Agent Speights
Non-Member
Pukekoke, New Zealand
After a protracted NZCAA certification process (and a few other minor issues) ZK-PAL (ex N8193C) has finally been given the all clear to fly in NZ airspace. The first flight took place Wednesday 4th Feb after many false moons. The Container arrived in the country on Nov 19th, we got the aircraft on the 21st and the NZCAA finally began their inspection on 15th Jan after assuring us they would be there before Xmas but were delayed due to “Unforseen circumstances”. The fact that we had one of the best month’s weather in January ever for flying and no plane did not sit too well. Our mechanic in the meantime had found a couple of little issues – a cracked rudder steering bar, the spinner backplate was beaten up, the propeller studs were too short for his liking and the Altimeter scale was in inches, it has to be in hPa for NZ. Other than these he was very happy with the condition of the aircraft. We installed a 4 place intercom as it had a portable system that had failed on the ferry flight from Kansas to Hayward Oakland and a 406Mhz ELT was installed (NZCAA requirements) inside the Tailsection along with the aerial.
When the NZCAA inspector did show up he was quite happy with the aircraft (got to have those EXIT signs on the doors) and the paperwork (at first not all the required paperwork arrived with the aircraft and a call to the previous owner in the Kansas resulted in him finding an envelope full of the required FAA 8130-3 forms in the back of his hanger for all the new engine parts attached to the 200hr 180Hp engine) but the inspector did have quite a few questions about the Aileron/Rudder interconnect system or rather the lack of one in our aircraft. A few PA22’s have come into the country recently and so they are quite aware of the PA22 peculiarities to look for. The Univar Tailwheel STC says it can be removed but only on 150/160 Hp frames within a certain serial number range. Our aircraft is a 135 and so not one of them. He agreed to let us put the aircraft fully back together while this was sorted and the first engine runs were down for 23rd Jan. Fuel was put in the tanks – this is approx 3 months after they were drained in Oakland – and the fuel selector promptly starting leaking. No appropriate O ring seals in the country, so had to wait to the following week for these to arrive. That issue fixed and the first engine runs on Thursday 29th were OK – lots of power. Friday was lost as the Mechanics biggest client required an urgent repair to one of their Islander’s at Auckland International. It was not all lost however as the CAA inspector had contacted the FAA about the aileron/rudder interconnect system and after getting their view he agreed with our Mechanic’s suggestion to a logbook entry to the fact it has been removed satisfactorily. We were not going to put it back in. The Airworthiness Certificate was issued and a copy was emailed to us, which we could use immediately without waiting for the official paper copy in the post, and it wasn’t as dear as we thought it would be. A minor win.
Monday 2nd Feb I went out to do some taxi tests and on my first start the engine would not turn over. Felt like a flat battery so put it on charge, bench seat, so this took a while to hook up. 2 hours later had another go and the engine made an awful metallic sound on the next start attempt. The mechanic heard it on the other side of the hanger having lunch. Wheeled it back in and the starter was jammed solid against the ring with a washer stuck in-between them. Mechanic removed the washer – it was a thrust washer from the front of the starter that had split in half and was jammed in solid. Mechanic took the starter off and biked over to the relevant repair shop on the field and they pointed out the cracked mounts on the starter motor casing – the awful metallic sound. Another similar starter casing was found in the back of our mechanic’s hanger and they were able to cobble together a starter for us. The Starter repair facility did not have anything favourable to say about our brand of starter, something to look at later. I had gone home thinking we were now weeks away from getting it ready, so I watched the Superbowl instead (should have run it and not passed). The plane was jinxed and how in the hell did our 2 friends fly it across half the States with no issues at all. Got a message later that day that the starter was all fixed and it would be ready for another go the next morning.
So the first flight was now all set for Tuesday 3rd Feb after the compass swing – apparently a compass set for Kansas with 8E variation in the Northern Hemisphere doesn’t read too well in NZ with 20E variation. All went well till we went to adjust it and found we did not have the special tool needed for this particular compass. The mechanic got on his bike and went all around the airfield to see if anyone else had seen this type of compass – found out they are used on EuroCopters as the backup compass. Finished this and by this time the wind had picked up – 19kts xwind - so no test flight that day. While putting the aircraft away I asked the mechanics if they had seen a fuel dipstick for PAL in amongst the boxes, their blank looks said it all.
Turned up very hopeful on Wednesday 4th Feb, the tanks were drained and refilled and a new Fuel dipstick calibrated for our aircraft. Both the left and right tanks were very similar. It was now all ready. Then it started to drizzle, but with very high overcast conditions – at least 5000ft. This was not going to put us off now.
