My First Time......

[TallFlyer]

....returning to the hanger after the run up.

Got done with the mags, grabbed the carb heat knob and it wouldn't budge. Jiggled it a little, pulled off the taxiway and got out and 'got under the hood' so to speak.... The cable seemed to be fine but the shaft that it was attached to wouldn't budge.

Honestly a really interesting feeling. I guess you just get so used to the idea of the run up being a formality that when you actually encounter a problem it sorta shocks you I guess. It certainly didn't help that I had a good friend of mine in the right seat and I REALLY wanted to go, but alas, no can do....

[BobDDuck]

I've taken a plane back to the ramp from the run up pad a few times now. Generaly not being able to clean fouled mags, but there is a whole laundry list of stuff that has happened. On a similar note I had a captain tell me a story the other day (probably urban legand) about a PAX who made a big deal to the FA and complained to the crew when they landed because he was a private pilot and he knew they didn't do a mag check before take off. Right, got to see that ITT drop less then 200 on the old CFM.

[Thair81]

Had a similar thing happen to me a few weeks ago. I was checking the mags during the run-up and switched to the left mag...everything was fine...then switched back to both and then over to the right...wayyy too much of a drop. Put it back to both and then switched over to the right one a few more times...still too much of a drop. Alas, had to taxi it back to the hangar to see if it could be fixed. Waited an hour while the engineer cleaned the spark plugs and tested it out...still no luck. I thought I was not going to get to fly that day but another of the school's planes came back and was available, so fortunately I did get to fly. As it turned out, it was a very tiny bit of fibre in one of the plugs that was causing the problem.

[alphaone]

I have had a few things happen to me like this. Once with the mags totally dropping the R.P.M out of control on the left, taxied it back in. Turns out it needed a new spark plug. On the first day that I had my PPL and the first day I was ever taking a "passenger" flying, I had an engine failure about 20 secs. after takeoff. I got to go to class now but let me know if you guys want to know about that.....
wes

[ComplexHiAv8r]

YEA!!!!

Need the Story on that one!

[Texguy]

Do tell!

[C650CPT]

[ QUOTE ]
....returning to the hanger after the run up.

Got done with the mags, grabbed the carb heat knob and it wouldn't budge.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's a mag? What's a carb heat knob?

[casey]

[ QUOTE ]
On a similar note I had a captain tell me a story the other day (probably urban legand) about a PAX who made a big deal to the FA and complained to the crew when they landed because he was a private pilot and he knew they didn't do a mag check before take off.

[/ QUOTE ]

i heard another version of that one from a B1900 crew (no cockpit door), where a pax (again, a private pilot) complained the to the crew that he didnt see them pull carb heat on a approach (must've been a cessna only guy). The pilots challenge him to find a carb heat knob, and he looks around a while and tells them it must be fuel injected.

[Pavehawk]

My first time was the day I was supposed to do my first solo cross country. I had a constant low voltage indication and the ammeter was showing a constant discharge.

[Doug Taylor]

True story! A passenger wrote a letter to Skyway airlines after my captain and I failed to perform a proper "GUMP" (Gas, undercarriage, mixtures forward, props forward) check prior to landing.

I also got a 'talking to' from an older person about standing in the 'arc' of the propellor when I was helping board passengers.

"You might have a hot mag, son"

[alphaone]

Ok, so I just had my PPL checkride and was feeling pretty good. Everything had gone great during the summer and my friends all knew I was becoming a pilot so it was the plan we would go flying before we all went to college. One of our friends was already at college in LEX so we were going to take a day trip down. The friend I was taking was visibally a little nervous and so was I for some reason.....But I explained to him what was going on as I did my preflight, how the headphones worked etc...Everything relaxed and it felt like it had every other flight, leaving the same FBO and my CFI waving goodbye. After talking to the tower, taxiing into position and hold and then a nice smooth takeoff climbout was going great. My great felt calm and was enjoying himself and the airplane was preforming nicely. Just as I was going to mention to him to look out the right side and see a famous local landmark, I noticed the A/C started to vibrate, more and more. I could feel as well as the VSI indicated we stopped climbing, and I looked at the RPM seeing it drop through 2000 going down, it should have been at 2500. I started a right turn and for a split second thought this cant be happening....Two seconds later the RPM was passing through 1500 and the engine was making this violent backfireing high pitch kind of noise....Not the normal humm. So I calmy told my buddy, because he had no idea nothing was wrong that we would be returning to Lunken and then called Lunken's tower and said "Lunken tower cessna ....29H is expieriencing and engine failure need to return now" The ATC were great, She cleared me to land on a runway facing the way we took off, then told the other planes essentially to watch out. From here I pitched for 60kts but we were already a little high considering we were almost on top of the field and were really in a great position to land. Lowered the flaps, put the throttle to idle and actually had really good power off landing....And we were able to make the first high speed turn off. I stopped the A/C there becsause it was backfiring crazy and reving from no power in short bursts. Shut the airplane down and got a tow in. As the mx investigated, after takeoff a "cap" or "gasgit"? blew causing the engine to lose 3 of four cylinders, so not a complete engine failure I guess.....
But needless to say we drove to LEX instead!

