A couple of months ago when
Jay posted about the stellar results with his prop balancing, I wondered if our Arrow had a problem. Sure, the plane was vibrating a bit, but was it the prop? When Brian so graciously offered up his services, I found it dovetailed nicely with a planned trip to Florida, so I gave him a shout. He was nice enough to take my non-RV Lycoming as a subject. On the way down, I asked my wife to make a mental note of how the plane felt, for comparisons sake, since she has not spent as much time 'getting used to' things I might take for granted.
My newly installed 430W had no clue where 62GA was, but WingX knew, so I got some practice putting a user waypoint into the Garmin. Dropped into the grass and started searching. My teen non-pilot steered me to the wrong set of folks waving at us on rollout, but eventually I found Brian all the way at the North end. His friend Herb allowed us the concrete ramp just off the runway to do our work, making for an easy parking job. Brian and his neighbor Hank warmly greeted us, and as Brian and I set about working on the prop, Hank turned the keys to his car over to my family to head out for some southern hospitality and some food.
Brian pulled out his shiny Dynavibe GX2 and let me tell you that is a slick little machine. It can find flaws you don?t even know to look for. Yes, there were jokes about personal hygiene! With the utmost of professionalism, Brian went through the process with me, to include a quick look over the engine to point out a couple of minor items I might want to look into.
First run found a discrepancy of 0.26 Inches Per Second (slightly rough, according to the references). We found an appropriate place for two washers thanks to the easy-to-use interface of the GX2, and gave it another go. Got it down to 0.09 IPS, just under ?spec?, and Brian asked if I wanted to go for more? Oh, yeah, we did not come all this way for ?spec?. One more washer, and what a joy: 0.00 Mr. Blutarsky!
As we buttoned things up, I was most appreciative of the sales job everyone gave my wife as to why an RV is needed in the family. I actually heard her say, somewhat forlornly, ?It has been YEARS since I?ve done a barrel roll.? And after max performing the Arrow to get out of Seven Lakes, I did mention the performance of an RV would have made that much more comfortable. So we shall see . . .
They say you don?t know what you don?t know, and when it comes to vibrations in an airframe, how true. Night and day difference in smoothness on our hop down to Jacksonville. Really, if you get the chance, go see Brian. He?s got the best gear in the Dynavibe GX2, he knows his stuff, and you won?t meet a finer person in the State of Georgia. Check that, COMSINK is a better person, for letting him take the time to do good work like this!