The test flight, in the drizzle, went without a hitch. Climbed out at 1100ft/min at 85MPH. The rudder is very responsive behind the 180Hp and 60” pitch. The mechanic came for the ride (only the 2nd time I have got him in an airplane) and he apparently does not like stalls at all, had to repeat them just to prove that it was a slow roll to the right at the stall. Flew hands off, very true at 125MPH at 2300rpm, needs a bit of rudder though. Some side slips proved again just how responsive the rudder is and how ineffective the ailerons can be – the mechanic was not impressed. A few circuits and it tracked straight on both the grass and seal runways with no shimmy. 70MPH seems to be the best approach speed as it rapidly starts to get behind the drag curve below 65MPH. A weight and balance calculation showed a 25Kg (55lb) bag of concrete needs to be in the baggage compartment with 2 up and full tanks to be on the correct side of the forward CoG line as per the 180Hp STC. Got over 20 hours in it now and we have 6 members out of the 17 checked out. A big grin appears on their faces when they see and feel the climb performance on take-off. A bit of an effort needed to keep straight on the seal though. May have to change our preferred take-off procedure too as the tail low takeoff is lot easier on the aircraft as the grass runway here at NZAR is quite undulating.
PAL has a lot of neat features on it – mesh over all the air inlets so what happened to our previous Pacer, PAT, with the carburettor being blocked should not happen again. Leather interior, a back door (PAT didn’t), the arm rest, the flap lever is higher off the floor, a power point, even still has the ashtray in the glareshield, it has an electric plug in the engine compartment, although what you would need one for (makes for an interesting question when shown to the newbies) in NZ is beyond me – and its 240V here and not 110V. Fairings are everywhere to smooth out the airflow. 8.00/6.00 tyres, although we will have to look at some sort of mud flaps for later on, when the rain comes – very little here for the last 3 months – to protect the underneath of the fabric wings and the tail. The instrument panel is not one of the neat features as obviously ergonomics was a foreign word back in ‘54 and if you have fat fingers the Carb heat/Park brake /mag’s key/throttle/alternator switch/primer/fuel pump switch are all rather too close to each other. The Radios are in the old glovebox. It has dual brakes and a park brake, so I no longer have to do type ratings nor BFRs with no brakes on my side – the bench seat means I have to make do with where they want the seat in relation to the pedals though.
PAL is a big improvement over PAT and not just because it has 180Hp over the tired 160Hp that PAT had. We could have done without the time it took it get it from Kansas to here and flying again – approx 6 months – but well worth it so far as we were without an airplane for 11 months. Will really see how it goes when myself and another syndicate memeber take it to Omaka (NZOM) at the top of the South Island at Easter for their Biennial Airshow as it was ready too late for the STOL comp there on FEB 1ST.
When the NZCAA inspector did show up he was quite happy with the aircraft (got to have those EXIT signs on the doors) and the paperwork (at first not all the required paperwork arrived with the aircraft and a call to the previous owner in the Kansas resulted in him finding an envelope full of the required FAA 8130-3 forms in the back of his hanger for all the new engine parts attached to the 200hr 180Hp engine) but the inspector did have quite a few questions about the Aileron/Rudder interconnect system or rather the lack of one in our aircraft. A few PA22’s have come into the country recently and so they are quite aware of the PA22 peculiarities to look for. The Univar Tailwheel STC says it can be removed but only on 150/160 Hp frames within a certain serial number range. Our aircraft is a 135 and so not one of them. He agreed to let us put the aircraft fully back together while this was sorted and the first engine runs were down for 23rd Jan. Fuel was put in the tanks – this is approx 3 months after they were drained in Oakland – and the fuel selector promptly starting leaking. No appropriate O ring seals in the country, so had to wait to the following week for these to arrive. That issue fixed and the first engine runs on Thursday 29th were OK – lots of power. Friday was lost as the Mechanics biggest client required an urgent repair to one of their Islander’s at Auckland International. It was not all lost however as the CAA inspector had contacted the FAA about the aileron/rudder interconnect system and after getting their view he agreed with our Mechanic’s suggestion to a logbook entry to the fact it has been removed satisfactorily. We were not going to put it back in. The Airworthiness Certificate was issued and a copy was emailed to us, which we could use immediately without waiting for the official paper copy in the post, and it wasn’t as dear as we thought it would be. A minor win.
