Hopping

I woke up at 6:00 am, and went out to Glenndale.  We had a make-up day we needed to do for the Squirrels, and Kokomo is too busy with the construction to have all of us going in and out twice an hour every hour all morning and into the afternoon.  So last night I suggested everyone meet at Glenndale where we could do it freely.  It worked out well, because I had a problem and Ron was able to help me, and Cusick had a flat nosewheel and Ron was able to help him too.  So...that worked out. My first Squirrel got out and said "You're the most fun one here to fly with.  And you let us do a lot more than the others."  Well, thanks, I appreciate the compliment. My feet got soaked in the grass pulling the plane out on a foggy wet morning, and they stayed wet all morning.  I was the first one there (because of the fog), so when it burned off enough, I took the Champ up myself and did 3 takeoffs and landings just for fun.

So I hand propped the Champ and flew it during the morning hours, then put it away and ran home to pick up Steve and Ann.  We got out to Kokomo, and John had his Bonanza out and fueled up for me.  We loaded up Ann and her bags, and took off for southern Nashville, TN.  About two hours later we arrived, dodging around a few buildups, but nothing too bad.  We can't find Ann's hearing aids, so Steve goes back to the plane to look, and found her case of medicine still in there too.  Darned good thing we went back to the plane to check for the hearing aids, or we'd have had to turn around and fly back down there and deliver them.  Eek.  

We go home, and have some weather to go around on the way out of TN, followed by clear sailing.  Well, not *clear*.  It was so whited out and murky that it was literally IMC. I had zero reference to anything.  If I looked straight down at the ground out my left window I could see that the ground was there, but you couldn't otherwise see the ground out front, no horizon, no blue skies, no white clouds, just...solid white murk the likes of which I hadn't seen other than being in the middle of a cloud.  

Once we made it back to Kokomo, we pulled out BOB and I did a couple of run-ups on it to check the right engine oil pressure. Apparently it's okay.  My plan then was to take it to Indy Metro tonight for the CAF meeting, meet JP there, do his annual currency check flight in it, and then fly home.  Instead, we remembered the maintenance paperwork isn't done yet on BOB. So we put it away. Flirted with taking the T-6. Felt like too much effort.  So we took the RG.

We get down to Metro and have a 2 hour CAF meeting with some food.  Lots of folks showed up, about 20, and a few new people too. Our group is really growing fast.

Coming in to land at Metro, I pulled on the carb heat and the engine RPMs dropped more aggressively than expected, it started running rough.  I put it back off, said something, pulled it back on, and it was fine.  I thought...okay, that was odd.  When we left, I did a run-up, and the mag drop was just fine.  Everything was fine.  So we took off, we're climbing out, we're headed home, and along the way it started just not feeling right.  It was subtle sometimes, more noticeable other times, but it just wasn't right.  But the JPI didn't show anything with any of the cylinders, temps and pressures were all good.  So I asked Steve if he wanted to wait until we got over home base and then do an in-flight mag check, and he said yeah.  When I did, the left mag backfired and tried to drop out.  Okee dokee.  So I landed, got on the ground did a 1000 RPM mag check. Fine.  1500 RPM mag check.  Fine.  1700 RPM mag check.  Fine.  2000 RPM mag check.  Ker-PLUNK.  Not fine.  So...good to know. The airplane is down for maintenance again, for a mag that we just got back from being checked and overhauled because we had problems with it 250 hours after we had it rebuilt.  Grr.

We didn't get home until late, but now we don't have to be back home in time to take care of Ann, so that sure helps.  

I have some photos from today, but I'm too tired to do it tonight.  I'll do it tomorrow, along with packing everything up for Oshkosh and Dubuque, which I leave for day after tomorrow.  Ah, Lordie.