LowNSlow
25th Sep 2002, 12:07
Below is a story where you will all have a chance to shout TOSSER at me :D but I hope it will serve to focus peoples attention on how ignoring warning signs can be a VERY silly thing to do. I got away with it as a very chastened chappie with a lighter wallet but my skin and my aeroplane intact.
I was going for a flight in my aged Auster one day last summer. The grass each side of the mown strip was quite long, 18" or so. This was pointed out to me by the owner of the strip with the warning that he'd seen aircraft noseover after coming into contact with similar greenery. No problem thinks your intrepid aviator, even I can keep the old girl on the strip no problem.
Did all the usual checks and started her up. I banged my shin as my foot slipped on the cabin step. (warning sign No. 1) She cut out on the slow running check. Rats thinks I and gets out to start her again (hand start). Miss warning sign No. 2 while grumbling to myself about having to unstrap etc etc.
Taxi out and lo and behold she cuts again after rechecking the slow running. Now things are heading straight towards the sea of stupidity cos yours truly interprets this as probably some gunge, maybe grass from the freshly mown strip in the slow running jet of the carb. Warning sign No. 3 sails over the oblivious head of the person in the left hand seat. Files the problem in the bag of the rapidly emptying head to be raised with friendly engineer over a cuppa later. Revs up and away we go.
Trundling along the runway warning sign No. 4 flashes past as I realise that I'm taking longer to get off the ground than usual. Still plenty of time to call it a day at this point but oh no off we go. I got airborne well within a safe distance and busy myself settling in the cruise and talking to the men on the ground.
As I'm poodling along I ponder on the extended takeoff and convince myself it was a) due to using the uphill direction rather than the more usual downhill and b) it's a warm day and that's why I'm cruising a bit slower than normal as well. Fully convinced of my reasoning off I trundle.
Upon my return I did have the sense not to bring the engine fully to idle on the approach just in case there was a repeat of the earlier performance. Hand starting an aeroplane on finals is not easy!
Of course there's a mild crosswind (as always) but a good sideslip gets me in the right position with full flap down. In the right position to float down the runway cos with 1,000 rpm on the clock I ain't gonna land! Easy peasy, thinks I, close the throttle, doesn't matter if the engine stops cos I'm slap bang on the centreline with lots of room ahead. Whoops, this is where all the birdies come home to roost.
Engine immediately stops, I've got full flap down (very bad idea with hindsight but I've never deadsticked an Auster before) and the aeroplane stops. Still 3 feet above the runway. No power to cushion the landing. Bounce. Bounce again. And again. The trainers I'm wearing have hard and slippery soles. They slide of the (tiny) heel brake pedals. There is no steering with the tailwheel cos it's the great free castoring jobby that helps Austers maintain their reputation for being little piggies on the ground. There is no airflow from the prop to energise the rudder. Oops, there's the grass......
Fortunately by this time after all the zigging and zagging along the 20' wide runway I'm doing about 5 mph as I roll into the grass with one wheel. The tail thankfully does NOT lift and my expensive and hard to replace steel propellor is NOT bent.
After extracting the old girl from the grass and manhandling her into the hangar I kick myself in the backside all the way to the tearoom. I have a cuppa and a ciggie to calm myself down.
With the classic 20/20 hindsight I realised the following:
a) I had had ample waring from the engine that I should NOT have gone flying that day.
b) I was wearing inappropriate shoes for such tiny (about 1" square) brake pedals.
c) The repeated cuts at slow engine speeds would cause problems when I landed
d) Even an idling engine produces sufficient rudder authority to maintain control on the ground.
e) In the above circumstances no engine means seriously reduced control
The best (worst) is yet to come.......
When the engineer examined the carburettor he discovered the carburettor wasn't blocked, it was loose. VERY loose. The studs were there but the threads into the carburettor were ruined. With the engine running above 1,000 rpm the suction through the carb held it onto the manifold gasket. At low revs, the weight of the carb pulled it off the gasket causing a lean cut as the excess air rushed in.
