LancairTalk

Overall I really enjoyed this course and would recommend it to other Columbia pilots. I felt like I learned a lot. While various pieces of the content were either over my head, or not interesting because they didn’t apply to my aircraft, I feel like I ended the week with a much more detailed understanding of how the aircraft works. And to be more specific, like this level of knowledge should help me be a safer pilot, and a more informed consumer.

It was really good to be able to witness in person the effort that Columbia is making to improve the support network for Columbia owners and pilots. Training the mechanics is a
key part of that, but involving the other key suppliers, and ramping up staff at Columbia also play a big role. Columbia has gone from delivering 50 aircraft a year to trying to
ramp up to 250 deliveries next year. As you can imagine this requires quite a bit of growth of a team and that growth can be tricky. Unfortunately some really great people have left
Columbia lately which has to be a setback to the program. Having said that, the people that are around did a really great job presenting this material and I really appreciated the
dedication that was evident during side conversations. Its also good to see them ramping up the staff, adding people dedicated to helping streamline the delivery process (including
hopefully detailed communication with you as your delivery date comes near).

TCM has really come around and appears to be the solid leader in the bigger piston category. Its funny that they have both adapted to the ideas the GAMI guys have been pushing, yet still do it with a we know what is right, so stay quiet and just do what we tell you attitude. Granted, that attitude is pretty common in the industry.

It will be interesting to see how their new designs advance. FADEC, diesel engines and other new technologies are poised to revolutionize this industry. Still they all face many barriers
to being useful and practical. FADEC has a bit too much of that “we know what’s good for you” attitude. Done right it can combine all the benefits of a true electronic ignition (with variable timing), more detailed engine data, and better pilot control. Those 6 computers on each cylinder have a wealth of information to communicate and should be able to step up safety another notch beyond our existing engine monitoring.

The one thing that didn’t seem to work so well in the class was much of the presentations on the Garmin G1000 and the Avidyne displays when they trying to go into configuration. Presenting these in slides without a real simulator to take you through the different pages is both confusing and not very educational.

My last thought is what a difficult situation many of the mechanics are in. These guys are experts at repairing aircraft but the advancing pace of technology is making their jobs much harder than it used to be. Learning about how to deal with composite airframe parts and new engine setup procedures is difficult enough, but at least its in familiar ground. The new glass cockpits that we fly are pretty unfamiliar to most of these guys and the complexity of getting it all setup to work is many orders of magnitude worse than the existing stuff. To us pilots is great. Sure, there are a few new things to learn about your scan, how to read altitudes, etc, but its mostly a simplification of all these different instruments scattered all over into one clear display. To the mechanic, each of this instruments was pretty much single function with a straight-forward way to diagnose and repair it.

With a glass cockpit they are confronted with loading up memory cards, computer diagnosis, different types of cables, deep configuration menus and complicated calibration procedures.

Beyond that, the typical aircraft repair situation has been this split between the mechanical guys and the avionics shop. In fact, many of the reactions I heard were that any issues with these units are just going to get bumped over to the avionics shop right away. I wonder if that will really work in the long-run. It seems like more and more systems will work like these displays and my bet is that within 10-20 years the role of the mechanic will change to span these worlds.

I’ll just end this series by saying “Thank You!” to Columbia and the many fine people at Columbia and the other vendors who put this event on. It was a treat to be able to attend this kind of class and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I wonder if they might even spin out a owner/pilots focused version at some time that counts officially as recurrant training, given the great value of this deep understanding of the aircraft systems.

Day 5 started with a presentation on the Avidyne equipment. Since its a major part of my avionics
this was one of thes sessions I was most looking forward to. Despite that, there were relatively
few revelations in this session.

I didnt realize that the 6.1 software has a density altitude feature. I still havent seen it
but I should look for it- it sounds useful. We also heard about procedures for calibrating the
PFD. Whenever you pull the PFD you are supposed to do three calibration steps that seem like
they would take hours. First you need to do the level calibration. Second, you calibrate the
magnetic compass which involves turning the airplane to 12 precise directions on a compass
rose. Third you need to calibrate the auto-pilot interface which ideally needs to be done
in-flight. Bottom line, there is no such thing as a simple upgrade for the PFD.

Avidyne is coming out with a 6.2 release for the MFD shortly that should fix some additional
XM reception issues. After that the next release is likely to be an update that includes support
for WAAS, but Im not counting of that coming together until next summer at the earliest,
especially considering that it needs to get certified for the Columbia too.

