up buying new ones due to the eventual failure of the non-factory part. The negative aspect of buying factory parts is the cost. A factory part may cost 2-3 times more than an overhauled part. For a $100 part it's not that significant of a difference, but in the case of a starter drive assembly an overhauled version was $1000 and a new one $3300.

Luckily, having airplane partners helps bring the repair costs down but with each big repair bill my average hourly cost goes up. In the last couple of years, we've had to overhaul all of the cylinders of the O-470 (at 600 hours), replace the DG, overhaul the propellor hub, and replace the starter drive.