Skip to main content

Warm and coated

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 have my headset on, but I let him check around to see if anything was wrong. He was wondering if part of the cowl was loose or something similar. He checked around the cowling but didn't see any issues. He then said it was probably how the sound was reflecting off of the hangar that was to my left, and I think he was right.

After he left, I started up again, then taxied back to the hangar and put the plane away. I'm feeling better now that I've run the engine which has mixed the Camguard into the oil and coated all of the moving parts with it, especially the camshaft. I don't plan on letting the plane sit for weeks at a time, but the weather will be less cooperative in the near future so I may have to. Assuming that Camguard works as advertised, and as many fellow pilots attest to, it will at least reduce or prevent any corrosion on the camshaft from sitting an extended period of time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Approaching the annual

I know I haven't been posting much, but that's mainly because nothing much of note has been happening. I've been flying, but not really going anywhere in particular. The engine continues to run very well, and the plane is still solid. I was hoping to do more "destination" flying this year but, for whatever reason(s), it didn't really happen. Next year, hopefully.... On the horizon, though, is the annual inspection. It's already scheduled for mid-December, since the last annual is good to the end of that month. I've also arranged for it to be an owner-assisted annual. I'm told that every airplane owner should do this at least once and I can certainly understand why that is the case, even before I do it. I will be learning about my airplane in a way that nothing else will match and, incidentally, save some money at the same time. I'm looking forward to it. Leading up to the annual, I have been compiling a list of squawks that I want to take care ...
Post a Comment
Read more

First Oil Change

It's been a while since my last post here. I've been flying, but the flights have been intended simply to put time on the plane and most have been pretty uneventful. However, the last two flight have been particularly nice because my wife came with me. I had enough hours on the engine that I felt I could trust it enough to take a passenger. I've now put over 25 hours on the engine since the overhaul and it's time for its first oil change. That was just completed, and the Aeroshell mineral oil used for break-in has been replaced with Phillips XC ashless-dispersant oil. The plan is to run it another 25 hours, at which point we'll change the oil again. At that time, we'll send a sample to Blackstone for analysis, and I will also resume adding Camguard. I also had the shop take care of a few other squawks while they had it in. The biggest of these is its tendency to pull to the left in the air and on the ground. I suspected that it was due to the nosewheel centering...
Post a Comment
Read more

Precipitation

The weather was rather nice yesterday and I was able to get up in the air in the afternoon. The flight was pretty uneventful, essentially another jaunt up to the north and back. There were two things that were a bit different from the norm. First, on the way back to Harvey Field, I ran at full power. I've done full power runs before; it's a part of the break-in process for an overhauled engine. And I did another good long one yesterday. I was doing a bit better than 110 knots on the airspeed indicator, and that's with the built-in calibrator for true airspeed set for the temperature and altitude so it should be pretty close to what I was actually doing. Yep, still not a fast plane, but I still think the roomy cabin and large fuel capacity make up for that. Second, as I was flying back to Harvey, I decided not to straight back but rather to take a quick detour off to the east to prolong my full-power run. I turned east, then headed back north for a bit. I saw a couple of clo...
Post a Comment
Read more