Airplane Owner Maintenance - By Dean Showalter

This is a good looking exhaust valve with a nice concentric appearance. However, the compression was very low at 8/80. I lapped the valve, hoping it would improve the compression test result… it only came up to 10/80, and that was after running the engine again and getting it nice and hot. Although the valve […]

Where are you RIGHT NOW in your aviation journey? Have you started flight training, but stalled out along the way? Did you finish that instrument rating? How about the commercial certificate, or CFI, or even CFII? Ever dream about getting your A&P? Have you wanted to be an airline pilot for years and years? Did […]

How long should the battery last in a small, piston-powered airplane? That’s a great question, and we are talking about it in this week’s podcast episode. Tune in to hear the story behind this 24 volt battery in the photo, as well as the story of another battery, a 12 volt one in a Citabria […]

I had an opportunity to fly in an Aerostar the other day… it was going to be a fairly long trip to the destination, with one fuel stop along the way. As we climbed out of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia toward the mountains to the West, we discovered the combustion heater for keeping the […]

Here are the highlights you’ll find in this podcast episode: My latest assignment at Classic Aviation – Installing the freshly overhauled engine in a Cessna 172 that is almost complete after an extensive rebuild process. Some emails I’ve received from listeners with fun feedback of multiple types. Some listener thoughts about home simulator systems. Some […]

But first… My friend and podcast listener, Chris Wieczorek, flew into SHD recently and we ate burgers for lunch. It was a win-win. I provided the ground transportation, and he bought lunch! https://oldschoolburgerbus.com/ The conversation was very inspiring to me, and Chris was kind enough to send more feedback later in an email, with some […]

Happy new year friends! In today’s podcast episode, you’ll hear about the following: The airplane I’m currently working on. My recent King Air trip to JFK, and the interesting approach we got that day. A couple listener emails. Thanks for listening… see you in the next episode!

Recently, Seth and I spent part of a weekend at a remote mountain cabin location, and we decided it would be a great time to record a conversation about the career changes both of us have made. I love this conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as well. I’m so proud of my son […]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’ve been deer hunting with my daughter McKenzie this week, and so far, she got a button buck, and I got a doe… she’s trying to get a good supply of venison in her freezer for the winter. Last evening was one of the rare times we didn’t see any deer, but […]

A week and a half ago, I flew a Cessna 150 from KSHD to Hannah Field near Monterey, Virginia in Highland County. It was a Saturday morning coffee-and-donuts fly-in hosted by the owners of the private airstrip, along with our local EAA group. The Shenandoah Valley is full of all kinds of aviation enthusiasts! Thanks […]

In this podcast episode, I’m sharing my experience of going through the training course for a Type Rating in the King Air 350. FlyRight in Concord, North Carolina was definitely the best choice for this training! Home Page FlyRight is a very professional training center with a family-type feel about it. They specialize in King […]

Listen to the audio for this episode to hear what Dean’s been up to recently, and why there have not been many podcast episodes in recent weeks. I’m transitioning out of the maintenance shop and into a flying job, and I’m very excited about the new season in front of me. Feel free to leave […]

Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to visit NAS Pax River, a United States naval air station located in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay. My friend, Trace Bowen, picked me up in his Cessna 310, flew me to St. Marys Airport, and drove me over to the base for a tour. Up […]

Have you ever seen one of these? It’s a SureFly Ignition Module, or “SIM” for short: I recently had an opportunity to install one on an E33A Bonanza, so I thought I’d do a podcast episode about it. Hopefully you’ll find this information helpful if you’re considering a SureFly, and for me, I find it […]

You guys know I love out-of-the-ordinary things, and my recent flight review definitely qualifies as one of those! First, my good friend and excellent flight instructor worked me over in the ground portion of the flight review. Here are some things we covered: VFR sectional chart information and interpretation. Briefing an IFR approach plate. Working […]

I recently inspected a Piper Saratoga, and I found the following condition on the right exhaust collector: Earlier this week, I sent this photo to my email subscribers and asked if they would change this piece of exhaust if it was on their airplane. I received a huge response about this, with a large range […]

Chris Saindon, a podcast listener and owner of a Cessna 172G, contacted me with a different, and important perspective that I had completely overlooked. I recently told of a landing gear light in a Piper Seminole, and how the pilots had done some in-flight troubleshooting when the right gear down light did not illuminate. I’ve […]

This was what happened recently in a Piper Seneca… and in this episode, we discuss why the alternator quit… it was something I totally was not expecting. After verifying the field connections (power and ground) were good, and the brushes were nearly perfect, I removed the alternator. And here is what I found… watch this […]

This fuel injector line must have only been attached finger tight when the fuel injectors were reinstalled after cleaning. The engine ran fine at first, but all of a sudden during one engine run, the #5 EGT took a nose dive, and the #5 CHT immediately started dropping off as well. The above photo was […]

When an airplane engine is making a small amount of ferrous metal, but the evidence is not totally conclusive, the decision to tear it apart, or not, can be gut-wrenching. Such was the case for the O-540 engine in a turbo Cessna 182RG I’ve been working on at Classic Aviation LLC. But after the owners […]