Cleaning the Air Filter

Video: Plant City Exercise

You should be doing this for every annual/condition inspection. It's easy enough, remove the hose and one screw and it pops right out. But my hangar doesn't have easy access to water so this minor chore sometimes got missed. Mistake.


I had been noticing higher Cylinder Heat Temperatures (CHT) and as we approach the real heat of a Florida summer it became a real concern. I mentioned this to CERTUS and he recommended that I buy some K&N cleaner, take the air filter home and wash it out in my laundry tub. It takes a good day to dry before you can apply the red oil used to trap the fine particles that could get to the carburetors.

My weather was not good. Most local airports were IFR due to fog/mist. So I watched some news and drank some coffee waiting for the temperature/dew point to spread,. Democrats and Republicans still hate each other. The pandemic still has most places shut down and evidently wearing a face mask displays some kind of bias. Time to go fly.

I stopped at Wawa to get 5 gallons of premium for today's flight. The price had jumped up over 60¢/gal in a week. That wasn't talked about on the news show I just watched. Maybe I missed it. The drive to the airport was quiet as there are still not as many cars on the road.  But the airport was busy. Two schools are now flying full time and the pattern is full.

The clean filter made a difference. I had to taxi to the farthest runway and wait for a few planes to land before it was my turn. Sally had no complaints.

What a wonderful day to fly.