Rockin and Rollin
This weekend we flew 250 nm away to visit with family. We left early Saturday morning in an attempt to get to the destination before the winds cranked up.
Unfortunately the cold weather caused delays - we needed to remove a little frost but more time consuming than that was the fact that the fuel cap on the left wing was frozen shut.
The 1968 C-172i we fly has a terrible design for the fuel cap - it has what amounts to a mote around it that catches and holds water. Not only is it very helpful for getting water in the tanks (that's a BAD thing) but in this case the water in the mote had frozen solid, trapping the cap in the process.
K ran back to the terminal to get some hot water from the tap. Using that I was able to finally free the cap, allowing me to verify the amount of fuel.
Here it is with no water in it:
After nearly running the battery out of juice we were able to crank up the engine. We taxied out to the runway and during the run-up found that the right mag was running rough. About 20 seconds of running at 2000 RPM with a leaned-to-max-RPM mixture cleared it up. We departed 31 and spent 2.5 hours getting to the destination.
The trip was not the most fun we've had. Significant turbulence was smacking us around for the last 1.5 hours - almost making K sick at one point. The dog (taking up the entire back seat) slept through all of it. We also saw some trouble with the RPM gauge making grinding noises and fluctuating wildly at times. The engine was pretty steady and humming along so we pressed toward the goal. After a challenging crosswind landing we parked and gave our mechanic a call.
He said the RPM gauge would not affect anything else in the plane if it crapped out, so we should just mark it INOP and ignore it for the trip back. It turned out to behave itself on the return trek but we'll likely replace it soon - it's almost 40 years old.
In general the trip back was easier. The engine cranked right up in the warmer weather and the air was a little smoother (though still some decent knocks every so often). Lynk (the dog) slept through those bumps as well. In fact, at one point I gave him a scratch and he looked up at me, with bleary eyes, as if to say "Excuse me, I was sleeping"!
K finished the flight with a good landing in a gusty headwind at JGG.
We had a good time down south but were happy to be home.
Unfortunately the cold weather caused delays - we needed to remove a little frost but more time consuming than that was the fact that the fuel cap on the left wing was frozen shut.
The 1968 C-172i we fly has a terrible design for the fuel cap - it has what amounts to a mote around it that catches and holds water. Not only is it very helpful for getting water in the tanks (that's a BAD thing) but in this case the water in the mote had frozen solid, trapping the cap in the process.
K ran back to the terminal to get some hot water from the tap. Using that I was able to finally free the cap, allowing me to verify the amount of fuel.
Here it is with no water in it:
After nearly running the battery out of juice we were able to crank up the engine. We taxied out to the runway and during the run-up found that the right mag was running rough. About 20 seconds of running at 2000 RPM with a leaned-to-max-RPM mixture cleared it up. We departed 31 and spent 2.5 hours getting to the destination.
The trip was not the most fun we've had. Significant turbulence was smacking us around for the last 1.5 hours - almost making K sick at one point. The dog (taking up the entire back seat) slept through all of it. We also saw some trouble with the RPM gauge making grinding noises and fluctuating wildly at times. The engine was pretty steady and humming along so we pressed toward the goal. After a challenging crosswind landing we parked and gave our mechanic a call.
He said the RPM gauge would not affect anything else in the plane if it crapped out, so we should just mark it INOP and ignore it for the trip back. It turned out to behave itself on the return trek but we'll likely replace it soon - it's almost 40 years old.
In general the trip back was easier. The engine cranked right up in the warmer weather and the air was a little smoother (though still some decent knocks every so often). Lynk (the dog) slept through those bumps as well. In fact, at one point I gave him a scratch and he looked up at me, with bleary eyes, as if to say "Excuse me, I was sleeping"!
K finished the flight with a good landing in a gusty headwind at JGG.
We had a good time down south but were happy to be home.
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