April's Efforts
April's Efforts
The Aircoupe must
go.
I received a shocking bill for it's Annual Check via e-mail and
so now I have to sell it regardless of the amount of money I have
lost over the past couple of years.
More the fool me, this has happened to me twice before, and it is
because I have had an over optimistic attitude towards aviation.
"What goes around, comes around" or does it? A mantra I
use to justify the efforts I make in life.
I am very satisfied that it does as many friends have helped me
in the past and through to the present.
These past three
years I have subsidised other people's flying as I have done in
the past, the hope being that it will come good in the end.
What goes around comes around.
But now private flying is no longer as popular as it was four
decades ago as people are a lot poorer than they were then, and
do not have the disposable income that I once enjoyed.
In the 1970's I worked as an NDT inspector and earned a regular
income that enabled me to learn to fly, and to take trips abroad
in light aeroplanes.
Someone in that level of employment today can not afford to do
what I did.
As for Canada vs
England; although I am going through very difficult times here, I
know that it would be a lot worse for me there.
In Canada the flying is fantastic, and there's much demand for
what I do, but the income vs expenses there meant a steady
decline in my standard of living.
I can not afford to live in the Vancouver area, it's too
expensive, and a lot of the time, in spite of the friends I have
there, it was very lonely.
England has a lot to offer the solitary person with many
attractions that do not necessarily cost a lot. In this update
you can read below about some of this as this past weekend I have
been to three aviation museums.
Next weekend there's the Watercress Line to go to where they have
a recently rebuilt Canadian Pacific locomotive to steam along the
track...
Aside from the difficulties I face aviating here, I do not regret
being in England at all.
My
Vocation
Inflight notes
Trevor has flown
with me in Thailand... I once sent him solo in the Cessna 152
HS-CMA from Lamphun when we were allowed to do such a thing.
He had a validation, and at that time this was not limited to one
flying club in Thailand as it is now.
He flew with me in the Decathlon from Boeing Field in Seattle,
and here in England in the Cessna 185A he had a share in.
Over the years we have flown together in the Luscombe 8A when he
had had a break from flying, and I also checked him out in the
Aircoupe.
David C (who did
checkouts in the Aircoupe) asked me if I would like to fly with
him in the Robin DR221 to check out the two VORs (VHF Omni Range
navigational devices). Of course I suggested we do more than
that, and that doing so would be a true test.
So we overflew the Compton VOR and then intercepted the 280
degree radial outbound to do a procedure turn back, and another
one on the 100 degree radial.
Inbound on the 100 degree radial I gave him a hold, inbound on
the 120 degree radial, an easy direct entry...
I really like doing this! It is practice for me too as I used to
do a lot of these exercises over the YPK VOR in Canada.
For this exercise I kept a good lookout, and used RAF Benson's
Radar service.
Propeller
testing
Minimum RPM 2,650
Higher power and speed, not below 3,040 RPM
Am I doing something wrong?
The finger of blame is firmly pointed in my direction as no
matter what I did I could not make the propeller work even after
both the propeller microswitch stops were adjusted such that the
coarse pitch stop was well clear to allow the pitch to move to
almost full feather; stationary on the ground.
In the air it wouldn't move far enough back to adjust the
propeller pitch more than 200 RPM or so.
In fact on my first takeoff I had to reduce the throttle to
around 40% power to keep the propeller from overspeeding...
Fortunately this was enough to do a reasonable solo climb.
There's a test, on the
runup.
Initially I would set 1,800 RPM to do the ignition test, and then
in Manual Mode I could reduce the RPM to 1,600 RPM and see an
increase in Manifold Pressure, but this wasn't the correct
method.
I had asked for the Operation Manual for this propeller...
For the last flight I was told that there's an automatic test to
be done at 2,500 RPM, and this worked, but in the air it was the
same as before.
Did I do this test incorrectly?
I landed, and ran the test again, and still the propeller refused
to coarsen in flight.
2,500 RPM is considerable power, not much short of takeoff power
for the UL350i engine, and I consider this test to be hugely
dangerous!
