A Man and His Airplane

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 ...

The rate of posting on this here weblog continues to be slow. I guess that's what happens when nothing's really happening. I've been flying, but my flights have all been uneventful, in that nothing unexpected happened. The engine continues to start quickly and run well. The replacement sump valve in the port fuel tank no longer has that sealant coming out of it. Fuel doesn't flow out of it much faster than it did the old valve, though it is a bit faster. At least it's clean. I received the invoice for my oil change. I had assumed they had cut open the oil filter and looked for metal, and also assumed that they didn't find anything that was concerning or else they would have told me. The invoice had the description of the work and notes which said they found no metal at all in the oil filter. This is, of course, very good news. I actually expected some metal from break in so it exceeded those expectations. One thing I did do that was noteworthy was my most recent...

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...

I haven't been flying in a few weeks due to the weather. It has been a rather wet April and the alignment of rain showers with the weekend has been exquisite. I have nineteen hours on the engine so far. The plan is to run it to 25 hours, then do the first oil change. At that point we'll most likely switch to regular oil. I do have Camguard that I intend to use but my understanding is that, with a new or overhauled engine, you should run at least one oil change interval on regular oil without Camguard before starting to use it. If the weather is nice at some point during this next week, I may just take a half day off from work and go flying, then make up the time later.

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...

The weather was nice and clear today, although it was rather cold. But it wasn't below freezing so I took the plane up for about an hour and a half this afternoon. There are times when I'm not sure that I really want to go flying. But something I've noticed is that I've never put my plane away after a flight and thought to myself, "I wish I hadn't gone flying today." There are times when I've decided not to go, either because I'm not feeling well or because I'm not sure the weather conditions will remain VFR, but whenever I have  gone, I've always, always, been glad I did it. Before my last flight a couple weeks ago, I put a quart of oil in because it was down to about 6.25 quarts as measured on the dipstick. I flew for two hours that day. Today, when I checked the oil during my preflight, it read 7 quarts. So I lost about a quarter quart of oil in two hours. And based on the oil consumption rate I'd been seeing recently, it's very ...

I've put about ten hours on the plane since I got it back from the shop last December. The weather has been generally poor so flying regularly hasn't been possible. For now, I'm focusing on putting time on the engine to continue breaking it in and get to the first oil change. Oil consumption has already dropped to normal, or near normal levels so it looks like break-in is going well so far. And that's pretty much it for now. I am looking forward to more regular VFR conditions as we move into spring and summer. I'm also looking forward to flying to other places for fly-ins and other get-togethers since I missed most of them last year.

For those who aren't familiar with how airplanes work in practice, the title refers to a characteristic behavior of single-engine airplanes when climbing, or when flying at a high angle of attack. I won't go into detail about this, as there are many available resources that explain it far better than I ever could, but the short form is that, in these situations, the plane will turn to the left unless you counter with right rudder. The most common situation is when climbing at full or high power. Countering this tendency by pressing on the right rudder pedal is one of the very first things a student pilot learns to do. Once you level off and enter cruise flight, you can remove that pressure and the plane should fly straight; "should" being the operative word here. As noted in an earlier post, my plane has always pulled to left a bit even in level cruise flight. Just how much varied a bit depending on the throttle setting. At about 2500 RPM, it barely pulled at all and ...

Not only did the shop re-attach the exhaust pipe, they also repaired the heat damage to the cowling. This meant it took a bit longer than if they'd just re-attached the exhaust. This past Friday, I was notified that the work was done, but I found out too late to go flying that day. The weather yesterday (Saturday) was too poor for flying but today it was good enough to take her up. It was VFR conditions, but there were scattered clouds at about 2000 feet. I flew along at about 3000 feet, weaving between the clouds to maintain sufficient clearance. It was fun, and the clouds were beautiful to look at. I remained relatively close to the airport in case the weather threatened to close in, but it never did and I flew for an hour. The engine started right up. During the run up, when I switched to the left magneto, the engine popped a few times, but then it cleared up and ran great after that. I checked both magnetos several times to make sure it really had cleared up. I don't know w...

