Ever wonder how the flap system in a Cessna works? This episode Mike, Paul, and Colleen take a deep dive on the system, plus engine vibrations, leaning for high altitude takeoffs and go arounds, and getting bees out of a restoration.

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Full notes below:

Ken is experiencing vibrations in his Cherokee at certain throttle settings. After installing an engine monitor he discovered that with the throttle at roughly 90 percent full he could induce the vibration, but then quell it by using the mixture. He could see that a cylinder was going offline at full rich, but came back online when leaned. Mike suggests that he needs to lean in the climb to compensate for the overly rich mixture, but Ken said he’s also able to stop the vibration by reducing the throttle setting but keeping the mixture full rich. The hosts still think he’s too rich. They recommend leaning in the climb and keeping the EGT constant as he climbs. Ken also noticed that the cylinder that goes offline is also an outlier on the engine monitor. They tell him to do a GAMI lean test and an induction leak test to try and isolate whether he has a problem or just a poor mixture distribution.

Find the test Mike described on Youtube: https://youtu.be/_VfiPuheeGw

For more on the induction leak test Paul described: https://www.savvyaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/savvy_pdf/Savvy-Flight-Test-Profile-Expanded.pdf

Marcus has a first generation Cirrus and he wants to ensure he is leaning properly for high-altitude takeoffs. Paul said to put his EGT around 1,300 or 1,350 degrees, which will put him close to the Cirrus chart, but is more accurate. For high altitude go arounds, Paul knows his fuel flow at around 1,300 degrees EGT, so he just sets the fuel flow to the expected amount.

Luke has been having an issue with the flaps coming down in his 182. What follows is a loooooonnng and detailed description of the Cessna flap system.

Blythe was restoring his family’s Cessna 150 and found a bunch of mud daubers. The inspection panels allowed him to clean out some, but he assumes there are more that he couldn’t reach. Paul said the potential corrosion is a key to the solution. He said the bees don’t like to build nests on corrosion inhibitors. He also said to make sure to check up the vertical stabilizer, which is a popular spot. Mike said he’s had luck with moth balls in other machinery.