We have just been finishing up the annual for the Twin Comanche. The only major snag was a cracked exhaust pipe on the right engine, and a completely broken pipe, the same pipe actually on the left engine. We had to replace both of them, as neither the crack nor the broken pipe were weldable.
I took two days off work to do most of the work myself, with James, my licensed mechanic coworker did the actually inspections and provided me with the guidance I needed.
The new exhause pipes finally came today and so I spent what only amounted to be an hour and a half installing them. It was easier then I expected. I already had the old pipes removed, so I spent my lunch time drilling a hole for the clamp pin and clamping the old tips onto the new pipes. After work it was just a matter of sliding (more like wrestling, they didn't slide in very well) the pipes into their slot, bolting them onto the exhaust port with a new gasket, and then re-attaching the tip sling. Once the pipes were properly installed I just had to drill new holes for the EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) probes and clamp them into place. That was that. Maybe I'll take some pictures of the engine tomorrow and then post them.
Its nice to actually accomplish something. Sometimes the frusterating thing about maintenance in aviation is there are so many inspections and not a whole lot of anything else. You spend an an hour ripping panels off and removing parts to look at what you wanted to see and say, "Yep, looks good". Then you turn around and have to put everything back together again. You almost feel better about the whole thing when you open something up to find it broken (money aside of course, when its your own airplane this is not so much the case), and then you can at least feel your efforts aren't in vain, and you can have the satisfaction of fixing it.
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I agree with the satisfaction of doing the job. I never liked working on the cars because there was always - always - a problem somewhere. Rusted bolt, inaccessible nut, whatever. But when you were done the satisfaction was always rewarding. When I first saw the engines on the Twin down in Texas I couldn't believe how simple they were and how accessible. They were even at a reasonable height! And because they were, and are, extremely well maintained I was jealous of anyone who worked on them - and now it's you. Good work, Chad. Can't wait to fly with you.
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