Hey Eric-
What gauge is the new baffle? Did you use your old one as a template? Good cutting around the valve cover.
Flying an Apache
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Annie has been in rehab but I’m not sure she is getting with the program, she is SUCH a hangar queen! However, we have made good progress on rebuilding the baffling in the nacelles. The Piper Apache has a complete plenum that encloses the cylinders and then the nacelle is around that. The plenum bolts directly to the engine and so over time gets lots of cracks developing. After 71 years it was finally time to get rid of the worst of the cracked parts. We have had to make new parts and the left engine needed the most attention. At this point we have finally made all the new parts needed for the left engine and it is being cleaned up and painted. Some work has been done on the right engine already and fortunately it is requiring way less work so hopefully a couple more weeks and the latest round of fixing up will be done. We are doing the Annual at the same time as well. And a few minor other fixes.
Test fitting final part of baffles for engine
The baffles create a box over the entire engine so they have to be fitted together.
Annie put in some good flying recently but as always she wants MORE attention… And she gets it!
In this case we had to give Annie a new aux fuel pump on the left engine. We had replaced the right one as it simply was too old, 71 years old! The right one was newer which was confusing until we realized the wiring was bad and the pump was running intermittently. So new wiring was put in along with a new pump. But there is a reason we call the Apache the A-Patch-Y… ’cause lots of patches! The baffles on the engines are all light weight aluminum and the vibration from the Lycoming 4 cylinder engines just slowly cracks the metal. So it was time to finally replace vs. patch once again.
Here is the whole process in one picture. Bottom piece is the original needing to be replaced. It is used as the pattern. The middle piece is during construction and is still being formed. The top piece is the final product ready to go on Annie. Notice the workshop bench in my buddies shop. He always has something going on. We are building a Bearhawk and we made all the parts for it in this same shop. He is a GREAT resource for fabrication when we can’t get new or used parts for the Apache.
Here is another look at a newly made baffle for Annie.
Here is a look at the back side of the completed part. This one was painted white on the back as was the original but it will be painted flat black as will the rest. That will hide dirt better!
My flying buddy went with me to the NC mountains and we flew into Avery County (7A8) for some mountain flying practice. Great views and a fairly short flight from home base.
Taking the runway for takeoff. Church visible in the distance.
We did a max performance takeoff. Only 3001′ for the runway length. Typically you land north and takeoff south due to slope.
Great views as we climb out
Good day for the engines to do their thing! Annie was climbing well but you have to avoid the peaks.
The next day we got breakfast across town and loaded up Annie for the last legs home. We did the same airport for our fuel/rest stop in Cartersville, GA outside Atlanta. I was filed IFR just for grins and practice for the most part. There was a broken deck leaving MEI but we could have done it VFR but I like the practice anyway. As we got close to Atlanta center gave me an Arrival into Cartersville. I wasn’t expecting that but looked it up and started loading it into my GPS. It added quite a bit of mileage so I asked for a short cut and they gave it to me. A few minutes later a new voice popped up on frequency and so apparenly controllers had changed. The new controller gave me direct back to the original fix and added the miles back in. So I decided to bail and cancelled IFR and we continued VFR. The controller seemed happy enough with that and gave me VFR flight following while I went direct so maybe he just wanted me out of the system. After Cartersville it’s a short leg home and I was very glad to be back after such a great trip where Annie behaved herself.
An example of WHY we like the ROOM in the Apache. Annie lets us carry lots of STUFF.
And more room for my man spread too!
It feels great to get home! Caught by surprise by the camera.
Working on my picture smile but very happy anyway.
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