I hope that old man got the tractor beam out of commission, or...

[cjsmith]

...this is gonna be a real short flight.

I hadn't flown in a couple months, so I was a bit nervous to begin with. I followed the preflight and startup checklists meticulously. Times like this are exactly what the checklists are for; they make sure we catch things when we otherwise might not. Out in the runup area I paused for a few moments to do one last evaluation of my emotional state. Was I truly prepared to be pilot in command of an airplane or should I bring it back in? I decided that I was still making sane decisions and that I wasn't too nervous to do the runup.

I flicked the key off BOTH to L -- on my way to R, but I never got there -- and the engine instantly started coughing and sputtering so badly I thought it would quit altogether. Back to BOTH it went! I have never seen a plane fail a mag check so spectacularly. It wasn't an RPM drop just a bit outside tolerances; the plane was shuddering with the roughness of it.

I tried all the tricks. Lean it out and run it at high RPM for a while. Try again. Run it lean for a loooong while and try one more time. Same result. I felt rather fortunate that during these trials I always moved quickly enough back to BOTH that I didn't have to restart the engine.

I made the right decision -- the only decision. That plane was going nowhere.

So there I was, hanging from the prop first in line at the 13 runup area (upper right corner), with five airplanes lined up behind me, in a non-airworthy aircraft. Tee-riffic. I had to use the runway ("no delay") to taxi my sorry self back outta there.

0.4 hours in the logbook. Better luck next weekend!

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Ew. But, hey, at least as you say, you made the right decision.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. I can't even congratulate myself too much for that: it was very, very clear what the decision had to be. Ah, well...

(pic link added)

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Spooky! Was our ghost there missing with the engine?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That must be it!

Actually I think the poor thing just hasn't been flown in ages. I suspect an oil leak in the #3 cylinder (ok, more than suspect, it was dripping) so in retrospect it's not surprising that the spark plugs on the bottom weren't working very well. They were probably sitting in little pools of engine oil. If I'd had the patience to sit there an hour maybe it would have all burned off.

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

Oh, yuck -- hopefully they can get it fixed promptly. For what it's worth, I had to clean up 19Y on the left this morning....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, I hope so. This poor airplane doesn't fly nearly enough. (I know, I know, neither do I!) If I hadn't been helping a friend move this afternoon I might have rebooked in another Warrior, but my afternoon wasn't free, and during the morning they were all taken.

I hope you had a good flight!

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

What an incredibly beautiful place to fly out of! (Other than the fact that it's built on filled-in wetlands ... but if they were going to fill them to build something, at least it was for a GA airport!)

Well, look at it this way, CJ -- if that engine was going to get flaky, better on the ground than after you took off!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I adore nearby Half Moon Bay airport - the views up the rugged coastline are just spectacular. I sat on the departure end of that runway once and just soaked up the view, until my instructor asked "Are you going to do anything with this airplane?" :-)

Absolutely, better on the ground than later. That poor thing doesn't fly enough.