49R Trials

Sometimes you can't win for losing.

We had a leak in the shimmy dampener on the nose wheel, which was causing a horrendous shimmy on takeoff bs landing. It happens and it's not really very expensive to repair.

So I made the quick flight up to Sherman (KSWI) to get the work done. The takeoff and landing were uneventful. On takeoff, I treated it like a soft field takeoff, getting the nose wheel off the surface as soon as I felt the shimmy... On landing again, a soft field technique, full flaps (40°), slower than normal approach (65 kts instead of 75 kts), kept in a little bit of power to help keep the nose wheel up, made sure the stall horn was going off before the mains touched, and kept the elevator back as I gradually led off power until the nose came down on it's own. I executed this landing exactly the way I wanted to and was going slow enough that I felt no shimmy on the rollout.

The repair took all of a half hour and I was charged $36 for labor. Then I got back into the plane to go home...

Pre-start, everything was fine.

Master switch on... Check.
Aux fuel pump on until fuel pressure up... Check.
Rotating beacon on... Check.
Clear prop... Clear.
Engine Start... Nothing.
Engine Start... Nothing.

ENGINE START... nothing.

I got our mechanic to take a look, and after some troubleshooting, he determined that the starter was dead.

We went with a new skytec starter. Our options were, remanufactured factory brand (prestalite) or new skytec. The difference in price was $150. We went with the skytec because it's new and come with a 2-year manufacturers warranty. It also spins faster and provides more torque and more current.

... And when we picked it up today, the plane started right up with barely a turn of the key.

An Interesting Month for 49R and An Interesting Day For Me

At the end of April, when we went to retrieve 49R from the repair shop fresh off its annual, we were informed that some damage occurred. It wasn't major damage and certainly wasn't something that affected the airworthiness of 49R, but it was something that could effect the value of our aircraft so needed to be repaired.

While 49R was in our mechanic's hangar awaiting our arrival to return home, another customer of our mechanic was a little careless and put a crease in the underside of 49R's left wing. The crease wasn't deep, but it was about 15 inches long and spanned across a row of rivits that held the skin to one of the ribs in the wing. As it turned out a rib was damaged as well as two stringers that run the length of the wing. All needed to be replaced, which required draining fuel from the fuel tank in that wing, removing the wing from the plane, drilling out all the rivets holding the skin in place, replacing the skin, rib and stringers, and putting it all back together. In total, that 15" little crease yielded a repair bill of about $8000.

In any event, we got in touch with the insurance company and made arrangements to bring the plane to a shop recommended by our mechanic at Flying T Ranch near Anna, TX. It's a short grass strip 14nm northeast of McKinney Airport. Once the insurance company finally gave the go ahead to proceed, it was time to ferry 49R up to the Flying T... but first, because I had only done soft field landings in theory (that is to say, I've only practiced soft field technique at a normal hard surfaced airport) I needed some practice. So a couple of days before dropping of the plane, I did some touch and goes at McKinney to make sure I had my technique down. After about an hour, I was pretty good again too. During practice, the wind was a nice easy 7 knots right down the runway. On "game day", the wind was blowing pretty hard from the south and creating quite a strong crosswind...when you have to deal with a crosswind that's close to the demonstrated crosswind component of the aircraft with 40° of flaps extended, it can get pretty hairy. Let's just say, that my soft field landing was not so soft... I bounced it on the mains, and would find out later that the ELT was activated. More on that later.

While I was coming in and dealing with the wind, I had to be careful not to float it too much down the runway. The length is only 2000 feet, and there is a significant terrain change at the southern end of the strip. I wanted to avoid that, so when I came in and was hit with a gust that caused me to drop, I didn't want to add too much power for fear of floating too far and eating up too much runway. As a result, I lost all my lift and came down with a thud. I did keep the nose up which is an important part of preventing damage during those hard landings. Mains can take a lot of punishment, but the nose gear and firewall it's attached to, are not nearly as robust.

That was two weeks ago. As of this week, the repair was completed and the insurance adjustor received the repair shop's invoice and our signed release, so they were able to request a check for payment and I was allowed to pick up 49R just in time for a trip to San Antonio tomorrow. When I called our repair guy to arrange a time to pickup the plane, he informed me that in fact, my ELT was activated during that hard landing from two weeks prior. I had never heard an ELT go off before, and when I landed there two weeks prior, there was a loud siren sound in my headset. When I suggested that the ELT had been activated originally, the repair guy, who was watching my landing, thought that the landing wasn't hard enough to do so. I said, "It sure field pretty hard from inside the plane, but okay we'll see what happens." We convinced ourselves that since the airport does not exist in the 430W's airport database, that the sound I was hearing was from our 430W that thought we had hit terrain. It turns out that our repair guy received a call from the Civil Air Patrol inquiring about a downed aircraft at his airport. He went to my plane, fired up the power, and tuned the radio to 121.5... and sure enough, the siren was going off. He went ahead and turned off the ELT from inside the avionics bay and let the CAP know everything was okay.

