I have been resurrecting a 1950 14-19. There was a lapse in annuals from 1976 to 2007. She sat quietly and comfortably in a hanger until I came along and woke her up. Along this adventure was installation of new interior, new radios, and numerous parts. I knew that the more I exercised her the more opportunities to do additional maintenance would happen.
The old bird doesn’t like its new transponder. I have had to the transponder to the factory twice. Moved antennae installations, even overhauled the mags. Seems I can play hide and go seek with ATC by turning on and off a mag. While I had the mags off and since the prop was coming due for overhaul, off it came. Many dollars later the overhauled props is installed. Did I also mention brand new P leads?
The first flight after all this fine work on the “new” prop was fine. But still had my transponder issue. Some day I will have that fixed! That brings us up to date.
Since having toiled so hard on the plane, and thinking that I was on the down hill side of the issues. I decided that it would be nice last Saturday to take my wonderful daughter on her first flight in the plane (a.k.a. Sugar). We planed to go to a nearby airport and enjoy one of those “$100 burgers”. So we pulled Sugar out of the hangar and completed a thorough preflight. Using my 6 inch slotted screwdriver to open the cowl and fuel caps. And so we taxi out.
Enroute the flight was a bit turbulent but otherwise uneventful. Entered the pattern and lowered the gear. Well not so fast. The gear moved but no green lights. Oh Boy! Ok recycle…. Nope. Ok, so if I am going to have a problem, my home airport would be best.
Now as expected my teenage daughter was not too happy with the prospects of a non-normal landing. Enroute I tried to settle her nerves. I don’t think I was convincing enough.
So prior to entering the tower’s airspace I tried everything I knew to get positive gear down indications. To no avail. The gear handle did feel slightly different though, like it wasn’t quite making full travel. Had good pressure, flaps worked normal. I had picked up a new and strange radio noise. Maybe I had lost sort of ground and it took out my down lights. I didn’t know.
So ok, Tower we have a problem. They cleared the pattern and watched a beautiful Cruisemaster make several flybys. “Gear appears down.” I described in detail what they should be looking for and again the same response. So here we come, maybe it is only an indication problem. The guys in the fire trucks were enjoying the show.
Cleared to land. While working on a nice three point landing, the first touchdown was sweet and soft. By the way an eight knot crosswind. Then this voice came through the headset shattering any thoughts that things where going well. “ Go Around Go Around Gear collapsing Go Around Go Around Gear collapsing!” OMG
The ole Lyc thankfully didn’t hiccup when I hit the stop on the throttle. 22 inches of prop clearance with the wheels down. How close was that! Thankfully Sugar didn’t like the idea of skinning her belly and we were airborne again.
In the crosswind turn, “ State your intentions”. Notice that now we have ditched the formality of call signs. What I wanted to say is “H___ I don’t know!” But I said well let me orbit for a while and see what I can come up with. “We now know its not an indication problem,“ I said as calmly as I could. What a way to test that!
The fire captain on the nice big airport engine had some thoughts. More times than not gear indication problems end in a normal landing. My next attempt was probably not going to be normal. And so a call for more fire engines went out. There were five or six of our city’s finest there to watch my landing. Thanks guys.
Well let’s think. I needed a few moments to try to settle my daughter down as well as time to make my seat cushion a little more comfortable. How perfect, the second flight on this expensive prop and I am going to change its aerodynamics!
Well maybe there is something to the feeling like I am not getting full travel of the gear handle. Maybe the new carpeting is interfering. It hadn’t in the last dozen flights, but what else could it be. So I was developing a plan to tear/cut up the carpet under the handle. I took a couple of swishes under the handle. Maybe there is something under it. Then another attempt to lower the gear. OMG TWO GREEN!
“Two green now indicating!” Another set of flybys. I aptly demonstrated my slow flight and my ag experience by the 90-270s on either end of the airport. Even the local PD helicopter sat down and observed. Ok so the moment of truth. A nice three point landing, as many of you have experienced with the nice handling Cruisemaster.
Wow what a flight. An uneventful taxi in and we shoved Sugar into her nice little home. I did get to meet a number of very kind firefighters. The Capt is a pilot and he saw the first landing attempt. He couldn’t believe that I got her airborne. When the first wheel touched it went straight back into the well, followed by the other wheel when it touched down and it bringing the first back down.
Being thankful that I didn’t become a manufacturer of toothpicks we went home. I’ll figure out what happened tomorrow. Sunday is a nice day, time to find out what’s what. I climbed into the cockpit head first so that I can get a good look. There was the culprit. That screwdriver. The shaft had been under the handle. Several gear swings later, it was proven, the driver did it.