[Swen]

Woo! What a ride. At least you had some altitude in your favor though.

[triple7]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, so I just had my PPL checkride and was feeling pretty good. Everything had gone great during the summer and my friends all knew I was becoming a pilot so it was the plan we would go flying before we all went to college. One of our friends was already at college in LEX so we were going to take a day trip down. The friend I was taking was visibally a little nervous and so was I for some reason.....But I explained to him what was going on as I did my preflight, how the headphones worked etc...Everything relaxed and it felt like it had every other flight, leaving the same FBO and my CFI waving goodbye. After talking to the tower, taxiing into position and hold and then a nice smooth takeoff climbout was going great. My great felt calm and was enjoying himself and the airplane was preforming nicely. Just as I was going to mention to him to look out the right side and see a famous local landmark, I noticed the A/C started to vibrate, more and more. I could feel as well as the VSI indicated we stopped climbing, and I looked at the RPM seeing it drop through 2000 going down, it should have been at 2500. I started a right turn and for a split second thought this cant be happening....Two seconds later the RPM was passing through 1500 and the engine was making this violent backfireing high pitch kind of noise....Not the normal humm. So I calmy told my buddy, because he had no idea nothing was wrong that we would be returning to Lunken and then called Lunken's tower and said "Lunken tower cessna ....29H is expieriencing and engine failure need to return now" The ATC were great, She cleared me to land on a runway facing the way we took off, then told the other planes essentially to watch out. From here I pitched for 60kts but we were already a little high considering we were almost on top of the field and were really in a great position to land. Lowered the flaps, put the throttle to idle and actually had really good power off landing....And we were able to make the first high speed turn off. I stopped the A/C there becsause it was backfiring crazy and reving from no power in short bursts. Shut the airplane down and got a tow in. As the mx investigated, after takeoff a "cap" or "gasgit"? blew causing the engine to lose 3 of four cylinders, so not a complete engine failure I guess.....
But needless to say we drove to LEX instead!

[/ QUOTE ]

wow, nice job. ever get that guy to go back up with you?

[KLB]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, so I just had my PPL checkride and was feeling pretty good. Everything had gone great during the summer and my friends all knew I was becoming a pilot so it was the plan we would go flying before we all went to college. One of our friends was already at college in LEX so we were going to take a day trip down. The friend I was taking was visibally a little nervous and so was I for some reason.....But I explained to him what was going on as I did my preflight, how the headphones worked etc...Everything relaxed and it felt like it had every other flight, leaving the same FBO and my CFI waving goodbye. After talking to the tower, taxiing into position and hold and then a nice smooth takeoff climbout was going great. My great felt calm and was enjoying himself and the airplane was preforming nicely. Just as I was going to mention to him to look out the right side and see a famous local landmark, I noticed the A/C started to vibrate, more and more. I could feel as well as the VSI indicated we stopped climbing, and I looked at the RPM seeing it drop through 2000 going down, it should have been at 2500. I started a right turn and for a split second thought this cant be happening....Two seconds later the RPM was passing through 1500 and the engine was making this violent backfireing high pitch kind of noise....Not the normal humm. So I calmy told my buddy, because he had no idea nothing was wrong that we would be returning to Lunken and then called Lunken's tower and said "Lunken tower cessna ....29H is expieriencing and engine failure need to return now" The ATC were great, She cleared me to land on a runway facing the way we took off, then told the other planes essentially to watch out. From here I pitched for 60kts but we were already a little high considering we were almost on top of the field and were really in a great position to land. Lowered the flaps, put the throttle to idle and actually had really good power off landing....And we were able to make the first high speed turn off. I stopped the A/C there becsause it was backfiring crazy and reving from no power in short bursts. Shut the airplane down and got a tow in. As the mx investigated, after takeoff a "cap" or "gasgit"? blew causing the engine to lose 3 of four cylinders, so not a complete engine failure I guess.....
But needless to say we drove to LEX instead!

