On one Mag? Temptation and decision

Yesterday was an unusual day here in Ohio for December so I decided to
get my badly needed flying "fix". Clear skies, smooth air and a
planned trip to southern Ohio and back to home base (DLZ). Onboard was
myself PIC and wife. The usual pre-flight and run-up everything normal.
After reaching altitude of 3500 I noticed a very sight roughness in the
engine which was really just more of a "seat of the pants" feeling that
the engine wasn't running as smoothly as it should. I guess that comes
with flying my little Cessna 150 over 600 hours and developing a feeling
how things should feel. After about 15 minutes the engine seemed to
smooth out and everything was fine. I decided not to go over the hilly
terrain in southern Ohio and instead just fly for the sake of flying and
stay closer to home. The engine was running smoothly and we climbed to
5500 to site see and visit some local airports along the way.
Belfontaine Ohio (7I7) has a new airport so we decided we would stop and
visit the new lounge and FBO facilities before heading back to (DLZ)
about 40 miles away. Taxi for takeoff engine running smoothly, run-up
and one mag completely failed. Extreme leaning and usual procedures do
not help and after another run-up, still one mag with no fire. Taxi
airplane to tiedown and contemplate options. I consider myself to be a
very safe pilot with over 1000hrs experience but I must confess that I
did consider several options before picking the right one for me. Please
keep in mind that we were only 40 miles from home airport. I know my
airplane. I'm not perfect and I will always be learning, I try to fly
safe and make good decisions.

Option 1 - Leave the airplane for repairs and take taxi to home base to
pickup car. Very long wait for taxi and pain in the butt. Return trip by
car later for plane pick-up and unknown mechanic working on airplane.

Option 2 - Let my wife take taxi to home base and I fly airplane out on
one mag. I would never have considered her flying with me on one mag!
This gets the airplane to home base and my mechanic that knows the
airplane well.

I chose to leave the airplane there, get the mag replaced and take the
taxi. BUT I cannot overemphasize enough how TEMPTING it was to consider
flying the airplane out on my own and get it repaired at home base
(DLZ). A little voice kept saying "You can make it, You can do it!" go
for it. I can't state strongly enough how strong the urge was to avoid
all the hassle and just fly the airplane home! Yes, I knew if I lost
the other mag I was in for a forced landing. Yes I knew if I did have a
forced landing I might get hurt. A forced landing might have resulted
in bent metal and dismantling the airplane. But that little voice kept
saying "go for it". I know it might be hard to understand, but in a way,
it was harder to NOT to fly the airplane out of there!

I didn't "go for it".... Today is another day. The sun is shining and I
have an airplane sitting 50 miles from home. It will get repaired on
Tuesday. I will have my wife drive me to the airport to pick-up the
airplane. I will pay the repair bill. Then.... I'll just go flying for
awhile....with a big smile on my face!

QUESTION... What would you have done?

"Terry" wrote in message
...

Option 1 - Leave the airplane for repairs and take taxi to home base to
pickup car. Very long wait for taxi and pain in the butt. Return trip by
car later for plane pick-up and unknown mechanic working on airplane.

Option 2 - Let my wife take taxi to home base and I fly airplane out on
one mag. I would never have considered her flying with me on one mag!
This gets the airplane to home base and my mechanic that knows the
airplane well.

I didn't "go for it".... Today is another day. The sun is shining and I
have an airplane sitting 50 miles from home. It will get repaired on
Tuesday. I will have my wife drive me to the airport to pick-up the
airplane. I will pay the repair bill. Then.... I'll just go flying for
awhile....with a big smile on my face!

QUESTION... What would you have done?

It would be a tough decision but I think you made the right one. I suppose
another (COSTLY) option would be to get your mechanic down there to do the
repairs.

If something isn't right (mechanically, weather or whatever), wait until it
is and fly another day...

"Terry" wrote in message ...
Yesterday was an unusual day here in Ohio for December so I decided to
get my badly needed flying "fix".

Right decision. I have had numerous aircraft ignition problems that all started
with two WORKING mags. I would not consider starting out with only one
firing. And to have a mag completely dead is a really bad sign. It could be
a real serious problem (then again it could be the ignition switch which is
admittedly a piece of cheap-assed crap in most light aircraft).

