Airplane Owner Maintenance - By Dean Showalter

Chris Saindon, a podcast listener and owner of a Cessna 172G, contacted me with a different, and important perspective that I had completely overlooked. I recently told of a landing gear light in a Piper Seminole, and how the pilots had done some in-flight troubleshooting when the right gear down light did not illuminate. I’ve […]

This was what happened recently in a Piper Seneca… and in this episode, we discuss why the alternator quit… it was something I totally was not expecting. After verifying the field connections (power and ground) were good, and the brushes were nearly perfect, I removed the alternator. And here is what I found… watch this […]

This fuel injector line must have only been attached finger tight when the fuel injectors were reinstalled after cleaning. The engine ran fine at first, but all of a sudden during one engine run, the #5 EGT took a nose dive, and the #5 CHT immediately started dropping off as well. The above photo was […]

When an airplane engine is making a small amount of ferrous metal, but the evidence is not totally conclusive, the decision to tear it apart, or not, can be gut-wrenching. Such was the case for the O-540 engine in a turbo Cessna 182RG I’ve been working on at Classic Aviation LLC. But after the owners […]

This episode is a good one! If you’re thinking about buying an airplane, stop right now and listen to this episode, because Adam Sipe can absolutely save you lots of time, money and needless frustration in the process of buying an airplane. He shared so much valuable wisdom in this episode, and I can’t wait […]

That’s a good question, and although I don’t have the full story, we will toss around some possibilities in this episode. Thanks to all of you who responded with some really good guesses about the cause. I received responses from 33 people after I sent out that email recently! The prevailing guess about the cause […]

My good friend, Clark Trobaugh, flew into KSHD this past week, and while he was visiting with his family, I walked over to his airplane on the ramp and noted a few things that needed attention… Here’s the one that prompted Clark’s brother Scott to send me a text that said, “Thanks for looking out […]

In this episode, we are talking about two different exhaust valves, both of which showed signs of burning when we looked at them with the borescope. One valve was in the beginning stages of burning, and the other was too far gone. Scroll down for more info and some photos. We also talk a bit […]

It’s been a long and in-depth annual inspection, along with the extensive list of squawk repairs. But it’s a great airplane, and I’d love to fly it if I had the opportunity! In today’s podcast, we cover the remaining squawks on this airplane, concluding with scale weighing the aircraft, and sending it back out into […]

In episode 188, we covered the first 30 squawks on a Cessna 172 that’s in the shop for an annual inspection and a bunch of repairs. In this episode, we are tackling another chunk of the squawks and repairs. Here’s a sampling: Under the pilot instrument panel, some wiring was tied to one of the […]

It certainly looked like a crusty old engine when we removed the cowling for the annual inspection. The exterior is one thing… but perhaps even more importantly, I wondered about the internal condition of the engine. Surprisingly, the borescope showed the cylinders to be in amazingly good condition on the inside. Perhaps this was partially […]

In today’s podcast episode, I talked about this specific SR22, and some maintenance I was involved in… scroll down for some related photos. But first, I just wanted to say the SR22 is a great airplane! Here are some of the “wonders” of an SR22, as I see it: It’s a beautiful aircraft! It feels […]

From left: Arthur, Dave, Mervin, Dean (I got to work with these guys last Monday at Classic Aviation., when Dave had me lap the exhaust valves in cylinders 3 and 5.) Scroll down for more info about this valve lapping adventure. Diamond DA40 annual inspection – here are some squawks we discuss in this episode: […]

I’ve just completed the installation for a B&C Specialties standby alternator system on an E33A Bonanza. It’s a fantastic system, and I talked about it in today’s podcast episode. Be sure to listen for a caution about the right magneto when installing a new oil seal in the drive adapter for the standby alternator. Here […]

AirVenture was a fantastic experience once again! In addition to the audio podcast for this episode, I also made a video using some of my favorite photos… here’s the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/VlErN8RQNrQ Don’t forget to click the “Store” tab above and check out the resources there. If you have any questions, click the button that […]