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.