After an annual?

When you pick up your plane after an annual, is there any special things
you do? I'm picking up the club's Lance after its annual today, and
flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check? I was planning to climb
up over the airport to about 4,000 feet so that I'll have some glide
cushion if something goes wrong.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
There are mushrooms that can survive weeks, months without air or food.
They just dry out and when water comes back, they wake up again. And call
the helldesk about their password expiring. -- after Jens Benecke and Tanuki

Paul Tomblin wrote:
When you pick up your plane after an annual, is there any special things
you do? I'm picking up the club's Lance after its annual today, and
flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check? I was planning to climb
up over the airport to about 4,000 feet so that I'll have some glide
cushion if something goes wrong.

I decowl it and do a really, really super preflight check. Everything
under the cowl area should be gone over as if your life dependend on
it. Most of the major issues I've had in flight have been right after
annual. Also, its not unusual for the battery to be dead after annual.
Most shops are thoughtful enough to charge the battery before you
arrive but sometimes they forget. I certainly would not make this an
IFR or night flight.
Also, triple check the logs that the annual was signed off. Twice I
picked up a plane after annual only to notice the IA forgot to log the
annual (making my flight illegal).

-Robert

Paul Tomblin wrote:

flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check?

Not meaning to be too pedantic, Paul, but Batavia to Rochester is about a
25 minute *drive*, as it is only 21 nautical miles airport to airport.

With the prevailing winds out of the west along that route, I would think
it more in the order of a six to ten minute flight.

Take a screwdriver on your preflight and give each access panel screw a
quick check. I have discovered access panels with screws that were quite
loose, as if the mechanic or assistant finger-tightened them with the
intent of revisiting them with a screwdriver at a later, non-existent time.



--
Peter

In a previous article, "Peter R." said:
Paul Tomblin wrote:
flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check?

Not meaning to be too pedantic, Paul, but Batavia to Rochester is about a
25 minute *drive*, as it is only 21 nautical miles airport to airport.

With the prevailing winds out of the west along that route, I would think
it more in the order of a six to ten minute flight.

Not the way Rochester vectors me around. I swear I overflew Canadaugua
and Penn Yann while on vectors today.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
You cannot run Windows innocently. Guilt of aiding & abetting, at
the very least, is automatic.
-- David P. Murphy

In a previous article, "Robert M. Gary" said:
annual. Also, its not unusual for the battery to be dead after annual.

Oh, you got that one right. I got half a blade before it totally died.


--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
We don't need a fountain of youth. We need a fountain of smart.
-- Bill Mattocks's .sig

Paul Tomblin wrote:

Not the way Rochester vectors me around. I swear I overflew Canadaugua
and Penn Yann while on vectors today.

LOL! Fair enough.

--
Peter

I guess one special thing I did after last annual, was have the guy who
did the annual fly the plane first. Actually it was his preference to
check everything out. After each oil change or engine maintenance, I do
a full preflight & runup, followed by a high speed taxi test. Then I
taxi back and shut down to let the cowling cool down enough so I can
open it to see if anything is leaking. Then I'll give it a normal
preflight before flying it.

Eric Bartsch
1959 Pilatus P-3 A-848
http://www.hometown.aol.com/bartscher/P3A848.html


On Dec 18, 11:10 am, (Paul Tomblin) wrote:
When you pick up your plane after an annual, is there any special things
you do? I'm picking up the club's Lance after its annual today, and
flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check? I was planning to climb
up over the airport to about 4,000 feet so that I'll have some glide
cushion if something goes wrong.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/

- Log Books are in order, every thing signed off, transponder checks signed
off if needed.
- A very through preflight, touch everything, is the seat loose in the
tracks? I once had a back seat come loose, it was not reinstalled properly.
- Check all inspectin panels, internal and external, touch everything
- Under the cowl, check all spark plugs and leads, fan belt, alternator
wires
- Check oil filter is secured (safety wire), oil filler cap and oil level
- Check all fuel drains, make sure tanks are filled to the level you want.
- Tires should have been removed to grease the bearings, check for proper
tightness and cotter pins.
- Engine runup, Static RPM check (do you know how to do a static check and
what your numbers are?)
- Ground VOR Check?
- Taxi back, shut it down and do another full preflight, this time checking
for every thing and any thing that leaks.
- Only fly it back in DAY VFR conditions and SOLO.

BT

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
When you pick up your plane after an annual, is there any special things
you do? I'm picking up the club's Lance after its annual today, and
flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check? I was planning to climb
up over the airport to about 4,000 feet so that I'll have some glide
cushion if something goes wrong.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
There are mushrooms that can survive weeks, months without air or food.
They just dry out and when water comes back, they wake up again. And call
the helldesk about their password expiring. -- after Jens Benecke and
Tanuki

In article , "BT"
wrote:

- Log Books are in order, every thing signed off, transponder checks signed
off if needed.
- A very through preflight, touch everything, is the seat loose in the
tracks? I once had a back seat come loose, it was not reinstalled properly.
- Check all inspectin panels, internal and external, touch everything
- Under the cowl, check all spark plugs and leads, fan belt, alternator
wires
- Check oil filter is secured (safety wire), oil filler cap and oil level
- Check all fuel drains, make sure tanks are filled to the level you want.
- Tires should have been removed to grease the bearings, check for proper
tightness and cotter pins.
- Engine runup, Static RPM check (do you know how to do a static check and
what your numbers are?)
- Ground VOR Check?
- Taxi back, shut it down and do another full preflight, this time checking
for every thing and any thing that leaks.
- Only fly it back in DAY VFR conditions and SOLO.

BT

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
When you pick up your plane after an annual, is there any special things
you do? I'm picking up the club's Lance after its annual today, and
flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check? I was planning to climb
up over the airport to about 4,000 feet so that I'll have some glide
cushion if something goes wrong.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
There are mushrooms that can survive weeks, months without air or food.
They just dry out and when water comes back, they wake up again. And call
the helldesk about their password expiring. -- after Jens Benecke and
Tanuki

Check all the controls are rigged right. Does left deflection on the yoke
really give you left deflection on the ailerons? Ditto for elevator and
rudder.

I once picked up an Archer that had the electric trim worked on. I ran the
trim all the way to one end with the electric thumb switch, and when it
reached the end it made a big "CLUNK" noise and wouldn't budge from that
position. I'm glad I caught that on the ground.

I once picked up a plane from an annual and flew it back home in night IMC.
All I can say about that one is that we learn from our mistakes.

Check under the cowling. One guy in my club got a really nice Snap-On
wrench by doing a good preflight on a plane which had been flown home from
an annual the day before.

In article ,
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:

When you pick up your plane after an annual, is there any special things
you do? I'm picking up the club's Lance after its annual today, and
flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check? I was planning to climb
up over the airport to about 4,000 feet so that I'll have some glide
cushion if something goes wrong.

one of the benefits on an owner-assisted annual is being involved in
the close-out of actions from the annual.

btw - following the installation of an overhauled engine, we (the A&P and I)
did the initial engine check-out flying a racetrack pattern at 2000' above
the airport. We simply told the tower that we wanted to orbit the field for
an engine test.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate