*Sigh*

4:20 am wake up call, out the door by 5:15, wheels up by 6 am, headed to Birmingham, Alabama.  Me, D and another guy. We're on our way, and the CHT's on the right engine #4 cylinder go through the roof. It kind of looks like a bad probe, jumping around, but it does go high and stay high. Normally they fall off or don't read if it's a bad probe.  It just kind of niggled at my mind. So I took a video and showed all the CHTs, and when we landed, I sent it off to Steve.  He called and said the same thing I wondered, and asked if there was a mechanic on field to look at it.  I went hunting, and sure enough there is, and they even answered their phone.  I taxied the plane on over to the other side of the field to them, explained to them that the #4 cylinder on the right engine was reading wonky and high CHTs on the way here, but didn't read at all on the taxi over, so it was probably a probe, but could they put eyes on it and verify the cylinder itself didn't look cooked or cracked, that the probe needed fixed, etc. 

I'm there for 20 minutes, they have the cowl off, and he comes in and says "I have bad news.  The probe is fine. The cylinder seems to be okay.  But you have a bad exhaust leak.  There is a gap in the fitting and it is shooting exhaust directly onto that probe, cylinder, wiring, etc. back there."  The airplane is grounded, safety of flight issue. It could cook and crack the cylinder, blow off a head, or even start a fire in there.  In the old days, Twin Cessnas had a known issue with exhaust that burned through the wing spar. Entire engines and wings fell off of the airplanes up at altitudes, causing fatal crashes.  Until an AD came out and some changes were made that took care of that problem.  So...that exhaust and the leak is no joke.  (I mean, this is a different area, not the wing spar, so that wouldn't have happened anyway, don't worry.) Which once again means I am glad that everyone took it seriously. We've had a lot of bad probes on various airplanes including that one.  It happens fairly often. This looked like another one. I almost blew it off.  But that feeling... we have a JPI unit so that it will detect if there is an issue before it becomes a major problem. That's exactly what it did today. The old manual gauges didn't show any problem. I'd not have known there was any issue until something did blow or catch fire without it.  And wouldn't I have felt stupid later if the JPI told me something was wrong and I assumed it was nothing and ignored it until a catastrophic failure happened.  That's not in the form of a question because it is not a question.  

So how do we get home? Ethan is down with the flu, high fever, sick as a dog. So he and his 340 are out of the question.  Nathan and Steve can't do the Cheyenne or Aerostar right now.  That leaves John R. and his C-421, or the airlines out of Birmingham, which have nothing direct to Indy and the only flights come into Indy after midnight. I call John and ask how his day is going, and it's not good, it's not good at all.  We talk for about 15 minutes about what's going on with him.  And then I tell him what's going on with me. I tell him if it's too much, or it's too bad a day, or he just can't or doesn't want to, we will airline out. He looks at the weather and everything else, and says he can do it, so he drags Morgan along, and the two of them fly down to Alabama to rescue the three of us down there.  It's 2.5 hours home, and we land about 7:30 or so.  Adventure for the day over.

While I'm at it, as you know, the Conquest is in Ohio to fix the oil leak, right?  Well, I am going over tomorrow to pick up the airplane, and the oil leak is not fixed, because they ran out of time to fix it before we had to have it back to take Andy and family to Marco on Friday. They ran out of time to fix it because they opened it up and found three other safety of flight issues on that left engine that needed addressed ASAP. They were concerned enough that they wouldn't even run the engine on the ground before fixing these things.  What were they?  The fuel shut-off arm was about to fall off, the prop control linkage was about to fall off, and the engine power lever arm at the engine was coming apart.  Mom, don't ask Ernie what that could mean. You don't want to know.  If I believed in luck, I'd probably quit flying, assuming I used it all up over time.  Don from Florida who did all the work on that left engine is about to hear a lot of things I doubt he'll like very much.  The oil leak which remains, they agree that it's not a safety of flight issue, just messy, and we'll have to take it back to get that fixed later.  Again.

*sigh*

Ending on a good note.  Kaylee's new internship was today. She texted me from there this morning and said "I LOVE IT HERE!!!!" She was supposed to call us and talk tonight and tell us about it, but she fell asleep early, long day.  So I'll have to tell you about it tomorrow or whenever I hear.  ;)

I'm Wiped Out.  This day started at 4:30 am, was long, I was on the phone dealing with three different mechanics, three different pilots, and a bunch of other stuff all day.  Didn't get in the door back at home until 9 pm.  I'm gonna go fall down now. It's bed time...