and back in the saddle, but not without a little excitement *smile*.

30 hours later, $1,700 less in my wallet and new wheel bearings to show for
it, I decided to take a short hop from KMBO (Madison, MS) to KJAN (Jackson
MS) which was a whole 9 NM to pick up a passenger who was coming in on a
commercial flight.

Runup, smooth as silk, preflight, nothing unusual, launch into the wild
blue yonder. Land at JAN, pick up the passenger, and figured everything
looked cool for a 30 minute cross country trip.

Fire up the engine, everything running smooth, taxi out to 34R, check
controls, check the L mag, and real rough engine. Check the right mag,
smooth, both setting smooth engine. Thinking hell, something not right,
lean it, try again, no success. Call ground with request to taxi back to
maintenance, 180 on taxiway approved, and shut down. A&P pulls cowling and
sure enough 1 plug wire dangling, and one wire you could see the threads
and it was not tightened down.

So..... he hooks up the wires, put the cowling on and we start up again.
Everything was cool on runup, but instead of going to Hattiesburg MS, I
told my passenger, we will put the plane through it's paces in the practice
area and go the next day. No other incidents, so I am cool for the next
year *smile*.

I was really impressed with this safety check. Had I not done a mag check,
or skipped it for any reason, I would have never detected a problem.
Engine was purring like a kitten in spite of only running off of 7 spark
plugs.

So, the real moral of this story is to stay within range of your airport.
One really never knows....

Allen