bob turner

My first 15 years in aviation were bare. I had no assets other than a Cub and a convertible Mustang. Now I run scared - I won't set foot in an...

That's the secret. A $25K J3 for the first hundred hours. Avemco is the least uptight about all this. With 30K hours you are clearly no longer...

Hmm . . . Been using 25% LL, 75% mogas for a while. Yields the same lead content as 80/87. Now auto and LL are within a few pennies of each other,...

Nailed me. I feel no need to prove the size of my cojones by risking routine off-airport operations. Something must be wrong with me. I land...

It was nominal - 9% or something. Still under the non-Avemco quote for me as a 79 year old.

Had it that way for a short while - wouldn't fit in the hangar. There is a serious upside - everybody is out of 8:00x4 tires, but now I have an...

We did that on an old Mooney. That was before intercoms. Wish I had a photo - my first really big deal installation. Took that sucker in and out...

Nope. My theory is that the size of your tires is inversely proportional to the size of your dick. Especially when operating exclusively on...

Never heard that. They told me they have guidelines, and they do not get creative. For instance, they told me exactly what percentage increase...

A "pic" would break my camera. It no longer looks like a J3. Grove STC 6:00 wheels and brakes; 26" Goodyear tires, 8:50 tubes. Almost three grand,...

We are using the GTR-200 in a J3, a Stearman, a 180 Super Cub, and this week one arrives for the J4. These are all aircraft with more or less...

Final note - with 18 psi the airplane taxis just like it did with the 8:00s. You can feel the dramatic difference on touchdown (pavement). Robbie’s...

One of the locals suggested that three syllable phonetics were counter-productive. I agree - I have an awful time with "November." Sierra should go...

Speaking of out of stock, anybody know where I can get new 8:00x4s at or around Desser's price? Last I heard they were $340 each. Univairs are over...

Unrelated to that - we put the Grove 6" wheels and discs, with 26" Goodyears inflated, on digital scales today. Only 30 lbs. per wheel. Likewise...

I am doing the Poly Fiber "Island/palm tree/rabbit" stitch now. It works under the tank, using the curved needle, if you can't get to the inside for...

It will ruin early expander tubes on J3s too. Later tubes handle 5606. If you can afford it, Dot 5 is benign - doesn't attack anything. It is...

Once the ribs are dead straight and the fabric shrunk, that first coat of dope will capture the ribs, making stitching mindless. You can still snap...

By the way, we used the same 7 AH gel cells to power the portable Icom. Lasted a very long time. Icom engineers vary the input voltage, so you have...

I color code, and use shielded twisted pairs. I don't do it professionally, so need to keep track of which wire is signal and which is return inside...

Yes. The 12 volt battery would sag to 11 1/2 volts in short order. We found it safer to hook the spare battery in series, then change out both in...

I personally think, on a J3, anything but 8:00x4 is a crime against nature, and grounds for eternal damnation. I do use the Grove discs. I think...

I am with Mike. On a Cub, after shrinking, you can reach in with a needle and move a rib straight. However, on the Taylorcraft I am working on, a...

I have a lot of experience with that. For right now, the best solution in a J3 is a Garmin GTR-200, mounted in the wing just ahead of the rear spar,...

Early Cubs used auto brake fluid. I graduated to Dot 5 before it became prohibitively expensive. Almost all disc brake conversions use 5606.

Beater Cubs seem to go around $40-$50K. A really good PA-18-95 without mods probably brings $55K. Messing one of those up is a crime against...

I missed that last post. I have landed on all those strips and a few more - in the 70s when you could almost get away with it I landed on a couple...

You lucky guy!

We run through about 15 gallons a week - no time for it to sit. I try to get a shot of 100LL about once a month to care for the valve seats. Seems...

Man. If that stick was rusty enough to break, I wouldn't get in in the first place.