Hello Net I neglected Tweety for the last three weeks so that I could work on a sick Cessna 340. The 340 took all my time. For the past week I worked feverously trying to fix some squawks on Tweety. The gas tank was leaking, the transponder was out, the brake change was not complete, and it's bottom needed some paint. For the most part most of the work got completed today by 4PM. Full of gas and baggage we headed to the runway and off we went. The problem is that we did not get far. It appears that a while back (35 hours) when I was moving CHT probes around, I did not re-torque the heads suffiently to preclude gas leaks. After takeoff today, the gas leak on the pilots rear cylinder told me to stay home. Lift off was normal and I was climbing through about 500 AGL when the cylinder stopped firing. The cockpit was shaking from the three cylinder operation and I squeezed the mike, and told the tower that I had an emergency and needed a runway. I was offered the full pattern and declined while requesting a 180 turn and return to same runway with a tail wind. I was asked earlier this afternoon what my speed was at the time the engine started to miss. I was climbing at 75 when the engine started to shake. I lowered the nose, executed a sharp 180. and reduced rpm and was close enough with enough altitude to feel the need to pull full flaps for a landing on the down wind runway. The tail wind was 6 kts right at my back. As I pulled power the prop quit turning and I got some glider practice for the rest of the trip down. I never did look at the airspeed, I just flew the plane to the ground just like a normal landing. I turned off the runway and stopped in the grass on the side. The engine did restart after some effort and popped and hissed all the way back to my hanger. A friend of mine was filming my departure and stated that he has the whole thing on film. If it's any good, I'll put it on a web page. I have pictures of the head and the damage to it and will upload a page tonight. As for the trip to Mt. Vernon, well, it's only Thursday, and a lot can happen between now and the end.
Orma L. Robbins Southfield, MI KR-2 N110LR 1984 See Tweety at http://www.kr-2.aviation-mechanics.com See other KR spces at www.kr-2.aviation-mechanics.com/krinfo.htm
