On 02/27/06 08:49, three-eight-hotel wrote:
So I just got out of a $1900 annual, and stopped by, on Friday, to gas
the plane up for a flight to happen this week... I tried to start the
plane up (Cessna 172), and it never as much as sputtered. The battery
was well charged and it turned over, and over, and over, and over...
Never fired though!?!? I tried for about 5 minutes, and ended up just
leaving it, for the mechanic to look at.

I called this morning, and they are still looking at it. He said, for
some reason, the left mag is dead. He's supposed to call me this
afternoon, when he has something definitive.

I've never had a problem starting this plane (with the exception of a
low battery), and was quite surprised to encounter something like that,
immediately after an annual... It would have been different, if it had
occured during regular useage, but when you go to pick up your airplane
from annual, you are expecting it to be in as tip-top shape as it can
be.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? The mechanic said the plane was
started and running after annual, so is this just a major coincidence?
Is it true??? Are we all just test pilots, when we pick our planes up
from an annual?

Thanks for any input.

Todd


I like Jim's response so I won't go there. I just wanted to mention that
in this month's IFR Refresher magazine, they have an article about a
high-time pilot that was to transport a Citation jet after maintenance,
and was taking off within about 15 minutes of picking up the keys. The
weather was IMC and it appeared no pre-flight planning was done, not
much of a walk around, etc.

Right after take off, he reported a minor problem and said he needed to
return to the field, and crashed within about 2 minutes.



--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA