A new A&P AI that thinks Brantly is the Bomb!

[SunHelo Mark]

Got some great news this week.. found, then tried and now tickled about having an A&P/AI totaly excited about Brantly..
Our ship went thru a week and a half of thorough "debugging", a tail to bubble inspection and a fresh annual.
I won't go into details about what we found/corrected but it was quite extensive.
But, having said that we have a new A&P/AI that is willing and now has some extensive experience for Brantly repair services!
Roy is now on a first name basis with the factory (thanks for the help John)

[Al Owen]

Good News... Looking forward to seeing you guys at Sun-N-Fun.. Will you be there all week? And are you planning on being in ChopperTown or in the main display area or maybe both?

I'll be there all week and would like to look over your Brantly....

[seneca2e]

Glad to hear you got it lined out Mark. Tell us about tweaking the machine to perfection. You don't have to say how it got in that shape just what it took to fix it . Also what flight or operational characteristics led to this "tuneup"?

[SunHelo Mark]

Ok, here’s a brief summation of what we found , what we did and where we’re at.
Grounded aircraft when discovery made of no safety wires attached on swashplate star.And a report from a new instructor that the ship required incredible amount of pilot load to fly it.
What we found:
lack of critical safety wires (decided to inspect the entire aircraft)
Longitudinal cyclic was initially adjusted at 9.2 degrees forward (factory specs= 1.5 fwd, corrected to 1.5 forward)
Lateral cyclic pitch linkage out of nominal adjustment (set to factory specs, adjusted for 2 degrees left)
Rerouted throttle and fuel mixture control cables correctly and away from exhaust manifolds
Sealed engine case bolts (33 hrs since major)severe leakage since day one. Voila! Dry engine!
Readjusted longitudinal control damper spring to correct position (removing the buckle from the engine flywheel)
Disassembled, cleaned 40 yrs of gunk and metal shavings from throttle/collective controls inside cabin. Lubricated.. what a world of difference when the correlator works!
Completely disassembled tail rotor gearbox, removed tons of RTV(even in the bearing, a horrible attempt at sealing) cleaned and correctly adjusted lash and resealed per factory approved method. Voila! Clean, dry and non-leaking assembly!
Readjusted rigging to factory specs for tail rotor (was incorrect)
Insufficient left pedal authority issue was corrected by adjusting tail rotor pitch to 18/19 degrees full left (factory specs) vice 15 degrees on one blade and 16 on the other. Authority was definitely restored!
Readjusted servo (fires immediately every time! just tap the starter baby!)
Aside from many unsecured and poorly routed wires/connections (corrected) adjustments were made to every control Brantly installed (everything was out of adjustment)
But the most intriguing fun was zeroing in on the “hop” issue! After hours of attempts to free a tight (very) thrust bearing(all brand new 33 hours ago) on one blade and not being able to inject grease we, with factory consultation, had no other alternative except to disassemble the inboard blade assembly. To our surprise we found one bearing (out of the four) that was put in backwards. During the torque process it forces a undue lateral stress against all four bearings, hence, the “way too tight” rotation in that particular blade. We also discovered why we could not add grease even at tremendous pressure. The bearing seal was assembled backwards thus creating a hydraulic lock.. the more pressure, the tighter the seal……… funny how stuff works when you assemble things correctly and how well they perform.. NO hop, NO cyclic vibration. At 2800 rpm you could balance a wineglass and not spill a drop! My quote to Paul is that she’ll fly as “smooth as a babies 'arse'!”
Finally the ship is a clean, DRY, well performing aircraft with a fresh annual and 34 hours!

[J-nut]

Mark,

Sounds like you've have a great mechanic and a great flying machine now. Congrats!! Best of luck with your new venture. I hope to be starting my own later this year up here in the NW. Keep us informed. To quote the great Red Green, Remember, I'm pulling for ya, we're all in this together

[seneca2e]

Great post Mark. I think any posts regarding maintenance issues and fixes are really helpful to all owner/operators of these machines!

