Because I blog about my airplane, an Expedition E350 aircraft, from Found Aircraft Canada Inc, people who are considering buying one, often email me to ask if I’ve had any problems. I’ve had my plane less than 2 years, and it’s just past 150 hours airtime. There have been a few little problems, and below I’ll list them.
But to put this into context, one of the emails I received recently said:
“I was looking at the logs of some 206s and was suprised how so many smaller items needed to be fixed or replaced within a few years of delivery.”
My Expedition was #2 on the production line, serial number 302. My little problems have been:
– One cylinder was replaced (under warranty), with a brand new cylinder kit, when my mechanic noticed at a 50 hr inspection, that it had less compression than the other 5 cylinders. Subsequent compression tests done frequently on the other cylinders have been fine. I was told that this problem was found and remedied by a design change to the io580 engine by Lycoming, but my plane had an earlier engine, from before the fixed design change. So this shouldn’t affect newer planes on the production line after mine.
– My Nosewheel has gone flat, a few times. My mechanic fixed it those few times, changing inner tubes, changing valve stems, etc. Finally I think I’ve got a stable front tire that is maintaining its pressure well. I think my problem started because I have a Trace “Towbot”, and I keep the towbot positioned around my front tire while parked in the hangar. That towbot, combined with the wheel-pant, tends to hide the degree of inflation of the front tire. So I think I let my front tire gradually lose inflation slowly, with me not noticing the change.
Then one day while doing my 5 night landings to maintain night-rating, my front tire went flat on the landing, while mid-way down the runway. That probably traumatized the nosewheel’s tube or valve stem.
I’ve subsequently adapted, and always keep my towbot pulled away from the nosewheel, so I can visually check it more easily.
While on the topic of NoseWheels, let me whine about the Wheel-Pant. It has a little hole in the side, intended for inflating a tire. But when the tire is already flat, its very hard to use that side-hole. Or, when I had my front tire stuck in snow, or another time it was stuck in mud, I again had difficulties with the front wheel-pant, and I had to unscrew it all, taking the wheel-pant off, to attach the towbar. Chuckle, even today, I’ve left my front wheel-pant off the nosewheel, because the places I fly to this spring, will still have snow and mud to contend with. I’m still in “trust-but-verify” mode regarding the nosewheel.
– Some mounting brackets that hold my exhaust pipes, had developed cracks, noticed by my mechanic at a 50 or 75 hr inspection. Found aircraft quickly replaced them for free, with strengthened parts. (thicker steel). That change was carried forth to the rest of the production line.
– I’ve had battery problems, probably my fault. It started the day I flew to Revelstoke to go skiing. Upon return to the airfield, I realized I had left a power switch on, and my battery had drained. Luckily I got a boost and was able to fly home that evening. But that might have weakened its ability to hold a full charge. The next time I had a dead battery, was after parking overnight in Duncan, BC. I tried starting my plane, my usual way, (further discussion below about fuel pump,) and at first my battery had power to run the starter motor. But my plane wouldn’t start, and 10 tries later, the battery was drained, and I needed a boost.
So, realizing that my battery is a vulnerability at the moment, I’ve purchased extra items. A “StartPac starter” (a 28volt back-up battery system that I’ll keep at my vacation home on an island), and a spare plugin, for situations where I have to ask for 2 cars to come to my aid for a boost. I’ll have my mechanic do some stress-testing of my battery at the “annual inspection” coming up in July 2012.
– Heating system inside the cockpit. This is a little mysterious. I was finding it quite cold in the cockpit sometimes, when flying over the mountains in winter. I had the “Heat” lever full ON, and “Cold” lever full OFF. As flying time accumulates, I was noticing my dashboard getting quite hot to the touch, and my top (of 2) Garmin G430s was having its LCD display go dim. (and I think this was heat related). Subsequently though, I’ve tried flying with Heat full ON, and Cold mostly off, but not quite. This setting, I think, actually improves the total volume of warm air that comes out of the vents, and it has solved my hot-to-touch dashboard problem, and my G430 LCD stays normal now.
– Starting the plane with Fuel Pump. I was taught, prior to startup of the engine, to run the fuel pump for about 5-7 seconds, then turn it off, then turn the key to run the starter motor, while advancing the Mixture from Lean toward full. But just recently, January thru March 2012, I’ve found my plane wouldn’t start like that anymore, but I discovered that if I left my fuel pump running, then it would start. I’m going to ask Found, and my mechanic about this. It might indicate something needing attention in my fuel lines or injector tips. I’ll let you know once this is sorted out.
