When things don’t ‘CLICK’

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mikegtzg
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Location: 1000' & 66 kts. above Manitoba

When things don’t ‘CLICK’

Post by mikegtzg »

Finally the weather has broken. Winters bitter grip mellows and the daytime highs are just below 0. Ideal weather to fly my open cockpit Pietenpol on skis to those locations I hadn’t been able to fly on floats. (YET!!)

So I decided to fly out to ice fish along with some friends at the Big Whiteshell Lake. The flight and company of my friends was great. When I planned to leave something was wrong. The Continental A65 in the Pietenpol has an impulse coupler for starting. This device spins the magneto quickly during starting to create a good spark. They make a very noticeable ‘click’ when the internal spring releases and spins the magneto. Well there was no ‘click’. This was bad. With the impulse coupler inoperative, you have to spin the prop around 200 rpm to get enough power generated in the magneto to create a spark. When you hand prop, this is very difficult. Needless to say I wasn’t going anywhere. And I had to tow the plane by snowmobile to the shoreline to find a good place to tie it down and allow subsequent access.

After getting a ride back to Winnipeg. My next job was to get parts and repair and retrieve the airplane. The weather was forecast to warm up considerably in the next few days. And the snow on the lake could easily become a slushy mess. I borrowed a complete magneto and harness from a fellow club member. And another club member flew me out in his J3 to complete the repairs.

After installing and timing the magneto. The engine started on the first flip of the prop. Great, now just put the cowlings back on and fly home. When I went to start it up to leave, it backfired and almost took my arm off. Was something amiss? Not sure. The impulse coupler usually ‘clicks’ when the prop is in the horizontal 9 O’clock position. This is done to make hand propping the engine safer. The click came in the 10 O’clock position. Then a couple rotations of the prop later went back to the horizontal 9 O’clock position. Now I wasn’t quite sure, but since it went back to clicking normally I figured that maybe I was imagining things.

All was well during the run up and magneto check as I taxied across the lake to take off into the wind. As I applied full throttle for takeoff, I was disappointed. The engine would only put out 1800 rpm. No where near the normal 2300 rpm takeoff rpm. Could it be carburetor ice? I had been taxing without carb heat at 1700 rpm. I applied carb heat as my ride in the J3 took off. I radioed that I had trouble. But with fuel limitations and the headwind that day he had to continue his flight back to home field. I was alone with an airplane that’s not running right on the lake.

I decided to take another look at the timing of the magneto. Removed the cowlings and realized that the ‘click’ was now at the 11 O’clock position. I’m sure the bolts that hold it in place were tightened properly. The standard retard of a magneto impulse coupler is approx. 25deg. Since the timing on my engine is for 30 deg BTDC. And I have the prop set to be at TDC with the prop at the horizontal 9 O’clock position. I retimed the mag for the ‘click’ close to this position.

This time the engine revved to almost 2200 rpm. Not quite as good as before, but adequate. I put the cowlings on again and tried to take off. I wanted to be sure it was going to run properly before I fly over many miles of bush to get home. The plan was to fly in a very large circle staying within gliding distance of the lake until I was sure that the engine was performing properly. After 10 minutes of flight and 4 lengths of the lake I was not able to get to 800AGL. It was struggling to climb without going into slow flight. The Pietenpol isn’t a fighter, but it normally climbs at 400-500 fpm. To top it off, the oil temperature was higher than normal. Perhaps the magneto was defective in some way.
None of this inspired any confidence and I landed the plane back on the lake and tied it down for the night.

A resident on the lake had been taking pictures of the plane the previous day when he returned from ice fishing and found an airplane tied up on his shoreline. He had offered the use of a telephone at his cottage. The fellows spouse walked in to see a stranger sitting on the living room floor talking on the phone. I smiled and waved hello. She heard me asking the friend that I convinced to pick me up to stop at Subway. At that moment she invited me for steak dinner.

When I fly in the winter I have this special insulated flight suit. On this day I had no plans to remove it until I returned home. I was standing on the deck outside the cottage. Steaks were on the barbecue and I was invited in to wash up and get ready for dinner.
I informed her that I had a slight problem. Since I only had long johns on under the suit, going ‘commando’ in the home of people that I only met 15 minutes ago was likely not appropriate… They loaned me a pair of pants. During the day, snowmobilers and ice fisherman stopped by to offer me drinks or a hand. When broken down in a car, often you get ignored. It’s amazing how people open up to you given similar circumstances in an airplane.

The next day I replaced the magneto impulse coupler spring on my original unit. (I had a spare in the hanger, what luck!) And planned to drive out the following day to install it and possibly fly it home.

After installing and timing the magneto. The engine ran perfect. My ride out had been badgering me to just fly it home. The weather forecast had called for freezing rain from surface to 4000ASL along the route home. I wasn’t about to fly with this forecast. A call to flight services convinced me that the warm front associated with the poor forecast had moved north. And I would have good VFR ceilings and none of the predicted icing conditions. My instructions to my ride were clear. If I flew past the West shoreline of the lake, all was well and would fly home. The take off and climb out were back to normal. All was well, so I departed to the West and home. 5 minutes into the flight I encountered rain. As I considered turning back, the flight service report had said that the temperatures were above 0. So I continued on home through the light drizzle.

On the ground, the rain was coming down like a sheet. My ride got concerned. After badgering me to fly home, he envisioned me making an emergency landing on a lake. He then made many detours to check all the lakes on my route to see if I had put down.

The flight home was wonderful. The overcast skies eliminated thermal activity and it was like driving down an interstate. (I even had a tailwind) After I landed and had put the airplane back in its hanger. The phone rang in the clubhouse. It was a friend of my ride telling me that my ride was panicking with a bottle of brandy. Worrying I was stranded or worse.

I have to thank all the people that helped me out. This is truly an example of the comradeship of aviation enthusiasts.
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PostmasterGeneral
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Re: When things don’t ‘CLICK’

Post by PostmasterGeneral »

Great story! Thanks for sharing!
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crazy_aviator
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Re: When things don’t ‘CLICK’

Post by crazy_aviator »

Okay, im still on the edge of my seat ,,,what was wrong with the magneto ? :shock:
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butters
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Re: When things don’t ‘CLICK’

Post by butters »

crazy_aviator wrote:Okay, im still on the edge of my seat ,,,what was wrong with the magneto ? :shock:
It had all kinds of dust from 2005 sitting on it...around the same time the story was posted. ;)
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mikegtzg
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Re: When things don’t ‘CLICK’

Post by mikegtzg »

I never found out what was wrong with the borrowed magneto. I gave it back...and as the story said. Replaced the impulse coupler spring on my original mag.
After posting this story years ago. This is the first time anybody asked a question. Sorry it took me a year to notice and answer.
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