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting that you posted this.....something very similar happened to one of the other instructors and a student today where I work.

After a long day of work (3.2hrs), I was on my way out to fly with this one last student when I saw a plane sounding very funny on short final. As the plane was leveling off and about to go into the flare, I heard the engine tick a few times and the prop completely stop turning. The aircraft landed pretty ok, rolled down the runway for a bit and truned onto the taxi way. At first I thought it was the instructor just doing something crazy like pulling the students mixture in the pattern. But then I really thought about it and it came to me that if you pull the mixure on a fixed pitch prop i.e. C-152, the prop should still be windmilling. I then see instructor get out of the plane and give the plane a look.

What he explained happened is just like the quotes story except that it happened about 8 miles outside of the airport. While flying directly above another airfield the RPM slowly began to drop. The instructor thinking that it was a bad mag, turned back toward Hick's field and was coming back to get it checked out. About 6 miles out he noticed the oil pressure dropping to zero and the RPM steadily dropping. He did all he could to keep his altitude and brought it in high just in case the engine quit.....which it did as soon as he brought the throttle to idle. When he had the runway made he slipped it on down and landed pretty decently. He was a little fast on final. The engine looks pretty cooked and there was oil all down the fuselage. The mechanics haven't figured out what caused it yet.

The crazy thing is.... that I was working with my student on simulated engine out in that very aircraft today.

[Windchill]

Great job PIC alphaone!

[alphaone]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ok, so I just had my PPL checkride and was feeling pretty good. Everything had gone great during the summer and my friends all knew I was becoming a pilot so it was the plan we would go flying before we all went to college. One of our friends was already at college in LEX so we were going to take a day trip down. The friend I was taking was visibally a little nervous and so was I for some reason.....But I explained to him what was going on as I did my preflight, how the headphones worked etc...Everything relaxed and it felt like it had every other flight, leaving the same FBO and my CFI waving goodbye. After talking to the tower, taxiing into position and hold and then a nice smooth takeoff climbout was going great. My great felt calm and was enjoying himself and the airplane was preforming nicely. Just as I was going to mention to him to look out the right side and see a famous local landmark, I noticed the A/C started to vibrate, more and more. I could feel as well as the VSI indicated we stopped climbing, and I looked at the RPM seeing it drop through 2000 going down, it should have been at 2500. I started a right turn and for a split second thought this cant be happening....Two seconds later the RPM was passing through 1500 and the engine was making this violent backfireing high pitch kind of noise....Not the normal humm. So I calmy told my buddy, because he had no idea nothing was wrong that we would be returning to Lunken and then called Lunken's tower and said "Lunken tower cessna ....29H is expieriencing and engine failure need to return now" The ATC were great, She cleared me to land on a runway facing the way we took off, then told the other planes essentially to watch out. From here I pitched for 60kts but we were already a little high considering we were almost on top of the field and were really in a great position to land. Lowered the flaps, put the throttle to idle and actually had really good power off landing....And we were able to make the first high speed turn off. I stopped the A/C there becsause it was backfiring crazy and reving from no power in short bursts. Shut the airplane down and got a tow in. As the mx investigated, after takeoff a "cap" or "gasgit"? blew causing the engine to lose 3 of four cylinders, so not a complete engine failure I guess.....
But needless to say we drove to LEX instead!

[/ QUOTE ]

wow, nice job. ever get that guy to go back up with you?

[/ QUOTE ] I obviously don't have much expierience flying pax, hence the only pax i had was in the air for 60 seconds and we had an emergency landing. But when this happened He was so oblivious to the emergency that was going on he doesn't have a problem flying again. Actually he wants to go up, so were flying in about a month. Does anyone have expierence with emergencies and pax and how they respond and stuff?
wes

[alphaone]

[ QUOTE ]
Great job PIC alphaone!

[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you. But the next day I was in an airplane I was all messed up.....I thought the engine was running rough and dying every 5 mins. Interesting how much something like that messes you up...

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Ahhhhh....Sunken Lunken. I remember it fondly!

-Matthew

[flyguy]

[ QUOTE ]
....returning to the hanger after the run up.

Got done with the mags, grabbed the carb heat knob and it wouldn't budge. Jiggled it a little, pulled off the taxiway and got out and 'got under the hood' so to speak.... The cable seemed to be fine but the shaft that it was attached to wouldn't budge.


[/ QUOTE ]
Once I got to the runup area, pulled out the carb heat and I had the opposite problem. It just kept comming out, cable and all. That was a trip back to the ramp too.