Finally there was a presentation by a representative from the FAA. The most interesting thing
to me was that if there is a piece of equipment broken on your airplane, but the airplane
still meets the minimum standards for the type of flight (VFR equipment, IFR equipment), you
as pilot are able to do a “deferment”. Remove the equipment or at least mark it INOP, make
a notation in the logbooks and you are legal. You need to get it repaired by the next
inspection, or hopefully sooner.

Another thing he brought up was the requirement for a test flight. After any repair or
alteration that impacts the flight characteristics, someone needs to take the airplane for
a test flight and note the test flight in the logbook. This flight can only have necessary
flight crew, which for us just means the one pilot. A normal annual wouldnt have this
requirement, but anything that really changes the weight and balance or flight control
surfaces would qualify.

After that I had to leave to get home- sometimes having your own airplane gives you extra
schedule flexibility, sometimes it gives you less when you work in weather planning. The
weather forecast was showing some weather in the Seattle area so I wanted to get home
before dark. It turned out that the weather in Seattle was no big deal and the flight
home was beautiful. Still, no complaints when it turns out nicer than predicted.

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Today we started with a presentation on the Hartzell propellers used on most of our airplanes. Most of
this wasn’t especially relevant to pilots, but there were a few things I learned. First of all, if its
possible that your airplane was near lightning, you need to inspect the prop for lightning damage during
the pre-flight. Look for little pits in the spinner and/or discoloration on the blade. If you see any
evidence of lightning damage, if its passes certain criteria you are allowed to fly for 10 hours to get
home after which you need to have the propeller torn-down and inspected by a prop-shop. The criteria is
mostly to check for proper operation, such as you do anyway during a run-up, but the representative
from Hartzell said that they want you to call them to talk about it before you go flying. Their 24-hour
phone number for AOG (aircraft on the ground) issues is 937-778-4376. Don’t use this for non-time-critical
issues, but if you have this lightning situation, call them on this number.

I also learned that you should find out if your prop has some balance hardware and it’s a good thing to
look for during the pre-flight if you can.

When cleaning your airplane be very careful not to spray water into the spinner. Basically you should
avoid using anything with pressure to wash the prop area at all. If water gets in there it can be very
bad. Use Stoddard Solvent if needed to remove grease or oil but mostly just use warm soap and water,
and Mothers Auto Polish on the spinner.

We also heard a bit about the future of props. Hartzell recently introduced a composite-construction
prop. These can be very efficient, much lighter weight and are much easier to repair in the case of
damage than a traditional prop. They have an anti-erosion metal edge, which also enables the use of
a hot-prop de-ice system. The only downside is that they are incredibly expensive right now (over $40,000),
but as production ramps up this will likely be the future for high performance aircraft.

A lot of the rest of the day was the representative from Garmin speaking about the G1000 system. Since
I don’t have a G1000 equipped aircraft, this wasn’t as much of a focus for me, but overall the system
seems pretty solid. Currently however there are a set of things that the Avidyne has that the Garmin
doesn’t provide yet. These include support for electronic charts, display of EGT/CHT data on the map
page as data blocks, and ability to download engine data. Those later two are really important to me
as monitoring my engine health is a big confidence booster, both in-flight and at home. The one other
drawback of the system is that if one of your displays fails, you lose ability to use the auto-pilot.
On the other hand, they have the advantage that if either display fails you get the key set of the data
projected onto the remaining one.

One interesting point- the G1000 uses Ethernet to speak between the two displays and to several other
pieces of equipment. Probably a big step up from the RS232 that most avionics have been using so far.

The other big news from the Garmin representative was on the GNS 430 WAAS certification. People have
been waiting on this for a couple of years, but pulling it off has been a bit more difficult that Garmin
expected apparently. They say they are on track for the GNS 430 hardware upgrades to be available in
Q1 2007, but most Avidyne Columbia pilots are going to have a big problem. For the system to be worth
anything, you need a display that can show the glide-slope information and Avidyne just got the data
on how to do that recently. So to be useful in our aircraft, we are going to need a PFD upgrade, and
at the moment the timetable and possible cost of that upgrade are uncertain. I’m looking forward to
getting more details on this from the Avidyne representative tomorrow.

Finally a representative from STec gave us a talk on the auto-pilot used for the non-G1000 Columbias.
The most common reported problem is often porposing which can often be either an issue with the static
system, the altitude transducer or the cable tensions. He mentioned that the cable tensions can be a
common problem and are worth checking at an annual. One debugging technique is to compare the behavior
in ALT (altitude hold) mode vs selecting VS+0 (vertical speed with no speed dialed in). The auto-pilot
operates differently in these two modes and this can help diagnose the issue.

