Back From Clinton
I arrived home Sunday evening from Clinton. I didn't post any more updates because I was too darn busy and the lousy hotel's wireless internet didn't seem to like the Safari browser so I had to resort to Windows XP, yuck!
We had a lot of rain in Clinton on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday started out overcast but the clouds broke up by the afternoon. One of the guys from the club was pestering me for a chance to fly my plane. I kept telling him "as soon as the weather clears." When the weather lifted Thursday afternoon I tracked him down and we went flying. I started the plane, did the run up, and turned it over to him. He was astounded! His reaction to the flight was fun to see. We climbed out around 80MPH showing 800fpm up. His eye's were about to pop out of his head! We flew up the Mississippi River for a bit then turned around and flew back to Clinton. He had me make the landing as he wasn't comfortable landing from the right seat.
Friday was a bit of a let down for me. I let myself get into the situation though. I unofficially volunteered to help park planes and ended up doing it all day. A lot of planes made it in on Friday. We had 59 on the ground Friday morning and ended up with over 100 planes attending the fly-in all together. Because of the rain, the usual parking area in the grass was a bit of a mess in spots leaving us scrambling to try to find places to put planes. By Friday evening I'd had enough and turned in my bright green shirt and orange vest on Saturday morning.
One of the planes that arrived Thursday was a 150 from Boulder, CO owned by a 2 person partnership. About 200 miles from Clinton, the generator light came on so they proceded into Clinton with most of the electrical stuff shutdown, only using the radio when needed. Friday morning one of the club members and a mechanical expert on the 150 started diagnosing the problem. Turns out the plane's generator was replaced in May and the mechanic didn't do it properly. The drive gear on the generator was chewed up and there were pieces of metal and a couple of rubber bushing in the engine. One bushing was found in the oil when it was drained and the metal was caught by the oil filter. The other rubber bushing was in the oil sump and they couldn't get it out.
They were able to order and get the needed parts but the mechanic determined that the drive gear inside the engine was scarred and didn't want to install the generator. One of the partners in the plane, L, was for ferrying it to Davenport to have the engine torn down, the other, J, wanted to ferry it back to Greeley to have his mechanic work on it. J won the debate even though L and the mechanic were against it. J's a crusty old pilot and can be kind of stuborn at times. Anyway, in order to keep from ruining a new generator and risk putting more metal into the engine, the new generator was installed sans it's drive gear and the plane was flown using the battery alone. The battery is only needed to get the engine started.
Because of the maintenance situation and my proximity to the destination, L asked if I could give her a ride back to Boulder, to which I agreed. The plans seemed to change from minute to minute. Ideally, I was to accompany them back to Greeley and ferry one of them to Boulder who would then drive up to Greeley and pick up the other. J wanted to reverse the route they'd flown out. I looked at that route and decided that 2 of the legs were longer than I was comfortable with and advocated reversing the route I took to Clinton from Greeley. J was stubborn and was determined to fly his route so L and I started back following my route.
We got to Ames, IA and found the next stop, Columbus, NE, was weathered in. However, I knew I could make Beatrice, NE and that was where J was headed so we flew from Ames to Beatrice. Sure enough, 10 minutes after we landed, J shows up. Since the plane was running fine, L elected to fly with J on the remaining legs. We re-fueled again in McCook, NE then headed on into Greeley.
It was hot in Greeley! The temperature at the airport was over 100F! I was to ferry J back to Boulder where he would pick up his vehicle and then drive to Greeley to pick up L if L was unable to hitch a ride on a Boulder bound plane. With temperatures that high, the density altitude in Greeley was about 8900 feet. I knew I had plenty of runway and should be able to get off the ground and climb even with full fuel, baggage, and a passenger. The plane really surprised me though. Not only did it get off the ground but it climbed really well! At 100MPH indicated airspeed, I was still doing nearly 500fpm up! All the time and effort put into converting this plane paid for itself on that one flight alone. The only real problem with the high density altitude was trying to keep the oil temperatures away from the red. I was able to do that but just barely.
