- Joined
- Jul 29, 2012
- Messages
- 21
- Reaction score
- 3
First a little backstory of my Pitts S1S AEIO 0360 180hp.
I bought her about a year ago from a guy who bought somewhere on the East coast the airframe with no engine and put a newly overhauled engine there.
He then hired somebody to ferry the plane to his home base on the West coast.
But the guy couldn’t get insurance (not enough Pitts experience), so he never flew the Pitts and sold her to me.
The plane had around 900 hours on the airframe and 17 hours SMOH on the engine when I got her.
After a few flights I noticed a bunch a problems… little and big… from the ailerons not properly rigged to the wooden propeller installed with the wrong hardware!.. etc..
But at least the break in of the engine seemed ok.
The people who assembled the plane were definitely not very competent.. to stay polite!
With my mechanic we installed an engine monitor system and fixed things one after another.. It took some time…
I’ve been flying the plane around 50 hours during that year and doing only soft accro!
On the engine side, the engine has been running ok so far and the oil consumption was in the normal range for what I could note.
I previously owned a Christen Eagle and a Pitts S2A.
Like I did with my previous planes I have been trying to get the oil level between 6 and 7 qt.
A few days ago my mechanic finished the annual inspection without noticing any new problem.
During the annual we also installed a new propeller, a 3 blade Catto.
The first flight (around 0.8h) went pretty well, mostly testing the new prop. I did a bunch of rolls… maybe a bit more than I did before .. enjoying the 3 blade!!
Before flight the oil level was at 7 qt, but then on the ground I figured I’ve lost 1 qt of oil during that flight!!!
I went back to my mechanic to make sure he inspected properly the Christen and he told that of course he checked it and it seemed ok.
On the second flight I then put 1 qt of oil to be at 7 qt and I did a flight with no accro for 0.6h. Back on the ground the oil level was pretty much the same around 7qt.
I did then a third flight (0.9h) with similar accro than the first flight (mostly rolls) to find out at the end that I’ve lost again 1 qt of oil during that flight.
I’ve never seen that with any of my previous planes. I know that at 0 G we may lose some oil, but I’ve always liked to play with 0 G and I’ve never lost that much oil.
Has anybody experienced similar problem?
Could there be a wrong installation or setup of the Christen?
What should we be looking at in term of checking things?
Thank you for your help!
Pitof
I bought her about a year ago from a guy who bought somewhere on the East coast the airframe with no engine and put a newly overhauled engine there.
He then hired somebody to ferry the plane to his home base on the West coast.
But the guy couldn’t get insurance (not enough Pitts experience), so he never flew the Pitts and sold her to me.
The plane had around 900 hours on the airframe and 17 hours SMOH on the engine when I got her.
After a few flights I noticed a bunch a problems… little and big… from the ailerons not properly rigged to the wooden propeller installed with the wrong hardware!.. etc..
But at least the break in of the engine seemed ok.
The people who assembled the plane were definitely not very competent.. to stay polite!
With my mechanic we installed an engine monitor system and fixed things one after another.. It took some time…
I’ve been flying the plane around 50 hours during that year and doing only soft accro!
On the engine side, the engine has been running ok so far and the oil consumption was in the normal range for what I could note.
I previously owned a Christen Eagle and a Pitts S2A.
Like I did with my previous planes I have been trying to get the oil level between 6 and 7 qt.
A few days ago my mechanic finished the annual inspection without noticing any new problem.
During the annual we also installed a new propeller, a 3 blade Catto.
The first flight (around 0.8h) went pretty well, mostly testing the new prop. I did a bunch of rolls… maybe a bit more than I did before .. enjoying the 3 blade!!
Before flight the oil level was at 7 qt, but then on the ground I figured I’ve lost 1 qt of oil during that flight!!!
I went back to my mechanic to make sure he inspected properly the Christen and he told that of course he checked it and it seemed ok.
On the second flight I then put 1 qt of oil to be at 7 qt and I did a flight with no accro for 0.6h. Back on the ground the oil level was pretty much the same around 7qt.
I did then a third flight (0.9h) with similar accro than the first flight (mostly rolls) to find out at the end that I’ve lost again 1 qt of oil during that flight.
I’ve never seen that with any of my previous planes. I know that at 0 G we may lose some oil, but I’ve always liked to play with 0 G and I’ve never lost that much oil.
Has anybody experienced similar problem?
Could there be a wrong installation or setup of the Christen?
What should we be looking at in term of checking things?
Thank you for your help!
Pitof
