What The Heck Is That Noise!?!

Then there was the guy taxiing out to the run-up area with his dog in tow,
on a leash. Geeze! Good thing he didn't have his kids with him!

-Frank

"Casey Wilson" wrote in message
news:XfMvd.4651$Z%1.9@trnddc03...

I flew over to Apple Valley (APV) to put in a little cross country
time with a GPS MAP 196 in a Cessna 150 - and to indulge in a $150
diet-Pepsi. This particular airplane is the only available rental at my
home patch at IYK, which we locals lovingly refer to as Inyokern
International. (If you have a couple airplanes and want to be your own
boss, there's an empty FBO facility there begging for occupation. I'm sure
the airport management district will give you a good deal. But that's, as
they say, another story. Back to Apple Valley.
After dumping my waste water, replacing it with the diet soda, and
getting the kinks out of my knee and back, I wandered back to the
airplane. It had been in plain sight all the time, just across the tarmac
from a pilot friendly little cafe. So I did a cursory walk-around,
wiggling a few things here and there and checked the oil. The trip over
only burned an hour's fuel out of full tanks so I was good to go.
Mind you, I have less than ten hours in this airplane so I'm not
intimately familiar with all its quirks. I know it is well maintained and
the owner is the CFI that brought me back into flying after a 25-year
layoff. This morning, the airmass over the Antelope Valley was rock solid.
My airspeed was within two knots going and coming. The airplane trimmed
out and flew with only an occasional nudge to keep the altitude within ±40
feet. My only gripe is an out of trim condition that requires a tiny bit
of pressure on the right rudder pedal to keep the ball in the cage.
The engine started without priming. I taxied to the end of R-18,
the favored calm wind runway, did the complete "Before Takeoff" checklist
and waited for Cessna in front of me to depart. When they lifted off. I
announced my intentions (non-towered field) rolled onto the runway, shoved
the throttle in and started the takeoff roll.
The owner likes us to hold a little back pressure on the takeoff to ease
wear and tear on the nose gear, so it takes a bit longer to gather speed
and lift off. No sweat, APV R-18 is 6,498 feet.
The plane lifted off just as it had before, then....
WHAT THE HECK IS THAT NOISE!?!
Something was rattling and thumping hard enough and loud enough to
be heard over the muffling of my passive headset. It sounded mechanical,
but didn't ding like metal. Engine was smooth. Carb heat was off. Controls
felt fine. Hmmm, did I screw the dip-stick in after I checked the oil? Oil
pressure was good. No streaks on the side windows.
Actually, I'd had an inkling something amiss about halfway through
the takeoff roll, but it didn't register as anything serious. I dropped
the nose, ready to cut the throttle and land straight ahead but didn't
like the perspective. I rejected the notion to land on the crossing runway
at the end. My choice was a shallow left turn at 500 AGL into a
close-aboard downwind. I pulled full carb heat and brought the power back
to hold 80K and altitude.
The Cessna that departed in front of me stayed in the pattern for a
normal downwind to shoot T&Gs. I called on the CTAF and told him I had a
sick airplane and asked him to extend downwind and let me have the runway.
He graciously obliged, as did the airplane ready to take the runway. Just
past midfield, I dropped ten-degrees of flaps. No change in the rattle,
thump.
I did a shallow 180 just past the approach end, feeling confident that
I had plenty of energy in case the fan should stop spinning. Lined up, I
dropped another 10 degrees of flaps. The landing was a kisser. I should do
that every time. I turned off the runway at the first available
intersection. By that time I had the carb-heat off but didn't mess with
the flaps. Instead of turning onto the taxiway, I drove straight ahead
into a resident hangar area. While the plane was still rolling, I pulled
the moisture to lean-off, switched off the mags, and opened the master
switch.
Here's the embarrassing part. The noise? When I'd shut the door,
I'd left the tail end of the seat belt strap hanging outside-just about
two-, maybe three-inches of it. It was apparent, because the door was
wedged shut and required a bit of shoulder pressure to open.
That didn't stop me from going over the airplane with a preflight
as extensive as I'd do knowing that someone else had flown it.
Thirty minutes later, with a rehydrated mouth and the puckers
smoothed out of the other orifice, I took off again. As soon and the plane
was off the ground, I dropped the nose and let it accelerate flying just a
few feet off the surface, imminently ready to cut power and land if the
noise came back.
The flight home was great. I got to watch Torch-27 shoot an ILS
approach into Palmdale. Torch-27 is an F-117. I learned enough about the
GPS MAP 196 to be confident of using it cross-country.
...and I added one tiny detail to the Before Taxi checklist.

"zatatime" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 03:03:23 GMT, "Colin W Kingsbury"
wrote:

In the roughly ten minutes the engines were running I
think it sucked half the tank out. Hate to think what would happen in
flight.


The one time I saw this, a guy left BOTH caps off his 185. On climb
out you could see a significant spray (more like running water
upwards) out of each gas tank. Unicom notified him of the problem and
he flew the pattern and came back. He ended up with about 1/4 tanks
on each side after one hop around the patch! Not a good thing. He
refueled, triple checked the caps and went on his way.


