Doug Davis wrote:
>
> I sure missed that one by a country mile. At 50', short runway, trees
> and stumps, you don't have any time to make an error in judgement.
> All I can say is that I'm sure glad I wasn't flying with me on that
> trip!! I guess 30+ years off has left some cobwebs. You guys may have
> just saved my life. Just when I begin to get comfortable with the
> return of knowledge and skills both as a pilot and AP, something like
> this happens. But better my pride, than my life. Thanks to all for
> being too kind to me on that one.
>
> Ok George--next question!! :-(
> Doug
>
Okay Mr A&P (and the rest of the gang),
Here's one for you all to ponder on....
About a year ago this past summer, on a nice warm, dry day at
about
2500 A
MSL (2000 AGL) I had just taken off from a friends strip after a BBQ
picnic fly-in.
I was making a downwind departure to return home when during a
steady
climb I suddenly lost power, the engine was still running but it just
wasn't producing any 'climb power'.
The first thing I thought of was carb-icing so I immediately
pulled on
the carb heat and did a 180 as the field was right there really handy.
It cleared itself so did another 180 and headed for home again.
Then it did it again so I returned to the field I had just left
from
and checked everything I could think of, gascolator, wing tank drains,
drained the carb float bowl, checked the screens in the carb and
gascolater, run-up with an extra good mag and carb heat check as I had
done before I left the first time. Everything was just fine so I took
off again and circled the patern a couple of times for safety.
At about 3100 MSL this time it did it again so I landed, parked
the
plane and hitched a ride home from a fellow member.
The next morning I returned with my AP/AI and we checked
'everything'
that we could think of. We even changed the neoprene fuel line from the
header tank to the gascolator in case it was restricting fuel for some
'unknown' reason (we're really grasping at straws by this time) and we
cut it in half in several places and found nothing wrong.
We drained all three tanks and finding no sign of water or dirt
even in
the corners of the tank we refilled it with 80 octane Avgas. (I'd been
burning Mogass for the past 13 years that I've owned it as had the two
previous owners before me) That was the only thing we could think of
that might just possibly be the problem although we didn't either one
think that was the problem. (The guy who runs the tractor on the field
was thankful for about 15 gallons of free gas though.)
After we were convinced that there was 'nothing' wrong with the
plane I
took off again and circled the pattern until I got about 5000MSL and
then I headed for my AP/AI's hangar and he drove back to meet me there
(I made it safely with no further sympoms).
My coupe was due an annual the following month so I left it there
and
drove home and the next day we started a long and careful annual on it.
We never could duplicate the symptoms again, but during the annual
I
repaced the old Eisemanns with new Slick's. The general concensus was
that one of the coils was breaking down under load, but it was
intermittent so we couldn't get it to do it on the ground with a 'mag
check'. I was planning on completely rebuilding the mags at the next
annual anyway so my AP/AI suggested getting the Slicks rather than
'band-aiding' the old Eisemanns.
What do you all think, was it a coil, a coincidance, mogas,
or????? The
original symptoms were similar to icing except that it didn't run rough,
(nor did it die) it just didn't produce the power to climb.Puzzled in flight, Bob Saville N3396H 415C Eugene, OR
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