From: Bill Berle <FALSE@westworld.com>
Subject: Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 24 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on your computer...

After a three day trip that became an eight day trip, hailstorms,
headwinds, stuck exhaust valves, 115 degree heat, and some especially
interesting moments involving reading road signs from an airplane at
wingspan height, I have returned to California with my new (1946)
airplane!

I purchased "121" near Kalamazoo, Michigan on the one day this month
that had flyable weather. It is a yellow/maroon '46 Taylorcraft with an
85 HP engine, in solid but not showplane condition. I planned to fly it
back to Los Angeles in a couple or three days, based on the STUPID
assumption that this T-craft will go as fast as my other one did, and
the incredibly STUPID assumption that there would not be too much
trouble with headwinds.

I flew it the south route through Texas, but not before spending two
days in Humidity, Missouri waiting for the storms to pass. An hour of
this time was spent standing out in a midwest squall with hail pellets,
desperately trying to hold the tail of the airplane down in 50KT gusts.
Within one minute, I was soaked as if I took a shower with my clothes
on, and had ice pellets inside my clothes.

The next day I flew through headwinds that equaled one third of the
cruising speed of the plane, bringing the 85 MPH cruise (due to a climb
prop) down to 55-60 on the GPS. Three hundred mile, 3 hr. planned XC
legs became two hour, 150 mile fuel stops. I landed at Independence, KS
where the new Cessna 100 series airplanes are being built. For some
strange reason, there were people standing on the roof of the building,
desperately trying to paint out the Armour "SPAM" logo that was proudly
painted on in years past. I swear my little T-craft just gloated as it
taxied by the rows of $140,000 172's.

I finally fought my way through Kansas, Oklahoma, and into the charming
town of Childress, TX. There, I found that there were no taxicabs in
town, and no way to get to a motel. After some serious bullshitting (far
in excess of anything in this newsgroup), I got to town and back again
at 5:30 AM the next day. To my surprise, the engine ran well on all
THREE cylinders, with one having taken an early retirement.

The local mechanic (who was also the town preacher in the next town I am
told, and is building a Mazda rotary Lancair 4P) got there at 5 PM,
after my spending the day trying to find the problem and cursing out the
former owner on the phone. It was 113 degrees and humid. The mechanic
found that I had a stuck exhaust valve, whereupon I almost cried,
thinking that I would have to top that cylinder on the spot.

But I had run into perhaps the only airplane mechanic with a heart
however, and he simply managed to fix the valve by removing and cleaning
it and the valve guide, WITHOUT pulling the cylinder off the engine! You
had to see it to believe it. This mechanic gave me a fantastic deal on
his time and effort, and gave me some valuable advice as to how
airplanes survive the Texas heat. I can't tell you what the magic
solution was, because I don't want to incriminate somebody accidentally.
By the way, they use a lot of STP, "THE RACER'S EDGE" in their CARS in
Texas, and also they have a lot of faith that a "MARVEL MYSTERY" will
heal the sick. Some things are just great products and they will get
your ANTIQUE CAR home through unbelievable conditions and abusive
temperatures. I'm a believer in these things now myself, as the good
preacher's advice turned out to be the word of truth...

The next day I took off from Childress in calm air, which turned into a
45+ MPH headwind about 300 feet above the runway. Disgusted at seeing 37
MPH groundspeed on the GPS, I made the brilliant decision that if the
winds were calm on the ground, that's where I should be flying. I flew
over very desolate and unpopulated territory at wingspan height,
averaging 55 MPH in the ground wind shear, but paid for it by having to
use full deflection frequently to keep the airplane from hitting the
ground or the power poles. There was one dirt road going from Childress
to Matador, TX, and so it was down that road I flew. I had to turn away
from the road (as per FAR's, of course) when a car came by, then force
the plane back down into ground effect to get speed again.

I had to refuel at Floydada TX, not before having to land on the grass
infield at a 60 degree angle to the runway. Later I had learned that the
local crop sprayplane, a 2000 pound turbine Air Tractor, had been
grounded by the winds for safety.

The rest of the day, through Seminole TX and Carlsbad NM, was less
stressful until I got to El Paso's West Texas Airport. A strong dust
devil picked the T-craft up just before touchdown, and almost threw it
into the sagebrush. I fought with it and got it back level, but by then
it was six feet in the air, and slammed down stalled. Not the prettiest
arrival I ever made.

