0.4 AMU

The HWY mechanic finally got back with me yesterday. Four pictures of Benjamin Franklin will cover the repairs. I’ll find out on Monday if there is still a problem or if his repairs and adjustments cured my issue.

Phooey

On Friday evening, I talked to the mechanic at HWY. He was only just then pulling my airplane in to work on.  He told me of a few extra things he wanted to check in addition to repairing the coupling. We agreed that I should plan to leave it for an extra week to ensure that he had time to heal anything that he found.

Based on that, I drove the econobox to Manassas on Saturday morning. I didn’t bring my flight bag or anything else aviation related.  Late this (Saturday) afternoon, just a few hours after I got to Manassas, Dude called me. 

I’m done with your plane. Got the coupling taken care of. Ran a camera up the exhaust, and everything looked good, no loose baffles. The timing on one of the mags was off three degrees, so I adjusted that. I pulled, cleaned, and regapped the plugs (just done less than five hours ago at the last oil change, so that was unnecessary, but he covered all the bases). Adjusted the carburetor, mixture was way rich. Ran it up, everything good, maximum static RPM was 2290.

I want it back home. The weather on Monday morning is forecast to be ideal for flying, with just the usual ten to fifteen knot winds common this time of year.  But no flight bag. So, no ipad. And I don’t own a set of paper charts. No Sentry for in-flight weather, traffic, and GPS location on the ipad that is also three hundred miles away.  No backup radio. Nothing but what is in the panel.

What is in the panel is more than sufficient for VFR day flight. Program the GPS for HWY-FAK-OXFRD-TTA and immediately upon crossing OXFRD, activate the RNAV 21 approach from OZOPE. That routing avoids the Farmville and Barfoot MOAs and RDU’s Class Charlie. Follow the CDI cross-referenced with the magenta line on the GPS map screen, and there’s no getting lost and no need to speak to a soul except on CTAF.

Legally, though, I need charts. And it’s a post-maintenance flight. The wise move would be to have all my gear. So, phooey.

It’s Been A Week

It started with Easter Sunday. Thank God that He arose and completed the plan of salvation for all mankind. We had beautiful services. Wife joined me Sunday night, since we needed to be in the area the next morning.

On Monday, we buried Mama.

On Tuesday, the mechanic at HWY called. He found a cracked coupling on the intake manifold on the #3 cylinder. He said that it’s been blowing by for a while and could be the cause of my inconsistent power. He’s supposed to heal it by the weekend, and the total cost should be less than one-half an AMU.  It could still need a carburetor rebuild, but either way, the coupling must be fixed.

On Wednesday, Wife’s sister flew in from Detroit. While Wife was on the road to RDU to pick her up, I wrote up a security report for the church with my recommendations after having served on the team for a few months and submitted it to my pastor.

On Thursday morning, Wife and her sister left for Charleston, South Carolina, to attend a tennis thing going on there this weekend.

On Thursday afternoon, I witnessed Niece’s wedding at the magistrate’s office.

On Friday, I’ll finish my work week, confirm aircraft status, and pack for the weekend’s travels. Probably not in that order.

Saturday will find me on the road to Manassas. 

Oops, I Did It Again

Busted the airplane. Honestly, I think this one has been coming for a while. Remember the carb ice post a few months ago? After today, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t carb ice. Instead, I think it was the first manifestation of the problem that escalated to the point on today’s flight that I’m not flying again until it is fixed.

I think the carburetor needs to be rebuilt. Power was all over the place. The run-up check was good, and it climbed to altitude fine. Normally, once the throttle is set, you don’t have to touch it again until time to change altitude/land. Not today. RPM would drop, and I’d gradually slide it to wide open. It made little difference. I’d have to pitch up to maintain altitude, which slowed me considerably.  It would still drop a couple hundred feet before I could get the descent stabilized and reversed without being abrupt with the controls. Then a few minutes later, the engine had sped up to near redline and I had to shove the nose over to stop the climb and pull back to half throttle to get the RPMs where they needed to be. Lather, rinse, repeat for most of the flight. Fortunately, it was VMC, so I didn’t have the stress of bad weather to add to it. And, ATC was too busy to ask about my +/- 200 feet excursions off of my assigned altitude.

I almost turned around, about thirty minutes into the flight, but it continued to make enough power to maintain altitude, even if I did have to slow to near Vy to do so. It always ran smoothly. It just wasn’t making normal power. So I continued and landed at my planned destination of HWY safely. There was a maintenance guy working today, and he took my info. He’ll look at it on Tuesday. If it needs a carb rebuild, it’ll have to be sent out, and it will take about three weeks to get it back.

Cost for a rebuild? $800 – 1,000. So, yes, another AMU.

