A Man and His Airplane

I went out the airport early this afternoon. My plane was back in its hangar and the battery was charged. Everything looked good so I did a partial pre-flight inspection since I wasn't planning to fly. Instead, I started it up and taxied over to the fuel pump to put some fuel in the mostly empty right tank. I put about 15 gallons in, and it filled up to the 20 gallon mark, so it looks like there was about five gallons still in the tank. I pushed the plane clear of the pumps then started it up again. I taxied over to my usual runup area and proceeded to do a standard runup except that, when I was done, I left the throttle set at 1500 RPM. I let it run like that until the indicated oil temperature started to rise. As I was nearing the end of the run, one of the shop technicians came over and got my attention. I shut down the engine and he said he thought he was hearing an unusual sound coming from my plane as it was running. I wasn't hearing anything unusual, and I didn't hav...

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...

I just got a call from the shop, and they're going to take the plane in to address the latest issues. He thinks it most likely needs a new vacuum pump. They keep them in stock since they're replaced often enough to justify it. He'll also look at the fuel sump drain valve, and also do some more investigation of the intercom static issue that is still occurring. Finally, he'll do another oil change and check the filter. I think he's going to collect another oil sample for analysis. I ordered a few quarts of Camguard and I'm going to put some in after the oil change. He's going to note how many quarts of oil he puts in so I'll know how much Camguard to add. If the weather's nice enough this weekend, I'll go out and put it in, then at least run the engine. Depending on the weather and the wind, I may even go for a quick flight using the grass runway, since the asphalt runway is now closed for renovation.

I went up today for two reasons: Flying is better than not flying I wanted to get one more flight in before Harvey Field's asphalt runway gets torn up and replaced over the next month. The weather this morning was MVFR, but the skies cleared and, by about noon, it was lovely. I went out to the airport and started my pre-flight inspection. Right away, I noticed a problem. The starboard fuel sump drain valve was leaking fuel, albeit very slowly. There was still plenty of fuel in the tank. I don't know when this started, but it must have been in the last few days because I went flying this past Thursday and it wasn't leaking then. It may have started when I checked the fuel before that flight. Perhaps it didn't seal up fully after that. I worked it a few times with the fuel testing cup. It was still leaking. I worked it a few more times. It was still leaking. I worked it a few more times and it looked like it had stopped. I walked over to the FBO to use the facilities, fig...