Leaving the airport, I had to keep very low to stay under El Paso's
class C airspace, and then all of a sudden fight to climb it up high
enough to get through the mountains into Las Cruces, NM. The oil
temperature was redlined, it was 115 plus degrees, thermal turbulence,
and the plane was just not climbing. Did I mention that they have an
almost religious faith in using STP in their ANTIQUE CARS in Texas??? By
dolphining (glider technique) and an occasional circle in lift, I
finally got to the mountain between El Paso and Las Cruces. I flew along
the ridge's upwind face, gaining altitude and losing oil temp. The rest
of the flight into Deming, NM was just very uncomfortable, which
represented a significant upgrade.

In Deming, I had to go to Wal-Mart to get padded shoe insoles, because I
had developed blisters on my feet where the rudder pedals were. I took
off from Deming at dawn, and flew to Willcox, AZ, where I had bought an
aircraft six years ago. From Willcox, I flew northwest, and to my
pleasant surprise I got enough altitude to go through the mountains
westward into the Tucson area, where I had to fly through the canyons to
stay out of their Clsss C. Finally, I made it to Buckeye, AZ, which had
one of those unattended credit card gas pumps.

The flight from Buckeye, AZ (west of Phoenix) to Bylthe Airport in
California was one of the top ten worst flights I ever had. I had more
than one occasion of 90 degree banks against full opposite aileron, and
once I got thrown out of the seat so hard that my head pushed the fabric
off of one of the stringers above the cockpit. The headwinds were about
25, and the GPS read less than 50 more than once. The wind was so strong
at Blythe that I had to land on a 200 foot section of 45 degree taxiway
into the wind, which must have raised a few eyebrows in a Warrior when I
flew right over it as it was waiting to taxi out on the runway. Although
I had plenty of daylight left to reach Los Angeles, I called it a day
because I could not take another three hours of that turbulence and
wrestling. I felt like a wimp, but the truth was that after the whole
experience to that point, I was genuinely not safe to fly again that
day. That was rough on my ego, and even rougher to mention it here, but
the point is that I am alive to mention it here.

By the way, did I mention that if God were going to give the world an
enema, he would put the tube in Blythe?

Anyway, yesterday at dawn, I took off from Blythe, flew to Banning CA,
where the wind blows 24/7, indicating 40 MPH on the GPS, and landed in a
big wind again. By big winds, I am referring to 20-30 kts, which is not
much in a 182 or a Glasair. But it is 75% of flying speed in a
Taylorcraft or a Cub.

Finally, I made it back to Whiteman airport, this time without
headwinds. But God threw cloud cover into the game to make my life
miserable. I had to make a rather rude descent through a hole in the
clouds to get down under Burbank's Class C airspace, only to find that
the distance between the cloud bottoms and the building tops in La
Canada and Tujunga was just exactly the minimum for VFR. Thank goodness
I had brought along my Swiss Army knife with measuring scale to stick
out the window into the clouds to verify the cloud clearance and
legality of the maneuver :) It was just plain time to go home.

Anyway, this post is about as brief and on topic as anything else in the
group, and I am certain that a mass depression has fallen over all of
you in the absence of my presence in the newsgroup. So I am here to
assure you all that I am indeed back, and that despite a heroic effort
to prevent me from buying and returning with an airplane, I have beaten
the forces of evil to rejoin this most honorable organization.

If anyone is interested in seeing the photos I took along the route, I
will be happy to E-mail them to you when they're developed. I have no
website to post them on, so you'll have to E-mail le at the following
address:

as-w20@XXXwestworld.com   and REMOVE the XXX

Bill Berle

From: "Capt.Doug" <Capt.Doug@theworldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 25 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

Corky, you haven't heard of the rope trick? With the piston at TDC, stuff
the cylinder with rope so that you can compress the valve spring to release
the valve keepers. With the piston at BDC, the valve will come out of the
guide. Stick the valve stem out of the spark plug hole for cleaning and
then clean the guide. The tricky part is using a finger in each plug hole
to slide the valve back into the guide. Have plenty of liquids available to
ease the soreness in your throat caused by screaming expletives to the
aviation supreme being. Then use the rope trick to install the keepers.
This is SOP in many places with few resources. I learned it from a
missionary from Bolivia.

D.