– Here’s a funny little problem. My wonderful engine monitor display, was intermittently showing me the “Power percentage” as being crazy high numbers. Like, instead of cruising at 75% power, it would show 212% power. My mechanic solved that by also noticing the Manifold Pressure was showing crazy numbers. Once he re-seated the connecting wire to the Manifold Pressure sensor, then the problem was instantly fixed.
I mention my mechanic a lot: It’s Terry Matheson of Aerotechnical Inc, in Camrose, Alberta. I think he loves my GEXY expedition, due to fond memories of his bush pilot days when he had to land a old Found aircraft on an emergency landing onto a cutline in the northern bush. (due to contaminated fuel). They drained the water out, and TOOK OFF again along that same cutline. Wow.
– After my autopilot was installed, (which is excellent), my rear passengers were complaining that they couldn’t hear very well through the headphones. I had 2 top-of-the-line Lightspeed Zulu headphones in the front seats, but 2 “cheap” headphones in the rear seats. I simply can’t explain what the problem was, but the Zulu headphones also work great in the back seats. I’ve looked at the wiring schematics of all the avionics, and there shouldn’t have been any conflict, or any DC-current-sharing-connections, between the autopilot and the intercom system. Anyway, rather than fuss about it, I’ve simply bought 2 more Zulu headphones for my backseat passengers.
– OH, I should also mention this: My audio panel isn’t the factory-supplied Garmin. I upgraded to a PS-Engineering audio, that has a built-in MP3 player. ( I uploaded a lot of my music into it.) Anyway, This audio component was causing very annoying bursts of loud white Noise. Adjusting Squelch settings didn’t help. The eventual solution turned out to be this: I had to put little leather pouches over the foam on the microphones, with a little hole pointing toward the mouth. That blocks all gusts of air from reaching the microphone, and greatly reduced the bursts of Noise. It still happens, and on balance, if I get a chance to replace this PS-Engineering audio with a Garmin product having MP3, I will. Update. The problem got mostly solved, when I put little magnetic clip-on things on the headphone cords, near where they plug in. So the problem was apparently induced currents in the headphone wires. Since the problem isn’t entirely solved, I presume there are a few more wires inside the dashboard, that are acting like antennas in the same way.
May 12, 2013 update. Now I remember a few more minor problems. Sometimes, my engine temperature sensors get loose wires, for instance, recently cylinder 6 started reading low cylinder-head-temperatures, intermittently, dropping from 350 down to 210, then back up, and so on. My mechanic suggested soldering the connections permanently into the little box they connect into.
– My plane used to be a little too cold when flying over the mountains, but I solved that by injecting some expanding insulating foam, into spots where cold air was leaking into the cockpit, which was occurring where the black steel rods of the frame pass through holes in the plastic interior wall panels, near the top left and top right of the cockpit near the front window. Problem solved, and now I don’t even need to wear a jacket when I fly over the mountains.
– I’m having problems starting my plane, on dewy mornings at sea level on the BC coast, which is weird because it starts just fine on the prairies, and I have a new battery.
– On long flights, I’m still having the problem of my dashboard getting hot to touch, near the radios, and up my upper garmin radio-gps gets hot enough that its LCD display goes dimmer.
October 25, 2015 update. Lets recap and see what’s been good, and what’s been problems.
– Now at about 350 hours on the engine, all 6 cylinders are great still, passing compression tests each time.
– My nosewheel and side wheels lose air slowly now, at the same rate. I need to top up several times a year.
– I leave the front wheel-pant off all the time now.
– My exhaust pipe heat shields are good, my exhaust pipes are fine now. But the mechanic noticed some wires nearby were getting a little heat-discolored, so he added in an extra little heat shielding for them.
– Battery! I occasionally have to get a boost. I think the engine start needs 25 volts for sure. Normally it’s at 27 volts during flight. At shutdown, I try to remember to turn off electronics but rev the engine a bit, before I kill it with fuel deprived, so-as to give some extra charge to the battery. But if the engine doesn’t start during the first minute of trying, it’ll be down to 24 volts, and at that point, I just get the booster.
– My dashboard still gets hot to touch during long flights, and the LCD fades out gradually. I remove one of the dashboard covers, to let heat escape.
– No further problems with sensor readings related to Manifold Pressure, but I did experience flakey sensor readings from a CHT from one cylinder. My mechanic applied dielectric gel to my sensor wire plugins, which fixed the problem.
– I’ve had to re-seal the front window. Rain wetness was getting in. Easy fix for a mechanic.
