My first flight after the IR (as requested)

EdFred

Taxi to Parking
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White Chocolate
I took the IR ride with 106 hour on Saturday morning, May 8th, 2004. The night before I had a martial arts exam that absolutely beat me down. I had trouble standing at the end of the test. But I was not cancelling my ride for the morning. So now you see how I'm a glutton for punishment. The ride was uneventful, but I digress...

I hopped a one-way to Charlotte, NC on Thursday the 13th, to pick up my plane and to fly it home on Friday the 14th. I had flown it once before, and just had the prebuy done, so I wasn't worried about bringing it home the 5-1/2 hours from 28A to 9D9. Finished up the paper work, signed the papers, saw it was going to be IFR, so I bought charts and plates at Goose Creek. I head out to my plane, and go out to start her up and head home. Now, for those of you that have seen the panel of my plane it was not that way when I bought it. It was IFR certified - albeit slant uniform with an ADF. But, I did have a panel mount VFR GPS that I could use as backup to "help" with navigation. The ICOM radio that now serves as my second radio was the primary radio and the "audio panel" consisted of a toggle switch and the ICOM also doubled as the amplifier for the COM2, the ADF, the Narco selfcontained NAV, etc.

Well, wouldn't you know it, I start it up and all I get on the ICOM is a buzz - and this is the good radio because the NAV/COM that was installed was the original KX-145 - which is a NAV or COM but not both. So I shut it down, call FSS and tell them to push my flight plan departure time back an hour and we pulled out the radio, checked the pin connections and all looked in order without completely tearing everything apart so we put it back in. Still had the buzz, but I still have a working radio and a good stand alone NAV in the Narco. The odd thing was even though I couldn't TX/RX on the ICOM, it still let me hear all the audio for the other components. Ok, I have a Com, a Nav, and an ADF, the trip is still doable, as everything was going to be VOR to VOR into Columbus, Ohio area where I was staying the night with a friend, so I can still make this a go.

So, I take off from under the Charlotte shelf VFR and use the GPS to get to the intersection I was using so I could open my flight plan and legally navigate the rest of the way. I open the plan, and they clear me to climb to 8 or 10 thousand, I forget which, to get over the Smokeys. I had filed for 10 because of the MEA along the route near CRW. I start to climb through the layer at about 6000 or so, and when I do I suddenly get "k-tsssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" on the KX-145. Oh, how wonderful. I make a couple calls to Atlanta Center (I'd been handed off from Charlott already) I quick pull out the sectional, check the elevation of the terrain below me, see I'm well above the terrain still, punch in 7600 on the transponder, and figure out that Statesville is the nearest place without a tower, but looks to have some sort of facilities. I was NOT going to fly the next 3 hours NORDO so, I descend out of the clouds, punch in KSVH on the GPS and make a beeline for it. Of course, I can't get AWOS, or anything since BOTH radios are on the fritz. I circle the airport, get the windsock and make a landing. The line guy comes out, to meet me.

"You the guy with the radio trouble?"
"Yep, that's me."
"Atlanta Center called, they kept your flight plan on file in case we figure out what's wrong."

Their avionics guy comes out, who really wasn't an expert, but he knew more than me, and he just checked to make sure both were seated good, which they were and has me turn on the master to hear exactly what was going on with the radios. I say to him, "OK, if you listen to COM-1 it....hey, it's working." And so is COM-2. Odd. Ok, shut it down, turn it back on. Yep, still works. Cycled it a few times and they kept working. Alrighty then I've got 1-1/2 NAVs and 1-1/2 COMs, I'm good to go, asked if I owed them anything to which they said no. So I called FSS and RE-Opened my plan with SVH as the departure point, and I'm on my way. Of course in the mean time the front that was approaching Columbus, Ohio has now gotten 2+ hours more time to progress. It wasn't convective so I wasn't worried about it too much. So I'm somewhere over Virginia or West Virginia in and out of the goop when I go to change over the Narco to the next VOR. The knob spins freely. What the crap? The gears stripped out in this too?!?! So I now am in and out of the crud and I'm back to 1 COM and 1 NAV. Oh wait, the inside knob works, so I can have any VOR frequency I want between 117.0 and 117.95. Of course, I don't think I had VORs in that range on the way to Columbus.

Remember the cold front that was racing me to Columbus? Well, I lost the race, and was landing at Delaware, Ohio with a direct 30kt crosswind in my plane, which my first landing in it was at SVH earlier that day. (When I flew it before, he did the landings because of insurance policies.) Well, I carried too much speed on final and needless to say it wasn't a pleasant experience trying to keep it on the runway, so after the third bounce I elected to go around. On the second attempt I was pretty much at the rudder stops, so instead of trying to slip it all the way in, I slip-crabbed it to the runway. Kicked it out and made a silky smooth touchdown.

After inspecting the knob on the Narco unit after landing the set screw was just a bit loose, and a little tightening with an allen wrench made it right as rain. 3.5 hours - with 1.8 actual. I spent the night with my friend's family and the next morning I launched into low stratus with fully functional instruments. Logged another 1.7 actual out of 1.8 hours and finished the flight home.

That's what the IR rating is all about isn't it? :D
 
Wow. That's crazy. Did the radio ever go out on you again, or was that just a one time bad thing?
 
NickDBrennan said:
Wow. That's crazy. Did the radio ever go out on you again, or was that just a one time bad thing?

Why do you think I have a new panel? :rolleyes:
 
AdamZ said:
Wow Ed! To much excitement! Did the prebuy cover the Avionics?

Not really, I knew I was going to replace them sooner or later. Turned out to be sooner. LOL
 
LOL - that's kinda what happened with my engine when I bought my Tiger. Sooner rather than later!
 
Great story. I haven't tested the mettle of my IR yet. I've mostly a done a few flights where the bases were about 700-1500 AGL. Comm failures have to be some the most frustrating.
 
Thanks for that story. What a thing to happen!
 
as soon as you get flying in goo, you start thinking a lot about backup plans. "What if?" Good story Ed.
 
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