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Inflight Vibration
I felt what I believed to be a slight increase in vibration levels, nothing that really concerned me but I did an inflight mag check at the cruise rpm. Mag check ok. I landed at a nearby airport to say hello to the staff. My prop had stopped in the vertical position and I repositioned it to horizontal- and heard some noise coming from the spinner. I was able to drop the noise making material from the spinner. It was the remains of a mud-dobber nest (a wasp like insect that builds mud nests). The biggest piece was about 3x6 mm. I removed the spinner and cleaned off the remains.
Upon returning to my farm (vib levels normal) and putting the airplane in it's shelter a wasp flew back into the spinner.
I keep protective plugs on my cowling to keep out bird nests etc. Have not figured out what to do about the mud-dobbers yet.
Tony Graziano
Zodiac 601XL/Jab3300; N493TG; 626 hrs
Sent from my iPhone
Comment
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Comment by John Austin on August 6, 2011 at 6:03pm
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Went out to the garage today to install the rudder cable fairlead in the right armrest panel. Picked up and plugged in the pneumatic right-angle drill - nothing happened when I hit the trigger. Those *&%$# mud-dobbers had plugged up the inlet to the drill!
If anyone discovers a repellant, they'll make a million bucks!
Regards,
John
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Comment by Dan Dempsey on August 1, 2011 at 9:18pm
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Great post Tony. Mud dobbers around will fill anything that there's a hole in with mud, I'm constantly removing there mud houses from my porch. I've been afraid of what is going to happen when I move the plane from my "living room" work shop.
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Comment by Bob McDonald on August 1, 2011 at 4:06pm
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Mud-Dobber wasps are a real pain-in-the-ass. They plug oil coolers, radiators and pitot tubes. They plugged the tractor rad full, I noticed the higher temps cutting the runway grass.
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Comment by Jesse Hartman on August 1, 2011 at 1:39pm
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good info. I bet they got dizzy!
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