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Jon, I read your e-mail carefully, and I agree with everything you said. I do not like the fact that aviation is so overregulated that it is impossible to operate an airplane in the US without some rule being violated. And I think owners should be able to do more maintenance on their airplanes than what is currently allowed. I never have figured out why it is legal to replace a fuel line, but illegal to replace a compass. You can replace the brakes, but not an armrest. Personally, I would think that fuel delivery and braking are more critical than a compass and an armrest. Being an engineer, the thing that bothers me about some of what I read is that most people (me included) do not have the specific knowledge required to determine if an unapproved replacement part is safe to install, and will remain safe under all operating conditions. There are all kinds of failure modes that most people would never think to consider when deciding to put an unapproved part on an airplane. As an example, someone mentioned a while back that the fuel pump gasket might be replaced by an O-ring. OK, what O-ring is going to be installed? We need a part number here. Has the O-ring been tested to verify that it is compatible with avgas? with auto fuel? with alcohol in auto fuel? Does it become brittle at low temperatures? Is it compatible with auto fuel when it is heated to 130 DEGF? Are the gasket surfaces on the fuel pump designed to retain an o-ring and prevent it from squeezing out of the sealing surfaces? Does anyone have real and accurate answers to all these questions (and all of the questions that I didn't think of)? Should we be willing to bet our lives and the lives of our passengers that we can do an accurate engineering analysis of this new part? In most cases the answer is no. The problem is that most of us don't know how much we don't know. As far as the muffler cement and bandage go - If it were a matter of life and death I MIGHT fly an airplane with the muffler repaired with a muffler bandage. Fortunately, all of my flying is pleasure flying, so I don't ever have to think too long about those kind of decisions. If the airplane isn't airworthy, it stays on the ground until it's fixed properly. There's always tomorrow to go flying. As always - just my opinion! Good Flying, Wayne ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiLm.aVzvvT Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
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