> Bill Berle <FALSE@westworld.com> writes:
>
> > But I had run into perhaps the only airplane mechanic with a heart
> > however, and he simply managed to fix the valve by removing and cleaning
> > it and the valve guide, WITHOUT pulling the cylinder off the engine!
>
> OK Bill, you are going to have to use more details here. ;-) I'm trying
> to imagine how this can happen and am stumped.  If you don't pull the
> cylinder and don't pull the cylinder head then the only other thing is
> to split the case and fish it out from inside the engine which sounds a
> lot more complicated than just pulling the jug.
>
> So how'd he do it?
>
> Thanks,  Corky Scott

From: Bill Berle <FALSE@westworld.com>
Subject: Re: Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 25 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

highflyer wrote:

> Great story, Bill.

Thanks much, 'flyer! I had a great time in a manner of speaking, but the
"pucker factor" really was high on a few legs of the trip. I can
honestly say that the same trip conditions in a 65 powered airplane
would have resulted in a crash more than once. I also believe that if it
weren't for using soaring techniques on several occasions, I might have
burned up something trying to climb in the heat. The oil temp was
redlined for several hours of the trip.

{Oh, and just in case this helps someone out of a jam, an old trick from
the model airplane and full size slope soaring days saved my life two or
three times on this trip: If you are near the ground or a ridge, and are
flying at slow speeds, and you are using full aileron deflection to try
and get away from a solid object but the turbulence is not letting the
airplane roll in the direction you need to go, you can push forward on
the elevator for a brief second. This will make you dive towards
whatever you're trying not to crash into, but it will make the ailerons
stop reversing and act like roll spoilers. You will be able to get a
brief high rate of roll to put the wings in a different angle relative
to the horizon. Then, just before you hit whatever it was, you can pull
elevator and let the wings' lift take you away from the solid object.
Elevator almost always is more powerful and fast acting than rudder or
aileron. So you will be able to use the most powerful force the airplane
has, rather than one of the slowest. Just a thought, courtesy of one
particular outcropping of rock near El Paso that did not manage to
succeed in ending my ferry flight :) }

> Sounds to me like a typical long cross country in
> a Taylorcraft.

That's the part that's rough on my ego. As much as I want to believe
that this trip was a feat of the greatest skill and bravado, I know in
my heart that many people have made this same trip in 50 and 65
horsepower airplanes, without GPS, and without as many airports on the
way. But like the modern sailors that can't imagine Polynesian natives
crossing the oceans on reed rafts, I can't possibly imagine somebody in
a pre-war BF-50 T-craft making this journey under the same conditions as
I did.

> I have made several similiar flights myself! :-)

You poor, miserable bastard.

> Now, the $64,000 question.  ARe you prepared to fly your nice new
> T-Cart to P'Ville 99?

Yes, as long as BWB and co. will rent an Antonov 225 to get me and my
little airplane as far as Carbondale! From there, I will make a colorful
entrance, scarf flapping in the breeze, arriving to thunderous applause
and roses thrown at my feet after flying the last 30 or so miles all by
myself.

If El F*@^%$ing Nino doesn't raise it's ugly, malicious head next year,
and we have a nice mild summer, then hell yes I want to go. Otherwise I
might bum a ride with someone else in another airplane, say a nice big
airplane with pretty girls walking back and forth.

As far as Corky's request for the slick trick the IA pulled in
Childress, "the rope trick" is close but not exactly on target. The
mechanic bottomed the piston out, then used a regular valve spring
compressor to remove the springs and keepers. He took a drift pin and
hammered the valve into the combustion chamber, and I mean hammered. It
was stuck with lead or carbon or super glue or just siezed. He went in
through the top plug hole with a pair of hemostats (roach clip for most
of you former flower children on this newsgroup), and pulled the valve
stem out of the plug hole until the face of the valve hit the inside of
the head. Then he put a 90 degree allen wrench into the plug hole, with
the short point of the wrench touching the valve. Then he turned the
prop until the piston came up and wedged the allen wrench into the back
of the valve head, so it couldn't fall back into the cylinder. Now he
could take a strip of emery cloth and clean up the valve stem with a
shoe shine motion. Then he poked the correct size reamer through the
now-empty valve guide to clean it out. Since we're talking about an
exhaust valve and exhaust port, the carbon dust and chunks simply fell
into the exhaust port, to be blown out of the engine without damaging
it. Then he reversed the procedure, and using the foreceps he threaded
the valve stem back into the guide, after lubricating it well. The allen
wrench was used again to hold the valve in place while the springs and
keepers were re-installed. The whole process took half an hour or less!
I am certain that if it were needed, the valve could have been chucked
into a cordless drill carefully, and "seated" into the valve insert with
a little abrasive toothpaste as well. We didn't do this. The trick was
to make a mark on the valve stem so it could be re-installed at the same
rotational position as it was before, just like you'd index a piston and
rings when re-installing them if you didn't replace the rings.

