Aztec Driver
Line Up and Wait
Sometimes it amazes me how much airlines have to pay just to make their deadlines for their equipment.
Got called on Christmas night to transport a part from New York to Detroit. Left the house around 11:30 pm and flew to New York, picked up the part, flew to Detroit, and dropped off the part in miserable IMC into a snow squall. Got there around 0530 and proceeded to drop off the part at the airline hangar, then off to fuel up. First FBO was out of 100LL, had to taxi to a second FBO. Taxiing was made much more difficult because most of the ramps were yet to be cleared, making them almost invisible and hard to follow. Managed to finally get to the place after 3-4 miles of round robin taxiing.
Then the fun started.
Since I had left the home airport 6 hours earlier, I had shut down a total of 4 times for various reasons...picking up part, dropping off part, attemting fuel at the first FBO, and finally stopping at the last FBO. I got refueled and decided to take a quick nap and let the snow stop and the daylight to come out, then went to leave. Low and behold, the left engine will not start. Tried and tried and tried, no fire.
Let it warm up in the hangar because it was 15 degrees with blowing wind and the engines had already gotten stone cold. Tried again and tried and tried and tried, no start. Called the boss, who is insistent that I must have flooded the engine, said to warm it up again, wait longer, then try again. Long story short, it didn't help then either. So I got stuck in Detroit overnight until someone could come. Did I mention this was now the day after Christmas? Everyone is either gone or leaving to go away for the holidays.
Fortunately, the boss, who is also an A&P, had to delay his trip an extra day for other reasons, so he was kind enough to bring his entire family to Detroit with him on his way to their holiday outing. We put on a new left mag on the engine and it fired right up. Bless his heart. Finally got back home on the 27th.
Detroit is really bleak in that area, but the people at ASIG south were very kind and accommodating for a stranded traveler.
Got called on Christmas night to transport a part from New York to Detroit. Left the house around 11:30 pm and flew to New York, picked up the part, flew to Detroit, and dropped off the part in miserable IMC into a snow squall. Got there around 0530 and proceeded to drop off the part at the airline hangar, then off to fuel up. First FBO was out of 100LL, had to taxi to a second FBO. Taxiing was made much more difficult because most of the ramps were yet to be cleared, making them almost invisible and hard to follow. Managed to finally get to the place after 3-4 miles of round robin taxiing.
Then the fun started.
Since I had left the home airport 6 hours earlier, I had shut down a total of 4 times for various reasons...picking up part, dropping off part, attemting fuel at the first FBO, and finally stopping at the last FBO. I got refueled and decided to take a quick nap and let the snow stop and the daylight to come out, then went to leave. Low and behold, the left engine will not start. Tried and tried and tried, no fire.
Let it warm up in the hangar because it was 15 degrees with blowing wind and the engines had already gotten stone cold. Tried again and tried and tried and tried, no start. Called the boss, who is insistent that I must have flooded the engine, said to warm it up again, wait longer, then try again. Long story short, it didn't help then either. So I got stuck in Detroit overnight until someone could come. Did I mention this was now the day after Christmas? Everyone is either gone or leaving to go away for the holidays.
Fortunately, the boss, who is also an A&P, had to delay his trip an extra day for other reasons, so he was kind enough to bring his entire family to Detroit with him on his way to their holiday outing. We put on a new left mag on the engine and it fired right up. Bless his heart. Finally got back home on the 27th.
Detroit is really bleak in that area, but the people at ASIG south were very kind and accommodating for a stranded traveler.