I dropped J in Boulder and headed home. It was a long day and I'm really glad we were able to make it all the way.
We had a lot of rain in Clinton on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday started out overcast but the clouds broke up by the afternoon. One of the guys from the club was pestering me for a chance to fly my plane. I kept telling him "as soon as the weather clears." When the weather lifted Thursday afternoon I tracked him down and we went flying. I started the plane, did the run up, and turned it over to him. He was astounded! His reaction to the flight was fun to see. We climbed out around 80MPH showing 800fpm up. His eye's were about to pop out of his head! We flew up the Mississippi River for a bit then turned around and flew back to Clinton. He had me make the landing as he wasn't comfortable landing from the right seat.
Friday was a bit of a let down for me. I let myself get into the situation though. I unofficially volunteered to help park planes and ended up doing it all day. A lot of planes made it in on Friday. We had 59 on the ground Friday morning and ended up with over 100 planes attending the fly-in all together. Because of the rain, the usual parking area in the grass was a bit of a mess in spots leaving us scrambling to try to find places to put planes. By Friday evening I'd had enough and turned in my bright green shirt and orange vest on Saturday morning.
One of the planes that arrived Thursday was a 150 from Boulder, CO owned by a 2 person partnership. About 200 miles from Clinton, the generator light came on so they proceded into Clinton with most of the electrical stuff shutdown, only using the radio when needed. Friday morning one of the club members and a mechanical expert on the 150 started diagnosing the problem. Turns out the plane's generator was replaced in May and the mechanic didn't do it properly. The drive gear on the generator was chewed up and there were pieces of metal and a couple of rubber bushing in the engine. One bushing was found in the oil when it was drained and the metal was caught by the oil filter. The other rubber bushing was in the oil sump and they couldn't get it out.
They were able to order and get the needed parts but the mechanic determined that the drive gear inside the engine was scarred and didn't want to install the generator. One of the partners in the plane, L, was for ferrying it to Davenport to have the engine torn down, the other, J, wanted to ferry it back to Greeley to have his mechanic work on it. J won the debate even though L and the mechanic were against it. J's a crusty old pilot and can be kind of stuborn at times. Anyway, in order to keep from ruining a new generator and risk putting more metal into the engine, the new generator was installed sans it's drive gear and the plane was flown using the battery alone. The battery is only needed to get the engine started.
Because of the maintenance situation and my proximity to the destination, L asked if I could give her a ride back to Boulder, to which I agreed. The plans seemed to change from minute to minute. Ideally, I was to accompany them back to Greeley and ferry one of them to Boulder who would then drive up to Greeley and pick up the other. J wanted to reverse the route they'd flown out. I looked at that route and decided that 2 of the legs were longer than I was comfortable with and advocated reversing the route I took to Clinton from Greeley. J was stubborn and was determined to fly his route so L and I started back following my route.
We got to Ames, IA and found the next stop, Columbus, NE, was weathered in. However, I knew I could make Beatrice, NE and that was where J was headed so we flew from Ames to Beatrice. Sure enough, 10 minutes after we landed, J shows up. Since the plane was running fine, L elected to fly with J on the remaining legs. We re-fueled again in McCook, NE then headed on into Greeley.
It was hot in Greeley! The temperature at the airport was over 100F! I was to ferry J back to Boulder where he would pick up his vehicle and then drive to Greeley to pick up L if L was unable to hitch a ride on a Boulder bound plane. With temperatures that high, the density altitude in Greeley was about 8900 feet. I knew I had plenty of runway and should be able to get off the ground and climb even with full fuel, baggage, and a passenger. The plane really surprised me though. Not only did it get off the ground but it climbed really well! At 100MPH indicated airspeed, I was still doing nearly 500fpm up! All the time and effort put into converting this plane paid for itself on that one flight alone. The only real problem with the high density altitude was trying to keep the oil temperatures away from the red. I was able to do that but just barely.
I dropped J in Boulder and headed home. It was a long day and I'm really glad we were able to make it all the way.