How DIY Boat Owner Tips Work for Light Aircraft Too

The DIY tips article for boaters written a few days back seems to apply to vintage light aircraft too.

The article I wrote a while back for new boat owners started with battery tips. Battery problems cause a lot of aggravation for boat owners. It is human nature to keep trying to start a boat with a low battery. Boats are mainly just used on the weekends or holidays. If you are planning your time off around a boat, you just might try cranking it a little more than you should

Have you ever done that? Get in your boat, Recreational Vehicle (RV) or other motorized toy and it doesn't start easily, then you just keep cranking and cranking until the battery is completely dead? Well of course you have. You want to have fun and you paid big money to have fun and by God you are going to have fun. But you are killing your toy's starting system.

Trying to start any electric motor with low voltage damages the motor and can damage all the electrical components and wiring associated with the electric motor. This has been one of my pet peeves for years. I started my new year with one more example.

A friend of mine was down for the holidays from Ohio. He and his son decided to try sky diving for the first time on New Years day. I happened to be in the area and went along to watch. Jerry was the first to make his jump. It was a tandem jump, where he was harnessed to the jumpmaster and is just along for the ride.

His jump went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed just hanging out watching. While Jerry's son Dean was getting ready for his jump, Jim and I headed to the store to get a case of beer. Beer goes with just about anything in the Keys and watching skydiving is no exception.

We get back with the beer and head to the runway to see how Dean is doing. We get to the plane and it is just setting there with Dean, the jumpmaster and the pilot. The plane won't start. Jerry is a pilot and an electrical engineer. So he starts helping the pilot troubleshoot the problem.

Everybody donates whatever tools or advice they have and we watch the pilot, now a mechanic start taking apart the Cessena 182. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the new mechanic beating on the starter with a 2 by 4. Even in aviation a bigger hammer is in order in some situations.

With the starter confirm dead, the mechanic/pilot starts pulling the starter while we notice that there is another starter on an airplane engine sitting on a nearby workbench. Jerry checks the cannibalized starter to make sure it works. It does so we have another beer while watching the mechanics progress. After about the third beer the mechanic gets the 1957 vintage starter in the plane. He tries the new starter and nothing.

The plane owner, who is the jumpmaster, that isn't a pilot, looks at me thinking that maybe the old starter wasn't the problem after all. I tell him maybe and ask Jerry to check the old starter. It is as dead as a doornail. So the relieved plane owner and I go to rob, I mean borrow, the starter relay off a plane that is nearby. I think the jumpmaster owned that plane as well. It didn't really matter though since that plane did not have a starter anyway.

The starter relay is pretty easy to swap out and only took one beer. During this swap out the cause of the low voltage was found. The wire from the starter relay to the starter had a bad connection. After repairing the connection with large screwdriver and a trusty 2 x 4, we are ready to try the plane again. This time it turns over. They button the plane up and Dean is off for his first skydiving experience.

The jumpmaster/plane owner and the mechanic/pilot have now learned a valuable lesson. If a starter doesn't do its job after the first two tries, stop and find out why. Check the battery and if that's good, then check the connections. Parts for boats are pretty expensive so I imagine a starter for a 1957 Cessena 182 is a bit pricey as well. So repairing a loose connection in time would have saved a good bit of money.