Mattituck Lives!
It has been brought to my attention that the Experimental and kit market believes that Mattituck Services has gone away. The fact is, Mattituck Services, a long-established engine overhaul and repair facility, was moved from New York to Fairhope, Alabama in order to integrate with the Continental Motors Factory Service Center. Some of the employees made the move to Alabama and joined forces with factory-trained staff.
We offer overhaul/repair services for both Continental and Lycoming engines and are the supplier of Experimental TMX engines. We appreciate you letting your readers know that we are alive and well and eager to serve their aviation needs.
William Ross
Director, Product Support and Mattituck Services
We at KITPLANES® wish all the best to Mattituck in their Alabama location and don’t want to mislead our readers that while the original Mattituck location is closed, their services and products continue to be available to the Experimental community.—Ed.
Pietenpol Plans Perpetuated
Your 2014 Plansbuilt Buyer’s Guide is very informative, but you left out one of the most popular homebuilt aircraft of all time, the Pietenpol Air Camper, built from Pietenpol family plans. The plans are available from the Pietenpol family. Bernard’s grandson Andrew is selling them.
Skip Gadd
This is indeed great news Skip, and we are happy that you brought it to our attention. Pulling together all “available” plans information is difficult, especially from small family enterprises.—Ed.
Links in the Chain
Error Chain (February 2014) is a really great article that I am sharing with my Sport Pilot students: “Fly the plane all the way to the ground.”
Peter MCcook
I was happy to see your new feature on the error chain, but I have to tell you, I was disappointed at the lack of specific info about the oil line that came off of the RV-10. “A small oil line detached from its fitting on the engine, causing rapid and complete loss of oil and pressure.” The only small oil line I can think of on a Lycoming is for oil pressure sensing, but it should have a restrictor that prevents rapid oil loss. An oil cooler line might be short, but certainly not what I would term small. Please elaborate.
Paul Leininger
Jeremiah Jackson responds: From what I’ve been told by the company that recovered the plane, it appears that the small-diameter (AN4) oil sense hose’s fitting on the engine had worked its way free. I believe it apparently wasn’t torqued tight enough. I had checked this fitting visually and by feel for any leakage before the fateful flight, but unfortunately did not check its torque. There were no indications of leakage before takeoff.
As for the flow restrictor, the 45-degree AN fitting was installed on the engine by the factory, and I believed (but am not certain) that it had a restrictor. Discussions since the crash have pointed out that while the restrictor will slow oil loss, it won’t prevent it, and rough calculations show this could be on the order of 5 to 10 minutes. “Rapid” is somewhat relative.
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