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PIREP: Wilco Aviation Services, Winter Haven, FL (KGIF)


afward

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So this is a bit of a continuation of the story from my last PIREP...  Before I tell how I got there or the rest of the story, I need to really speak highly of the Director of Maintenance at Wilco Aviation Services.  He and his wife (Jeff and Barbara? I didn't _quite_ store away their names) were there unloading a refrigerator and would be leaving in a few minutes at the time I arrived.  Both took a good chunk of their afternoon to make sure I was OK and to take care of the plane.  He is also a very diligent and observant mechanic, which helped me have confidence in the plane to go the rest of the way home.  To top it all off, I almost had to twist his arm to pay for his time with more than a token payment (sure, saving money is great, but piece of mind is worth a lot on its own).  So, if you're in the area, and don't have something exceptionally Mooney-specific (he professed to not being a Mooney mechanic), give them a try!

So here's the rest of the story:

I departed KFXE planning -> LAL -> CTY -> KMAI for a fuel stop to stretch my legs, at 4,500' to stay out of the strong headwinds up higher.  The ceiling kept me at about 4,000', but I was making great time.  I was also getting banged around pretty good in the turbulence.  CAS was easily below Vno and the bumps weren't so strong I would worry about G limits.  No worries...

... until I passed Lakeland airport.  About two miles north of their class D, I lost all electrical.  My first real in-flight emergency (if for no other reason than I have no engine or fuel indications without the JPI).  My first thought is that I'm safe, but need to get down.  Second is that there's a great airport right behind me, so I made a big descending left turn towards it.  Watching the tower, though, I don't see any light gun signals... OK, start flying around their airspace (to the East).  I was on with flight following, so certainly they know I'm here?  Still nothing.  Try to find the phone # to approach, no dice.  Tower?  No dice.  Grrr...  Screw it, flying to an uncontrolled airport.  Tappity-tap-tap and my tablet tells me KGIF is a likely candidate, so there I go.  Flew a standard pattern and landed 05; on rollout I notice a larger hangar on the South ramp with its door partly open.  As I get closer, I see Wilco Aviation Services.  Jackpot!

So it turns out I probably have a short somewhere on the alternator enable wire behind the panel.  We didn't find it (everything powered right up after I had shut down and walked around a few minutes), but I made it a point to stay out of the bumps the rest of the way home and didn't have any further problems.  The JPI data showed some spikes to 15+V that would've corresponded with the pops I heard in the headset and falsely assumed were me accidentally tapping the transmit button in the bumps.  The field breaker was also open when I landed (didn't notice that in-flight, but I gave up on the system pretty quick since it wasn't necessary to get safely back on the ground and I was solo; troubleshooting got deprioritized).

Once Jeff had zip-tied and wrapped a few cables that "could" be a problem in turbulence, said my farewells to he and his wife, and had checked that everything appeared fine, I refilled the tanks and took off for home.  That lasted about 5 seconds after rotation.  Raising the (J-bar) gear, it felt like something was impinging a bit (not like direct metal-on-metal; more like a tire rubbing but without the vibration)...  Just enough for me to decide to lower the gear again, but before I'd even stopped moving my arm the engine demanded all of my attention by ceasing to build full power.  Oddly enough, it seemed to correspond with moving the gear, so "put back the last thing you changed".  Nope, still not right.  Holding altitude, just not climbing.  Need the cleaner aerodynamics, so gear up (still doesn't feel right).  Now we're climbing, a little.  And here's where my memory is fuzzy... I remember pulling back a knob (mixture?) a bit to see if I could clear whatever was the problem.  That killed a cylinder (as well as making the others suddenly have much lower(?!) EGTs), so I pushed the knob back in and got full power back.  Not willing to push my luck, I immediately flew a tight pattern and landed (oddly enough, the gear felt fine at that point).

Jeff looked everything over again and couldn't find any problems.  He hopped in and we did a pretty good runup.  Then we flew a lap around the pattern, and the darn thing ran flawlessly (including the gear movements).  So I dropped him off at the hangar and, without having shut down, took off for home.  KGIF -> CTY -> KSUZ.  Absolutely no issues and landed (with about 11 gallons left!) fully 13 hours after first getting into the plane that morning.

 

In the morning, I'll add a debrief reply to this.  There were lessons I learned from this day.

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So for the debrief...  A few things jump right out at me:

  1. If hearing pops like you're bumping transmit, move your hand so that's not possible.
  2. If hearing pops while getting banged around in turbulence and #1 has been accomplished, get out of the turbulence.
  3. If on flight following when the panel goes dark, just go where you need to go; ATC will clear a path and give a heads-up to your apparent diversion airport.
    1. ... but be reasonable; Going to Tampa Intl would not have been OK, even if it was a legal option.  Lakeland should've been my choice.
  4. If the engine stops making full power at low altitude, _don't_ touch its controls until a landing site has been identified and prepared for.
    1. I got lucky; I didn't have to practice an engine out landing that day.

I think I'm going to be a bit more circumspect about trying to get a few more knots by flying full cruise power down low in the bumps...  Going to 8500 would've probably only slowed me about 10kt overall, but it would've been smooth the whole way.  That would've still saved me a few hours vs. having to do all the above.

Making a checklist for myself on this reseal project would've saved me time at FXE as I would've remembered to contact Manny for the leak checks prior to my arrival.

Fly more often!  I felt a bit rusty when I first started at FXE...  Didn't take long to knock it off, but still not a great feeling.  It really hasn't been by choice I've not logged a lot of hours over the last several months, mind you...  But still not something I want to repeat.

But in spite of it all, I got home safely with a newly repaired and now (once these last squawks are addressed) reliable airplane, so I'm going to call it a very successful day.

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