baronn

Couldn't agree more. Seems thee "Elected" officials just come up with whatever the Fuck they want to do and ignore pressing issues. I guess the insanity syndrome is not limited to Government entities. What happened? My advice is to attend the meeting in Dallas and let's voice our discontent withsi BS. I'm gonna be there.

So, in the movie American Made, Barry Seal was very successful at what he did. Not surprising what the government did in that situation. That's what they do. Still are doing just that, just now it's on a whole new level. Pricks. That aside, What shude Barry have done when he was asked to take the pictures of the Medallion cartel. Choose 1 of the above replies or put your own in. Now, how wude Roger have handled that...……..

There are places that will work with ya. However, what yer experiencing (not the 1st time I've heard any of that), is unfortunately, not unusual. There's always 3 sides to any story so, we do need to keep that in mind. SL does a have good program. They copied it from Roger Nelson who built Skydive Chicago. They also use the same A in a week program. That wude be my suggestion rather than traveling all the way to texas. I run a small DZ in that state and I've had students achieve that in less than a week. It helped that they had a full bowl of Wheaties each morning...

Well most everyone here doesn't seem to impressed with the decisions being made by the BOD. I agree. All of a sudden it's imperative to initiate these international standards? I don't get it. Seems our athletes (by FAR the winningest teams on the planet) all of a sudden won't be eligible to compete internationally? The FAI is now in charge of dictating rules in this country? Shit, sounds like the BS tariffs the European union has been throwing on American goods for years. Maybe if we had a BOD with some Fuckin Balls and say, " Adopt our rules and Fuck yours." Not gonna let us compete internationally? Not gonna recognize a USPA License/ No problem. We can play that game too. A Whole lot more folks from across the pond visit here than the other way around. There simply HAS to more to this than what is being told. Even if there isn't, is this the most pressing issues we are facing rite now? And how about the decision to donate 25K a yr to the National (Nobody gives a Fuck) museum for the next 5 yrs? Where, who, for what and who decides where that goes? As Ricky said, " Lucy, U got some 'splaining to do....."

Saw that too. Guess the USPA BOD has decided that small DZ's are only gonna be good for doing tandems. And if yer not near a tunnel, well, yer screwed even more. Remember, these are the same folks that say they "Promote our Sport" Sure like to know how any of these actions are "Promoting" anything. I'd like to say I'm surprised but, it's just another disappointing action in a long list of disappointing actions. Targeting Dz's, certain DZ owner's, using USPA members against them for revenge. Fuck! They make the Clinton's look like Angels in comparison....

Disappointed? Shouldn't even be surprised at this point. Spaceland and Skydive Chicago have been doing Single instructor training ever since Roger Nelson pioneered in the 90's. Do these BOD members even have a clue of what's happening in the Real world? How about doing something about keeping costs down? Less Government restriction (ADSB) and how about recognizing those that try to make a career outta this? Plenty of more important stuff than what is being addressed beside these BS stuff. Jeesh!

Soooooo, The BOD meeting in Wisconsin is now over. As per usual, they decided to pass out awards and the usual blah, blah, blah. An interesting note is the decision to donate 25K per yr for the next 5 yrs to the NSM. Seems every month in Parachutist we hear all about how tight money is and the USPA can't afford this or that. National teams need public support to compete at World meets. And these are the type of decisions they come up with. Does anyone else think this is NOT the best the USPA can do?

I need a repair on a tandem main. Small patch and line attachment is pulling away. Recommendations?

Had the Vacuum pump puke on me. Since I had to move it to clear the alternator, I modified the mounting studs to get it on and off. The switch will be much easier now. Just finished the annual. I was going thru the preflight with my pilot and we checked the U bolts on the mains. I hadn't looked at them since last fall. The rear bolt on the co pilot side was sheared off. Surprised it was missed on the annual but, shit happens. It will be part of the preflight in the future. Replacement is 575. Ouch

Doubtful they will have any info on the 520. Cessna never offered that motor on a 182. I will look that up, I haven't had any issues with the airframe itself. All of these could have been resolved early with an AD and SB check while it was torn apart. Also some directions from the STC holder sure wuda helped. Having gone thru this, I won't get caught again. On a positive note, we took it out for it's 1st flight yesterday. Ran strong and smooth. Gonna run in the motor and will get back with performance stats. Initial climb was very impressive

I keep discovering new things about these projects. My I/A ( who is a good mechanic and a hell of a great guy) is missing some serious points. As I'm trying to get this back in the air and finish the paperwork, They finally did a search on the engine I was putting in this bird. There's an AD on the starter drive. Apparently it needs to be looked at. If it's wrong, it will grenade the engine.This can only be done with the engine out. It sat on an engine stand most of last summer and I had to pull it off 2x after it was mounted. To find this out at this stage is really inconvenient. If anyone ever does this, 1st thing is to look for any SB's and AD's. This way you can correct them when everything is torn apart. 2nd thing is to contact me and I can give you a full step by step to accomplish this. On the plus side, I did inspect it and it's good. Prop is on and a few small details to attend to tomorrow and it shude be running.

