My first AOG situation....

[ragedracer1977]

Magneto came apart.  I'm pretty sure it happened on downwind to landing.  It was the left mag. Plane started fine on departure,  engine ran smooth as could be the whole flight.  Got on downwind to land at KSOW, went full rich and put in carb heat.  Very shortly after it started running a little rough.  Not terrible just rough.  I chalked it up to carb heat.  Landed fine and taxied fine.  That was Saturday morning.  Went to depart this morning, and the plane wouldn't start.  I tried everything.  Called up my mechanic.  He hopped in his plane with his tools and flew up.  We pulled the cowling and started poking around.  Almost immediately I noticed 2 screws at the bottom of the cowling and a couple ball bearings.  Uh oh.  Those weren't there when I change the oil last week... i grabbed the and showed them to the mechanic.  He says... hm those look an awful lot like mag screws.  Sure enough...

Case half screws on the mag.  It came apart.  Chewed up the inside of the mag.  Hopefully I get some $ assistance from AERO.  They overhauled them 11 months and 69 hours ago.  They say 1 year 500 hour warranty.  Either way, I'll have a new mag tomorrow.  He's flying back up with a new one tomorrow morning.

Met some great folks on the field.  Wrangled a hangar to keep her inside for $20 and even got a guy to tow it over there for me.  Got to kick around inside a king air and a Cessna 510 citation while I waited.  Might even have secured a hangar at my home base.  The guys in the king air have a buddy who has an empty hangar at KDVT (my home) that is looking for someone to use...

and I get a 4 day weekend, so overall not too bad!

 

 

[EricJ]

Well, damn.   Glad to hear it's getting sorted out.   I'll have to find out who you're using for your mechanic work, too.

I should know soon whether my hangar will be empty or not for the foreseeable future.   It's looking like not, but I'm not going to try to say for sure until it plays out, if it ever does at this rate.

Is the hangar you're looking at on the north or south side?

 

[ragedracer1977]

North side.  Not sure exactly where.  ill find out when I get back in town later this week

[neilpilot]

After I had a mag go bad on me a few decades ago, I changed my shutdown procedure.  I now do a quick mag check at the end of each flight, just prior to shutdown.  This not only eliminates the delay of discovering the bad mag on your next flight, but also will indicate a bad p-lead if there's no rpm drop during the test.  

[ragedracer1977]

Thing is, I do that.  But not individually.  I just momentarily turn the key all the way to off to make sure they're actually grounding.  From now on, I'll be doing individual mag checks....

[jetdriven]

I think I'll try that, instead of OFF-ON I'm going to change to R-L-OFF-ON. If anything I can investigate then instead of the morning of departure. 

Who overhauled these mags? Kelly?

[ragedracer1977]

38 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

I think I'll try that, instead of OFF-ON I'm going to change to R-L-OFF-ON. If anything I can investigate then instead of the morning of departure. 

Who overhauled these mags? Kelly?

Aero Accessories.  

 

Actually i take that back. I'm not sure.  It says "Aero" in the logbook and aero on the mag.  But I'm not sure without looking at the work order if they aero accessories overhaul or overhauled mags from 'aero in stock'.  My logs are in the safe at home and I just have a pic of the logbook entry. 

Edited August 7, 2017 by ragedracer1977

[jetdriven]

Kelly strikes again. My Kelly overhauled mag quit 7 hours after overhaul. The points weren't opening. Best guess we had was the felt was trapped under the point contact that rides on the cam and after it wore away, points couldn't open. 

http://www.aeroaccessories.com/mags.html

Edited August 7, 2017 by jetdriven

[flyboy0681]

Welcome to the wonderful world of aircraft ownership.

[Bennett]

I think I'll try that, instead of OFF-ON I'm going to change to R-L-OFF-ON. If anything I can investigate then instead of the morning of departure. 
Who overhauled these mags? Kelly?

I've been doing that for as long as I have been flying (and that's a very long time).
Not only to check the mags, but to make sure the p lead grounds out properly. I will not touch the prop after shutting down unless I have done that mag check. On my J the prop generally stops in a vertical position, and I need to rotate it to essentially a horizontal position for my RoboTow to engage the front wheel. My ancient instructor taught me to do that 90 degree rotation opposite to the engine running rotation "just in case" the magnetos were not grounded. I go back to the days of hand propping our old rag and tube taildraggers, and I have learned to respect how easily a magneto engine can start.


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[air cooled dad]

Glad your AOG worked out well.   I had my first a couple weeks ago.  Locked up brake as I taxied off the runaway.  Blown tire on Mackinaw Island.  No maintenance on the field.  Flew jacks, a tire, tube and a mechanic in.  Enjoyed lunch and a walk around town eating fudge and ice cream. Left at my scheduled time.  Plane is in the hangar for her annual so I'll find out why the brake locked up at a relatively low speed.  Loved the island.  Can't wait to go back.  I'll stay for a few days next time. Lots of helpful fbo's within a short flight at reasonable prices. Biggest thing I learned was bad cell reception can really hamper an AOG!!!!!! 

Jason

[mike_elliott]

5 hours ago, ragedracer1977 said:

Thing is, I do that.  But not individually.  I just momentarily turn the key all the way to off to make sure they're actually grounding.  From now on, I'll be doing individual mag checks....

Glad your safe, I just got back from KGEU today and would have sure helped if I could have or known.