Me and a buddy recently purchased a 2008 DA40 with a zero hour engine rebuilt by Penn Yann. Flown it 50 hours in two months with no issues so far. Replaced 2 quarts of mineral oil in that time and now running motor oil. Screens and filters all clean. IIRC, it was $37k but included all new hoses, li...

That is amazing - there should be a lot more grease in there. I saw my prop disassembled for its first OH. It had 11 years and 533 hours on it. There was a lot more grease in it, even though it had the original hub sleeves and seals which were prone to spit grease. All of the balls were fine, I thin...

I really don't think it was due to flat spotting the tire. There are areas of the tire that are higher and have less damage. Plus, the irregular, rough surface with 'streamers' looks like a solvent action, with the streamers being pulled from the softened rubber when the tire was first moved. I don'...

I agree that it appears to be dissolution by contact with a liquid. Vulcanized rubber is fairly resistant to most acids, but ketones (like acetone) will dissolve it fairly readily. I would talk to the shop - they likely had a solvent spill while your airplane was there. They should spring for a new ...

I wouldn't lubricate an electrical bus. I presume that you only need to inspect for loose connection and corrosion, then check the function of the ESS BUS switch. I've checked mine a couple of times during maintenance/inspection over the past 22 years, but only once (recently) for real: https://www....

A little off topic and not answering all of your questions, but I had a prop strike in my aircraft in 2020. A guy backed his pickup truck into my running prop while I was stopped on a taxiway. At that time the estimate to teardown my engine and repair the 3 blades was approximately $34K. His auto in...

Todd - you are correct about the way to access the fastener (a single bolt). I remove the air vent duct to gain access. Doesn’t take too long once you have done it a time or two (or 11 in my case)…

“AIRCRAFT DEPARTED, LEFT DOOR FELL OFF AND RETURNED TO LAND, LAS VEGAS, NV.” Kind of like the first stage of a Space-X rocket. Maybe we could rig up the rear hatch to act as a Rogallo wing similar to what was proposed for the Gemini spacecraft: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/wing-rog...

Had an interesting event yesterday. Flew about a half hour to a local field (KAQO) that has (relatively) cheap Avgas. While there I ran into my old A&P/IA, who lives up there now. We were shooting the bull for a while about this and that, then he left and I started up to head back to home base. ...

Owning a 2001 DA40, I'm velocity-challenged anyway, but no matter which direction I fly, I almost always seem to have a headwind. I did get about 185 Kts GS on a flight from KAMA to KSAT once. Center advised me of a flight of F16s ahead of me in one of the numerous MOAs along the route. I was so sel...