Working For It

Dude is changing out my voltage regulator today. Earlier, he sent a picture of what he’s dealing with in order to get to it.

The old one is the blue component behind all those wires. This is back behind the avionics and instrument panel. Those wires are the new wiring for the IFR panel that went in last winter.

The new one is going in the engine compartment, attached to the battery box. It will be much easier to access, should I live long enough for such to be necessary.

He’s certainly earning his AMU today.

Another AMU

The voltage regulator mostly behaved for the mechanic. It did fluctuate a bit with the pitot heat on, but even so, it never went above 14.7 volts. I know what I experienced, and I’m not comfortable flying it as is, though, especially since all my flights are cross country and at least 2.5 hours long. The existing voltage regulator was installed over ten years ago and has almost 400 hours on it. I would have expected more life out of it, but that’s not unreasonable for the technology involved. 

Dude initially said he’d look at it on Tuesday but didn’t spend enough time on it until today (Thursday) to get a solid plan put together. He’s too busy to fix it this week even if he could get the parts. He feels strongly that if it’s a Plane Power alternator, which it is, I should be running a Plane Power regulator for better results and smother power. I’m not completely sure why he feels this way, but I’ll defer to his presumed expertise. I don’t want to have to replace it again in 400 hours. Switching manufacturers requires a bit of rewiring and a 337. Add that to the fifty percent more that the unit itself costs, and it is definitely the more expensive option. The final bill will be 0.96 AMU. I’m driving this weekend, but I should be back in the air in time for Easter.

I Broke It

The airplane, that is.

On the flight yesterday, I saw the warning light for the engine monitor flash a couple of times. It took me a bit to figure out what was going on. Oil pressure? Green at 83, right where it always is, and is the one reading that I watch the most. Oil temperature? Green at 138, normal for cruise power and outside temperatures in the low 20s Fahrenheit.  Fuel levels?  Both good (less than ¼ of a tank on either side will activate the warning light). Fuel pressure? In the green between 3-6. Amps? Green, but all over the place, from 5-20. I wasn’t running pitot heat or anything else that should have caused current draw to fluctuate that wildly. Voltage? Top of the green at 15.

Normal voltage when charging is 13.9 – 14.8. Mine was hanging around 15V, and spiked to 15.3V a few times, which I’m almost certain is what activated the light. I cycled power to it a couple of times, and it settled down for a while, but by the time I landed, it was 15+ again.

In modern cars, and probably airplanes as well, the voltage regulator is built into the alternator. It used to be a separate unit, and as far as I know, it still is on my plane. If it’s not, then my $1100 alternator from six months ago has already failed. The mechanic was supposed to look at it today, but I never heard anything. I suspect I’ll be driving this weekend, and will be out the better part of an AMU to heal it, which I hope will happen in time for me to fly up next weekend.

Decisions, Decisions

I don’t know why, but I struggled to make a transportation decision this week.

As I mentioned before, due to construction, currently the only transient parking options are APP Jet Center ($22 for the first night, $15 for subsequent nights) and Chantilly Air ($35 per night).

According to Foreflight, the cheapest 100LL on field at HEF is $6.85 per gallon at APP. On average, I need 15 gallons of fuel.

I prefer to fly up Saturday evening, and although I most often return Sunday night, I prefer to make the return Monday morning. That makes a refuel and one night at APP $125. Add Sunday night, and the cost goes to $140.

HWY is a few miles farther away. They charge $5 per night for overnight parking but waive the first night with a fuel purchase. Foreflight shows their 100LL at $5.40 per gallon. That’s $81 for a refuel and first (free) night. A second night bumps it to $86. Versus two nights at HEF, that’s $54 less – a savings of more than 38%. 

Until ground transportation enters the equation.

There are plenty of people who pass one or both locations and are happy to pick me up on their way to/from church. Since I never arrive at the time appropriate for heading straight to Sunday morning service, however, that leaves me with a problem to solve.

A few folks live close to HEF/church and have offered to pick me up when I arrive at a time outside of scheduled church services.  I’ve made calls a couple of times, trying to arrange a pick-up. One was a no answer, and the other had “other plans.” I don’t like to bother people anyway, so I terminated that effort.  Uber became my solution. Fifteen federal reserve notes will pay for the ride and a modest tip.

While I’d prefer to return Monday morning, I took to leaving Sunday night and hitching a ride immediately following the evening service in order to save the second fifteen bucks.

HWY adds a significant wrinkle when it comes to ground transportation. As it is eighteen miles from the church, compared to HEF’s three miles, an Uber would cost $40 with a light tip. Obviously, that’s a non-starter. Arranging flight schedules to line up with service times would make for a very long day, and I’m not ready to do that, either.

