First World problems

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Yeah, I’m whining.

The fun of owning a 40+ year old airplane…..

The air conditioning in the 340 is not functional. (It’s kind of a strange design…a hydraulic pump on the engine drives a hydraulic motor elsewhere that drives the compressor for the AC…and there is a hydraulic leak)

The plane is NOT designed to be flown in summer heat without functional AC. The airflow is lacking and it gets downright uncomfortably hot in the cockpit and cabin. For long trips, you can fly really high, and and (maybe) find cooler air, but in the midwest in the summer, you gotta go REALLY high. Sometimes climbing that high isn’t really practical for shorter trips. In my 182, when I had that plane, there was no air conditioning but LOTS of airflow so you made up for the heat with volume of air. Like sitting in front of a fan. Not so much in the 340. Imagine driving in a car using only the heat vents for cooling,. You can’t open the windows. It’s kinda like that.

 

Hopefully the (REALLY expensive) part will be here before Friday, when I need to go west for a couple of hundred miles.

 

 

 

8 thoughts on “First World problems”

  1. Are you sure that’s a PLANE and not a BOAT??? I swear; when I had my boat something broke EVERY.SINGLE.TIME I used it…

    Bust
    Out
    Another
    Thousand…

    Come to think of it, that boat was right around 40 years old as well…

    • And of course, the two happiest days for boat owners…….
      .
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      .
      .
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      The first day and the last day

    • Boats are for ninnies when it come to expenses.

      If you REALLY wanna spend money, buy a plane.
      If you really REALLY wanna spend money get one with twin engines. (me)
      If you want to spend REAL SERIOUS money get a turboprop.
      To get REALLY SERIOUS Serious spending, get a twin turboprop…..(where I will likely end up)

      I understand jets are even more expensive, but I am happy at the level where I am. I can almost afford it right now…

      • I was an E-6 in the Coast Guard at the time, so that boat was a true paywhopper for me; hands down the BIGGEST financial mistake I ever made! I dumped THOUSANDS into that thing and LOST thousands when I sold it! The thing was a NIGHTMARE!!! And I GREW UP with boats and owned several.

        Even now, neither me nor my bank account could ever even DREAM of owning a plane!… ANY… plane… It’s cool that you can though.

      • The problem is that, around here, it is impossible to rent a decent plane.

      • The problem with that philosophy is that with either, you’re banking your life on something with no knowledge of where it’s been, what it’s been used for, or how hard it been ”ridden!” On a lake or on the bays of Long Island, you can probably swim or drift to land. If you’re offshore of Florida when something goes south, at very best you’re drifting out into the Atlantic. At worst, your BODY is drifting out into the Atlantic…

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