Sterling SilverMay 16, 2017, 7:03am
Well, today (May 15) I made my first flight since October when I moved to my hangar. It turned out to be a short one.
It was a beautiful day; morning temp. in the mid 70's, blue sky with some puffy clouds for contrast, slight breeze out of the east. I had been doing some touch up on a few small items and replaced the fuel lines over the week end. I had drained the left tank so it took all of the 100LL from the can in the hangar. Because it had been so long since my last flight I got out the HKS manual and reviewed the different temperature minis and maxes. For the same reason, I did a second pre-flight inspection before towing The Flag out to the grass strip. My taxi way is so rough that I thought it might be better for the plane to be as light as possible while bumping over the pasture.
I forgot to turn on the GoPro!?!?
It took about 5 minutes or so (seems longer when doing it) for the oil temp and CHTs to come up to minimums and then after a "mag check" and static full throttle it was release the brake and here we go. Used the south half of the strip and cleared the trees just fine; turned a little to the left to be over the state highway in case I needed it.
About 1/4 mile from lift off I was at about 200 ft. and I saw that the RPM was only about 5800 and decreasing. I started a left 180 degree turn back to the north, away from the railroad overpass and toward open highway. I thought I was going to catch the tops of the pine trees before I got back over the highway ROW; the RPM was down to 4850. The engine kind of burped and the RPM went to something over 5000 for a few seconds before slowing again. The engine kept running in the low 4,000s as I cleared one set of power lines and went under a second set of wires. A pickup about to pull out from the only store remaining in Hull, Texas, did not pull out, thank goodness. I landed a little hard on the left wheel just at the point where the highway becomes 4 lanes for a few hundred yards. I taxied up to the paved area between the northbound and southbound lanes and turned perpendicular to the lanes. The Flag just fit between the traffic lanes.
From the way that the power gradually declined, recovered momentarily and then declined again, I think carb ice was the problem. I am attaching a picture of the result of the hard landing. I didn't look for any damage because I didn't think the landing was particularly bad. I very well might have had too much air in the tires and therefore no shock absorption. I taxied back to the driveway for the propane company where I used to keep The Flag (about 150 yards) and I drove right up to the gate. I had to shut down and jockey the plane through the 18ft. wide gate, but then I walked to my house, came back with the tractor and mowed a narrow strip from the propane yard to the south end of my grass strip. Then, I just towed the plane back to the hangar.
This was actually a good ending for the situation in which I found myself.
Aug. 7: I read my report again and there is a mistake. I landed hard on the right wheel, not the left. The break is on the left. The right gear tube is bent and that force would have put a tension load on the left tube.
It was a beautiful day; morning temp. in the mid 70's, blue sky with some puffy clouds for contrast, slight breeze out of the east. I had been doing some touch up on a few small items and replaced the fuel lines over the week end. I had drained the left tank so it took all of the 100LL from the can in the hangar. Because it had been so long since my last flight I got out the HKS manual and reviewed the different temperature minis and maxes. For the same reason, I did a second pre-flight inspection before towing The Flag out to the grass strip. My taxi way is so rough that I thought it might be better for the plane to be as light as possible while bumping over the pasture.
I forgot to turn on the GoPro!?!?
It took about 5 minutes or so (seems longer when doing it) for the oil temp and CHTs to come up to minimums and then after a "mag check" and static full throttle it was release the brake and here we go. Used the south half of the strip and cleared the trees just fine; turned a little to the left to be over the state highway in case I needed it.
About 1/4 mile from lift off I was at about 200 ft. and I saw that the RPM was only about 5800 and decreasing. I started a left 180 degree turn back to the north, away from the railroad overpass and toward open highway. I thought I was going to catch the tops of the pine trees before I got back over the highway ROW; the RPM was down to 4850. The engine kind of burped and the RPM went to something over 5000 for a few seconds before slowing again. The engine kept running in the low 4,000s as I cleared one set of power lines and went under a second set of wires. A pickup about to pull out from the only store remaining in Hull, Texas, did not pull out, thank goodness. I landed a little hard on the left wheel just at the point where the highway becomes 4 lanes for a few hundred yards. I taxied up to the paved area between the northbound and southbound lanes and turned perpendicular to the lanes. The Flag just fit between the traffic lanes.
From the way that the power gradually declined, recovered momentarily and then declined again, I think carb ice was the problem. I am attaching a picture of the result of the hard landing. I didn't look for any damage because I didn't think the landing was particularly bad. I very well might have had too much air in the tires and therefore no shock absorption. I taxied back to the driveway for the propane company where I used to keep The Flag (about 150 yards) and I drove right up to the gate. I had to shut down and jockey the plane through the 18ft. wide gate, but then I walked to my house, came back with the tractor and mowed a narrow strip from the propane yard to the south end of my grass strip. Then, I just towed the plane back to the hangar.
This was actually a good ending for the situation in which I found myself.
Aug. 7: I read my report again and there is a mistake. I landed hard on the right wheel, not the left. The break is on the left. The right gear tube is bent and that force would have put a tension load on the left tube.
Bert