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| I'd rather have luck than skill any day  |
I often use the Cherokee to shorten the distances when I have accounts across state lines I need to call on. Last month I visited my buddies over at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and Auburn University had a couple of projects I needed to look at. I finished around 5 pm local time and pointed her towards the northeast knowing I'd be home in an hour or so; it was a good day. I basically followed I-85 from Auburn to Peachtree City and it was absolutely beautiful day and uneventful flight, well up until the end. As is often the case in general aviation airports, there's a lot of activity late in the afternoons. A lot of folks will come out on nice days and get their practice work in; I know I do. This day was no exception, so if anything, I kept my pattern pretty tight so as not to unnecessarily delay the other folks. Everything was fine until I turned final to runway 13 and pulled the power back to minimum. The engine died and I could smell unburned avgas. I had never actually experienced this, although we do practice it. A quick emergency checklist, fuel pump, switch tanks, carb heat still didn't resolve this issue. By this time I'm approaching 300 ft AGL, so I didn't bother declaring an emergency. Truth is, it wasn't, I had the runway made. So I landed and coasted to first taxiway. Made two attempts to restart; no joy. With fire extinguisher in hand, opened the cowling for a quick inspection. As suspected, fuel was pouring from the carb. Made sure fuel pumps shut off and tank valves switch off. Called FBO for a tow to maintenance hangar. Well, its about a month later, she's been repaired and declared airworthy. I'm going to climb back on that horse tomorrow and head over to Huntsville again. Wish me luck. | ||
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| I believe in the principle of Due Process  |
My instructor pilot pulled something every time he was in the airplane with me, some sort of engine out, somewhere in the flight, on final, just after liftoff, turning steep turns, flying along fat, dumb and happy, then uh-oh! When it happened for real, no biggie! It’s like “the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle” or something like that. In ~1700 hours, several anomalies, engines, electrical, instrument problems, no telling how many emergencies, I always got back to a runway. Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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Member |
Common problem with the M-S carb on the little Lycs; MS issued 2-3 SB's with subsequent AD's on float and needle mods. Hopefully you have the "blue float" now. Good job on keeping cool and flying the plane ! | |||
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| Member |
There have been several AD's over the years in certain carburetors requiring float changes from metal to plastic to metal, and also some cork floats, due to this same problem, and I've seen all of them fail at one time or another; either sinking or sticking. I've replaced a few. Particularly in single engine piston flying, it is never a matter of if your engine will fail. Only a matter of when. Your description sounds like a well planned, well executed event made possible because you exercised good airmanship in the first place, and sounds like you handled it very well, all around. | |||
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Member |
I’m in Huntsville/Decatur. Holler if you need anything. Based at KDCU Regards, P. | |||
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A Grateful American |
A Flying TrunkMonkey and a Shooboy hammer, coulda unstuck that float. "the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב! | |||
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| Knows too little about too much  |
I'm with JALLEN, my flight instructors delighted in throwing monkey wrenches in training. All good; you don't panic, you just get busy flying first and troubleshooting second. RMD TL Davis: “The Second Amendment is special, not because it protects guns, but because its violation signals a government with the intention to oppress its people…” Remember: After the first one, the rest are free. | |||
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אַרְיֵה |
It sounds like you did everything correctly, and turned a potential emergency into a ho-hum event. I always like boring flights. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated  |
Good job. That reminds me, time for the clients to get another dead engine (practice) landing. "Someday I hope to be half the man my bird-dog thinks I am." looking forward to 4 years of TRUMP! | |||
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| Member |
This has almost been as bad as Lyc's oil pump gear material du jour. I think MS went from cork > brass > white plastic > back to brass > current blue solid epoxy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPaCyv63y_w | |||
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Member |
My flight instructor was an ex military instructor in both fixed wing and helicopter. He did two tours of duty in Viet Nam in helicopters and flew just about everything with wings and rotors the military had in a 21 year military career. I experienced the engine out failure on every flight and he had so many ways to distract me before he pulled the power that I don’t think he ever used the same one twice. He was hard on me, but I think I really learned and benefitted from his instruction. --------------- Gary Will Fly for Food... and more Ammo Mosquito Lubrication Video If Guns Cause Crime, Mine Are Defective.... Ted Nugent | |||
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| Member |
My observation has been that higher percentages of stuck floats occur in aircraft that have used autofuel STC's or that have run auto fuel, especially in fuel systems that aren't flushed or run through regularly. I do not like autofuel in aircraft...but a lot use it due to the economy. It goes bad, it gums up. I've taken carbs apart to find that the float is fine, but it's hanging up in the valve due to gumming up or it's in the pivot mechanism, also gummed. When I've come across those with stuck valves, often it's occurred when pushing the nose over in a less than positive-g condtion. Floats can stick up or down, leading to flooding or starvation. | |||
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| Lead slingin' Parrot Head  |
So what was the diagnosis/ parts replaced? | |||
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blame canada |
Ditto. I've found quite a few of these issues directly related to running mogas instead of avgas. 30 days down though? What's the story behind that...? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The trouble with our Liberal friends...is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." Ronald Reagan, 1964 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Arguing with some people is like playing chess with a pigeon. It doesn't matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon will just take a shit on the board, strut around knocking over all the pieces and act like it won.. and in some cases it will insult you at the same time." DevlDogs55, 2014  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ www.rikrlandvs.com | |||
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| I'd rather have luck than skill any day |
P, good to know, I did fly into Prior Field. Denise and company took great care of me. Even scored an upgrade to Nissan Armada. That's a nice SUV. That traffic between Redstone and Decatur is tough after 5:00...next time I'll know you make better time on the frontage road rather than I565. SNS, this PA28 does have auto fuel STC. And, we have used some (ethanol free of course), although not in many years. For what you save, it's not worth the trouble or in this case the use of an inferior product compared to 100LL. Modern, they replaced the carburetor among other things unrelated to the power failure. AK, it didn't take them a month to fix it. Although I did have to bring it back to have a broken exhaust pipe bracket replaced that was originally overlooked. It's just this was the next occasion I had to use her and the weather cooperated. | |||
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