After I got the airplane back home, like all of the hopeless tinkerers
in this group, I found lots of little parts I want to replace and
repair. This plane won't ever be a showplane, but I do want to clean up
a lot of small stuff and minor safety items. Like re-adjusting the
thrust line so the airplane doesn't take left rudder and right aileron
to fly straight. I will be developing the photos today or tomorrow, and
if anyone has a website with some space to post them I would be happy to
make them available to the public. Unfortunately, the one or two points
of the flight that would have made the best photos were not
photographed. While flying from Childress TX to Matador TX, in 40 MPH
quartering winds at 25 feet altitude, I just couldn't take either hand
off the yoke to fumble with the camera. I know this sounds like a pretty
wild claim, but if you want, you can look at the pair of underwear I was
wearing at the time!

Bill Berle  as-w20@XXXwestworld.com   remove XXX to reply

From: munday@muohio.noise.edu (David Munday)
Subject: Re: Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 25 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

"Capt.Doug" <Capt.Doug@theworldnet.att.net> wrote:

>Corky, you haven't heard of the rope trick? With the piston at TDC, stuff
>the cylinder with rope so that you can compress the valve spring to release
>the valve keepers. With the piston at BDC, the valve will come out of the
>guide. Stick the valve stem out of the spark plug hole for cleaning and
>then clean the guide. The tricky part is using a finger in each plug hole
>to slide the valve back into the guide. Have plenty of liquids available to
>ease the soreness in your throat caused by screaming expletives to the
>aviation supreme being. Then use the rope trick to install the keepers.
>This is SOP in many places with few resources. I learned it from a
>missionary from Bolivia.

An further variation on this, to be used only in extreme cases is to
touch up the valve seat and mating face on the valve, by applying some
abrasive to each, inserting the valve, chucking the end of the valve
in a drill, pulling and turning the valve in place.  You must then
clean the abrasive off as best you can.

I don't think I want to identify where I've seen this.  I think it
falls in the same category as using STP in your car in texas . . .
only more so.  As some of my friends who do spooky things for the
government say "I don't know what the rules are exactly, so I'm going
to shut up about it."

--
David Munday  -  mundayde@muohio.noise.edu
My email address is not noisy.
Webpage: http://www.nku.edu/~munday
PP-ASEL  -  Tandem Flybaby Builder  -  EAA-284 (Waynesville, OH)
Mencken's Law: Whenever A annoys or injures B on the pretense of
saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel

From: meyer@hpwala.wal.hp.com (Andreas Meyer)
Subject: Re: Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 25 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

D'you ever hear of the rope trick? I've done it on my '46 C-120.
I don't know if this works on all Lycontisaurus but on smaller
displacements Continentals you can do it the following way:

1. Take out the sparkplugs.
2. Remove the rocker arm cover and then the rocker arm shaft.
3. Remove rocker arms.
4. Place the piston at bottom of stroke or close to it.
5. Find a heavy twine rope and put it into the cylinder.
6. Next put the piston back up to TDC. The rope will push against
   the valve on the exhaust stroke. Valve wants to be open but rope
   pushes valve up. This now allows you to remove the valve retaining
   clips.
7. Lower piston again, take out rope and drop valve into cylinder.
8. This now allows you to ream out the guide to remove any carbon
   buildup.
9. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly. Getting the valve back into
   the guide can be tricky but with the right tools (coathanger bent
   just the right way and magnet) the job is not too bad.

Andreas

From: Charles.K.Scott@**NOSPAM**.dartmouth.edu (Charles K. Scott)
Subject: Re: Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 29 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

In article <6mts3t$b17@hpaneqb4.an.hp.com>
meyer@hpwala.wal.hp.com (Andreas Meyer) writes:

> 1. Take out the sparkplugs.
> 2. Remove the rocker arm cover and then the rocker arm shaft.
> 3. Remove rocker arms.
> 4. Place the piston at bottom of stroke or close to it.
> 5. Find a heavy twine rope and put it into the cylinder.
> 6. Next put the piston back up to TDC. The rope will push against
>    the valve on the exhaust stroke. Valve wants to be open but rope
>    pushes valve up. This now allows you to remove the valve retaining
>    clips.

