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Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
glad it all worked out ( eventually ) Steve...
Donn
1949 Clipper PA-16 O-235
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Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
Originally Posted by
Steve Pierce
Hmm, really? Short memory? I seem to remember little tires covered by wheel pants having a similar outing as Stephen. I remember watching her walk away from the airplane from the air and could tell her mood.
Gilbert, wheel pants?
"You can only tie the record for flying low."
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Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
Steve, have you tried to bend one of those screws without the adrenaline?
One of my early captains flew the new Hawker Sea Furies with the Australian Fleet Air Arm. Returning from an exercise off Japan during the Korean War, he noticed the oil pressure dropping so expedited his return. At 300', the engine quit as if it was starved of fuel, not oil. Of course he was into the ocean in seconds, but with the flaps down but gear up, survived the landing. He said that he couldn't get out of the cockpit, and as the light went from blue, to green, to dark green, as the aircraft went down like a stone, he made a final effort to get out and the flying helmet connections released. He popped to the surface gasping for air, a chopper was overhead and pulled him straight out and straight back to the carrier, where he headed for the wardroom and had several stiff drinks. Looking at his helmet, he realised that the wires had been pulled apart, not disconnected. He was prevailed upon to see if he could break the wires again--not a chance!
The stupid part was the cause of the engine failure. The engine was a Bristol Centaurus sleeve valve engine--a really powerful monster of a thing, but the sleeve valve engine needs lots of oil to lubricate the sleeves and the valve mechanism. Some bright spark in an office thought that it would be a good idea to have a pressure switch in the oil supply, so if the oil pressure dropped below a certain value it would shut off the fuel and so protect the engine from seizing up! The compulsory crash that would follow was not considered. As the Fury was new to our Navy, that little gotcha had been missed-- until Tas's prang.
I digress again!!
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Administrator
Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
I have a purple mark on my right thumb from switching hands and really wrenching on it.
I worked on Sea furies at Ezell Aviation prior to starting my own business. We re-engined them with the Wright R3350. The Centaurus is a complicated engine, saw some disassembled at Kermit Week's place several years ago.
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Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
Originally Posted by
walt.buskey
Looks like that screw could be observed with a mirror once the cover's off... (maybe I'll just have a look-see....)
I'm thinking the same thing. Do these valves come with locktite on the screw? I didn't disassemble the valve before installation and I don't remember checking the screw for tightness before install...
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Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
Next time I go down to the hangar I'll take a peek.
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Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
Originally Posted by
deandayton
I'm thinking the same thing. Do these valves come with locktite on the screw? I didn't disassemble the valve before installation and I don't remember checking the screw for tightness before install...
From the posts on the SC site, it seems that they didn't ship with loctite on them. I saw pics of guys safety wiring them to the body as well as putting loctite on them now.
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Administrator
Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
Here is the picture.
DC Valve.jpg
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Re: How I almost Wrecked My Super Cub Today
Thanks for sharing your story, Steve. I’m glad you had lots of adrenaline that day and that you made it home safe. I like the idea that you did safety wiring the stop screw. I’ll remember that if I ever get a Dakota valve. I would need to cut fabric around my stock valve because I made the mistake of not putting in an access panel and fabric frame when I covered the interior.
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I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things
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