poadeleted3
Pattern Altitude
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2005
- Messages
- 2,055
Yesterday was a beautiful day for flying in the Philly area. We had a morning trip planned to 12N, Andover/Aeroflex yesterday morning, but the winds were cranking, especially the gusts. The steady winds were doable, but the gusts would have made for a less the pleasurable pleasure trip, so I decided to make it an evening trip instead, in the hopes the winds would die down, as they usually do in the evening. During the course of the day, I realized that it was only another 1/2 hr to Altoona, AOO, where Cathy's parents could meet us for an hour or so and have a quick picnic dinner if they so desired. A visit that would have been impossible by car, a 5 hr one way drive vs 1.25 hr flight. Cathy was excited, I was excited, and Sean was REALLY excited about getting to see Nana and Pap.
As hoped for, the winds had settled a good bit by 4 o'clock, the skies were still gorgeous, and we were set for a nice flight. Only possible negative was an airmet for occasional moderate turbulence below 8,000, and I wasn't convinced we'd have a lot of that, and even more convinced that the flight back would be really smooth. Sean has been handling turbulence with no problems in low wing planes, still had been showing some fear in the Skyhawk, bumps or no bumps, but with the prospect of seeing grandparents to distract him I figured even if we did get knocked around a bit it would be a good flight to help him get used to it and build his tolerance.
Got my first hint of possible trouble during the run-up. The ameter (which I know I'm misspelling, but can't figure out the correct way right now) needle was bouncing around quite a bit, which was unusual, but the indications were otherwise normal, so off we went. Once in the air, it turned out to be a wonderful day, just a few "wiggles," but no turb, winds aloft were low, and vis was fantastic. We were looking forward to a really nice flight and visit. Picked up my flight following, and notice the ameter was showing 5 amps... quite a bit lower than I'm used to. I got handed off to Reading Approach, and as I was levelling off, I check the ameter again. It showed zero, but the low voltage light next to it wasn't lit. Hmmmm.... tried to reset the alternator, but the needle still showed zero, but the light was still off, and I was hearing an unusual ticking sound through my headsets that sounded like it was coming from the engine. Either the guage was broke, the light was broke, or the alternator was broke. Given the weird sound coming from the engine I was kind of leaning toward a broke alternator, but I'm unapologetically chicken in the air anyway, so it didn't matter. Called Reading Approach and told them we were going back. She asked if I needed any other assistance, I told her no, if we lost the battery I'd be able to land fine without radios and flaps, and started my turn. At this point, I encounted an unexpected distraction in the form of a loud, plaintive wail from the back seat. Cathy thought Sean was scared because he'd heard the plane was broke and started to try to reassure him, but the cause of the sobs was somewhat harder to deal with... "I WANT TO SEE NANA AND PAP!!! IT'LL BE OK, LET'S GO!!!" Rats... I didn't have pilot isolate available, so Cathy got him shut up, but the boy wasn't happy. Back to the airport for a landing I'm quite happy with, and our little adventure was over. I was quite disappointed... Cathy had been really excited about getting to see her parents on the spur of the moment, and really pleased that all the sacrifices we've made to be able to fly were paying off in some small way. But such is life, and she knows there will be other flights. Still a bummer, though. It was somewhat harder convincing Sean, though.
On the making lemonade out of lemons side of things, as we were taxiing in Sean suddenly piped up from the back seat "Hey, I just realized I wasn't afraid at all, not even of looking down!!" And proceeded to regail us of how cool looking down and seeing jet skiers on the river was and, most impressive to him, looking down and watching a horse eat while we were on final. This is a BIG step. The poor guy has been terrified in the past in the Skyhawk, especially when he'd look down. We tried to tell him not to look down, but I guess that's like saying don't look at that car wreck. I guess as he's gotten to fly a bit more, and I've gotten smoother on the controls (which I've been working hard on, slower control movements, shallower banks) he's been getting used to actually flying. It's a big deal to us, and him. Most cool. Plus, we DID get to go flying, and it was a really nice flight while were up, so I guess sometimes we just have to take what we've got
Lessons learned: I figured we had plenty of battery power to make it back, and was prepared to land without radios and flaps if I didn't, neither of which is an emergency. But I do have a fairly recent acquired handheld radio in the flight back... and didn't even think of it. Wonder why not? Also, an extremely sad, disappointed, and upset six year old really is more of a distraction than I'd thought he would be.
