Looking back at the year's most innovative products designed to make maintenance safer, faster, better.

Clever companies were at it again this year, developing products that satisfy safety, productivity, and financial needs of the aviation maintenance community. Some of these products help you do your job more efficiently, such as the GPS Repeater, which allows avionics crews to test a GPS system without rolling an aircraft outside a hangar, and The Proper Aircraft's customized cleaners, which really do the job. Others are opportunities for providing an important service to customers such as GEC's scales, designed to help maintenance and avionics shops add revenue while providing a valuable service. There is no shortage of great products available for maintenance companies to offer their customers. This is just a short list of some of the best products we've seen this year. As always, we highlight products in every issue of Aviation Maintenance, in the Tool Crib section of Preflight.

Laser Timer Adds Magneto Timing Accuracy

Piston-engine mechanics are familiar with the challenge of timing magnetos. On Lycoming engines, the timing mark on the ring gear must be aligned with the split in the crankcase. One way mechanics check the magneto timing is to use a straightedge aligned with the crankcase split, held so that the edge points at the correct timing mark on the ring gear. This can be difficult and prone to error, if the edge is not held perfectly in line with the crankcase split. McAviation's Laser Timer tool is perfectly suited to helping mechanics set magneto timing accurately. The Laser Timer mount attaches to the ring gear, with a mark on the timer lined up directly with the timing mark on the ring gear. Then, the laser is pushed into the hole in the Timer mount, so that the laser shines onto the crankcase split. The engine can be turned to make sure the magneto points open exactly when the laser illuminates the crankcase split. This is a much simpler method than the straightedge and far more accurate than eyeballing the timing mark's alignment with the crankcase split. I tried the Laser Timer this year on a Lycoming engine and found that it worked great. It is easy to use and frees up the hand that used to try to hold the straightedge in place. Even if the nose cowl gets in the way of putting the Laser Timing on the ring gear, you can still attach the laser pointer to the crankcase and shine the laser pointer at the ring gear for accurate timing. The Laser Timer Tool can be used with Continental engines, too, by marking timing marks on the propeller spinner backplate to correspond with the timing marks on the alternator pulley. McAviation Services, phone, 908-850-3722 www.mcaviationservices.com.

The Proper Aircraft's Proper Cleaners

Oxford Aviation president Jim Horowitz is obsessive about high-quality aircraft maintenance and that dedication extends to the cleaning products used by his company. In addition to maintenance, Oxford Aviation specializes in aircraft painting and interior refurbishment, and a big part of keeping its customers' aircraft looking good is proper cleaning. So Oxford launched The Proper Aircraft to market a line of in-house-developed cleaning products. I recently tried some of The Proper Aircraft products and found that they do work as advertised. Power Clean Gel is useful for difficult dirt problems. I tried it on a cowling whose white paint was marred by deep scratches filled with dirt. Ordinary cleaners had no effect on the scratches, but when I rubbed on some Power Clean Gel, the dirt inside the scratches came right off, and the cowl looked much better, although the scratches are still there. The Windshield Gel is another useful product. Just spray on, clean with a soft cloth, then polish with a dry soft cloth, preferably 100-percent cotton. I found the Windshield Gel helpful because I didn't need to use more than one product to get clean, polished static-free plastic. As always, if there is a lot of dirt on the window, it should be washed off with water first. The airplane with the scratched cowl also had some old autogas fuel stains on the belly, dark brownish marks that were impervious to soap. I tried The Proper Aircraft's unique Aero Clay to remove the stains, and it pulled the tough stains off without damaging the paint. After cleaning the stained area to remove grease and surface dirt, Aero Clay, which looks like a bar of green clay, must be lubricated with Aero Bar Lubricant then rubbed on the stain. Aero Clay removes deep stains and also can be used on paint overspray. Dirt is suspended in the clay so it won't migrate back onto the paint. The Proper Aircraft makes many different cleaning products, including one for leather care, a new three-in-one deicer boot product called Tri-Guard, and aircraft cleaning kits like the Appearance Kit, which comes with new Socata TBM-700s. The Proper Aircraft, 207-539-8671, www.theproperaircraft.com.

GPS Repeater Keeps Roof Overhead

A lot of airlines are busy installing TAWS (terrain avoidance and warning systems) in their aircraft. The TAWS modification is also a perfect opportunity to upgrade the navigation system and introduce GPS as a position sensor. It is an expensive job and costs a lot of effort to do the installation during a regular C- or D-check. However, some aircraft are not scheduled for C- or D-checks before the JAA/FAA-mandated deadline. Those aircraft must be modified during dedicated ground time. Depending on the aircraft type and the magnitude of the modification, the planning department will calculate the ground time. For a 747-400 it will usually be five days. The last two days the technicians are busy testing all affected systems, which applies to any area where wiring is added or worked on.

Here comes the glitch. The GPS cannot be tested inside the hangar. Even if the doors are open, there is no GPS signal. On the last day the modification team will need to call the tug and roll out the aircraft onto the ramp. After several minutes there will be a suitable GPS signal. The last couple of GPS-related tests can be accomplished, and the aircraft is ready for operation. Now and then, there is a problem and the GPS doesn't work. After some troubleshooting, the problem is usually isolated to the wiring at the avionics rack. The aircraft must return to the hangar for the fix. But the aircraft was just parked outside and the tug driver is on another job on the other side of the airport. The whole shift of technicians is now waiting for an hour to get back into the hangar to fix the wiring problem and then pull the aircraft back outside again to try that GPS test again. A lot of man-hours are lost.