I went to pick up the plane and made a great soft field takeoff and touched down beautifully at Sherman Airport (In fact, all my landings were outstanding today) for fuel -- I was greeted to a nice 30 cent drop in fuel prices that had just taken effect today -- and went talk to my mechanic who proceeded to call around to repair shops in the area who might have a new ELT battery (when an ELT is activated, the FAA requires that the battery be replaced). He found a shop that would stay open until I got there at Dallas Executive Airport (KRBD) -- also known as Redbird Airport -- so I went on my way. I proceeded directly to Redbird and got on with approach and was able to transition Class Bravo airspace direct to KRBD by overflying Love Field and bypassing downtown Dallas to the west. It was a nice little view of the downtown Dallas skyscrapers from 2500 feet that not too many pilots get to see because of how busy DFW Class Bravo airspace normally is.

I got the ELT Battery, returned to McKinney and installed the new battery to end my day. The ELT battery is one of a list of items aircraft owners can replace themselves requiring only a Private Pilot Certificate to perform the work. All in all, a longer day than I thought, but the plane looks great again, we're ready to go to San Antonio tomorrow morning and everything is taken care of. After all, long days at the airport are always pretty good.

49R Goes For Annual

It's April, which means that spring is here the flowers are blooming and it's time for 49R's annual inspection.

Every aircraft, regardless of how many hours it flew must have an annual inspection completed at least once a year. An annual generally takes about 20-30 hours to complete (depending on the type of aircraft) and generally costs between $2K-$5k or more depending on the type of aircraft. In addition to the inspection, there are some items that are just replaced every year (regardless of their wear) some things that are checked and replaced based on their condition, and some things that are replaced based on the number of hours they flew.

Our mechanic is a really good guy and allows (even prefers) the owners of the aircraft he works on to assist in the annual. His reasoning is that it makes for better customers as far as taking better care of the plane. If I help with the annual, I get to know the airplane better and pay closer attention to what's going on with the airplane. When something isn't quite right, I'll recognize it more sooner than someone who doesn't participate in the care and maintenance of their aircraft.

My partner and I don't have the time away from work to completely assist for an entire annual and there is a limit to what we can do partially based on skill level and partially based on what we are allowed to assist with. So, we generally start the annual on a Saturday morning and work on the plane all day Saturday and all day Sunday before handing off to the mechanic to complete on his own.

Generally in the annual we complete opening the inspection panels, removing the seats and carpeting in the plane, pulling the cowling and spinner, changing the oil and oil filter, cleaning the secondary oil screen, cleaning the fuel strainer filter, servicing the brake shoes, testing the compression of the cylinders, lubricating the hinges, pulleys and flap rollers for all the control surfaces, cleaning, gapping, testing the spark plugs, inspecting the propellor and removing any nicks and repainting the propellor leading edge, inspecting and changing the airfilter, removing the tires and cleaning and repacking the bearings

The work can be difficult to complete and frustrating when you're trying to disassemble and reassemble parts, but it's extremely satisfying to see the job completed and to learn about how these things work and to know that we've saved a little money by doing it ourselves.

Overall, it looks to be an uneventful annual, but we did find one issue. Part of our exhaust system needs to be replaced due to wear on a couple of sections of exhaust pipe that connect using a slip joint. The two pieces of pipe have worn down over time to half of their thickness and that wear has caused a exhaust to leak at that spot. Each piece needs to be fabricated on order and are about $500 each. Other than that, everything looks pretty good and we shouldn't see any big surprises in the final bill. We're also replacing the cam-locks that secure the two halves of cowling with stainless steel ones that will cost us about $300, but that was a planned expense.

The Vertical S Maneuver

I wish I had a diagram to show, but I cannot find one and the maneuver is really difficult to draw (and I cannot draw). In any case, the vertical S is a maneuver that is used frequently in IFR training.

The Vertical S is not a maneuver required in the practical exam for an Instrument Rating, but it is a great way to practice the skills that you will have to demonstrate during the practical exam (check ride).

The pilot starts a standard rate turn (a turn in which it takes exactly 2 minutes to complete 360°) to the left or right, while at the same time starting a 500 foot per minute climb.  At the end of 1 minute, the pilot will have (if done correctly) turned 180° and climbed 500 feet. After 1 minute, the pilot turns the other direction and begins a 500 foot per minute descent. At the end of that minute the pilot should be back a the original altitude and original heading.

This maneuver allows the pilot to practice several things. First, the instrument scan, when you're straight and level, you glance at the Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI) and the Turn Coordinator, but just to make sure everything is level. During the Vertical S, you have to maintain a standard rate bank angle while at the same time establishing a climb (or descent) using the VSI for guidance. There is also the added element of a timer, which is also important in IFR flight. More on timers at a later date, but the short of it is, if your electrical goes out on your panel you have to get the plane on the ground in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC), sometimes the only way to do that is to use a timer on your approach.