April 28, 2006

I came by the hangar tonight, but spent a lot of time chatting with visitors, so I can’t really put down the full 5.5 hours that I was there. I’ll be back at the hangar again tomorrow, as Lucy has booked me to go to a friends BBQ on Sunday.

Mike flew in today to help me out with filling up the brakes. He has a pump up reservoir with a special fitting on the end that connects to the bleed nipple on the calipers. Bob from the hangar next door was here too to help out some by giving us the yellow container to catch the overflow fluid. Thanks guys!

Here’s the kit… Basically, it’s a garden variety fluid sprayer with attachment. We also have the container to catch overflow, and a syringe for removing excess fluid from the reservoir once the brakes are bled. Filling the brakes is easily done by pumping the fluid in under pressure from the caliper end. We did the brakes in around 20 minutes! Mike has done plenty of planes before, so having him around helped since he knew all the tricks. That’s the main reason it went so fast.

Here’s the overflow pipe, which goes down to the yellow container. It basically collects the excess fluid, then it can be recycled again. I wonder if aviation brake fluid is hygroscopic (absorbs water) like car brake fluid?

I had to get inside the plane and remove the cylinders from the brake pedals. I did this because it’s easier to get all the air out if you can turn the cylinders upside down and back upright while you pump them some. We had the air out in no time. So far, no leaks. We’ll see what tomorrow has to behold!