Here is a tip, which will save a lot of time and trouble. There is a GPS repeater on the market. One type is made by GPS Source (www.gpssource.com). Install that device in your hangar and you will solve a lot of problems. It is as simple as that. There is an antenna (which can be installed on the roof of the hangar), a long coax cable, a small power supply, amplifiers, splitters, and transmitting antennas. The transmitting antenna can easily be installed inside the hangar at a dock. According to the specifications, the range of the transmitting antenna is 30 meters (about 100 feet). If your hangar is big you would need more then one antenna, for a small hangar just one. The vendor will even issue a certificate declaring the exact position transmitted inside your hangar.

The aircraft modification team can now accomplish all testing in the hangar. When you call your tug driver to pull the aircraft from the hangar, you can be sure that aircraft is really ready. No sweat, no uncertainty about whether the GPS in the aircraft will work or not, or if there will be enough time to fix a possible problem.

The repeaters are not expensive. For a couple of hundred dollars, you can have all the hardware. The most expensive factor is the man-hours needed for installation of the antenna on the roof of the hangar. But it is worth it. Prevent just one return to the hangar for wiring repairs and your investment is earned back. And once the system is installed, the technicians can use it for testing of GPS systems during any regular check. GPS Source, 719-561-9520, www.gpssource.com.

Weighing Airplanes with GEC's Scales

Aircraft maintenance shops are leaving tons of potential business on the table by not weighing their customers' aircraft more often, according to the folks at General Electrodynamics. The problem is that typical aircraft scales are too hard to use, which keeps maintenance shops from using them more often. But aircraft actual weight varies over the life of an aircraft, yet accurate weight is critical for proper weight and balance and aircraft performance, according to GEC spokesman Curtis Jennings.

The problem with most scales used to weigh airplanes is that they are either jack-type scales, which can be difficult to use on some airplanes like retractable-gear Cessna singles, or they are platforms about four inches high, which require lots of manhandling to get the wheels in place. "You've got to wrestle an airplane on them," said Jennings. "By the time it gets done, the mechanic has so much time invested that he can't charge the customer."

GEC's Ultra Low Profile 410 weighing system consists of three low-profile self-contained scales that each weigh 23 pounds for easy transport. Low profile means each scale is less than an inch high so no ramps are needed to place the aircraft's wheels on the scale. Each scale can weigh up to 10,000 pounds so the system can be used to weigh fairly large airplanes.

Accurate weight, said Jennings, "is a big deal for these older airframes. As you add items, then you've created an issue of suddenly you're in an aircraft where you may be a test pilot. Over the

years, you take a Cessna 172 and little changes are made, radios, repaint the stabilizer, and a number of these negligible changes add up over the years. Recently a Cessna 414 with 1,200 hours had no changes or alterations, but it was 80 pounds heavier and had not been weighed since new."

GEC's ULP 410 system retails for $9,995, and the company promotes the scales as a business opportunity for maintenance and avionics shops. Many customers, Jennings said, would appreciate the opportunity to have an accurate reading of actual weight. And maintenance and avionics shops could easily provide this service with a set GEC low-profile scales. "I believe a shop can make money doing this," he said. General Electrodynamics, 817-572-0366, www.gecscales.com.

Eaton's Arc Fault CBs Now Available

Eaton Aerospace's new arc fault circuit interrupter circuit breakers are now available in single- and three-phase AC and 28-volt DC applications for military and civil aircraft. Arc fault circuit interrupter technology allows immediate detection of arcing events in wiring, reducing the chance the wires might catch fire and generate toxic smoke or cause a larger inflight fire. According to Eaton, the new arc fault circuit breakers are compatible with existing circuit breaker designs or they can be custom-designed for specific applications. It shouldn't be too long before aircraft manufacturers begin installing arc fault circuit breakers. Eaton Aerospace, 941-751-7112, www.eaton.com.

Don't Throw Parts Away, INTERFILL Them

The Interturbine/Lufthansa Technik joint venture Intercoat has developed an epoxy-based repair process that extends the life of fuel and hydraulic system components. For parts that are worn, corroded, and pitted, the Intercoat (www.lht-intercoat.de) INTERFILL process helps component service companies re-use parts that used to have to be scrapped.

The process is simple. After the part is cleaned and inspected, the INTERFILL epoxy material is baked on in layers, then machined and final inspected. Compared to typical repair techniques, INTERFILL is less expensive and easier to perform, according to Intercoat. Welding or plasma spray can cause heat distortion to the part; plating with nickel or chromium is more expensive; and compared to bushing or sleeve inserts, INTERFILL requires removal of less parent material.

The INTERFILL process is JAA-approved (No. LBA 0360) and FAA-approved under the DER repair system. Hawker Pacific Aerospace, which is owned by Lufthansa Technik, performs INTERFILL repairs in Sun Valley, California, each time obtaining DER approval of the data for the repair and issuing an FAA Form 8110. Hawker Pacific has been doing INTERFILL repairs since the beginning of the year. Hawker Pacific Aerospace, 818-765-6201, www.hawker.com.