On New Year's Day, I took her up again for an hour. She ran great, and flew well, other than the issue where she pulls to the left described in my last post. When I checked the oil during the preflight inspection, there was slightly less than seven quarts in the engine, which is more than enough to go flying. Yesterday, the weather was good enough to go flying so I headed out to the airport in the early afternoon. During the preflight inspection I checked the oil and... there was a bit less than seven quarts. It had used very little during the previous flight which is an excellent sign that the engine is already wearing in nicely. One thing I did notice, though was that a bit of paint was coming off the cowl where the exhaust comes through. I didn't worry about it too much at the time. I started her up and taxied over to get fuel. When I went to connect the grounding wire to the end of the exhaust pipe, I discovered the source of that paint damage. The final section of the exha...

It's cold outside. It's currently 7:30pm and, according to the little weather widget in my Windows taskbar, it's17 degrees Fahrenheit outside. The weather today was nice enough to go flying, apart from the cold. It's also been snowing so it's likely that there is some snow on the paved 'driveway' between my plane and the taxiway. Even if the airport removed that snow, it was probably still icy and it would have been difficult if not impossible for me to pull the plane out of the hangar. I don't know when the weather will permit me to fly again. It's very unlikely to be before the end of this month, and there's a good chance I won't be able to do so in January of next year. It's not impossible, of course. I was able to fly in January of this year after all. But here in the Northwest, the weather during a particular month one year is a very poor predictor of what it will be the next year. Thing is, I'm over 50 years old now. I don't...

The other day I returned from a week-long trip to Arizona to visit my father for his 90th birthday. This is why I hadn't flown my plane since its first post-overhaul flight that lasted only half an hour. Before I came home, I called up the shop and was told that they had indeed taken the plane in and checked it out, and that it was good to go for the full break-in process. Yesterday the weather was quite nice. It was cold, but still above freezing. So I took the afternoon and went flying for a couple of hours. Since I'm still at the beginning of the break-in period, I flew it at 75% power for an hour, then varied the power between 65% and 75% for another hour. Once I was done I landed and put it away. When I was pushing the plane back into the hangar, I noticed that one of the screws holding the spinner on had worked itself about half way out. I tightened it up as best I could with the little multi-tool I carry around, and planned to tighten it fully the next time I was out the...

Although the most important event that happened last weekend was flying my plane for the first time after the overhaul was completed, I also had my bi-annual flight review. On Friday, I spent some time with the instructor going over knowledge, such as reading a chart, knowing about the different types of airspace, and other stuff that pilots need to know. On Saturday, we went up in a 172 for an hour or so to practice basic maneuvers, stalls, landings, and so on. Basically to determine that I still know how to fly a plane safely. We were originally going to do both the ground and flight portion of the flight review on Friday, but there was an issue with scheduling an aircraft. Snohomish Flying Service has six 172s, with two of them being older 172N models, and the rest being newer 172S models. Well, one is a 172R but it's so like the 172S that it makes no practical difference. I've only ever flown the 172N. Neither of the 172Ns was available on Friday so we'd scheduled a 172...

It's been a long and sometimes difficult road to get to this point but today I flew Ariel for the first time since last March. It is difficult to describe the emotions I felt after I stopped in front of the hangar and shut her down after the flight. I about broke down crying. I've waited for this for so long, and had to deal with so many frustrating setbacks that it sometimes felt like I'd never fly her again. Following the instructions from Preston, I flew her for half an hour at 3000' feet over the airport in case something went wrong. I ran the engine at 75% power (maybe a bit more, but that's okay) for as much of the flight as I could. The engine started right up, and I thought it sounded better than it had before. It seemed smoother, somehow. When I took off, I had one notch of flaps in, and she flew off the runway on her own without me having to pull back on the yoke. It was as if she was eager to get back into the sky. The flight was completely uneventful, as...

I called the shop today to get an update. Neither Alex nor Preston was available at the time, so the person who answered the phone said they'd have one or the other call me back later in the day. Later in the day rolled around and Alex called and gave me an update. This is what happened, based on my understanding of what Alex told me. I think I have it down pretty well. First of all, for the sake of brevity and clarity, I'm going to use the following references: "Carb 1": The original carburetor that was on my engine when I bought the plane, and had probably been on there at least since 1997. "Carb 2": The carburetor that the carb shop in Florida sent back to One Stop Aviation instead of carb 1. "Carb 3": The carburetor that will hopefully be arriving at the shop at Harvey Field before long.  "Fuel pump 1": The original fuel pump that was on my engine when I bought the plane, and had been installed about a year before I bought it. "F...

