The Squawk Sheet

✦   Preflight Brief

The heater you have not touched since spring is about to matter.

October is when North Texas pilots reach for the cabin heat for the first time since spring. On most piston singles, that heat comes off the exhaust. If the exhaust cracked over the summer, the first cold morning is when you find out. This month's FAA Watch goes back to a bulletin worth rereading every fall: SAIB CE-10-19R1.

Also in this issue: what a rough idle can be telling you about your fuel servo, why paint is a maintenance item and not a cosmetic one, a nose wheel shimmy that was not what it looked like, and a free offer on digitized logbooks.

And the shop calendar is open. We have openings for annuals, paint and sheet metal for the next several weeks, through October and November, and openings every day for oil changes and minor repairs. Read on.

No new AD leads this issue. Instead we are going back to a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin the FAA issued on March 17, 2010, because it applies every fall. SAIB CE-10-19R1, “Engine Exhaust and Carbon Monoxide Detectors,” advises owners and operators of general aviation aircraft to properly inspect and maintain the exhaust system to keep carbon monoxide out of the cabin, and to install a carbon monoxide detector.

The bulletin came out of an NTSB investigation. On December 17, 2000, a Beech BE-23 hit terrain and the pilot, the only person aboard, was killed. The NTSB found the probable cause was in part the pilot's incapacitation from carbon monoxide, and a fractured muffler. The FAA then funded research at Wichita State University, published in October 2009, that tested 43 CO detectors to find out what works in a light airplane.

What the FAA Recommends

1. Fly with a CO detector. The FAA recommends you consider the research and use a CO detector while operating your aircraft.

2. Test with the heat on. At 100-hour and annual inspections, run the engine up with the cabin heat on and check the cabin for CO with a hand-held detector. That is how gas leaking through cracks in the exhaust system gets found.

3. Keep inspecting the whole exhaust system. Do it at 100-hour and annual inspections, and at the intervals the aircraft and engine manufacturers call for in their maintenance manuals.

A companion bulletin, SAIB CE-10-33R1, goes a step further on mufflers and recommends replacing them on reciprocating-engine airplanes once they pass 1,000 hours. If you do not know how many hours are on your muffler, your logbooks do.

What to do right now: If you have not run the cabin heat since spring, have the exhaust system inspected before you do. A crack that did nothing all summer with the heat off can start feeding the cabin the first time you pull the knob. Call DJS Aviation at 682-420-4677. We have openings every day for this kind of check. And if you ever get a headache, dizziness or nausea with the heat on, turn the heat off, open the fresh air vents, and land at the nearest airport.

A rough idle is one of the most common squawks on a fuel-injected engine, and one of the most guessed at. Plugs get cleaned. Nozzles get cleaned. Sometimes that is the fix. Sometimes the idle is telling you about the fuel servo, the unit on a fuel-injected Lycoming that decides how much fuel the engine gets. It is the part owners think about least and the one that tolerates neglect the worst.

Paint is the first line of defense on an aluminum airplane. When paint fails, corrosion follows, and corrosion repairs cost more the longer they wait. October and November are also the best paint weather North Texas gets. Temperature and humidity change how paint lays down and cures, and right now we are in the sweet spot. Once the cold and damp settle in, good paint days get scarce. Here is what to look for on your next walkaround.

A Cessna TR182 came to us with a nose wheel shimmy. The usual suspect is the shimmy damper, and plenty of dampers get replaced on a guess. We checked the nose gear for lost motion with the strut partly collapsed and found the steering collar worn oval. A new damper alone would not have fixed it.

That is the whole lesson. A shimmy left alone keeps hammering the nose gear and everything it attaches to. A part replaced on a guess costs money and leaves the problem where it was. Finding the real cause the first time costs far less than chasing it one part at a time.

Every airplane has a squawk its owner has been living with: rough running or a new vibration, a change in oil consumption, hard starting, a gauge that wanders. Airplanes that sit have their own list, because seals dry out and corrosion creeps in. None of it gets cheaper with time. While you are at it, check your annual, transponder, ELT and pitot-static dates. If anything comes due in November or December, book it now and stay ahead of the year-end rush.

We have openings in the paint shop and the maintenance shop for the next several weeks, and openings every day for oil changes and minor repairs. Book now and you pick your date. Wait until the week before Thanksgiving and you take what is left. Already coming in for an annual? Knock out the paint and sheet metal work in the same visit. One visit, one schedule, less time on the ground.

Why digitize now? At a pre-buy, a ramp check or a fuel stop far from home, your logbooks are in your pocket instead of a box at the hangar. Get them digitized with a fall annual and yours are ready to package the day the app is.

The free logbook offer applies to annuals booked by October 31, 2026. Call 682-420-4677, Monday through Thursday, 6 AM to 5 PM.