Skip to main content

My first actual fly-in

 The weather around here has been, for the most part, pretty poor. We had several inches of snow from each of a couple storms that passed through. While pretty, it makes for poor flying. There was a day that may have been nice enough, except there was still enough snow and ice on the ground that I didn't even want to try pulling my plane out of its hangar, let alone taxi around in poor conditions for braking. I did go out to the airport to check on the plane last weekend, and there were a couple of planes that did take off while I was there, but I didn't want to chance it.

Today dawned bright, clear, and glorious. While there is some snow left where it had been piled up by people shoveling their driveways and sidewalks, the roads have been clear for a few days. There was no question that today was a flying day. However, I wanted to go somewhere I hadn't been yet, and not just fly around the local area, or over the San Juan Islands like I've done several times already.

As I was finishing my coffee at the computer, I brought up Facebook and saw a post to the Hundred Dollar Hamburgers - PNW group. The focus of the group is as you would expect from the name: people posting about restaurants and other eateries in the Pacific Northwest located on or near airports. The post was about a fly-in and BBQ at Willapa Harbor Airport located near South Bend, WA where the Willapa River flows into Willapa Bay. It's about 20 miles south of Hoquiam, which I had flown to earlier, so it was pretty much perfect for what I wanted. I filed a flight plan, and then headed out to the airport.

The flight down was lovely. However, I did encounter a technical issue which I think was an old issue rearing its ugly head again. When I first started up and checked the radio, the sound from the radio was distorted with static. The sidetone from the intercom was fine, and the issue occurred with both radios, which pretty much leaves only the audio panel as the culprit. As my intention was to run the engine and get gas even if I didn't go flying, I decided to taxi over to the pump and see if it cleared up. I considered it possible that it was due to the cold and, as the system warmed up, it might get better.

And that's what it did. After getting gas, everything sounded fine, so I activated the flight plan and took off. However, as I was flying, I stopped hearing incoming transmissions altogether. This is the same thing I was running into shortly after I purchased my plane. Back then, the problem resolved itself when I turned off the cabin speaker at the audio panel. At the time, I figured it was an issue with the amplifier not having enough power to drive both the headset and the cabin speaker, and as I didn't need the speaker active anyway, it was fine. Except today, the cabin speaker was not on.

I was able to resolve the problem. I turned the cabin speaker on and then off again, and I turned up the volume on the radio. I don't know why these actions worked, but they did and I was able to hear the radios fine during the rest of the flight down and the flight back. It seems, though, that my first upgrade will be to replace the audio panel. I've been wondering what I should do first and it appears that question has been answered for me. My plan is to replace it with a unit that also incorporates intercom functionality, and also has bluetooth capability.

After I arrived, I spent about an hour or so chatting with folks. To my complete lack of surprise, everyone was friendly, which is the whole point of a fly-in after all. Eventually, about 3:00, it came time to leave if I wanted to make it back before sunset. When I arrived, I had parked in a grassy area next to several other planes. The ground was pretty wet, and I was a little concerned that it might have a problem getting moving. Some folks came over and stood by in case I needed a push, but the grass was nice and thick, providing good support even on the wet ground, and I was able to get out just fine. I took off and headed home.

The flight back was just as beautiful as the flight there. Since my comms were working fine, I called up Seattle approach and got flight following. The flight was pretty much uneventful, with a couple of traffic advisories from approach and one frequency change, though I did notice something which I'll get to in a bit. As I got close to Paine Field, approach did direct me to descend to or below 2000 feet to maintain separation from some traffic they were working, and I did so with no issue. Shortly after they terminated flight following and I was on my own again. I made a standard approach and pattern entry, and made a pretty nice landing at Harvey Field. I'm definitely getting better at landing this plane.

Regarding the thing I noticed that I mentioned earlier, on the flight back I was looking out at the starboard side when I noticed a small bit of flexing of the wing skin. A small area of the skin about three or four feet from the fuselage and about a foot and a half from the leading edge looked like something was occasionally pressing down on it forming a small, shallow indentation about three or four inches in diameter. It looked like it was due to variances in air pressure, though now that I think about it more, it may have been due to slight flexing of the wing as the air pressure on that portion of the wing should be lower than ambient, assuming I understand the aerodynamics of an airfoil correctly. I shot a short video of it, and I've posted to the Beech Aero Club website forum about it so we'll see what people with more experience than me have to say. I'm hoping this isn't a major problem but I'll definitely point it out to the mechanic the next time it's in the shop, if not sooner.

Comments

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 ...

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...

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...