George, you must feel strongly about this,
otherwise why post it???
I hope this works out well for you and
your passengers.
As far as I know, it’s certainly an
experiment – as stated by my adolescent TV hero “to boldly go where
no man has gone before”.
If by chance it doesn’t work out
well…
My observation has been that the NTSB guys
are normally very thorough and make it a point to not jump to initial conclusions
during their investigations.
However, your explanation may save them
lots of trouble attempting to determine the root cause.
Would you feel comfortable including a picture
of the degraded/repaired hoses in your std passenger briefing? Probably
only fair to them.
My .02
p.s.
You’re right your current hoses have
lasted 16 years thus far... I’m curious what do you think/expect the
service life of your hoses to be? 2 more yrs, 10 more yrs, Indefinite?
When will you replace them, if ever? How will you know it’s time? What
was different about the hoses you did decide to replace? Did they have
fewer service house, fewer landings, etc?
Are you / have you done any testing on
your current hoses (other than visual inspection and/or just continuing to fly
them)? Do you have any external research/specifications you’re
referencing (please share)? Did you do any testing on the hoses your
removed? What testing did you perhaps do on your new home-made hoses? Did
you use calibrated testing equipment?
How will you know if/when you were wrong?
From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of George Shattuck
Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2010
8:00 AM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Hydraulic hoses
As I have previously posted, the outer, protective
rubber coating on most of my hydraulic hoses, after 16 years and 1350 flight
hours, have begun to dry, crack and flake off. The rubber covering
is at most 3/64th inches thick and clearly, to me, is on the hose to
provide protection from chafing or debris thrown up from tires during
ground operations.
I have replaced the deteriorated rubber covering on the
hoses in the main wheel wells with a product I purchased through Aircraft Spruce,
called "Rescue Tape." It is wonderful stuff and is much more
sturdy than the original rubber. I also used that tape on a couple hoses
under the seats.
I decided to replace a few hoses just to get back in the
business of building again and the attached picture is an example of one hose I
produced. I am not going to send my hoses off to Sacramento Sky
Ranch for re-make, as a couple responders so sternly suggested.
I'm a homebuilder thank you very much, and I will make my own hoses. I
bought the hose and couplings from A/C Spruce.
There is nothing to suggest to me that my airplane is not
airworthy, as Brent Ragan would suggest. If that were true it should have
been un-airworthy at the first sign of a deteriorated hose covering, which I
began noticing some months ago. I believe this to be an ongoing
maintenance requirement and should be addressed as such.
I assume there will be the usual comments on the hydraulic
hose situation, which I and other Lancair flyers will welcome.