You can also turn down the volume of the alerts. There is a small hole in the right side of the
unit hooked up to a 20 turn potentiometer. 9 full turns counter-clockwise is often just right.
It sure would be nice to not scare my passengers so much every time I turn off the auto-pilot.

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Day 3 was the day at the factory rather than the class-room, which was fun, but in some ways
there were less things for me to report on here. We started with a tour of the aircraft featuring
aerodynamic features, followed by a tour of the factory assembly line and the factory maintenance
center for some demonstrations of fuel set-up and other procedures. I’d had a tour of the assembly
line before but this one was a bit more detailed. They are really focused on moving the line forward
by one step each day to get to their target of delivering 250 airplanes a year. The biggest barrier
to that appears to be that due to the nature of how the composite pieces are created, sometimes things
don’t fit together right initially. Obviously they fix these issues, but the fixes can be time
consuming and can either hold up the line or require that airplane to be moved out to the side.

We saw a number of the special edition Columbia 400s moving down the assembly line. These have a
unique silver and red paint job (including silver paint on the top surfaces), and the full option
package plus a longer warranty and some matched luggage for about $50,000 more than the normal
top-of-the-line price. Seems like a bit much to me, but they do look very cool. Overall the assembly
line was 100% Garmin equipped aircraft at the moment, with mostly 400s but a couple of 350s on the line.

The class on composite repair was pretty interesting. When most pilots think about a composite
aircraft with a huge hole in the end of the wing you assume that will require a complete replacement
of the wing. It turns out that damage to most parts of the aircraft except for the main spars (the
two in the wings and the two down the fuselage) are all repairable. Unlike aluminum where a repaired
part is unlikely to have the same strength as the original, composite repairs are able to build things
back to 100% of the strength it started with.

After that we covered the general electrical system. I learned a couple of interesting things. For
one, I’ve every now and then left cross-tie on and wondered if that was a bad thing. In general there
is no damage you can cause to the system by leaving cross-tie on. There are only two reasons why you
shouldn’t leave it on all the time- first of all, you won’t necessarily be alerted to certain failures
of one bus or the other. Second, some failures (voltage spikes) could in theory damage more of your
aircraft systems if cross-tie is on. So leave it off except for when you test it in pre-flight, but
if you find it on by accident, no big deal. Also, when using ground-power, don’t forget to turn on
cross-tie. The ground-plug only attaches to the left bus, and if you don’t cross-tie, you will wear
down your right battery while charging the left one.

The next presentation was on parts and warranty. For us owners the most interesting point was that
many of the component warranties are different from the Columbia airframe warranty. Apparently they
make this more clear during deliveries now, but when I picked up my airplane I don’t think I realized
that many of my aircraft components were only covered for 1 or 2 years. Since I’m coming up on the two
year point its pretty interesting to discover that my Avidyne and O2 systems are only covered for the
next month.

Finally the Precise Flight folks arrived to speak about the O2 and speed-brake system. Lots of issues
with the speed-brakes happen because they both engage and if each brake doesn’t detect the other one as
fully deployed within 4 seconds, they will retract. If they need lubrication, or your bus voltage is low,
or its very cold out (less than -20C for the 14V systems, less than -30C for the 28V ones), or there is
moisture in the brake-well, it can slow down the deployment and they will pop back. Apparently the
speed-brakes have a drain underneath them and its really important to check that drain and make sure
its dry and not blocked. Otherwise it will accumulate water which will probably freeze at altitude.
Finally if you get slightly asymmetric deployment (they don’t come out at exactly the same time) this
can often be addressed by property lubricating the speed brakes.

One last important note on the speed brakes. Its not in the POH, but they recommended exercising them a
few times on the ground before take-off. This gets the clutches into the right shape for more reliable
deployment in-flight.

I managed to pick up a few interesting tips about the O2 system after the session. First of all they are
coming out with a new flow-meter, the A5. The A5 doesn’t have any real advantages for people who already
have the A4, but it should reduce costs for new purchases. The Precise Flight guys like to run the O2
pressure higher than Mountain High. The Columbia outlet pressure is 25psi and in fact the new system
they designed for the Cirrus is up around 50-60psi. Their conserver system delivers a higher pressure
pulse of Oxygen as you go higher rather than just a longer pulse which they feel provides a more reliable
safe level at higher altitudes.