As hoped for, the winds had settled a good bit by 4 o'clock, the skies were still gorgeous, and we were set for a nice flight. Only possible negative was an airmet for occasional moderate turbulence below 8,000, and I wasn't convinced we'd have a lot of that, and even more convinced that the flight back would be really smooth. Sean has been handling turbulence with no problems in low wing planes, still had been showing some fear in the Skyhawk, bumps or no bumps, but with the prospect of seeing grandparents to distract him I figured even if we did get knocked around a bit it would be a good flight to help him get used to it and build his tolerance.
Got my first hint of possible trouble during the run-up. The ameter (which I know I'm misspelling, but can't figure out the correct way right now) needle was bouncing around quite a bit, which was unusual, but the indications were otherwise normal, so off we went. Once in the air, it turned out to be a wonderful day, just a few "wiggles," but no turb, winds aloft were low, and vis was fantastic. We were looking forward to a really nice flight and visit. Picked up my flight following, and notice the ameter was showing 5 amps... quite a bit lower than I'm used to. I got handed off to Reading Approach, and as I was levelling off, I check the ameter again. It showed zero, but the low voltage light next to it wasn't lit. Hmmmm.... tried to reset the alternator, but the needle still showed zero, but the light was still off, and I was hearing an unusual ticking sound through my headsets that sounded like it was coming from the engine. Either the guage was broke, the light was broke, or the alternator was broke. Given the weird sound coming from the engine I was kind of leaning toward a broke alternator, but I'm unapologetically chicken in the air anyway, so it didn't matter. Called Reading Approach and told them we were going back. She asked if I needed any other assistance, I told her no, if we lost the battery I'd be able to land fine without radios and flaps, and started my turn. At this point, I encounted an unexpected distraction in the form of a loud, plaintive wail from the back seat. Cathy thought Sean was scared because he'd heard the plane was broke and started to try to reassure him, but the cause of the sobs was somewhat harder to deal with... "I WANT TO SEE NANA AND PAP!!! IT'LL BE OK, LET'S GO!!!" Rats... I didn't have pilot isolate available, so Cathy got him shut up, but the boy wasn't happy. Back to the airport for a landing I'm quite happy with, and our little adventure was over. I was quite disappointed... Cathy had been really excited about getting to see her parents on the spur of the moment, and really pleased that all the sacrifices we've made to be able to fly were paying off in some small way. But such is life, and she knows there will be other flights. Still a bummer, though. It was somewhat harder convincing Sean, though.
On the making lemonade out of lemons side of things, as we were taxiing in Sean suddenly piped up from the back seat "Hey, I just realized I wasn't afraid at all, not even of looking down!!" And proceeded to regail us of how cool looking down and seeing jet skiers on the river was and, most impressive to him, looking down and watching a horse eat while we were on final. This is a BIG step. The poor guy has been terrified in the past in the Skyhawk, especially when he'd look down. We tried to tell him not to look down, but I guess that's like saying don't look at that car wreck. I guess as he's gotten to fly a bit more, and I've gotten smoother on the controls (which I've been working hard on, slower control movements, shallower banks) he's been getting used to actually flying. It's a big deal to us, and him. Most cool. Plus, we DID get to go flying, and it was a really nice flight while were up, so I guess sometimes we just have to take what we've got
Lessons learned: I figured we had plenty of battery power to make it back, and was prepared to land without radios and flaps if I didn't, neither of which is an emergency. But I do have a fairly recent acquired handheld radio in the flight back... and didn't even think of it. Wonder why not? Also, an extremely sad, disappointed, and upset six year old really is more of a distraction than I'd thought he would be.
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I'm so embarrassed!! 