[edspilot]

Sun Helo Mark:

Thanks for the great detailed post. That sounds like a very good, detailed and knowledgable mechanic. Good find!

Now I have a couple of questions.


1: For this type of trouble shooting, annual or what ever you call it, what would this have cost?

2: What would you have to charge for this level of inspection/repair to a customer?



I ask as I'm in the process of finding a B-2B. If one needs some of this attention, I just want to know what the "ballpark" we are talking.

Your experience is a little concerning to a prospective buyer. I would hate to think that I would buy a "recently annualed" ship and find these problems. Then to think I'd have to put it on a trailer and deliver to you in FL for this type of repairs. Having said this, I'd rather know up front of this expense. Now at least we all know of your mechanic for this level of work.

What many do not understand is that there is a big difference between a mechanic that can preform an inspection and one that can "trouble shoot" or systematically work through several problems to find the root problem(s).

You did good with your find.

Thanks for the info,

edspilot

[SunHelo Mark]

Sun Helo Mark:

Thanks for the great detailed post. That sounds like a very good, detailed and knowledgable mechanic. Good find!

Now I have a couple of questions.


1: For this type of trouble shooting, annual or what ever you call it, what would this have cost?

2: What would you have to charge for this level of inspection/repair to a customer?



I ask as I'm in the process of finding a B-2B. If one needs some of this attention, I just want to know what the "ballpark" we are talking.

Your experience is a little concerning to a prospective buyer. I would hate to think that I would buy a "recently annualed" ship and find these problems. Then to think I'd have to put it on a trailer and deliver to you in FL for this type of repairs. Having said this, I'd rather know up front of this expense. Now at least we all know of your mechanic for this level of work.

What many do not understand is that there is a big difference between a mechanic that can preform an inspection and one that can "trouble shoot" or systematically work through several problems to find the root problem(s).

You did good with your find.

Thanks for the info,

edspilot

Dean,
Our experience should definitely be of concern to a prospective buyer. Alot transpired to have garnered this level of "knowledge" but it was "expensive" (in certain terms) to us. From today forward, we hope to make sure this type of issues are no longer "expensive" to an prospective buyer. I can tell you that for this type of inspection, one would be looking at about 16 man hours for an unknown ship. Ours was somewhat "known" and verifying that the "new parts" installed didn't take all that long. In a pre-purchase inspection with good documentation you'd be looking at a detailed annual. Poor documentation would definitely require additional time. We are now fully aware of areas that "normally" would be missed by a mechanic that hasn't had too many experiences with a Brantly.
The best way to gain knowledge is to have a mess in front of you and start from square one. That is the path we ended up on.

We/I am very confident in Roy's abilities to both inspect and troubleshoot. He is a bulldog when he sees/experiences something "not right". He has scoured the maintenance manual and service bulletins (both delivered to us by the factory last month)and now has a very good working knowledge and relationship with the factory folks.
I can not tell you how many issues (some critical) that a certain mechanic is responsible for. Some "looked" ok from a cursory look but were very wrong. We have found every one.
We are very lucky that none has been an outlay of cash.. only labor to "redo" what should have been done correctly. The Brantly is a very well built machine that can perform so out of whack that some things/issues never really surfaced.
Our recommendation to anyone thinking of purchasing a formerly owned ship is to have a pre-purchase inspection regardless of annual.
With a detailed inspection/annual (with full squawklist) one could then adjust the purchase accordingly if there are "issues/repairs needed".

Ballpark figures just thrown out there: (I'll get detailed info on Monday)
Figure about 900 for an annual (with excellent documentation)minor corrections included
Maybe twice that for a poorly documented ship (or one with a certain mechanics signature)
We are intent to make a Brantly owner or purchaser happy, excited, knowledgeable and "relaxed". We wouldn't want anything less for ourselves!
If ya have any questions feel free to call.. Did I ever tell you I hate typing?

[Tom]

Thanks for a great post, SHM. Very interesting and informative. Sounds like the ship is now 4.0. Good luck!

Tom