This year's Annual Inspection

Any DA40 related topics

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Steve
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by Steve »

So, the jacks are repaired, and I completed my favorite owner maintenance job - cleaning and repacking the wheel bearings. Emergency battery replaced - 46.2 volts measured at the emergency power switch (it was 46.1 volts measured prior to changing the old Duracells in there). VM-1000 memory chip battery replaced, and engine hours reset:
VM-1000 memory chip/battery
VM-1000 memory chip/battery
Now preparing to perform the rear spar reinforcement AD. Removed the carpet in the area, now only have to pull one strip of Velcro off, and mark the location of the patches:
Rear spar exposed for reinforcement
Rear spar exposed for reinforcement
I'll take lots of photos of the process, for those few who haven't yet done this AD. For those select few, you have about 18 months left to do it, depending on how many hours are on your airframe...
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Rich
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by Rich »

I don't know if they've amended the procedure, but when I had the spar AD done a few years ago I farmed it out during the MTOW/MLW upgrade. It called for vacuum-bagging and temperature control. And it wasn't expensive to have it done, as the shop had all the necessary equipment and experience there's and not much labor was involved, given that the rear seat was already out.
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Steve
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by Steve »

Yes, I have all of the composite gear including vacuum pump and regulator, resin trap, and thermostatically controlled heating blanket for the post-cure. The work instruction doesn't call for vacuum-bagging the repair, but I'm convinced that vacuum-bagging reduces the weight of the repair, so that is what we are doing.
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astaib
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by astaib »

When I bought the engine plane, the reinforcement was done already but I spoke with the guy that did it (not at all a mechanic shop), and they didn’t followed the work instruction at all. They did a clean job, but not with the recommended resin, no post curing, no vaccum bag ….
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Davestation
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by Davestation »

astaib wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:05 pm They did a clean job, but not with the recommended resin, no post curing, no vaccum bag ….
Scary! Not sure what clean about that, although as said before vacuum bagging isn’t required.

I think I can top it though, I once saw one where the patches were put on completely sideways!
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Steve
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

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So, today we did the pilot's side spar reinforcement. We didn't do both sides today, because I have only one heating pad to post-cure anyway, so I plan to do the copilot's side tomorrow while we start the post-cure on the pilot's side.
Area to be bonded prepped and outlined with tacky tape
Area to be bonded prepped and outlined with tacky tape
Vacuum pump and resin trap
Vacuum pump and resin trap
Reinforcement patch in place, vacuum bag sucking down...
Reinforcement patch in place, vacuum bag sucking down...
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Steve
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by Steve »

More work today. Did the copilot's side spar reinforcement. Started post-curing the pilot's side:
Heating pad controller
Heating pad controller
Heating pad applied to spar carry through
Heating pad applied to spar carry through
The thin black wire on the left side is the temperature sensor, which is taped to the repair, under the heating pad.
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perossichi
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by perossichi »

I’m very impressed at forum members who rebuild their own tools including jacks. Soon you will be machining your own fasteners out of bar stock. ;).
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Steve
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by Steve »

perossichi wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:18 am I’m very impressed at forum members who rebuild their own tools including jacks. Soon you will be machining your own fasteners out of bar stock. ;).
Good idea! Would you please convince my wife she needs to find room in our garage for a lathe? :D
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Steve
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Re: This year's Annual Inspection

Post by Steve »

So, I found another cracked roller, this one was the last original one in the left wing aileron roller assembly (so, almost 20 years old). I had replaced the other two previously, and this last one was the most difficult to work on. For the prior two, I ground the rivet off using a Dremel tool, but for this one there wasn’t enough room to get the tool in there and access the rivet without impinging on the control rod.

I was (just) barely able to slip my hand in there with a small flush-cutting wire cutters and snip the tail of the pull rivet off. Then I forced the rivet out towards the head (lots of skinned knuckles, hand cramps, and cursing).
Old, cracked roller, new roller, and attachment hardware
Old, cracked roller, new roller, and attachment hardware
Getting the old one out is most of the difficult work, installing the new one takes only a few minutes with a hex wrench for the cap screw and a 7mm socket on a small ratchet.

I hope that no more of these crack, since I’ve already replaced the “easy ones”…

Steve
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