About this episode
In this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear about:
King Air flying.Listener feedback from the last episode on “Phantom Cylinder Cracks.”The latest annual inspection I’m involved in.… and a few other things!
I’m in the midst of an annual inspection on a Piper Comanche. I might talk more about this one in a future episode, but for now, I mentioned two strange things about this airplane in this week’s podcast:
The first strange thing was the oil quick drain kept seeping after I drained the oil and closed the drain valve.
I was perplexed when oil was collecting on the bottom cowling and seeping down over the nose tire.
Finally, I had to cut the safety wire and remove the Saf-Air P5000 drain valve to take a look.
Here’s what I found:
I removed the drain valve and put a temporary plug in the oil sump to prevent any further seepage. If you look closely, you can see a portion of the black o-ring holding the valve slightly open.
Here’s a closer view:
After opening the valve, I noticed the top o-ring had been pushed up off the valve, and it was the second o-ring that was holding the valve open. (Don’t worry, the other o-ring fell out of the hole when I removed the valve, so it’s not stuck somewhere in the oil sump.)
