Cliff
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2012
- Messages
- 217
- Reaction score
- 28
Watch that primer lock on your Piper. Took a flight Saturday about 7 pm , and after a nice 25 minutes of watching the sunset, I headed back to the airport. When in the pattern, I turned base, and the engine started running real rough. Had the carb heat on, and even thought to myself, that is really working better than before. Turned final still rough. Even turned the carb heat off, and no change.
Landed and taxed to the hangar, and cut the mixture to stop the engine. Not stopping, but real low rpms. She finally stops. Put it up, and wondered what was wrong. The next afternoon, I went back to the plane and checked everything I could. Cables to carb looked ok. Then I got in the plane to start it, as I was reaching for the primer, I noticed it was out, just a tad bit, and was not locked. Primed the engine with my five pumps, and rotated the primer knob to lock it. This time, I double checked the notch to ensure it was indeed locked. She ran like a charm. Did several starts and stops of the engine. Then flew to a neighboring airport. All is well.
I learned a good lesson about double checking that little primer knob. Just passing on to you guys, I know it could have been much worse. But my pride is not so important that I will not share my close call, so maybe someone reading this, will watch out for a potential snake bite, of an unlocked primer knob.
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Landed and taxed to the hangar, and cut the mixture to stop the engine. Not stopping, but real low rpms. She finally stops. Put it up, and wondered what was wrong. The next afternoon, I went back to the plane and checked everything I could. Cables to carb looked ok. Then I got in the plane to start it, as I was reaching for the primer, I noticed it was out, just a tad bit, and was not locked. Primed the engine with my five pumps, and rotated the primer knob to lock it. This time, I double checked the notch to ensure it was indeed locked. She ran like a charm. Did several starts and stops of the engine. Then flew to a neighboring airport. All is well.
I learned a good lesson about double checking that little primer knob. Just passing on to you guys, I know it could have been much worse. But my pride is not so important that I will not share my close call, so maybe someone reading this, will watch out for a potential snake bite, of an unlocked primer knob.
Sent from my iPad using Piper Forum
