Skip to main content

Surprise flying

I woke up this morning, looked outside, checked the weather forecast, and realized that I could actually go flying today. So I did.

Today's flight had three main objectives. The first was to see if the comms still worked. The second was to do some pattern work and practice landings, and the third was to continue becoming familiar with the plane. I'll address these in reverse order.

I'm definitely becoming more familiar with the plane, and with the procedures for flying it. I was told this plane would make me a better pilot and I feel pretty confident in saying it's doing exactly that. I'm a lot more comfortable with it, I'm learning it's features and idiosyncrasies. For example, I've figured out where to set the trim for approach and landing to get the correct speeds. Like a 172, if you have the trim set correctly on your downwind, all you have to do is lower your flaps at the right times and you'll be at the right speed for each phase of the approach.

I'm getting better at landings, too. I performed six total landings today. All were acceptable, and I'd say three were pretty good. There was a slight crosswind so I got to practice crosswind landings as well. I did go around twice due to being too high on short final but that's also good practice.

Finally, the comms. The other day, I went out and tested them and everything seemed to be working correctly. Today, I encountered a possible problem, but I'm not sure if there was anything wrong or not. When I called for a radio check, I didn't receive a response. I was hearing other transmissions just fine, and I was able to trigger the automated weather response by keying the mile four times. I was clearly transmitting at least the carrier frequency. Following the troubleshooting steps I'd come up with earlier, I turned off the intercom. When I did that, I no longer heard sidetone when I was talking to myself, which is as expected. However, when I called for a radio check, I did hear sidetone from the radio, and I received an immediate response. I left the intercom off for the flight. It's possible it was working fine with the intercom on, but I left it off just to be sure.

After that, everything worked fine. There was one instance of a transmission that I heard over the speaker in the airplane, but it was cutting out in my headphones. I don't know if this was another symptom of a larger problem, or just due to the transmission being somewhat weak and not overcoming the squelch to the headset. All other transmissions I heard loud and clear and it was clear from listening to other aircraft that I was transmitting successfully and clearly.

So I'm still not sure if anything's wrong or not. I will definitely be asking the shop to test the comm system when I take it in for the other repairs I'll have done. I should also have my backup radio the time I go flying again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thwarted

The plane is done being fixed again. Well, for the most part, but I'll get to that. The vacuum pump had indeed failed, so they replaced it. They also replaced the starboard fuel sump drain valve. Interestingly, I received an email yesterday from the shop with an invoice attached. It was for a credit to my account, which they gave me because they drained the fuel from the right tank. The invoice notes that 16 gallons were removed. The tank's capacity is almost 30 gallons, and I had filled it almost full on Sunday before my flight. So either they didn't credit me for all of the fuel in the tank, or it had continued to leak and had lost about 12 or so gallons over the course of a few days. I don't know which, but I'm not going to worry too much about it. I went out today to put some Camguard in the oil, run the engine, and possibly even go for a flight if the weather was nice enough. The grass runway and temporary taxiway are open so limited flight operations can proce
2 comments
Read more

Fresh tarmac

The runway at Harvey Field is in the process of being resurfaced. So far they've removed all of the old asphalt, graded the dirt surface, and hopefully laid down the first layer of the new asphalt. I received an email the other day stating that they were scheduled to lay the first layer yesterday, and lay the second layer today. However, that would depend on the weather and it's been raining today. Once the second layer is in place, they have to wait at least three days to paint the runway markings. There are also a couple other things that need to be done. In all, the completion date is likely to be no earlier than October 10. I went flying the weekend before last. The grass runway was open, and folks were taking off to the north, so I joined them. I was a bit too aggressive on the takeoff when it came to my soft-field technique, as the stall horn sounded as I lifted off. I think next time I take off from the grass, I'll leave the flaps all the way up, instead of down one
1 comment
Read more

My engine is so pretty

I went out to the shop today to take a few pictures of my engine and plane before the engine is remounted. The baffling and some other stuff has already been attached to the engine. The engine mount is not back yet. Since the nose gear is attached to the engine mount, the plane is currently sitting on the main gear, and a couple of supports just behind the firewall, and under the tail. Here are a few of the photos I took. The engine looks lovely, to me at any rate, especially since I know those are new cylinders.
2 comments
Read more