when flying becomes more natural

[mmilano]

today i got off early and decided to fullerton and back so i could log some xc time. well, i got there and there was a sqawk (that's what we call an 'issue' with the plane at our club.. not sure if that is standard) written up that mentioned something about the radio cutting out. it had the word "fixed?" after it so i wasn't sure.

i turned it on and could hear the tower, so i pre-flighted it and got ready to go. then after power up, i could hear the tower, but i could not hear my own mic like normal. i wasn't trying to talk to them, but i normally hear myself on the intercom.

long story short, i packed everything back up and called the owner to report it. he told me there is a knob under the transpoder (the radio is above it) that controls the intercom and that is probably what the problem is. well, he was right.

ok, i wasted a lot of time that i didn't really have extra, so i decided to set everything back up and go for a shorter flight to french valley. not xc time, but i was there so what the heck.

i made a right downwind departure, .. everything was great. about 10 mintues out of the traffic pattern in a climb i noticed something sticking out of the cowling. it was a screw sticking up. "how the heck did i miss that on my preflight" i wondered.

it was only one out of probably thirty screws, but i turned back for palomar. tower wasn't seeing my mode c, so i recycled the power, .. i was cleared number 2 to land, and was too close so he asked me to do s-turns. i'm starting to feel like communications with the tower flows like a conversation rather than forcing procedures.

best of all the landing was smooth as ever. it's hard to explain, but i just let it happen more by feeling. i remember thinking 'is my rotation too slow' for a second, but stopped questioning myself. after that was a couple seconds of ground effect, then an ever so slight sink to what i think was my best landing. it was the zen of landings.

turned out that the cowling screw just popped loose. it is one of those that has a spring on it. when i got on the ground, the screw went back down into the hole which is probably why i didn't notice it. i just tightened it and called it a day.

even though i only logged a half hour and a few things went wrong, i had such a great experience. everything felt natural, nothing felt forced, and none of the issues i had, which caused my change of plans, bothered me.. it was a good flying day.

 

[Michael]

Mike, Im glad you had a fun day of it. it took me a long time in my plane before i was comfortable with it. I feel like I'm the one doing the flying now. Its a great feeling.
I realize you had squwks, and thus the reason for cutting short your flight. Dont ever second guess that! However, this is the second thread in as many days i recall reading about a half hour flight. A mechanic friend of mine once told me, never take your plane up unless you plan on at leat an hour flight. Because it was rough on the engine. something about how long it takes for the oil or engine to get warm enough. Anyone ever hear this? Any mechs out there care to chime in? I simply dont know, I do a few short hops myself and wonder if I am being hard on my engine.
Again, Mike. I am glad you had a great time. Those folks at Fulerton are great if you ever do make it out that way

 

[RotaryWingBob]

A mechanic friend of mine once told me, never take your plane up unless you plan on at leat an hour flight. Because it was rough on the engine. something about how long it takes for the oil or engine to get warm enough. Anyone ever hear this? Any mechs out there care to chime in? I simply dont know, I do a few short hops myself and wonder if I am being hard on my engine.

It's true -- you want the oil to get warm enough, for long enough, to get rid of moisure and maybe acids which are in it. A few patterns, for example, is generally not considered sufficient, and the worst thing is to start it, let it idle for 15 minutes, and then shut it back down again.

I forget what you're flying, but Lycoming has a large number of articles on their web site about the care and feeding of engines.

 

[gismo]

A mechanic friend of mine once told me, never take your plane up unless you plan on at leat an hour flight. Because it was rough on the engine. something about how long it takes for the oil or engine to get warm enough. Anyone ever hear this? Any mechs out there care to chime in? I simply dont know, I do a few short hops myself and wonder if I am being hard on my engine.

"Never" is way too strong a word here. It may be true that a half hour flight is too short to completely "burn off" the volatile contaminants in the oil, but depending on what power level was used and for how long, it's probably close enough. And even an occasional 10 minute run isn't going to cause problems. The reality is that you don't want to subject an engine to frequent short runs as this would allow corrosives to accumulate in the oil. Even then, a simple cure would be more frequent oil changes. A worst case scenario would be making several short hops and then letting the engine sit for several weeks. IOW as long as most of your flights include a half hour or more at cruise power and you don't let the plane sit for a prolonged period after mostly short runs there's no need to worry about a short flight here and there. I'll bet that same mechanic will run any engine he just changed the oil on (or did other work requiring a test run) for a few minutes on the ground before parking it back in it's normal location.

 

[spiderweb]

Excellent story.

 

[Richard]

The way that story started I was thinking, "accident chain". First, you were'nt familiar with the radio, then it was surprise at the popped camloc, and a few other things. By the time you got around to the S-turns for spacing I was getting ready for the final conclusion.......

I'm happy that my initial reaction wasn't at all what this story was about.