First, the good news. The second nosewheel is good and has been installed. That part is now done. The over-rich fuel mixture has been corrected. However, another issue has cropped up and it's verging on the ridiculous. Here is my understanding of everything. At some point, Preston received a call from someone at One Stop Aviation, the shop which performed the overhaul of my engine. He informed Preston that the fuel pump on the engine was not actually overhauled, even though doing so was included in the quote. He wanted to know if Preston wanted him to ship a new fuel pump, or remove that item from the cost. Preston recommended getting the new fuel pump, even though the existing one was only a couple of years old. It had been replaced by the previous owner, along with the electric fuel pump. Preston felt that it was a good idea to include the fuel pump in the overall baseline of the motor so that everything is starting out "fresh" so to speak. The new fuel pump arrived. Ho...

The other night, after almost 50 years, the Saturn V was dethroned as the most powerful rocket ever successfully launched by humanity. I use the word "successfully" because the Soviet N1 rocket actually generated more thrust at liftoff, but all four launch attempts ended in failure. For the first time since Apollo 17, a true moon rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying a spacecraft capable of carrying humans back to the moon. This Artemis mission is a test flight, so no astronauts are on board the Orion spacecraft. Despite that, it was a spectacular launch. Because the SLS launch vehicle has a higher thrust-to-weight ratio than the Saturn V, it rose from the launch pad much more quickly than it's predecessor. I think it's a bit heavier than the Space Shuttle, but it has more thrust due to an additional RS-25 engine, and more powerful solid rocket boosters. Watching it rise into the night sky, I was excited, but also a bit melancholy. This was ...

I received notification yesterday (Friday) that the second wheel from BAS had been delivered. A short time after that, I got a call from Alex at the shop. He said the wheel had arrived and, as far as he could tell, it looks just fine. Hopefully there's nothing that will prevent this one from being installed. However, just when that will happen is up in the air. Both Travis, the mechanic that's been working on my plane, and Preston the shop manager, were out sick yesterday. They probably have the same thing I came down with Thursday evening. It feels like a relatively severe head cold. Yesterday I felt like crap the whole day. I did attend a meeting for work but then climbed into bed and slept for several hours. I had a fever, too, but it feels like it abated in the night and I feel a bit better today. If Preston and Travis are feeling the same way, I expect them to stay home and get better. I wouldn't fly in my current condition, and I wouldn't want someone to work on m...

I called BAS Part Sales this morning and told them about the cracked wheel that they'd sent. When I ordered it a couple weeks ago, they had two in stock. Unfortunately, the second one was sold last week. Gah. However, the sales rep (who I'll call 'M' for brevity) said they'd just received a wheel with part number 40-113C. As noted earlier, the 'B' and 'C' wheels are the same except that the C wheel is used on the main gear and includes a brake rotor. Interestingly, none of the C wheels I've seen pictures of during my search include a brake rotor. M said they'd just gotten this wheel in so he would check it for cracks, take pictures of it, and send them to me. It didn't take long for the pictures to show up in my inbox. As with all the other C wheels, there's no brake rotor. However, from what I could see in the photos, it is absolutely identical with the B wheel that they'd sent earlier, right down to every number and letter impri...

The replacement wheel from BAS arrived last Wednesday, almost a week ago. I didn't hear anything from the shop so I planned on heading out to the shop on Saturday to check in. Well, Friday night we had a fairly severe windstorm come through and the power went out in many areas, including my house. It was restored at my house around 9:00 or so the following morning, but it turns out it was still out at the airport. Therefore, the shop was closed so I had to wait some more. I called yesterday, but Monday is a day off for most of the folks at the shop since they work on Saturday. I didn't get much info, but said that I had business out at the airport today and that I'd stop by afterward. The business in question was my Class 3 medical exam with the AME that has an office out at the airport. He's the same doctor I saw two years ago, and also back in 2002 when I first got my medical certificate. The good news is he renewed my medical certificate for two more years. The bad n...