N195S Background1952 Cessna 195BS/N 7924 Owned since 1979 Awards: This is the same airplane that was on the cover of the newsletter in about 1980 (Grand Tour). Unfortunately I misplaced my copy so I can not tell you the exact issue. I purchased it after getting back from a six year assignment in Saudi Arabia. Got my 10 hour check out and took off with my family on an around the states tour (young and stupid was my only excuse). 100 hours and about 10,000 miles as I recall. The plane never stranded me anywhere away from home for longer than a couple hours in the 1500 hours that I put on it. One time with a blown tail wheel tube (I now carry a complete spare tire), once (and only once) with wet ignition, once with a leaking wing tank drain (I now carry a spare) and several times by leaving the master switch on. I had a hydraulic lock on the engine in 1982. I switched to multiviscosity oil at the start of that season's winter. I noticed that as the weather got warmer the engine started gurgling when hand propped and starts were really smokey. One day it locked, bending the number four rod. During the overhaul I realized that so much oil was draining into the lower cylinders that when hand propped the number four intake pipe filled with oil. Upon starting the oil was sucked into the cylinder causing the lock. The gurgling sound was air being sucked up through the oil. I had the shop overhauling the engine install a drain on the number four intake tube. They came up with the idea of adding the Piper sniffler valve (gravity drain) that closes when the intake manifold is under vacuum. I think my plane was the first to do that. Steve Curry and Barron are now doing it. Leaving the prop on number four cylinder TDC after shutdown prevents more than a combustion chamber volumn of oil from dropping into the intake pipe during pre-start hand propping.
Dave and Sue Cole |