Out of annual....

and back in the saddle, but not without a little excitement *smile*.

30 hours later, $1,700 less in my wallet and new wheel bearings to show for
it, I decided to take a short hop from KMBO (Madison, MS) to KJAN (Jackson
MS) which was a whole 9 NM to pick up a passenger who was coming in on a
commercial flight.

Runup, smooth as silk, preflight, nothing unusual, launch into the wild
blue yonder. Land at JAN, pick up the passenger, and figured everything
looked cool for a 30 minute cross country trip.

Fire up the engine, everything running smooth, taxi out to 34R, check
controls, check the L mag, and real rough engine. Check the right mag,
smooth, both setting smooth engine. Thinking hell, something not right,
lean it, try again, no success. Call ground with request to taxi back to
maintenance, 180 on taxiway approved, and shut down. A&P pulls cowling and
sure enough 1 plug wire dangling, and one wire you could see the threads
and it was not tightened down.

So..... he hooks up the wires, put the cowling on and we start up again.
Everything was cool on runup, but instead of going to Hattiesburg MS, I
told my passenger, we will put the plane through it's paces in the practice
area and go the next day. No other incidents, so I am cool for the next
year *smile*.

I was really impressed with this safety check. Had I not done a mag check,
or skipped it for any reason, I would have never detected a problem.
Engine was purring like a kitten in spite of only running off of 7 spark
plugs.

So, the real moral of this story is to stay within range of your airport.
One really never knows....

Allen

A Lieberman wrote:
and back in the saddle, but not without a little excitement *smile*.

30 hours later, $1,700 less in my wallet and new wheel bearings to show for
it, I decided to take a short hop from KMBO (Madison, MS) to KJAN (Jackson
MS) which was a whole 9 NM to pick up a passenger who was coming in on a
commercial flight.


So, was the dangling wire and loose nut how the shop left the plane
after its annual?

Thanks,
Mike

On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 07:37:08 -0500, A Lieberman
wrote:

snip

Fire up the engine, everything running smooth, taxi out to 34R, check
controls, check the L mag, and real rough engine. Check the right mag,
smooth, both setting smooth engine. Thinking hell, something not right,
lean it, try again, no success. Call ground with request to taxi back to
maintenance, 180 on taxiway approved, and shut down. A&P pulls cowling and
sure enough 1 plug wire dangling, and one wire you could see the threads
and it was not tightened down.

This is a customer relations make-or-break situation-I won't get into
the obvious safety of flight issues. I would like to think that some
serious forelock pulling took place on the A&P's (and his
supervisor's) part.

Closest I ever came to this situation was with a Saratoga back in the
80's. After my post-inspection test run, I shut off the engine with
the fuel selector. Old habit-long since "revised".

Did the delivery pitch to the owner, went back in and started working
on something else. "ummm, my airplane won't start". Walked out, turned
the fuel selector on, apologized sincerely, went back to work.

snip

So, the real moral of this story is to stay within range of your airport.
One really never knows....

Typically put 10-15 minutes on after any engine maintenance/annual
inspection, 60-90 minutes on a "new" cylinder/engine install before
returning it to the owner.

Only ever had one customer complain. I asked him if he would rather
fly around the pattern for 45 minutes waiting for something to fail.
He then decided that me doing it for him was acceptable.

TC

On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 13:16:34 GMT, Mike Spera wrote:

A Lieberman wrote:
and back in the saddle, but not without a little excitement *smile*.

30 hours later, $1,700 less in my wallet and new wheel bearings to show for
it, I decided to take a short hop from KMBO (Madison, MS) to KJAN (Jackson
MS) which was a whole 9 NM to pick up a passenger who was coming in on a
commercial flight.


So, was the dangling wire and loose nut how the shop left the plane
after its annual?

Mike,

MY GUESS is that the plug wire was not tightened and fell out in flight.

Reason I say this, is the mag check passed on my outbound flight to JAN. I
would have never had launched out of MBO for as rough as the MAG check was
at MBO.

It was at JAN, on my second runup where this was discovered.

I have NEVER had a problem with the shop where I am having my plane
maintained.

Human nature does prevail, but Murphy lives too! Fortunately, Murphy was
defied on the ground thanks to this safety check.

Allen

On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 09:12:43 -0500, A Lieberman wrote:

Reason I say this, is the mag check passed on my outbound flight to JAN. I
would have never had launched out of MBO for as rough as the MAG check was
at MBO.

CORRECTION:

Above should read:

Reason I say this, is the mag check passed on my outbound flight to JAN. I
would have never had launched out of MBO for as rough as the MAG check was
at JAN.

Allen

On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 07:37:08 -0500, A Lieberman
wrote:

Fire up the engine, everything running smooth, taxi out to 34R, check
controls, check the L mag, and real rough engine. Check the right mag,
smooth, both setting smooth engine. Thinking hell, something not right,
lean it, try again, no success. Call ground with request to taxi back to
maintenance, 180 on taxiway approved, and shut down. A&P pulls cowling and
sure enough 1 plug wire dangling, and one wire you could see the threads
and it was not tightened down.

This is why I pull the top cowl on my Cherokee 180 after any A&P
maintenance. My A&P does a great job (and I'm yet to find anything),
but you never know. This is also an easy task to do on a 180 - takes
about 1 minute. I know other planes are much more difficult.

I also always make a local area flight after each maintenance. This
flight is within gliding range of the runway at all times.

After that - I never fly in IMC for my first XC out of maintenance.

Perhaps these are over conservative guidelines, but I've read too many
accident reports where the plane was on its 1st flight after
maintenance.

: After that - I never fly in IMC for my first XC out of maintenance.

... and then there's this friend of mine. He (with the assistance of a very
competent, capable mechanic) re-timed the mags on his Cherokee 6 at an airport about
50 miles away from "home". This was after a much less-than-competent mechanic
mis-timed them due to the impulse couplings.

After timing, and running up, he took off IFR in 0/0 so bad that the mechanic
had a hard time *driving his car* home! There's a distinct "clanging" sound you hear
as he walks by...

-Cory


************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

Heh..heh..heh...heh...

Took a few seconds, but it kicked in...

ROFLMAO!

Dave


On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 15:40:56 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

! There's a distinct "clanging" sound you hear
as he walks by...

-Cory


************************************************* ************************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************* ************************