Monday 2nd Feb I went out to do some taxi tests and on my first start the engine would not turn over. Felt like a flat battery so put it on charge, bench seat, so this took a while to hook up. 2 hours later had another go and the engine made an awful metallic sound on the next start attempt. The mechanic heard it on the other side of the hanger having lunch. Wheeled it back in and the starter was jammed solid against the ring with a washer stuck in-between them. Mechanic removed the washer – it was a thrust washer from the front of the starter that had split in half and was jammed in solid. Mechanic took the starter off and biked over to the relevant repair shop on the field and they pointed out the cracked mounts on the starter motor casing – the awful metallic sound. Another similar starter casing was found in the back of our mechanic’s hanger and they were able to cobble together a starter for us. The Starter repair facility did not have anything favourable to say about our brand of starter, something to look at later. I had gone home thinking we were now weeks away from getting it ready, so I watched the Superbowl instead (should have run it and not passed). The plane was jinxed and how in the hell did our 2 friends fly it across half the States with no issues at all. Got a message later that day that the starter was all fixed and it would be ready for another go the next morning.
So the first flight was now all set for Tuesday 3rd Feb after the compass swing – apparently a compass set for Kansas with 8E variation in the Northern Hemisphere doesn’t read too well in NZ with 20E variation. All went well till we went to adjust it and found we did not have the special tool needed for this particular compass. The mechanic got on his bike and went all around the airfield to see if anyone else had seen this type of compass – found out they are used on EuroCopters as the backup compass. Finished this and by this time the wind had picked up – 19kts xwind - so no test flight that day. While putting the aircraft away I asked the mechanics if they had seen a fuel dipstick for PAL in amongst the boxes, their blank looks said it all.
Turned up very hopeful on Wednesday 4th Feb, the tanks were drained and refilled and a new Fuel dipstick calibrated for our aircraft. Both the left and right tanks were very similar. It was now all ready. Then it started to drizzle, but with very high overcast conditions – at least 5000ft. This was not going to put us off now.
The test flight, in the drizzle, went without a hitch. Climbed out at 1100ft/min at 85MPH. The rudder is very responsive behind the 180Hp and 60” pitch. The mechanic came for the ride (only the 2nd time I have got him in an airplane) and he apparently does not like stalls at all, had to repeat them just to prove that it was a slow roll to the right at the stall. Flew hands off, very true at 125MPH at 2300rpm, needs a bit of rudder though. Some side slips proved again just how responsive the rudder is and how ineffective the ailerons can be – the mechanic was not impressed. A few circuits and it tracked straight on both the grass and seal runways with no shimmy. 70MPH seems to be the best approach speed as it rapidly starts to get behind the drag curve below 65MPH. A weight and balance calculation showed a 25Kg (55lb) bag of concrete needs to be in the baggage compartment with 2 up and full tanks to be on the correct side of the forward CoG line as per the 180Hp STC. Got over 20 hours in it now and we have 6 members out of the 17 checked out. A big grin appears on their faces when they see and feel the climb performance on take-off. A bit of an effort needed to keep straight on the seal though. May have to change our preferred take-off procedure too as the tail low takeoff is lot easier on the aircraft as the grass runway here at NZAR is quite undulating.
PAL has a lot of neat features on it – mesh over all the air inlets so what happened to our previous Pacer, PAT, with the carburettor being blocked should not happen again. Leather interior, a back door (PAT didn’t), the arm rest, the flap lever is higher off the floor, a power point, even still has the ashtray in the glareshield, it has an electric plug in the engine compartment, although what you would need one for (makes for an interesting question when shown to the newbies) in NZ is beyond me – and its 240V here and not 110V. Fairings are everywhere to smooth out the airflow. 8.00/6.00 tyres, although we will have to look at some sort of mud flaps for later on, when the rain comes – very little here for the last 3 months – to protect the underneath of the fabric wings and the tail. The instrument panel is not one of the neat features as obviously ergonomics was a foreign word back in ‘54 and if you have fat fingers the Carb heat/Park brake /mag’s key/throttle/alternator switch/primer/fuel pump switch are all rather too close to each other. The Radios are in the old glovebox. It has dual brakes and a park brake, so I no longer have to do type ratings nor BFRs with no brakes on my side – the bench seat means I have to make do with where they want the seat in relation to the pedals though.
PAL is a big improvement over PAT and not just because it has 180Hp over the tired 160Hp that PAT had. We could have done without the time it took it get it from Kansas to here and flying again – approx 6 months – but well worth it so far as we were without an airplane for 11 months. Will really see how it goes when myself and another syndicate memeber take it to Omaka (NZOM) at the top of the South Island at Easter for their Biennial Airshow as it was ready too late for the STOL comp there on FEB 1ST.
