Recent content by kmead

My favorite trip was flying my father's old 310L from Kansas to Baltimore to see my sister. VFR both ways, perfect trip except for a near (very near) mid-air on the way back.

It's always been aircraft maintenance for me since the begining. My father would have signed me off for my A&P license while I was in high school but I wanted to go off to Spartan. My father and brother always thought I would be flying for a living but I liked the maintenance more. No regrets...

Old houses and old cars. This huge old house in MA should really be my last. They're both just like airplanes, nothing that money can't fix.

[QUOTE="Joshuajayg, Out the exhaust. Surprisingly I haven't seen any damage in the cylinders but I have found damage on the turbochargers turbine blades that appeared to be FOD. Both engines seem to be doing well with the Tempest fine wire and Champion massive electrode plugs.

I find the ceramic nose broken or cracked on the fine wire Champions all of the time on the Mirage and Malibu. Most of the time there isn't a mag drop issue. This has been a problem for well over 15 years with the fine wire plug, maybe longer. Originally they blamed the problems on detonation...

Have you tried Skully at Beechhust cables? He's made me some modified cables for the PA46 and went out oh his way to help. Have you tried searching on ILS for a used machine? I've bought a lot of used Pratt tools on there a good prices.

Good stuff. Have you checked out the blog named 15 minute lunch. His comments about the 1977 Penny's catalog are great. Parts 1-3 are great reads.

A Paris Jet without a working intercom and airconditioning. Miserable!

I see a lot of lousy work on the PA46 fleet and the sad part is that it's only getting worse. It's hard to believe that some of the work I see on 1 mil $ Meridians looks like it was done by kindergartners. Don't trust the factory signs that these shops hang on the walls.

Pretty crusty airplane. It looks like a lot of the airplanes that were tied out around Baltimore during my years there. There's always a better airplane out there. When you find it you'll be happy you didn't have this one. It's funny how I start out with a buyer looking at an old rundown...

I work on them to make money to own them and fly them. It always takes a lot of money.

The Piper Meridian has no fuel selector. It automatically draws fuel from whichever tank is fullest. If there is an imbalance then you pull the CB for the fuel pump in the wing that has the most. It's a mostly reliable system.

I've been looking at an early Malibu that is coming up. It's a total refurb, paint interior, avionics, probably an engine too. When I put the numbers to it I'm upside down. It's getting harder to sell the older models and make much money. If I do this this it will be more for the fun and less...

I finally got around to posting a picture of my old teardrop camper. It's a lot of fun. I wish we could get out more.

Most of what I do now is pre-purchase inspections anywhere on the PA46 series, sometimes other aircraft if I have time. The sellers are often nervous about me showing up. Some sale people will even throw the deal away to keep me out of it. My pre-purchase is no official inspection and I don't...