Not to mention that at $4.50/gal at my home field, this is an expensive
mistake.

-cwk.

"Casey Wilson" wrote in message
news:XfMvd.4651$Z%1.9@trnddc03...

The plane lifted off just as it had before, then....
WHAT THE HECK IS THAT NOISE!?!
Something was rattling and thumping hard enough and loud enough to
be heard over the muffling of my passive headset.

snip

As I read your story, the seatbelt was the first thing that came to mind as
the cause. Same thing happened to me once, but my instructor warned me about
checking for a flapping belt because it makes a huge amount of noise. So
when I took off and heard a racket, I had a good idea about what was wrong.
After I climbed to pattern height, I opened my door and pulled the belt in.
That thing was flapping pretty violently I have to say.

If a flapping seat belt is all that happens to you, you're blessed. I got
lost on my first solo cross-country, which was pretty embarrasing. I forgot
to close a flight plan once. Once, I was taking up one of my first
passengers after getting my ticket and forgot to push the mixture in when
starting the plane. I nearly killed the battery before I noticed it. I flew
on the leeward side of a mountain in an extreme headwind [holy crap].
Somebody stop me!

-Trent
PP-ASEL

Casey Wilson wrote :
Something was rattling and thumping hard enough and loud enough
to
be heard over the muffling of my passive headset.

I figured it out when I read this sentence. You're not the first
and you certainly won't be the last. Just be glad that it was only
the strap hanging out. I saw a student that took off with the entire
passenger seat buckle hanging out the passenger door. That metal
buckle banging against the fuselage rattled him enough that he made an
immediate off-airport landing in a field just past the end of the
runway. Fortunately for him, he didn't damage the airplane in the
landing and it just had to be towed back to the airport. I was one of
the first ones on the scene and when he described the noise, I told him
to walk around and check the passenger door. I'll bet it took him a
long time to live that one down :-)

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

"tony roberts" wrote in message
news:nospam-25E000.22090514122004@shawnews...
. . . While the plane was still rolling, I pulled the
moisture to lean-off, switched off the mags, and opened the master
switch.

What is the purpose of the moisture control?
Just wonderin'

PHHHBBBTTTT! Thanks, Tony. Gotta remember to do my proofreading check
list!

Mixture. The one with the red knob.

I too had this happend to me in a Cessna 152. It was the passanger
side belt. I do a very detailed pre-flight, but still missed it. I
also came quickly back to the airport, and shook my head in disbelief
at the seat belt. I know have one additional item on MY 152 checklist.
Good work being calm. That wasn't my worst story, but another post.

Now, that was dumb. A 185 has bladders, and leaving the caps off can
pull the bladder retention snaps off inside the wing and collapse the
tank. Filling a partially collapsed tank can mislead the pilot into
thinking he has full tanks, and water can get trapped in the resulting
wrinkles along the bottom. If the bottom is pulled up some, it will
hold the fuel level sender up and give erroneous gauge indications.
Those bladders need inspection after such an event.
Most bladder-equipped Cessnas have an AD against the fuel caps
forcing an annual inspection of the o-ring seal. A broken or crumbling
seal can do the same thing as a missing cap: draw air out of the tank
faster than the vent can balance the pressure, and
fuel loss is the result.

Dan

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:30:17 -0500, "Happy Dog"
wrote:

The one time I saw this, a guy left BOTH caps off his 185. On climb
out you could see a significant spray (more like running water
upwards) out of each gas tank. Unicom notified him of the problem and
he flew the pattern and came back. He ended up with about 1/4 tanks
on each side after one hop around the patch!

Sure.

moo

I'm assuming this means you believe there is no truth to what I've
typed. Would it help if I told you it was an airline captain? If
you'd like to give me your phone number I can have the operator who I
am still friends with call you to validate the story, and probably
offer more antics of this individual. On second thought you're
probably not worth the price of the call.

*squawk*

z

"zatatime" wrote in message
On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:30:17 -0500, "Happy Dog"

The one time I saw this, a guy left BOTH caps off his 185. On climb
out you could see a significant spray (more like running water
upwards) out of each gas tank. Unicom notified him of the problem and
he flew the pattern and came back. He ended up with about 1/4 tanks
on each side after one hop around the patch!

Sure.

I'm assuming this means you believe there is no truth to what I've
typed.

I think that there's a certain measure of hyperbole involved. This has
happened plenty of times and the fuel doesn't drain at that rate. But I
don't doubt that it was a sobering experience.

moo

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:53:32 -0500, "Happy Dog"
wrote:

I'm assuming this means you believe there is no truth to what I've
typed.

I think that there's a certain measure of hyperbole involved. This has
happened plenty of times and the fuel doesn't drain at that rate. But I
don't doubt that it was a sobering experience.

No hyperbole at all. Since it's usenet, of course you're entitled to
your opinion, but what I saw was not part of usenet, nor were any of
the other witnesses. I'm sure each airplane is different due to the
amount of lift generated, and other factors. This airplane lost most
of its fuel once around the patch.

z