This weekend, I decided to impose on a cousin who lives in the area. Long-term, I got permission to park a vehicle in the parking lot at HWY (no cost) during the week for my use on the weekends when I fly in. I’ll be moving my old truck up there the first week of next month. It’d been down for most of a year, and I was doing fine without it. It’s fixed now, to the point of being drivable, but it needs a new turbo, and it’s too thirsty to be a daily driver. In other words, it’s perfect for this task.

That just leaves me two more weeks to bug someone, after which I’ll feel much better about arrangements. 

Redbird, the Second

Today, I completed the legal requirements for IFR currency for the next six months, using Odyssey’s Redbird.

It was already set up with the G1000 panel, and since the six-pack panel differs so much in function from my panel, I decided I’d try to fly today’s session as configured. It worked out at least as well as their weird six-pack.

I started by setting myself up at YUXSI, the IF for the RNAV 21 approach into TTA. I programmed for two miles of visibility and a broken ceiling slightly above the approach minimum. I programmed in 5-10 knots of direct crosswind, figuring it would make things interesting without messing me up too much.

I shot the approach, broke out and saw the runway, and went missed. The MAP is climb to 2100, direct IKTOW, and hold. I needed at least one hold for currency, so I flew it. I couldn’t figure out how to make the G1000 activate the missed approach guidance, so I just followed the track on the screen. After the course reversal and one full lap around the holding pattern in the correct direction, I set up for and flew the RNAV 3 approach. IKTOW is the IAF for the RNAV 3 approach, so setup was easy. I found the airport, then paused and subsequently ended the flight. Two more approaches and the hold checked off.

I programmed and shot the RNAV 22 into SCR, with a similar setup, but without the wind. I’m still fighting to learn the sim, and the wind adds a bit too much for now. I tried to shoot the RNAV 4 into SCR, but the system didn’t recognize the IAF of COTEN, so I couldn’t start from that point. I decided to pick another airport.

I chose HEF and the RNAV 34R approach from HANOK. That approach is not a straight in, but is an LP approach with a 326 final approach course. I thought I’d actually missed it or programmed the weather too low until I remembered to look out the right “window” for the runway. There it was.

For my last approach, I chose the RNAV 15 into HWY. Once again, the stupid thing wouldn’t recognize the IAF. I picked CSN, which it did recognize, and is only a couple miles from the FAF.  I started there, simulated vectors to the final approach course, started my turn late, and blew through final. I did some aerobatics to get back on course before reaching the FAF that I’d never attempt in real life – mostly because I wouldn’t have needed to. My panel is configured to tell me how far I am from the selected course (instead of just how many dots on the display) and I’d have known when to start a standard-rate turn to roll out on the correct heading with the magenta line centered. From there, it was easy. Runway in sight, pause flight, record the Hobbs time for billing, then end flight and shut it down. 

Redbird Orientation

Earlier this week, I got checked out on the Redbird TD2 BATD that Odyssey Aero Club has at TTA. It was a weird experience.  Not setting it up and programming it, but the actual “flight.”

The first problem was the control sensitivity. On takeoff and climb-out, the controls were too sensitive, so much so that a quarter of a degree had me in a thirty-degree bank in what seemed like no time at all. On approach,  I had to turn the yoke 30+ degrees to stop the stupid thing from turning the wrong way.

Then, there was the lack of physical feedback. Engine noise from a speaker is the only thing you get other than what is displayed on the screen. My butt might lie to me in IMC, but at least it says something.

The panel, while a traditional six-pack, lacks the HSI function that I’ve grown to depend on in my panel. The GPS is an earlier model as well – all knobs, buttons, and defined fields instead of the touch-screen that mine is. The instructor checking me out only ever flies with a G1000 panel, so she didn’t know any more about the GPS than I did. I was stuck looking at the GPS screen for en route course deviation because neither one of us had thought to push the CDI button to send the signal to the indicator. She seemed to think that the indicator would come alive once the approach proper began.

Controls, performance, and speeds are supposedly based on a Cessna 172, although the p-factor programmed in the software acts more like  T182. It is often necessary to stand up on the rudder pedals. In my airplane, I only use the rudder during takeoff and landing. One hundred twelve horsepower just isn’t enough to require much yaw correction for torque betond the takeoff roll.

I did get one logged approach in 1.1 logged hours and 1.5 total instruction hours. Next time, without an audience, I hope for more efficient results. I’ll program it to start the flight at the IAF and at the minimum altitude for said fix. Start the flight, shoot the approach, go missed, and fly the missed approach hold. That’s another approach and the hold. Then pick another airport or different approach at the same airport, set for IAF at altitude, fly to minimums, pause the sim, and log another approach. Lather, rinse, repeat.  In another two hours (only one of which I should have to pay for, the programing time isn’t billed), and I should be legal for another six months.