Question Flying an Apache

 
We were all set to go fly Annie after all our work. However on runup the right engine had a mag fail the mag check. This time we knew what to do!

 

Eliu jumped right into bypassing the same box that caused this issue on the left engine. Here he is just finishing working on the right mags and has closed up the cowling so I can flight check it.

 

Once airborne I could see that the fuel flows look "normal". We may need to tweak them for accuracy but now they give good into. We still have to resolve the CHT issue. That is the next thing to resolve with Insight.

 

Here is what my basic panel looks like at cruise. I did 22" and 2200 rpm at 7500' and got 136 kts. average ground speed. This is the "slow" leg into the wind.

 

A good feeling to have a test flight go well and be able to put the plane "to bed" back in the hangar!

Once again we make progress...slowly! After talking with Insight tech support my mechanic made changes to the fuel line routing. According to Insight the Apache and Aztec tend to have some sort of issue with the transducer reading the mechanical fuel pump flow. I really didn't understand the whole issue! The good news is that once he made the changes to the routing of the fuel line on the left engine we got good readings. So apparently that is fixed. Unfortunately he didn't have enough fuel line material to do the right engine so those parts are ordered and hopefully will get them installed this coming week. We are still working on the issue of the CHT temps on the left engine all reading low. Since I got back on flying status I have been flying for the airline so much I haven't had much time for working on or flying the Apache. This week I'm hoping that changes!

Hopefully if someone else is planning on using an Insight gauge on their Apache or Aztec they will know to check on this fuel line issue before their install. Not a huge deal but nicer to know ahead ot time,

Steve,

The K factor was the first thing I thought of too but with one being a .6 and another at 2.0 I'm not sure. Also, I THOUGHT we used the transducers that Insight sent so it "shouldn't be" the issue. My mechanic will be checking with Insight Tech Support to see what they have to offer. I am assuming it will be configuration issues. Also, the low CHT's on the left gauge look like config issues too. We'll see...

Thanks for the encouragement, I've gotten to almost giving up on gettting this plane going reliably but hopefully we are over the hump now.

Eric
 

Eric,
That's great. 
I am wondering if the "K" factor in the fuel flow portion of your G2 instruments needs tweaking. That's what I had to do when my FF was off. 
Now it's so accurate that when I land at the end of a long XC, it's within a half gallon of the fuel used. 
Keep the cards and letters coming.
Thanks for saving that Apache.
Steve

I got the good news that I am back on flying status on Thursday. Unfortunately the weather was kinda lousy for little airplane flying on Friday so I had to wait until Saturday to test fly the Apache after all the work we've done. It was great weather today (a little gusty) and the Apache performed as we hoped (finally!). The engines cranked right up and ran great. The props were working properly (little PUN there!). So I was checking out the new Insight G2 engine monitors. We have a couple descrepancies to work on. The CHT's on the left gauge were all too low, way out of normal range. The fact that all 4 on one side are low tells me it isn't just a sensor. Also, both Fuel Flows are way low (I wish I only burned that little fuel). So we will get with Insight Tech Support to figure out what needs to be done. Otherwise things went great and I just enjoyed getting out of the pattern in the Apache.

At 7500' and 2400 rpm and full throttle I got an "average" of 162 mph/ 140 kts. I say average as I did speed checks on 4 different headings and the winds at that altitude were fairly strong. I was occasionally getting a little bit of wave action off the Appalachains to the west of me so it was varying around a bit. But fun to see 209 mph ground speed at one point!

Annie was finally ready to stop being a Hangar Queen and become a Flying Machine
 

Another attempt at a selfie...
 

Steve,

That's pretty much what we figured. We had bypassed one magneto and the whole issue went away for a bit but finally the other magneto started failing again so we bypassed it as well. No issues with the radios so we figured there must be shielding somewhere. So now we know it's built into the Slick mags we have!

At this point we are fairly "exhausted" from this whole upgrade so we will save the work on the right engine mags for next annual unless something pops up sooner. Obviously I will be checking how the mags ground more than usual! We plan on removing the old boxes at a later point as well.

Eric