Recent content by tpowers

Great comments, thanks all for responding. I certainly don't want to do anything unsafe or illegal in the name of saving a few bucks. Currently the maintenance shop at the local FBO has been very helpful and threw my battery on their charger. It remains to be seen if it'll hold a charge...

Great suggestions, I'll try to get more info about the battery when I get back to the airport. I agree that since it died after only 30 days of inactivity it's probably at the end of its life anyway. I think replacing the acid may do it but more research is needed.

Okay so this is the first time I've experienced a dead battery in my Cessna 150L. It has been sitting for a month at the airport because the airport was closed for runway resurfacing. Yesterday I went to fly it and the battery just didn't have enough juice to power the starter. I know, I...

Hmm yes as a matter of fact I have noticed that I need a bit more prime than usual.

But would that be something that would come on suddenly and go away a few minutes later? After having a mechanic look over the engine and being reasonably satisfied it didn't have any detectable malfunctions I flew it back home two days later (1.4 hours) without issue. Opted to get a hotel and...

Haha, interesting analogy. Okay from now on full carb heat.

Well I had a moment to drop by the airport and take a close look at my fuel caps. Both are vented.

I found this document: http://gasci.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/9/1/12917568/flying_in_ireland_c150_mar14.pdf which states that some models of 150's use a fuel tank designed for the 140 and that the fuel strainers are in the rear of the tank. This is not a problem on a trail-dragger as water would...

Okay thanks

Hmm, you're right, my model is affected. I'll go take a look at my fuel caps today. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for except some vent holes I assume. Maybe I can make out a serial # or something etched on the cap. Thanks.

Hmm I'll look into that. I'm not sure if that AD applied to my model (1971 L series) but if I don't have vented caps (or at least one) and the under-wing vent got a bug in it that might explain it.

Interesting, thanks. Yeah carb heat is designed to solve one problem but has a side affect which in some situations that might solve (or cause) other problems.

That's what I was thinking as well but outside of this one occurrence I haven't had an issue. No water was detected in the fuel, I had recently fueled up before the flight, it's all gravity fed so there's no fuel pump. However the one thing that I thought of was that even though I didn't see...

Hmm I didn't notice a rise at shutdown. With the exception of this one occurrence I have a lot of play in the mixture. I can usually pull it out quite far before it starts to stumble.

So here's my tale from last weekend. It was 80 degrees on the surface, 60 at 6,500' which is the altitude I was cruising at in my C150, unseasonably warm, nice day. The ground-speed I was getting was only 70 kts, which was 20 knots less than my indicated airspeed. I decided I wanted to...