Initially I thought that I'd missed the carb being lose which puzzled me as I make a point of grabbing the major engine components and trying to waggle them around. Old engines vibrate a lot, things do come loose. Even I knew that. I thought I would have seen a lose carburettor for goodness sake, it's right in front of me (and the size of a medium saucepan) when I take the engine cowl off to check the oil.
The reason it came lose was more sneaky than mere vibration.
The real reason was that the engine mounts had sagged with age (don't we all). The Auster has a Cirrus in-line engine unlike the flat 4's in most Cessnas and Pipers. The flat 4s have a 4 point mounting at the back of the engine which bolts to the firewall.
The inline engine is different. This engine is held hanging between two beams on 4 steel and rubber cylindrical mountings which are invisible because they are within alloy blocks. The beams are braced from below to the firewall. They form a triangle. The carburettor air intake sticks out into the airflow through the triangle. The sagging mountings had allowed the engine to drop less than half an inch but enough to bring the carb into contact with the engine mounting frame. The motion of the engine made short work of the alloy casting that the carburettor mounting bolts screw into. However, with carburettor "leaning" onto the lower part of the engine mounting frame it did NOT appear to be lose until the engine was started.
As I said earlier, Sneaky.
Enter one scrap 56 year old carburettor and a scrap alloy casting to the air intake into the equation. Fortunately the engine mounting beam suffered only scratched paint.
Fortunately I know some extremely helpful wizards with old engines who are reckoned to be one of the best in the world (yes they are British). They had to cut my old carb up to retreive the innards which they mounted into a new body (which they had in stock amazingly). My friendly engineer actually had a new, unused alloy air intake casting in his stores (even more amazing). The invoice dated from 1976. Serendipity is the only word I can use to describe the coincidence of people I knew having the ancient parts I needed! Anyhow, a total of 1,300 odd pounds later I now have new engine mounts and a virtually new carburettor. Yes, old aeroplanes can be expensive.
I will also NEVER, EVER AGAIN ignore warnings that my engine or aeroplane send me.
I hate to think what would have happened if the carb had come lose on finals..........
Here sits a chastened and gratefull lucky pilot. I don't want to rely on luck ever again. And yes, I have read My Worst Day type of things and thought "Tosser, I won't let that happen to me"......
I was going for a flight in my aged Auster one day last summer. The grass each side of the mown strip was quite long, 18" or so. This was pointed out to me by the owner of the strip with the warning that he'd seen aircraft noseover after coming into contact with similar greenery. No problem thinks your intrepid aviator, even I can keep the old girl on the strip no problem.
Did all the usual checks and started her up. I banged my shin as my foot slipped on the cabin step. (warning sign No. 1) She cut out on the slow running check. Rats thinks I and gets out to start her again (hand start). Miss warning sign No. 2 while grumbling to myself about having to unstrap etc etc.
Taxi out and lo and behold she cuts again after rechecking the slow running. Now things are heading straight towards the sea of stupidity cos yours truly interprets this as probably some gunge, maybe grass from the freshly mown strip in the slow running jet of the carb. Warning sign No. 3 sails over the oblivious head of the person in the left hand seat. Files the problem in the bag of the rapidly emptying head to be raised with friendly engineer over a cuppa later. Revs up and away we go.
Trundling along the runway warning sign No. 4 flashes past as I realise that I'm taking longer to get off the ground than usual. Still plenty of time to call it a day at this point but oh no off we go. I got airborne well within a safe distance and busy myself settling in the cruise and talking to the men on the ground.
As I'm poodling along I ponder on the extended takeoff and convince myself it was a) due to using the uphill direction rather than the more usual downhill and b) it's a warm day and that's why I'm cruising a bit slower than normal as well. Fully convinced of my reasoning off I trundle.
Upon my return I did have the sense not to bring the engine fully to idle on the approach just in case there was a repeat of the earlier performance. Hand starting an aeroplane on finals is not easy!
Of course there's a mild crosswind (as always) but a good sideslip gets me in the right position with full flap down. In the right position to float down the runway cos with 1,000 rpm on the clock I ain't gonna land! Easy peasy, thinks I, close the throttle, doesn't matter if the engine stops cos I'm slap bang on the centreline with lots of room ahead. Whoops, this is where all the birdies come home to roost.
