Three Grounders

Flying the past couple of days has been like watching the slumping Red Sox...lots of grounders. In fact it's been a one-two-three inning.

Yesterday I flew down to Logan to help with the SSA Region 9 North Soaring Contest, sponsored by my club. About 30 gliders are competing. The only airplane available was the Six, which would cost more, but there were two deciding factors to taking it. First, I could take a bicycle, which would come in handy. Second, I'm a pilot! I should fly places!

Launching 30 gliders (there was one relight) is a lot of work. The gliders were arranged on the runway (which was NOTAMed closed) in launch order. The three tow planes landed on the grass next to the runway, and two rope runners grab the rope with boat hooks and run in opposite directions, bringing the tow ring to the glider. The ring is attached and the tow plane goes. In the meantime, the next tow plane has landed, and the runners meet it and bring the ring to the next glider in line. It's the closest to the deck of an aircraft carrier I'll ever be.

Strike One! One of the tow planes hit a soft spot and bottomed out; its prop hit the pavement. The result: airplane grounded until its crankshaft is inspected.

Three hours later, the gliders were landing and we pushed them toward the parking area, making room for the next landing. My triathlon training for the day consisted of an unmeasured amount of running and 8 miles of bike riding. The bike came in handy.


I got home just a hair after sunset. I was back at the airport 12 hours later to fly with a student. He is doing final prep for his checkride, and things are really coming together, for him. For the airplane, it was a different story. The engine seemed weak during the takeoff roll, but that might have been the high density altitude. Coming back from the practice area, though, I noticed that the engine was only producing 2200 RPM or so, even though the throttle was at cruise setting. I played a little, firewalling the throttle and flying level. I only got 2400 RPM, not the 2700 RPM one would expect.

Strike Two! I called the maintenance office and explained. The Director of Maintenance sounded sad. "It's getting weak," he said. I was hoping for something different. But a Designated Examiner had also complained about it last week, and I guess my call was the final straw: the airplane is out of service for a month while they replace the engine.

The next student had some visiting family and wanted to do some sightseeing. In a different plane, of course. Except he had asked that the airplane be topped, and the extra fuel meant that we would exceed the maximum takeoff weight, by a lot. Two rides got turned into three ("The easiest way to carry a big load is to carry a lot of little loads").

We helped his mother into the back and he started up. I looked at the tachometer and noticed a little sticker saying "Oil Change Due 8131;" the tach read 8132. I told him to shut it down.

I called maintenance again. I was lucky: someone else answered. "Did the oil change get done without the sticker being updated?" I asked. This has been known to happen, although usually I discover it at 0400 and have to wake someone up to resolve the issue.

"No."

"Can we fly it?"

"Let me check. Are you in the office?"

"No, we're in the plane."

A couple of minutes later he called me back and gave us the OK. But Strike Three!, as soon as we landed they towed the airplane over to the maintenance hangar.

That's three grounded airplanes in less than 24 hours. A record worthy of the Red Sox.

Below Minimums [sic]

Saturday, I went to Logan to help the glider club with our annual.  I had planned to fly down in the Cherokee Six,  but when I checked the weather before breakfast, Logan had a 100 foot ceiling.  The forecast was for improvement, but the weather was lower than forecast already.  The approach lights were out of service, too.  This potential accident chain had too many strong links for me.  I have seen down through a 100 foot ceiling, but that was at night with approach lights.  There would be ice on the approach, and while the Six has a lot of power (especially with just me), it has no deicing equipment.  I did once have it in ice so bad that it would not climb, over the Cascades.  I did not like the idea of being at the bottom of a steep valley in an iced-up airplane.  Besides, the weather was even iffier for the return.  I drove.

One always questions these decisions, with the macho pilot inside saying that you had handled that kind of weather before, while the instructor inside saying that it really was a VFR-only airplane.  The drive down was mostly in VFR conditions, but as I got closer to Logan there was some fog, and when I turned off the highway to the airport I had to slow down, because the visibility was well below one quarter mile.


We had fun with the glider (there were more hands than the work required, so it went quickly, and we didn't find anything wrong), but when I started home my wife said that it had been snowing all day.  Home was a mess, with wet sticky snow, the kind that always makes a ton of mixed iced.  

A good day for driving, all around.