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- Aug 21, 2010
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...but probably not in the way you think.
Plane's been idle for way too long...8-10 weeks or so. Finally decided to take it out and get breakfast last weekend. Invited a buddy to come along, so I got there early to fuel up and maybe take it around the patch a couple times just to make sure she's good to go before my passenger arrives.
Pulled the plane out and started her up, and while the engine caught quickly as usual, it didn't rev up like normal. Usually, full rich and 1/4" throttle gives me ~1500 rpm and I have to pull the throttle back a bit to settle out around ~1000. This time, she revved to about 1000 and stayed there, and felt a little rough. Looking at the engine monitor, cyl #3 was very cold compared to the other three. I gently increased the throttle to see what would happen, and the revs came up, but it still felt rough. Thought maybe it might be lead fouling, so I leaned the mixture aggressively, but #3 stayed much colder than the others.
I started to taxi toward the pumps just to see if anything would change, but noticed my passenger arriving. I turned around and taxied back to the hangar, killed the engine, and got out to let him know we might not be flying today. We both climbed back in so I could show him what I was seeing, but when I tried the hot-start procedure, it didn't catch (also unusual). When I reached for the primer to give it a couple shots...
...that's when I noticed it wasn't locked. This time, I gave it 3 shots, made SURE the primer was locked, and she started up as normal, revving to ~1500 and requiring me to throttle back a bit to get to 1000. Cyl #3 was also quickly warming up to join the rest of the family.
We ended up making it to breakfast and back with no issues.
That's the second time that a loose primer has caught me off-guard. Last time was ~11 years ago, within the first 6 months of owning the plane. It's on the checklist, but somehow I just didn't get it this time.
I'm glad there wasn't a real problem with cyl #3, but I'm disappointed in myself for missing that during the startup sequence. Argh.
Plane's been idle for way too long...8-10 weeks or so. Finally decided to take it out and get breakfast last weekend. Invited a buddy to come along, so I got there early to fuel up and maybe take it around the patch a couple times just to make sure she's good to go before my passenger arrives.
Pulled the plane out and started her up, and while the engine caught quickly as usual, it didn't rev up like normal. Usually, full rich and 1/4" throttle gives me ~1500 rpm and I have to pull the throttle back a bit to settle out around ~1000. This time, she revved to about 1000 and stayed there, and felt a little rough. Looking at the engine monitor, cyl #3 was very cold compared to the other three. I gently increased the throttle to see what would happen, and the revs came up, but it still felt rough. Thought maybe it might be lead fouling, so I leaned the mixture aggressively, but #3 stayed much colder than the others.
I started to taxi toward the pumps just to see if anything would change, but noticed my passenger arriving. I turned around and taxied back to the hangar, killed the engine, and got out to let him know we might not be flying today. We both climbed back in so I could show him what I was seeing, but when I tried the hot-start procedure, it didn't catch (also unusual). When I reached for the primer to give it a couple shots...
...that's when I noticed it wasn't locked. This time, I gave it 3 shots, made SURE the primer was locked, and she started up as normal, revving to ~1500 and requiring me to throttle back a bit to get to 1000. Cyl #3 was also quickly warming up to join the rest of the family.
We ended up making it to breakfast and back with no issues.
That's the second time that a loose primer has caught me off-guard. Last time was ~11 years ago, within the first 6 months of owning the plane. It's on the checklist, but somehow I just didn't get it this time.
I'm glad there wasn't a real problem with cyl #3, but I'm disappointed in myself for missing that during the startup sequence. Argh.
