I know I'm a wimp, but........

Kaye

Kaye

Line Up and Wait
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iPlaneless
the engine's back from it's Lycoming crankshaft replacement, which included a total rebuild of the engine (only had 400 hrs on it). The engine was pulled at home base, shipped off, returned and reinstalled at home base. Only problem is no one has any real confidence in work provided by this maintenance shop (even with an oil change, you have to go over the plane carefully as there tends to be missing or wrongly installed parts).

The owner was going to do the break-in flight this past weekend, but wx didn't cooperate. I'm chomping at the bit to go flying and I've got some free time both Thursday and Friday afternoon. Owner doesn't have a problem with me doing the break-in flight, but............I'm a real big chicken about this first flight, particularly the take-off phase.

Any thoughts......or should I just bide my time till he makes the first flight.........
 
Tell the mechanic you want him aboard on the first flight. :yes:
 
Carol said:
Tell the mechanic you want him aboard on the first flight. :yes:
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My wife has the theory that the A&P should be required to be aboard for the first flight. It's not a bad idea.

I really don't like the first flight after maintenance has been performed, and I always orbit the airport for a while...
 
You're at JYO? You have enough runway to give yourself some confidence in the engine.

Try this: Go when traffic is light. Do a full-power runup for a minute or so, then shut down and look for leaks. Fire it up again and do a high-speed taxi down the runway, keeping the airplane on the ground by not using full power. When it wants to fly, reduce power to keep it planted. Taxi back. Next apply full power, accelerate to rotation speed, take off only briefly -- maybe climb to 10-20 feet or so -- retard power, land and stop. Repeat that a few times if necessary until you know whether you want to take it around or not.
 
Kaye said:
Any thoughts......or should I just bide my time till he makes the first flight.........
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Ugh, I feel for you. I'm a low time pilot, and I was the first one to fly our club 172 after the annual. Normally a club maint. officer takes the plane for a spin, but not the last time. Test pilot, hoping all the stuff was put back together correctly. Ugh.

Nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
 
bbchien said:
Bide your time. Bide your time.
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Indeed. Our R22 should shortly have its new main rotor blades and spindles installed. You've never heard such politeness among the partners:

After you, Bob.
No, I really couldn't, after you John.
That wouldn't be fair, I don't want to deprive Dennis of his chance.
We can't exclude Gary...

The upshot is that we're going to ask the Robinson Service Center people to make the first flight :cheerswine:
 
If it's not my plane, I'm not being a test pilot for it, not for free!!

I have vivid memories of a plane I used to train in getting a remanned engine installed. It was with great excitement that we awaited completion. I was more than willing to help break it in if the owner would let me (which he wouldn't). I learned why. On the first start up, it caught fire. I don't know why, and they got it put out with no real damage, but I lost all interest in being the first one up behind a new engine...
 
Ken's way is good except I've never cared for the danger of high speed taxis because things can get out of control so easy ...I either taxi fairly normal or fly.

Most things will go wrong on startup or the full power run-up if they're gonna, otherwise if it gets airborne, the feeling's unique and should pique the pilot's emergency proceedures routines that should always be second nature in flight.
 
Kaye said:
Only problem is no one has any real confidence in work provided by this maintenance shop (even with an oil change, you have to go over the plane carefully as there tends to be missing or wrongly installed parts).
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In that case... :eek:

I'm not fond of doing flights after maintenance either, and that's when I have a reasonable amount of confidence in the shop.
 
Ken Ibold said:
You're at JYO? You have enough runway to give yourself some confidence in the engine.

Try this: Go when traffic is light. Do a full-power runup for a minute or so, then shut down and look for leaks. Fire it up again and do a high-speed taxi down the runway, keeping the airplane on the ground by not using full power. When it wants to fly, reduce power to keep it planted. Taxi back. Next apply full power, accelerate to rotation speed, take off only briefly -- maybe climb to 10-20 feet or so -- retard power, land and stop. Repeat that a few times if necessary until you know whether you want to take it around or not.
Click to expand...

I'd stop and check things over in between each run. Otherwise you might just be making a problem worse and worse until it's bad enough to be serious.
 
RotaryWingBob said:
Indeed. Our R22 should shortly have its new main rotor blades and spindles installed. You've never heard such politeness among the partners:

After you, Bob.
No, I really couldn't, after you John.
That wouldn't be fair, I don't want to deprive Dennis of his chance.
We can't exclude Gary...

The upshot is that we're going to ask the Robinson Service Center people to make the first flight :cheerswine:
Click to expand...


LOL!!! You know, I haven't heard a peep out of the other 2 pilots :rolleyes:
 
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Well, I've slept on it another night and I've decided to wimp out and let the owner have the honors of first flight. I liked your ideas Ken, and will keep those filed away with some of the other comments for the future time when I may
have to make the "first" flight.

Kaye
 
This is interesting, as it made me realize something. This year, for the first time, I was able to carve out enough time to participate in most of the annual inspection. Since I did most of the putting-back-together, it never crossed my mind, as it has after previous inspections, to worry about whether something was going to go wrong.

Of course, it helps to fly out of an airport that is surrounded by fields.

Judy
 
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