QUESTION... What would you have done?

Never know whether its brother is ready to go belly up too.
Good decision.

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 18:49:47 GMT, Terry wrote:

QUESTION... What would you have done?

Leave the airplane. Find another way home.

BTDT.


Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)

In article , Terry
writes:

QUESTION... What would you have done?

I'm not that quick to say leave it. I can feel the urge to fly the 40 well
known miles to get it home. I think I would have reached the same conclusion
as you and via the same agionizing thought process. Maybe this is kinda like
wanting a glass of wine with dinner when you are going to fly home in a couple
of hours. You just know the correct decision but the temptation is there.
Congrats for leaving it.

By the way, my experience at having my plane repaired away from home is two out
of two good. I wish you luck.

Chuck

But that little voice kept
saying "go for it". I know it might be hard to understand, but in a way,
it was harder to NOT to fly the airplane out of there!

I would have called a friend with a sparkplug wrench and maybe new plugs.
Checked the lower plugs and replaced them if they are fouled.
If the plugs were good I would have hitched a ride home with my friend.
OR I would have done just what you had done.
Hank

QUESTION... What would you have done?

I would have also left the plane. No reason to kill yourself over a minor
inconvenience.

On 28-Dec-2003, Terry wrote:

QUESTION... What would you have done?


Here's a little "hangar flying" story relating to this topic which you might
find interesting.

Last February my wife and I were flying from Newport, Oregon (ONP) to our
home base in Everett, Washington (PAE). The weather was truly crappy, but
freezing levels were high enough to allow for a safe hour plus 40 IFR
flight. About 20 minutes into the flight I happened to notice that one of
the fuel caps on the Arrow was off at an angle, indicating that it was not
firmly secured. In fact, it looked like it might fly off any second. While
cursing myself for being careless on my pre-flight inspection, I realized
that this really was not an emergency. Even if the cap flew off and I lost
all of the fuel in that tank I had more than enough in the other tank to
complete the flight safely. On the other hand, those caps are expensive and
I did not relish the idea of flying along spewing fuel over the countryside,
so I decided to land at Hillsboro (HIO) which was nearly below us at the
time.

Weather on the approach was very wet and bumpy, but the ceiling was at
around 1000 feet, making for an easy ILS. After landing I asked ground
control to just let me shut down off the taxiway for a few minutes while I
got out to secure the gas cap -- turns out it was on tight enough that it
would have remained aboard anyway -- and use my cellphone to call in a new
IFR flight plan for the remainder of our flight home. All told I we were
probably parked for maybe 10 minutes before we got the new clearance and
fired up for takeoff. Now, having just flown the plane with everything
(except the gas cap) seemingly in good order, I was tempted to forego the
runup, but then I considered the weather conditions (pouring rain, strictly
IFR) and reached for the checklist. Of course, when I checked the left mag
the engine missed badly. Probably a fouled plug. However, no amount of
jockeying of throttle and mixture was effective at clearing things up. So I
taxied to "Hangar 53", one of the maintenance FBOs at HIO. The folks there
could not have been more helpful. They dropped what they were doing, pulled
our Arrow in out of the rain, and went to work. Unfortunately, after an
hour or so, they concluded that the problem was in the mag. They did not
have a replacement available, so I was stuck. We ended up renting a car for
the 3.5 hour drive home.

Was I tempted to take off with one sick mag for the flight home of a little
over an hour? NO WAY! The crappy weather was enough of a worry. I THINK I
would have been disciplined enough to say NO even if the weather had been
CAVU, even with my wife protesting that the plane was flying just fine
minutes ago. What's really interesting is that the left mag failed in
flight (it was working fine during the runup before takeoff at ONP) and I
would not have known about it if I hadn't decided to land because of the
fuel cap. If I had instead continued, and the right mag failed while IFR,
the gas cap would have become the least of my worries.

--
-Elliott Drucker

"JerryK" wrote in message ...
QUESTION... What would you have done?

I would have also left the plane. No reason to kill yourself over a minor
inconvenience.


More than inconvenience. A dead mag means the airplane is not legally
airworthy, and flying it that way presents a whole range of threats,
from a second mag failure through to insurance invalidation and to the
loss of your license.

Dan