So I suspect that the internal programming in the Flybox is still
set for the Rotax 912 engine. Direct drive 2,500 propeller RPM is
equivalent to the geared 4,000 crankshaft RPM used in the Rotax
for engine runup. In other words, if the propeller is set up for
the Rotax, it will not allow the pitch to cause a crankshaft RPM
below the normal idle in the Rotax 912 (around 2,200 crankshaft
RPM)..
Work in progress.
The shocking bill
I can not afford
this bill...
Replacing the rudder cables again this year is a large cost
component of this bill.
Last year the engineer cut the new rudder cables a little too
long, and so they can't be tensioned enough. So they have to be
renewed again.
I was hoping the aeroplane would do at least 100 hours after the
£10,000 or so I spent last year, but it only did 80, and so
there's not enough to cover this year's Annual.
Whoever buys this aeroplane will benefit from the investment I
have made in it. It is a well sorted aeroplane, and so I expect
next year's Annual to be cheaper.
In December I had
an offer to buy this aeroplane for £17,000 and I should have
taken it even though I'd still lose money on its sale. But one of
the pilots who loves to fly this aeroplane offfered to buy half,
and this would have made it possible to continue... Then he
backed out as 'Michael's pension income is too low' should
something like the cost of the Annual above occurred. True!
Sale of this aeroplane will mean me curtailing my flying in
England, I simply can not afford to fly anymore.
David M visited from Vancouver.
Last year I helped David
with his Class 2 Instructor Rating renewal both through ground
briefings and in the air in the Piper Tomahawk from Boundary Bay
in Canada.
This year I had hoped to do the same with him in the Aircoupe
towards his Class 1 upgrade, and so I put the aeroplane in for
it's Annual in good time... This clearly was not enough as so far
I have waited two weeks for the new rudder cables to be
delivered.
I do not have access to another aeroplane.
A few months ago I was listed as an instructor at a school with a
Cherokee 180E that I once operated at the Condor Club. Now though
I would have to pay £285/hour dual to check out in the current
Cherokee 180, and £235/hour to fly it... But that's not all, I
was told I'd have to teach in accordance with the school's SOPs,
which is not a problem for me as I have instructed at many
schools, and I have been a Chief Instructor myself. But it was
the tone in which this was put to me, a tone that means I do not
want to fly this school's aeroplanes. If you do not trust me, I
will not fly your aeroplane.
So sorry David, as much as
I would love to help you with the Class 1 upgrade, I am unable to
do this here in England.
I myself had the Class 2 Instructor Rating, and I did prepare for
the Class 1 Rating as well, but as ever finances stalled my
progress... Besides I learned that Transport Canada failed Class
1 candidates on their first tests, and I could not afford one
expensive flight test, let alone two.
But the ground work I did for the Class 1 (Instructor Instructor)
is still a good starting point for someone else.
I did hold the Class 1 Aerobatic Instructor - Instructor Rating
which enabled me to teach a school's instructors to teach
aerobatics and thereby put myself out of an aerobatic instructing
job!
Nevertheless, as mentioned above, there is a lot to do in England, and so we'll wander around a bit; I can still host my visitors very well.
David and Paul view the
beautiful English countryside from Duncton Hill.
The Tangmere museum is very very good, as are the other two
aviation museums visited on this update.
Pies at The Refectory,
Milford.
Each journey ended with a bite to eat.
The prototype de Havilland Mosquito.
I still have the training manuals for the
Bristol (Armstrong Siddeley) Viper engines somewhere.
I took time in the DH/HS/BAe 146 cabin to give a briefing on landing the Tiger Moth. I'm always on instructor duty!
The next visit was to White
Waltham (West London Aero Club) for breakfast followed by the de
Havilland - Mosquito Museum.
After which we had Chinese food at the excellent Rivermill
Restaurant.
Paul likes to drive and so he kindly took us in his economical
diesel Jaguar, and he took David back to his Debden lodgings.
We had intended to go to the Solent Aviation Museum with David,
but instead Paul and I went there on Easter Monday.
(Dutifully, David went to a petting zoo in Essex).
The biggest exhibit is the Shorts flying boat.
It was always
good to meet up with Pete Cunniffe at White Waltham.
As one gets older, old friends pass on.