gbrooks231
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
- Messages
- 148
- Reaction score
- 24
Here's a new one for me and my AP. We had just finished the annual with everything looking really good. My guy lets me assist with the dummy stuff and usually that works well. He was traveling so I cowled up the aircraft after getting the go ahead from him. Again, everything went well, no surprises. I did a short cross country to southern Missouri with no issues on the outbound flight. Weather coming back was marginal VFR but I felt confident that I could scoot around the worst of it and get in OK. My fall back plan was to stop in route if the ceiling deteriorated, and wait it out.
I was bumping around at 4,500 MSL, when I noticed my artificial horizon was showing a constant climb indication. I have Foreflight and always run Stratus horizon as a backup and it showed straight and level. RPM, turn indicator and the vertical speed indicator all agreed - level flight. I started really looking at my flight instruments now and determined that the heading indicator was not working either. About this time. I entered class C airspace and ran into some really low clouds forcing me to 1,500 MSL. There are some stacks along the river and along my flight path that are 1,350 MSL so my pucker factor was at about 8.5 and rising.
I determined that the AH and the heading indicator were toast so with Stratus and the whiskey compass, I made it to LOU without incident other than cutting a doughnut in the seat with my pucker. Back in the hanger, I started looking for the cause, pitot tube plugged, statice port, etc. What I found made me mentally kick myself in the ass. Under the left wing adjacent to the pitot tube is an inspection plate. It had been removed during the annual. It was actually still attached with one screw and was sorta still in place, but not tight, allowing the wing to pressurize during flight. When it was re-installed correctly everything came back on line and worked perfectly.
Long story short, pre-flights are essential, especially after the aircraft has been worked on. I did a cursory walk around and it bit me in the ass. With my pucker factor going to max due to my failure to properly inspect the aircraft, that won't happen again.
I was bumping around at 4,500 MSL, when I noticed my artificial horizon was showing a constant climb indication. I have Foreflight and always run Stratus horizon as a backup and it showed straight and level. RPM, turn indicator and the vertical speed indicator all agreed - level flight. I started really looking at my flight instruments now and determined that the heading indicator was not working either. About this time. I entered class C airspace and ran into some really low clouds forcing me to 1,500 MSL. There are some stacks along the river and along my flight path that are 1,350 MSL so my pucker factor was at about 8.5 and rising.
I determined that the AH and the heading indicator were toast so with Stratus and the whiskey compass, I made it to LOU without incident other than cutting a doughnut in the seat with my pucker. Back in the hanger, I started looking for the cause, pitot tube plugged, statice port, etc. What I found made me mentally kick myself in the ass. Under the left wing adjacent to the pitot tube is an inspection plate. It had been removed during the annual. It was actually still attached with one screw and was sorta still in place, but not tight, allowing the wing to pressurize during flight. When it was re-installed correctly everything came back on line and worked perfectly.
Long story short, pre-flights are essential, especially after the aircraft has been worked on. I did a cursory walk around and it bit me in the ass. With my pucker factor going to max due to my failure to properly inspect the aircraft, that won't happen again.