Note to self, Check the floor and properly secure all tools!
The old bird doesn’t like its new transponder. I have had to the transponder to the factory twice. Moved antennae installations, even overhauled the mags. Seems I can play hide and go seek with ATC by turning on and off a mag. While I had the mags off and since the prop was coming due for overhaul, off it came. Many dollars later the overhauled props is installed. Did I also mention brand new P leads?
The first flight after all this fine work on the “new” prop was fine. But still had my transponder issue. Some day I will have that fixed! That brings us up to date.
Since having toiled so hard on the plane, and thinking that I was on the down hill side of the issues. I decided that it would be nice last Saturday to take my wonderful daughter on her first flight in the plane (a.k.a. Sugar). We planed to go to a nearby airport and enjoy one of those “$100 burgers”. So we pulled Sugar out of the hangar and completed a thorough preflight. Using my 6 inch slotted screwdriver to open the cowl and fuel caps. And so we taxi out.
Enroute the flight was a bit turbulent but otherwise uneventful. Entered the pattern and lowered the gear. Well not so fast. The gear moved but no green lights. Oh Boy! Ok recycle…. Nope. Ok, so if I am going to have a problem, my home airport would be best.
Now as expected my teenage daughter was not too happy with the prospects of a non-normal landing. Enroute I tried to settle her nerves. I don’t think I was convincing enough.
So prior to entering the tower’s airspace I tried everything I knew to get positive gear down indications. To no avail. The gear handle did feel slightly different though, like it wasn’t quite making full travel. Had good pressure, flaps worked normal. I had picked up a new and strange radio noise. Maybe I had lost sort of ground and it took out my down lights. I didn’t know.
So ok, Tower we have a problem. They cleared the pattern and watched a beautiful Cruisemaster make several flybys. “Gear appears down.” I described in detail what they should be looking for and again the same response. So here we come, maybe it is only an indication problem. The guys in the fire trucks were enjoying the show.
Cleared to land. While working on a nice three point landing, the first touchdown was sweet and soft. By the way an eight knot crosswind. Then this voice came through the headset shattering any thoughts that things where going well. “ Go Around Go Around Gear collapsing Go Around Go Around Gear collapsing!” OMG
The ole Lyc thankfully didn’t hiccup when I hit the stop on the throttle. 22 inches of prop clearance with the wheels down. How close was that! Thankfully Sugar didn’t like the idea of skinning her belly and we were airborne again.
In the crosswind turn, “ State your intentions”. Notice that now we have ditched the formality of call signs. What I wanted to say is “H___ I don’t know!” But I said well let me orbit for a while and see what I can come up with. “We now know its not an indication problem,“ I said as calmly as I could. What a way to test that!
The fire captain on the nice big airport engine had some thoughts. More times than not gear indication problems end in a normal landing. My next attempt was probably not going to be normal. And so a call for more fire engines went out. There were five or six of our city’s finest there to watch my landing. Thanks guys.
Well let’s think. I needed a few moments to try to settle my daughter down as well as time to make my seat cushion a little more comfortable. How perfect, the second flight on this expensive prop and I am going to change its aerodynamics!
Well maybe there is something to the feeling like I am not getting full travel of the gear handle. Maybe the new carpeting is interfering. It hadn’t in the last dozen flights, but what else could it be. So I was developing a plan to tear/cut up the carpet under the handle. I took a couple of swishes under the handle. Maybe there is something under it. Then another attempt to lower the gear. OMG TWO GREEN!
“Two green now indicating!” Another set of flybys. I aptly demonstrated my slow flight and my ag experience by the 90-270s on either end of the airport. Even the local PD helicopter sat down and observed. Ok so the moment of truth. A nice three point landing, as many of you have experienced with the nice handling Cruisemaster.
Wow what a flight. An uneventful taxi in and we shoved Sugar into her nice little home. I did get to meet a number of very kind firefighters. The Capt is a pilot and he saw the first landing attempt. He couldn’t believe that I got her airborne. When the first wheel touched it went straight back into the well, followed by the other wheel when it touched down and it bringing the first back down.
Being thankful that I didn’t become a manufacturer of toothpicks we went home. I’ll figure out what happened tomorrow. Sunday is a nice day, time to find out what’s what. I climbed into the cockpit head first so that I can get a good look. There was the culprit. That screwdriver. The shaft had been under the handle. Several gear swings later, it was proven, the driver did it.
Note to self, Check the floor and properly secure all tools!