Engine immediately stops, I've got full flap down (very bad idea with hindsight but I've never deadsticked an Auster before) and the aeroplane stops. Still 3 feet above the runway. No power to cushion the landing. Bounce. Bounce again. And again. The trainers I'm wearing have hard and slippery soles. They slide of the (tiny) heel brake pedals. There is no steering with the tailwheel cos it's the great free castoring jobby that helps Austers maintain their reputation for being little piggies on the ground. There is no airflow from the prop to energise the rudder. Oops, there's the grass......
Fortunately by this time after all the zigging and zagging along the 20' wide runway I'm doing about 5 mph as I roll into the grass with one wheel. The tail thankfully does NOT lift and my expensive and hard to replace steel propellor is NOT bent.
After extracting the old girl from the grass and manhandling her into the hangar I kick myself in the backside all the way to the tearoom. I have a cuppa and a ciggie to calm myself down.
With the classic 20/20 hindsight I realised the following:
a) I had had ample waring from the engine that I should NOT have gone flying that day.
b) I was wearing inappropriate shoes for such tiny (about 1" square) brake pedals.
c) The repeated cuts at slow engine speeds would cause problems when I landed
d) Even an idling engine produces sufficient rudder authority to maintain control on the ground.
e) In the above circumstances no engine means seriously reduced control
The best (worst) is yet to come.......
When the engineer examined the carburettor he discovered the carburettor wasn't blocked, it was loose. VERY loose. The studs were there but the threads into the carburettor were ruined. With the engine running above 1,000 rpm the suction through the carb held it onto the manifold gasket. At low revs, the weight of the carb pulled it off the gasket causing a lean cut as the excess air rushed in.
Initially I thought that I'd missed the carb being lose which puzzled me as I make a point of grabbing the major engine components and trying to waggle them around. Old engines vibrate a lot, things do come loose. Even I knew that. I thought I would have seen a lose carburettor for goodness sake, it's right in front of me (and the size of a medium saucepan) when I take the engine cowl off to check the oil.
The reason it came lose was more sneaky than mere vibration.
The real reason was that the engine mounts had sagged with age (don't we all). The Auster has a Cirrus in-line engine unlike the flat 4's in most Cessnas and Pipers. The flat 4s have a 4 point mounting at the back of the engine which bolts to the firewall.
The inline engine is different. This engine is held hanging between two beams on 4 steel and rubber cylindrical mountings which are invisible because they are within alloy blocks. The beams are braced from below to the firewall. They form a triangle. The carburettor air intake sticks out into the airflow through the triangle. The sagging mountings had allowed the engine to drop less than half an inch but enough to bring the carb into contact with the engine mounting frame. The motion of the engine made short work of the alloy casting that the carburettor mounting bolts screw into. However, with carburettor "leaning" onto the lower part of the engine mounting frame it did NOT appear to be lose until the engine was started.
As I said earlier, Sneaky.
Enter one scrap 56 year old carburettor and a scrap alloy casting to the air intake into the equation. Fortunately the engine mounting beam suffered only scratched paint.
Fortunately I know some extremely helpful wizards with old engines who are reckoned to be one of the best in the world (yes they are British). They had to cut my old carb up to retreive the innards which they mounted into a new body (which they had in stock amazingly). My friendly engineer actually had a new, unused alloy air intake casting in his stores (even more amazing). The invoice dated from 1976. Serendipity is the only word I can use to describe the coincidence of people I knew having the ancient parts I needed! Anyhow, a total of 1,300 odd pounds later I now have new engine mounts and a virtually new carburettor. Yes, old aeroplanes can be expensive.
I will also NEVER, EVER AGAIN ignore warnings that my engine or aeroplane send me.
I hate to think what would have happened if the carb had come lose on finals..........
Here sits a chastened and gratefull lucky pilot. I don't want to rely on luck ever again. And yes, I have read My Worst Day type of things and thought "Tosser, I won't let that happen to me"......