New Cessna 150 Owner

Murdoughnut said:
I’ll ask - have to reach out about the newest issue I discovered tonight anyways. Trying to diagnose an excessive nose wheel shimmy on rollout. I aired up the mains when I got the plane, but ignored the nose gear tire since it looked fine. Went to the airport tonight to check inflation and then potentially test fly it if it was low on air… only to discover that the air valve is on the opposite side of the tire from where the valve door in the wheel pant is 👍

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Get the tire balanced before you do anything else.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
No, my tools, my hangar, my airplanes. I unblocked you to ask what maintenance considerations I may have missed. I have never signed off any maintenance work that would ever remotely exceed my authority to do so. I am familiar with what authority I do have as a pilot and owner under part 43. As you well know, work performed under the direct supervision (watching me do it) of A&P mechanics and IA's absolutely is customary and normal and within the scope of regulation, and my airplane sits next to several active DMEs. While I don't consult them professionally, we all collectively strive to keep a high standard of airworthiness and certainly know each other.

And yes, I think it is a fair question. Why should it take half day to mount a prop on a 152 with no other complications? I have seen it take weeks to fit a prop on other piston singles, but there were good reasons why. (the reasons were good - putting in weights, needing a 337 for them, cracks in a spinner to be re-worked, etc. etc.) But none of those considerations were given here.
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Oh god, I remember the first prop I helped install out of a&p school on a Mooney…the installation was so tight that IIRC the rear bulkhead was 2 pieces and even so access to the bolts to safety them was awful. Of course I barely knew what I was doing either. Navajo props were much better with the long hubs. Cessna props didn’t have safeties. Neither, IIRC, did the turbine props.
 
I also confirmed today that my A&P added 10% to the price of the overhaul for handling, etc. I had called the prop shop and asked why my invoice from my A&P said $2,200 when I was quoted $2,000 by the shop. Was told this is standard practice. Now as a consultant who adds a mark up to third party services, this doesn't sound out of the ordinary to me, unless he also charged me 3.2 hours of labor for a 1.0 hour of labor job.
 
Murdoughnut said:
I also confirmed today that my A&P added 10% to the price of the overhaul for handling, etc. I had called the prop shop and asked why my invoice from my A&P said $2,200 when I was quoted $2,000 by the shop. Was told this is standard practice. Now as a consultant who adds a mark up to third party services, this doesn't sound out of the ordinary to me, unless he also charged me 3.2 hours of labor for a 1.0 hour of labor job.
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A ripoff that is "standard practice" is still a ripoff

In the even that they ever need your services, return the favor.
 
DropTank said:
A ripoff that is "standard practice" is still a ripoff

In the even that they ever need your services, return the favor.
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Yeah, I'm struggling because I put down $600 as a deposit on an annual in November. If not for that, I would just fly it up to RDU and have my A&P buddy work on it, which may be what I do moving forward. He costs more, but clearly might save me money in the long run. I chose the guy now because he works on a fleet of 152s for the flying club, is located on my airfield, and overall seems to be a good guy, but the insufficient communication is wearing on me.
 
A&P called me this morning, and I feel better now. The 3.2 hours included the 2.0 hours for his guy to drive the prop to and from the shop that's an hour away. That was in lieu of a $600 delivery free the shop charges. That seems entirely reasonable now. He does have a 10% markup, which I can't really complain about since I do the same (5%) with third party services I acquire for my consulting clients.

He's going to get it in to look at the shimmy issue in a week or so.
 
Murdoughnut said:
I’ll ask - have to reach out about the newest issue I discovered tonight anyways. Trying to diagnose an excessive nose wheel shimmy on rollout. I aired up the mains when I got the plane, but ignored the nose gear tire since it looked fine. Went to the airport tonight to check inflation and then potentially test fly it if it was low on air… only to discover that the air valve is on the opposite side of the tire from where the valve door in the wheel pant is 👍

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Doh. An easy fix, just need to lift the nosewheel off the ground and flip it around. New cotter pin on that castle nut.

However, the shimmy is often from a damper in poor condition (couple of o-rings is all it takes to O/H), possibly worn bushings in the torque link or the nose wheel strut has a shim pack that needs to be addressed.
 
They served the dampner and added some shims - seems to have gone away for now, but they want to do the pins in the annual next month.

Flew it right seat for the first time two days ago. That went so badly that I flew it right seat with a CFI in the left seat today - ha! I'm getting it, but it's going to take a bit. I have 30 years of muscle memory in the left seat to overcome.

Was nice that my CFI complimented the plane, even with its quirks.

IMG_1753.jpeg
 
killbilly said:
It's definitely a looker. Glad you're doing this.
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Yeah but you haven't seen the panel :)

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm doing the annual early with my A&P here next month. Just want the piece of mind of knowing there's no major problem before I invest too much in upgrades, or fly my kids around in it too much.
 
150/152s are nice machines. Always liked them more than 172s.

Unfortunately we, as a species, seems to have outgrown them.
 
Richman said:
150/152s are nice machines. Always liked them more than 172s.

Unfortunately we, as a species, seems to have outgrown them.
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I was able to fly at my 200 lbs with a 160 lbs CFI on Friday with 15 of 22 gallons on the tanks. Assuming annual goes ok I’m going to work on some weight saving upgrades in the next year. I was also down to 185 a year ago I need to work on that too 😄
 
Murdoughnut said:
I was able to fly at my 200 lbs with a 160 lbs CFI on Friday with 15 of 22 gallons on the tanks. Assuming annual goes ok I’m going to work on some weight saving upgrades in the next year. I was also down to 185 a year ago I need to work on that too 😄
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Wide shoulders are more of an issue than wide bottoms in a 150/152 as I recall. I have broad shoulders, so did my CFI. We weren't a couple of heavy fellows but we figured it out. Back then we'd take off with full fuel and go do abnormal things. I'm uncertain if the current forward shift of my personal CG would allow that sort of flippant flight planning. I soloed in a 152, my favorite memories flying were in a 152. Your airplane is like an unmodified 1984 Toyota 4X4 truck, just keep it straight and it'll probably be worth more than you paid for it sooner than you think.
 
Murdoughnut said:
I was able to fly at my 200 lbs with a 160 lbs CFI on Friday with 15 of 22 gallons on the tanks. Assuming annual goes ok I’m going to work on some weight saving upgrades in the next year. I was also down to 185 a year ago I need to work on that too 😄
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Weight loss was the cheapest climb improvement made to the Mouse, a PowerFlow exhaust being a close second.
 
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