Ran into a fitment issue with the motor. The oil pump helical gears are about 40% larger than the 470. The cover for the tach attachment is about a half an inch longer. This causes the cover to get into the firewall and prevent lining up on the motor mounts. Called the STC owner and he knew all about it. Funny how I never got a note about this. His suggestion was to take a hammer and pound the firewall in about a half an inch. Wuda been about an inch in my case because of the insulation shield I had installed. Made me even more pissed this wasn't mentioned earlier. I decided to search and see if I cude find a better solution. All I needed was a shorter output shaft to use the shorter 470 cover that wude also hook up to my tach. Considered having it machined down. I found an extremely helpful and knowledgeable person that found me the 520 helical gear but, it had the short shaft. Rite from Continental. It's now on it's way to me. The more I get into this project, the more I find ya really have to do your own due diligence. This was the solution and the STC owner never even knew about it.

I'm putting together a rig for takin the big guys up. I don't believe I've used this drogue before. Anyone have experience with it? Specifically how are the openings? Any noticeable difference in stowing it in the spndex pouch? Any other info is welcome Thanks

I read your post and also looked up the FAA part 43. On your post and in the FAA appendix, it doesn't say anywhere about inspecting the engine mount to firewall attachment. As we both know, ya simply can't cover it all. This was probably written a zillion yrs ago anyway. My point for this whole post was to simply bring awareness to what I saw as a real serious problem. I got lucky (or skillful) insisting I needed a new engine mount. If I hadn't done that, I mita missed the deterioration of those grommets. You can follow the FAA rules and still miss important stuff. I'm sure they'll change it after an incident. That's usually how an AD comes about......

Not sure if I'll do the shop but, if anyone wants to know what took me a lotta work to find, I'll be happy to share it. I have another 520. If I find another clean straight tail like this, I'd do this again. IF this performs as expected, I'm sure there is a market for these planes. Won't be cheap.....

Check yer firewall to engine mount grommets. Mine had deteriorated to the point where the grommet had split and the sleeve was resting in the hole. I caught it just in time. It was just starting to elongate the hole. Yeah, the part 43 may say look at these but, few do. Clearly mine never were. This job has been beyond a pain but, I'm so glad I did everything I did. The planes have always scared me the most. Mainly because it was a bit of a mystery and I had to rely on other's to tell me what was rite or wrong. I learned the hard way a few times not to do that. I don't anymore......

Well, I guess my bad. Perhaps the FAA does generalize some is to be expected with as many different aircraft there are. Nonetheless, Some of their rules are quite antiquated and cude use an upgrade to keep up with modern technology. All I know is that I don't overlook anything. I have inspected this plane tip to tail and if it was suspect, it got replaced. I've not seen that at too many places I've been to in the past. Hopin to have a fst climber. Will post when I'm done

Shuda had his hand on it but, I can say from personal experience (and this video proves it) that the skyhook is much faster at getting the reserve out than using the reserve handle. Not making any excuses here, just stating a fact.

The problem is age of consent in the US. Gotta be 18 to sign the waiver. The Mfg of the gear I use strictly prohibits underage passengers. I'm not gonna risk what I have in this business for that. Now the waivers don't apply in Mexico. If yer willing to pay for the flight over the border, I'm sure sumthin can be worked out......

Sure about that? At 120 days, opening on April 15 (repack that day), the repack date is approximately Aug 15th. I lived in mich. Mid Nov was usually the end of the season. Jumped past repack date or PP. Even in those upper regions the season is longer than approximately 4 months. Stretch that to the 180 and most are longer than 6 months. No, somethin ain't addin up here......

Jason has a reputation for screwing things up and then blaming anyone/everything for it. Total coward. Shuda decked him. But then, what shude you expect from a little prick that is used to flying around and then raining hell down on whoever......

Aware of that. Agree on all the points. If this rig had been in service it's entire life (safe to assume), then at a 120 (until Dec 19th 2008) or even 180 pack interval, wude put the number of repacks at least 56. Data cards can be fudged, so 1 of 2 things: Pencil packed or data card is not accurate. I never saw the data card. main had 1500 (or so he said) jumps. Rig needed re-harness IMO, main was trash and once all this was addressed, I just decided it wasn't for me.

Inquired about buying some gear listed here. older but, appeared to be in decent shape. Not cheap but, not outrageous either. Find out the 1990 reserve has a claimed 27 pack jobs and 7 rides on them. Anybody find this math kinda fuzzy?

Let us not forget that on Sept 10th, the day before 9/11, then SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld, told the press about the 2.3 TRILLION dollars that was missing out of the Pentagons coffers. This isn't money they Knew they spent, this was simply money that had been allocated to the Pentagon and now didn't know what happened to it. Just how much can ya spend on Hookers and Blow? It's so far outta control......

Just curious if any other's have run into these issues. Replacing motor, prop, Stol, Wing X and a few other things. Built 520 that is spose to produce some serious power. I was nervous about hanging that on a near 60 yr old engine mount. Against my A&P's advice (old skool), I decided to have it redone. Turns out it had previous damage, been repaired poorly and was so trashed it was junk. I've rebuilt quite a few cars before but this is my 1st foray into airplanes. Pretty Amazing how state of the art 1920's technology this crap is. They're basically pieces of shit. The FAA won't let me hang a water cooled LS3 and use it commercially. OK fine. I'll play along. The mounts for the firewall were completely trashed. The FAA doesn't require ANY inspection of these things. Hell, they don't even require the plugs to be cleaned at annual. Pretty amazing we don't have more issues with these. At least that we don't hear about. Any thoughts on this?