10/22/2000 -- Upon arrival at the airport I realize that while taking my picture with Qutub as
we checked out of the hotel, I had forgotten to get the credit card back Upon
calling Qutub he promised to send one of his drivers out to the airport with the
card.
Dan went with the handler to the flight planning office and then out to
the airplane to prepare for the flight. I waited at the terminal for the card.
Upon getting the card I headed to the ATM. We are running low on US dollars
which is the currency of choice at airports in this part of the world. In Egypt
they wouldn't even accept their own currency as payment for AVGAS. We only had
two choices a BP card which we don't have or US dollars paid up front. Our plan
was to take out money from the ATM in local currency and exchange it for US
dollars. It seemed like a good idea except that we could only take out a limit of one
thousand dollars in a day at the ATM. Once again we had to pay for our AVGAS
with cash which came to about one thousand dollars plus other landing and
handling fees so we left Bahrain with even less cash in the plane than when we
got there. I hope that we can solve the problem in Oman or we will be in
trouble when we get to India.
On the way back to the plane I stopped at the DHL
maintenance shop to ask about getting Aeroshell oil and to getting some more
hydraulic fluid since we are beginning to run a little low. By complete luck the
first guy I talked to was from San Antonio, Texas and feeling sorry me for being
in a piston powered airplane so far from home he gave me a gallon of hydraulic
fluid saying it was the least he could do. Thanks for the help!!!
I meant back up with Dan at the plane about 1 hour after sunset. Finally we
were ready to continue our journey. The flight to Oman took us over the Persian
Gulf. Across the horizon could be seen flames flickering in the wind. The
flames leapt from the top of some of the oil platforms. On others they had
lights that were so bright it almost looked like the sun was shining on them and
all that was around. Our path took us over Abu Dhabi, the capital of the
United Arab Emirates and continuing down the Oasis of the Middle East into Muscat,
Oman.
While unpacking the plane I noticed a small puddle of fluid coming from the
plane. Closer inspection showed that indeed it was red hydraulic fluid that was
leaking from our plane. It was probably just an o-ring that needs to be replaced. Not
a big problem, but something that will need to be looked at and worked on before
we continue our journey to India. Seeing as we were both tired we decided to
call it a night a head to the hotel.
Today's agenda, Saturday, is to work on the plane. Sometimes I wonder if she gets lonely at
the airport. The last two years she I have worked on her almost every day.
Lately we get in fly her for a day and leave her parked by herself in a strange
land. Maybe she springs a little leak just to get attention and have us spend
the day with her. The leaked turned out to be coming from the hydraulic selector
valve. Most hydraulic leaks come from old O-rings which are made from rubber and
deteriorate over time. Oddly enough this leak came from around a compression
washer. The soft aluminum washer is compressed between two steel surfaces to
make a tight leak free fit. The aluminum crush washer in there had been over
tightened in the past and been deformed. The right size crush washer is not
easy to come by. Oman Air had a well stocked shop but nothing to meet our
needs.
I had an idea that just might work. I grabbed a scrap piece of .050 inch
thick 2024-T3 Aluminum that was laying around the in Oman Air shop. I just
might be able to make my own washer with enough work. Back at the plane I
drilled a hole in the Aluminum using a special drill bit called a Uni-Bit. The
hole would serve as the center of the washer. The next trick is to make the
square piece of Aluminum into a nearly perfect round washer. Using a Dremel
Tool and a grinding wheel I rough cut it down to nearly round shape. Then began
the tedious process of carefully filing it down, and checking the fit. After
several hours a square piece of metal had been turned into a perfect fitting
washer. The last trick was to heat the washer with a propane torch to 1600
degrees and letting it cool slowly. Heat treating metal gives it specific
properties. This metal had been heat treated make it strong and hard, by
heating the aluminum and letting it cool slowly it would be softer than before.
I tightened the soft aluminum washer into place and reinstalled the sector
valve. Then we tested the selector valve under all condition and extreme
pressures with no leaks!
