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Currently Playing: The Tedious Side of Aircraft Ownership

A quick afternoon oil change turned into four days of maintenance, rain delays, and an unexpected repair. Sometimes, that’s aircraft ownership. With our Africa series wrapped up, Chelsea and I are back home catching up on our Sling TSi, N101AV. What starts as routine maintenance on the Rotax 916 iS grows into a few inspections, a custom 3D-printed part, and troubleshooting a shearable coupling that... well, sheared. Along the way, we share the patience, problem-solving, and care that go into keeping our airplane ready for the next adventure—and why we’ve come to appreciate building and owning an experimental aircraft so much. Being able to understand, maintain, and improve something we built is a rewarding part of the experience, even when a simple job takes longer than expected. Eventually, the tools go away, the cowling goes back on, and we get to enjoy the payoff: a beautiful evening test flight. What’s a “quick maintenance job” that turned into a much bigger project for you? Tell us down in the comments 👇🏼💬 Do you want $1,000 OFF on your full-time flight training course?! Use referral code AVIATION101 when you fill out either the enrollment or scholarship for at Sling Pilot Academy: ENROLLMENT FORM: https://www.slingpilotacademy.com/enroll-now/ SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION: https://www.slingpilotacademy.com/scholarship/ HUGE thanks to Aviation101's Sponsors: WAT LED Lights: https://flywat.com/ Garmin Aviation: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/aviation/ SiriusXM Aviation: https://www.siriusxm.com/aviation BRS Parachute: https://brsaerospace.com/ Sling Aircraft: https://slingaircraft.com/ Use code AVIATION101 for 10% OFF your pair of FlyingEyes: https://flyingeyesoptics.com/pages/aviation-101s-discount Exclusive Content & Giveaways on Cockpit Club 😎👉🏼 https://www.aviation101.com/cockpitclub Shop Merch & Gear 🧢👕📝 👉🏼 https://www.aviation101.com/store Email: mail@aviation101.com Av101 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aviation101films/ Chels's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highmaintenance_chels/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Aviation101Films Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aviation101Film 00:00 Back home after Africa 02:33 An afternoon oil change begins 09:43 3D printing a better cooling duct 12:32 Rain delays and engine checks 17:54 A shearable coupling that… sheared 23:28 Day four: putting it back together 26:08 Finally, a test flight 28:23 Why experimental aircraft ownership is worth it #Aviation101 #AircraftOwnership #SlingTSi