Vic Syracuse books

[Bruce Tuncks]

There are 2 new books I'd like to read..." Are your nuts tight ?" and " Pre-buy" by Vic Syracuse.

Ideally, I would like to download these to read on the computer, but this is probably asking too much.

Any ideas?

[onetrack]

Bruce, both are available in PDF format. But they aren't cheap.

 

https://baselegaviation.com/store/

[Bruce Tuncks]

Thanks onetrack. I bought the cheaper one on pdf and it was about 60 dollars, which is just ok for me. The first book is still over 120 dollars!

Anyway, it was good to get the version I could read right away.

Thanks again.

[Yenn]

Vic is a regular contributor to "Kitplanes"

You could pay for Kitplanes on line and have access to all his contributions there. They may well cover all that is in his books, but I haven't seen the books.

[Bruce Tuncks]

thanks yenn   I actually bought the cheaper book " Are your nuts tight?" and found it quite good, although the pics were of much worse things than I have ever seen.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I wonder if the second book is necessary?

[onetrack]

Don't tell me that numbers of aviators have crashed simply because they didn't sight loose nuts? - or that they even installed nuts, and didn't address whether they had the ability to come loose or not?

I was under the impression that was a very basic part of building kit aircraft and flying, ensuring that fasteners had no ability to come unscrewed in flight.

[facthunter]

The nut that holds the joystick gives the most trouble.  Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

The book explains about jam nuts often being left loose. These are the locking nuts on pushrods etc. I agree with onetrack in that I have never heard of loose ones causing an accident.

But I am going to have another look anyway. One thing that was said was that an average plane had at least 3 things wrong....  wow, I hope mine is better than that.

[facthunter]

I can't recall a place where lock nuts are used except adjustable push rods (even in controls) where they can't actually come off. Often a paint line is placed on these to show it's been adjusted and checked.  Nev

[Yenn]

Lock nuts are used on the aileron hinges of RVs, there was a problem with them not being done up tight, which allowed slight movement of the threaded part of the hinge to flex the aluminium, resulting in crack in the aluminium.

It is easy when building to leave nuts loose, because you are doing a trial fit and then leaving it all as is, resulting on problems. No matter how careful you are when building these things can happen, even with double checking.

[onetrack]

When I was a mining contractor, in the early 1990's, a large and reputable mining equipment supplier, that had recently undergone a major business expansion, expanded their workshop to recondition the large diesel engines used in their equipment - work which had previously been carried out by independent engine reconditioners.

 

Within a matter of weeks, the company had blown-up engines returned to them in numbers that were totally unacceptable. An inquiry was initiated to find out the reason, or reasons, for the reconditioned engine failures.

The inquiry revealed that the reconditioned engine re-assembly was haphazard - with mechanics starting on one component re-assembly, being diverted to other jobs, leaving the re-assembly incomplete - and others who took over the engine component re-assembly, unsure or presumptuous as to what the other engine fitter had done, or not done.

 

The company initiated new workshop repair procedures where a component was fully re-assembled by the one person, without interruption - and as each fastener was torqued to specifications, it was marked with a cross with white paint marker - and the marking and tightening was verified physically by another person.

The result was a reduction in reconditioned engine failures to almost zero. All it took was proper procedures for checking and verification to be put in place, and the chances of engine failure dropped away to barely-measureable levels.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yep onetrack, I have read that the main difference between GA and RPT servicing is along the lines you wrote of.

[facthunter]

Shift changes are more of an RPT problem than GA where the same mechanic will go back to the job. You will most likely be reusing the original studs etc rather than getting them from a store where model differences can creep in undetected. Repco's VW exchange motors were a disaster with a high% of failures. I'm going back a while here. Engine reconditioning is pretty much a thing of the past now.   Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

Nev, I read that RPT had lots more checking than GA. So the real mechanic could make a mistake, but it would be found out. In fact some places had more time spent checking than the workers who did the jobs.

What do you reckon? It sure would be expensive to check so much.

[facthunter]

I suppose it varies and I know more about airlines than GA but Royal Newcastle Aero Club was exceptionally good and much of what I experienced personally  and know of the Airlines can be improved. Also the governing body DCA--CASA don't interfere much and when they do some of O/Seas Airlines get political and put pressure on. Self administration has holes in  philosophically and there's like bogus parts always around. Airlines fighting union influence lowers standards.  No one seems to worry and just buys the cheapest tickets. That's all that seems to matter to them. Statistically you're still safe but a fair bit is luck is involved. Nev

[Thruster88]

There is often more to aircraft maintenance engineering, AME, than just having tight nuts.

 

https://www.kitplanes.com/the-case-of-the-missing-propeller/

[Bruce Tuncks]

In the books defence, I have to say that the loose jam nuts bit was just the first chapter. Actually, I do recommend a read, but I doubt that expert guys like you lot will learn much new stuff.