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Tuesday started with some interesting discussions about some future developments at TCM. Don spoke about the newer FADEC engines. They feature 6 computers, one on each cylinder and he claimed that their ability to adjust the spark timing and other factors results in an 18% increase in fuel economy over existing engines. If true thats a pretty big deal- an extra 200NM range would be an incredible boost. They also will take off somewhat leaned and will automatically go rich if a cylinder is over-temp.

My problem with the FADEC system is that they define over-temp as 420C, while I would never want to run my engine over 400C for an extra margin of safety. If this were adjustable, that would be great. Its also not clear that failure modes like an induction leak or unbalanced cylinders would be as visible- with adjusting each cylinder it could just keep the airplane flying without any indication. On the plus side, he said their goal would be with the extra
safety and automatic adjustments in the engine to get FAA approval for no fixed TBO- you just overhaul when the engine monitoring says its time. It should also be able to run on unleaded gas. While it could run on auto-gas, you wouldn’t want to do that because of the additives. Still, it would enable the introduction of avgas that is 92 octane, unleaded, and not dependent on the current expensive additives.

At an extra cost of only $4000, this seems like it could be a winner, but I don’t see it taking over very quickly.

For the Reno air-races they did a special version of the TSIO-550 that could go to 3300rpm and 60″ MP for 600hp. Of course this engine needs to be overhauled every 10 or so hours, but it does show some of the power capabilities of the basic platform that we use. The TSIO-550C used in the Columbia 400 is identical to the TSIO-550E which gives 350hp, but is just de-rated to 310hp which buys you a TBO of 2000 hours instead of 1600 hours. Since those extra 40hp aren’t
really needed to take-off or climb in our aircraft, this is a pretty big win.

He also mentioned that TCM has built a 4-cylinder diesel as part of a collaborative project with NASA. They don’t plan to bring it to market since they don’t feel there is much of a market for the lower power engine, but they are working on a 6-cylinder version that shouldn’t weigh more than an existing 6-cylinder avgas engine and will produce 320-340hp.

A lot of the rest of the discussion today was an interesting demonstration of just how far TCM has come around and been influenced by the GAMI guys. They don’t see eye to eye on everything, but unlike Lycoming they don’t have their heads in the ground. Back in the 60s, the engine manufactures ignored LOP operation since gas was so cheap. GAMI revived the practice and in doing so also helped shine a light on the details of how these engines work and issues like balancing the fuel and air flow into the cylinders of the engine. It seems to me like TCM has responded pretty well, switching to the top-induction design, working on airflow, providing tuned injectors and approving LOP operation of their engines. Since Lycoming hasn’t followed it seems like they are at a big disadvantage of the high-power
side of the engine market.

A fuel-system setup is a required part of your annual inspection. Some people apparently have been tempted to skip this in the past but it doesn’t seem like a good idea given how much we rely on getting the top performance out of our airplanes. Another tidbit was that the fuel transducers we see in the cockpit are probably only calibrated to within about 2 gph of the real values. I’ve done some test flying with some other Columbia pilots and we saw some interesting disparity in fuel-flows at identical power settings, but this variation in the transducer could explain a lot. I’m hoping to see if I can get my shop to compare my gauges to their more sensitive instruments at my next annual.

Columbia runs a mechanics course for their CARMA repair network a few times a
year and when they have open spots they make them available to owners. Since Im the
type that likes to know everything possible about my airplane, I jumped at the chance.
The class is an all week thing and Ill be reporting on my experiences as we go along.

I missed the first couple of hours this morning since I flew in from Seattle and
the weather was a real pain. The flight to Bend is usually just about 1 hour but
between headwinds and several diversions to deal with the complicated weather it
took me a whole 2 hours to get here.

Today was a representative from TCM talking about engine maintenance. He was very
careful to point out how important it is that the various engine components are
torqued to the exact right levels. Given some recent incidents this seemed like
a really key topic. He went into tons of detail about many aspects of the engines.
One thing I noticed was that from doing some oil changes and examining my engine
a bunch Ive got a pretty good feel for the outside parts of the engine. Today I
feel like I got a good exposure about the inner workings.

There was also one other interesting tip useful for pilots. The speaker mentioned a
pilot who was flying from the Bahamas to Florida when he started losing oil
pressure. Now, if I were in a similar situation Id have been tempted to reduce
power to try to put less stress on the engine. But it turns out the best move
(unless you already have a good landing spot within range) is probably to hit
full power, climb all you can and get every last bit of energy you can get out of
the engine before it fails. The rate of oil loss between full power and lower isnt
likely to differ very much. Either way its the same amount of pressure in the oil
system. Once you have an airport successfully made its a different matter, but until
then, screw the engine, save yourself.

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