Airplane Owner Maintenance - By Dean Showalter

Dean Showalter
  • 4.8 (135)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

A podcast devoted to airplane owners and the maintenance of their airplanes.

  1. 2D AGO

    258 – C’mon Does Valve Lapping Really Work?!

    This exhaust valve in a turbo-normalized A36 Bonanza looks quite good. The appearance is mostly concentric and uniform. There’s just that one area at about the 10 to 11 o’clock position that looks slightly uneven. If the compression test had been good, I likely would not have lapped the valve. But since it was 44/80 […]

    36 min

  2. MAR 24

    257 – Rough Engine: Go Back Home!

    It was a gorgeous VFR day, and we were flying in an Aerostar 601. The destination was an airport in Alabama and I was really looking forward to this trip. But soon after we leveled off at ten thousand feet and got the engines set and properly leaned, a strange but definite engine roughness occurred. […]

    25 min

  3. FEB 26

    256 – Not Quite Full Flaps

    In the last podcast episode, we talked about an issue with my friend’s Cirrus SR22, and how the flaps occasionally would not retract. That problem got mostly resolved at the recent annual inspection when they made some adjustments due to the flap 50% and 100% travels being out of spec. However, there is now a […]

    22 min

  4. JAN 16

    255 – Cirrus SR22 Flaps Sometimes Won’t Retract

    Don’t you just love intermittent problems?! This one has been just that… intermittent. In the 2005 Cirrus SR22, the flaps have 3 positions: up, 50%, and 100%. Our intermittent problem has been that occasionally, when selecting 50% or 100%, the flaps will begin to move down, but the “up” light will stay on. The flaps […]

    24 min

  5. 05/13/2025

    254 – Solving an Air Conditioning Mystery and Learning New Things!

    This experience was a good one! (At least looking back in 2020 hindsight.) We had to dig deep to fix this one! I was about to give up and started thinking it might be time to take the airplane somewhere else for troubleshooting and repair. Thankfully Richard, our chief pilot, didn’t give up so easy […]

    36 min

  6. 04/16/2025

    253 – Missed Windows of Opportunity

    This morning I felt the inspiration to record a podcast episode… I got my hotel room set up with my computer and my microphone, and there it sat. I missed the window of opportunity… for whatever reasons, I did not record. And this afternoon, the inspiration was fading away. And then I remembered something. Often […]

    23 min

  7. 03/11/2025

    252 – Why Does the Bonanza Gear Relay Breaker Pop?

    (If you’re in a hurry, scroll down to see the tiny little chafed wire that caused this whole conundrum.) Now here’s the story… This landing gear relay breaker had been popping intermittently: It came time for annual inspection and we decided to replace the breaker with a new one, in order to rule out a […]

    38 min

  8. 02/26/2025

    251 – Bennett’s Exhaust Valve Rescue on his Cessna TTx

    Bennett contacted me awhile back to see if I could lap an exhaust valve for him. The #4 exhaust valve showed a very uneven appearance when viewed with his borescope. Bennett flew in to KSHD one morning and we got started. Before lapping, we checked the cylinder compression and it was 29/80… not good. Here’s […]

    29 min
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4.8
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135 Ratings

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A podcast devoted to airplane owners and the maintenance of their airplanes.

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