Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes An introduction and a question on N46CA

What day would you arrive to Quad Cities? I could probably fly down there and pick you up, I have room for two and a few bags.

Ooh, you unlucky fellow!

Hmmmmmmmm

I hope you ment a CRAMP?


Oh my...

Things that make ya go Hmmmmmmmm....

EEeeewwwwhh! WAY more information than I needed!






(When they start ribbing you, you know you're one of us!)

" Always like to keep my audience riveted. " - Blazing Saddles

-corey

and of course "Excuse me while I whip this out..." *gasp*

Well, that makes two of us then! I don't have my pilot's license yet either...haven't even gotten properly started yet, except for reading voraciously. (I had a few lessons years ago in CO as an impecunious newlywed, but just couldn't afford to continue. At long last, almost 20 years later, it looks like I may finally have the means.) I had been seriously investigating the possibilities of coming home to learn to fly in America on one of those intensive fast track options, until a problem with one of our children put the kybosh on it. It would seem unwise to be gone for 6-8 weeks under the circumstances. So I have had to reluctantly turn my eyes to learning here which will be considerably more expensive (user fees and all that, plus a higher cost of things generally.) The local club ony offers flight training on a Piper Tomahawk (how are they?), whereas I was really keen to learn on a Cessna 150 or 152 because that is what I myself hope to own and fly regularly (maybe a 140 if I am the lucky winner of the Dakota Territory Air Museum Sweepstakes! They are raffling off tickets for one...the annual raffle helps support the museum...a worthy cause and very akin to the work of the Kjeller Aviation History Society which I belong to and am active in here in Norway.

But I think it is more probable that the plane I have in the future will be one I have earned and bought myself...there are no free lunches in this world! And people may laugh if they will, but for me, the little Cessna 150s with their slim waists, swept tails and light controls are a thing of beauty....spam can insults notwithstanding! So to carry my warped thinking to its conclusion, I thought if I could manage it and had my own plane of the type I wanted to fly, maybe I could learn to fly really well, whether it were a conventional gear or tricarriage. (WOuld like ultimately to be able to master both.) And if I found one that was strong enough also to tow the club gliders and maybe be used as a beginning trainer for a sort of basic-aerobatics-for safety-and-to-improve-your-flying form of training (rather like what Catherine does)maybe the club would be interested in helping to maintain it. It would be a privately owned aircraft that the club could use for towing and more advanced training people who already had their licenses but wanted to take it a little further.

(I am thinking aloud here...have not broached my nutty thinking to anyone over here)....I am not even a pilot yet and already I have launched into exotic plans!! But there is more: there is a club near Kongsvinger where my husband's people come from that needs life blown into it again after they crashed their only plane. I am not saying I should offer the replacement, but we need to stop the closure of the few local airfields Norway has by making sure there is activity. The Society is making a good start by flying in the Tiger Moth we restored along with a Piper Cub and a Bird Dog, possibly a Fairchild Cornell in a sort of historical marking of the early days of Norwegian military aviation (the TM and Cornell were used as trainers before the war, the Tiger Moth before the Germans invaded, the Cornell at the Little Norway training camp in Canada during the war where young Norwegian men who managed to escape their occupied country went to train before joining the Norwegian squadrons in the RAF.

So as a novice and eager "wannabe", I leaped on the questions you posted and followed closely, noting the responses of the members, their suggestions and tips, the suggested threads and leads....gosh you can learn alot here! And if I can see my way clear to getting to Clinton, like you I will learn more (as well as having a jolly good time doing it! I can't wait to try tossing a nerf!)

Bryan, that was very kind of you to offer. Thank you. Once we are sorted out with dates and routing and so forth (there is still some uncertainty over whether we will be able to come), I will send you a PM to check and see if what we have managed is convenient for you and your family and if it coincides with your own travel plans to Clinton. If not, we will drive.

Well, Mr Black flew the plane down for me to look over. It took him 2 hours to get here! How many owners selling a plane would do that! Yes, a great excuse to fly, but I was still surprised he would do that for me. He seemed like a nice fellow.

Anyway, I reviewed the log books and " as far as I can tell " everything seems in order. The plane was used for the first 5-6 years of its life as a Highway Patrol aircraft and the logs show most of the airframes hours occurred at this time.
The engine logs show normal maintenance without any red flags. The original engine was replaced with the current engine at around 2200 hours. The current engine has around 1100 hours on it and the numbers seem to add up. Total Airframe time is 3300 hours.
The logs showed the plane was " pickled " for about 12 years. I understand " pickled " to mean properly stored. If I'm wrong here please let me know. At that time the wings were removed and the engine prepped for storage.

The plane's last annual was December 06 and the only bit of concern would be the engines compression numbers. In 05 the numbers were 77,72,72,68 were as in 06, the numbers dropped to 68,68,68,62. I'm thinking the plane hasn't been flow and the rings are doing funny stuff.

I asked Mr Black about corrosion and he opened up some of the wing's access panels. Everything looked okay with just a light dusting of white in a few areas. From what I've read on this forum, its normal.

Engine was a little dirty(no pictures). He said he's replace a mag and change the oil every 20 hours since becoming the owner. I believe he's owned the plane for about 5 years. He told me but I forgot what he said.

Everything works on the panel except for a second altimeter with a " built in encoder ". I'm saying this wrong, but the encoder isn't talking to the altimeter anymore and the just replaced the unit with a different standalone encoder.


No current static port check or encoder check.


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My thoughts.

I think the plane has been mechanically maintained, however I think avionics are missing TLC. It doesn't seem that the avionics have been inspected and/or fixed. I got the impression that he didn't think it was worth spending the money, because it wasn't life threatening and he had backup avionics that were working.

With Mr Blacks hours (4000 in type) and his field landing (it was beautiful) I decided to take a ride. The plane showed no signs of wheel shimmy. He ran the engines up to 1700 and did a mag check, we spun 360 and took off. NICE flying day. The flight and landing were uneventful and all the avionics seemed to be working.

I didn't crap (cramp) in the plane this time. Hahaha

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I've included some pictures I took today. Maybe someone will see something from these pictures I've overlooked.


I'm not in a hurry here. I'm sure I'll see many planes at Clinton, some even being for sale.

This plane seems nice, but without a A&P inspection, I can't tell. It's in the running and I felt comfortable with it both on the ground and in flight. I've ordered the FAA CD on this plane, but it hasn't arrived yet.


Oh and I fill Mr Black's tanks up with AVgas. It was the least I could do.



Front View [circuitworx.com]
Wing View [circuitworx.com]
Right Front View [circuitworx.com]
Left Tail View [circuitworx.com]
Right Tail View [circuitworx.com]
Nose Gear [circuitworx.com]
Nose Gear 2 [circuitworx.com]
Landing Gear Left View [circuitworx.com]
Landing Gear Right View [circuitworx.com]

Panel [circuitworx.com]

It appears to have the incorrect spinner mentioned in another thread a few days ago. It looks like it is blocking almost 1/2 of the oil cooling openings. For a better explanation, look at Charles' pictures [150cessna.tripod.com] mentioned in the previous thread.