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.
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