Except if you've already done no. 2, you don't have "Valve wants to be
open" at no. 6.  Without the rocker arm pushing down, the valve
definately wants to stay put because it's held in place with the valve
spring and keepers.  In order to loosen it up, you'll have to find some
way to depress the spring while it's being held in it's seat by the
rope pressure.

Actually I've used a variation of this technique to remove springs to
get to intake guide seals that were baked and allowing too much oil to
be pulled into the combustion chambers of old cars, but I used air
pressure to hold the valve in place, not rope.  There are several tool
makers who make valve spring depressors that bolt or wedge on to some
place on the cylinderhead so that you can remove valve springs on
engines without removing the cylinderhead.

The idea of actually removing the valve and jockying it around inside
the combustion chamber and hanging it out the sparkplug hole so that
you could clean it's stem never occured to me.  Frankly it sounds next
to impossible on auto engines but I guess because of sparkplug hole
size and placement it not only is possible but is done on aircraft
engines.

Doesn't sound fun though.

Corky Scott

From: meyer@hpwala.wal.hp.com (Andreas Meyer)
Subject: Re: Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 29 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

In article <6n8b3e$5ud$1@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>,
Charles.K.Scott@**NOSPAM**.dartmouth.edu (Charles K. Scott) writes:

|> Except if you've already done no. 2, you don't have "Valve wants to be
|> open" at no. 6.  Without the rocker arm pushing down, the valve
|> definately wants to stay put because it's held in place with the valve
|> spring and keepers.  In order to loosen it up, you'll have to find some
|> way to depress the spring while it's being held in it's seat by the
|> rope pressure.

Ooops, you're absolutely right. I did use a valve spring compressor tool
when I did it. When writing it I somehow convinced myself that it could
be done without it, but on second thought...

Andreas

From: highflyer <highflyer@alt.net>
Subject: Re: Valve Lapping in situ - was Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 30 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

Robert Chilcoat wrote:
>
> Bob U. wrote:
> >
> > I've used a regular drill with reverse and without and ......
> > lapping compound. Better than nothin'!
> > Chances are boyscouts could start a fire this same way.  ;+)
> > I stick to toothpaste on my teeth.....
>
>
> I really don't like the idea of lapping valves in place.  Valve paste is
> very abrasive (that's what it's for!).  If any gets down into the rings
> you will have very rapid ring and cylinder wear.  Since you can't get
> into the valve seat to clean things out very easily, it seems highly
> likely that there will still be some paste in there when you start up
> the first time.  While most of this may blow out the exhaust, there
> seems a high probability that some will get on the cylinder walls on the
> downstroke, and be trapped in the rings on the next upstroke.  Just my
> opinion, but then, they're not my cylinders :-)



Right Bob, that is EXACTLY the problem with lapping them in situ.
There is NO way to be sure that you got ALL of the lapping compound
cleaned up.

When I have seen the "rope trick" or its equivalent as described by
Bill, done it was, as it was for Bill, an emergency technique intended
to get you home.  When I AM at home, I would remove the cylinder and
properly recondition the valves and guides.  May even replace them.
While that is, technically, a "top overhaul" it is NOT a major job
and doesn't take a long time to do.  You most likely want to replace
the rings while the cylinder is off.  Also a good time to remove
carbon deposits and inspect the cylinder to cracks and problems.

From: jim@rst-engr.com (Jim Weir)
Subject: Re: Hey Bird Brains, I'm back!!!
Date: 30 Jun 1998
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt

Charles.K.Scott@**NOSPAM**.dartmouth.edu (Charles K. Scott)
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

->In article <6mts3t$b17@hpaneqb4.an.hp.com>
->meyer@hpwala.wal.hp.com (Andreas Meyer) writes:
->
->> 1. Take out the sparkplugs.

->The idea of actually removing the valve and jockying it around inside
->the combustion chamber and hanging it out the sparkplug hole so that
->you could clean it's stem never occured to me.  Frankly it sounds next
->to impossible on auto engines but I guess because of sparkplug hole
->size and placement it not only is possible but is done on aircraft
->engines.
->
->Doesn't sound fun though.

No, its not fun.  But doable.  Now, *I've* never done this, but I've heard
that some people pop the keepers and springs, squirt MEK or some other
solvent down the guide, and spin the valve with a drill.  In some circles
this is called a (insert your favorite ethnic group here) valve job.

Jim
Jim Weir (A&P, CFI, and other good alphabet soup)
VP Engineering, RST
Web address:  www.rst-engr.com