- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 18,366
- Location
- Santa Maria, California
- Aircraft
- Givens Predator
- Total Flight Time
- 2600+ in rotorcraft
The next five days were filled with a client who will remain anonymous because there are things to learn from our mistakes. I will refer to him as Bob to protect his identity.
Bob is a primary student who had done very well with a little over seven hours in his log book. This was his third visit. I had him for five days and we were hoping to get him ready for his knowledge test, do his cross country, improve his radio work and refine his landings.
I had not seen Bob since the beginning of January and we were slightly concerned about how much he may have forgotten in three and a half months. I had already transitioned him to the front seat where he is responsible for the engine instruments, operating all the electrics, radio, and transponder. The Predator has a free castering nose wheel steers with differential braking and has toe brakes in the front. I have no brakes in the back.
I recommended that we do some ground reference maneuvers first but Bob was anxious to get started on takeoffs and landings so we decided to jump right into pattern work.
Bob did very well on preflight and was getting better at getting the briefing from flight service.
Bob worked his way through the engine startup check list and things seemed to be going well with a few minor excursions from the check list. I was concerned that I was being too pedantic as I double checked the items I have had problems with in the past. I insisted on readout of each line item. I double checked that the alternator was on, radio on and tuned to the correct frequency. Transponder on and lean for taxi. We listened to the ATIS and then changed to ground. I was going to make the radio calls to minimize distractions. Most primary students find radio calls a distraction.
We received out clearance to taxi to the run-up area (“Experimental Gyroplane 142 Mike Golf, runway 30 taxi via Alpha, Alpha Eight”).
After getting our taxi clearance I again asked if we were leaned for taxi as it doesn’t take much full rich idling to foul the plugs. Bob killed the engine by leaning too far as he added power to taxi out. I had to talk him through a fuel injected Lycoming hot start that took several tries with ground asking if we needed assistance. We again went through the startup list with some additions for hot start.
We taxied to the run-up area and the magneto check went well after I reminded Bob to go full rich for the check. I was concerned he had missed a check list item and double checked everything one more time.
After being cleared for takeoff and left closed traffic we began our takeoff roll. Bob was rusty and trying too hard to keep the nose from coming up so he had the cyclic too far forward allowing us to accelerate faster than the rotor could keep up. At my direction we stopped and did the pre-rotation over again. We moved across the runway more than I would like and lifted off early because we had been hard on the tailwheel. The takeoff was not dangerous, just a little inelegant. The second takeoff was better and the third looked pretty good lifting off at 50kts and climbing out nicely.
At Santa Maria (SMX) we report downwind abeam each pass and receive landing clearance on each lap. On our third round I did not hear a side tone when I made my radio and there was no response from the tower so I asked Bob to make the call. I did not hear him make the call so I realized for some reason we had lost the radio and I took the controls and headed out of the pattern. I did not hear the side tone on the intercom and suspected we had lost the intercom too. SMX is class Delta so two way radio communication is required.
For some reason Bob had forgotten that in the case of radio failure to squawk 7600 and the intercom was not working. I first tried to write 7600 on the body but because I was reaching over the stick the writing was difficult to read. I tried passing Bob a very shaking note with 7600 on it but still failed to communicate. A second time was successful and I headed back to the pattern. I could see a green light gun signal and landed waiting for a second green signal to cross taxiway Alpha to parking.
After we shut down I called the tower on my cell phone and they said I had dropped off the radar (lost the mode C transponder) and they had given me a green light before I had departed the pattern. I got the admonishment: “don’t fly that thing till it is fixed”.
Bob went through the startup check list and only heard clicking when he pressed the start button. I walked over to Coastal Valley Aviation and got a tow back to the hangar for The Predator. I still didn’t know what had happened but I suspected the alternator had been left off despite the check list and reminders. We put her on my trickle charger and headed off to lunch.
I was surprised my Battery Tender was able to breathe life back into the battery over lunch and after a preflight and a quick maintenance flight Bob checked the weather and we were good to go.
Bob realized he had missed “alternator on” on the check list the first time around and simply glanced at the toggle switch each time I reminded him. He had been misinterpreting the volt meter each time I had asked “temperatures and pressures in the green?” From twelve to ten volts there are red lines across a green background and from ten down it goes red. We didn’t lose communication till it was reading in the red. The lines are to tell you the voltage is low and the alternator is not charging and the red is to let you know the battery is not making enough power to run the radio, intercom and transponder. I will add this explanation to my preflight briefing.
Bob did not miss that check list item the rest of the week although I did find the occasional missed item. It is hard to slow down and methodically work through the check list when you want to fly.
I have a backup radio but I can’t reach it from the back and apparently had not briefed Bob properly because I was not able to communicate that I wanted it. I was not able to communicate much of anything. I will add that to the preflight briefing too.
I feel the story will have more value if I break it up so I will write more about my week of adventures with Bob.
I am off to change the ignition wires on The Predator and I will write more when time permits. I feel there is a lot to learn from our adventures. I find value in writing about things and hope you find value in reading about them.
Bob is a primary student who had done very well with a little over seven hours in his log book. This was his third visit. I had him for five days and we were hoping to get him ready for his knowledge test, do his cross country, improve his radio work and refine his landings.
I had not seen Bob since the beginning of January and we were slightly concerned about how much he may have forgotten in three and a half months. I had already transitioned him to the front seat where he is responsible for the engine instruments, operating all the electrics, radio, and transponder. The Predator has a free castering nose wheel steers with differential braking and has toe brakes in the front. I have no brakes in the back.
I recommended that we do some ground reference maneuvers first but Bob was anxious to get started on takeoffs and landings so we decided to jump right into pattern work.
Bob did very well on preflight and was getting better at getting the briefing from flight service.
Bob worked his way through the engine startup check list and things seemed to be going well with a few minor excursions from the check list. I was concerned that I was being too pedantic as I double checked the items I have had problems with in the past. I insisted on readout of each line item. I double checked that the alternator was on, radio on and tuned to the correct frequency. Transponder on and lean for taxi. We listened to the ATIS and then changed to ground. I was going to make the radio calls to minimize distractions. Most primary students find radio calls a distraction.
We received out clearance to taxi to the run-up area (“Experimental Gyroplane 142 Mike Golf, runway 30 taxi via Alpha, Alpha Eight”).
After getting our taxi clearance I again asked if we were leaned for taxi as it doesn’t take much full rich idling to foul the plugs. Bob killed the engine by leaning too far as he added power to taxi out. I had to talk him through a fuel injected Lycoming hot start that took several tries with ground asking if we needed assistance. We again went through the startup list with some additions for hot start.
We taxied to the run-up area and the magneto check went well after I reminded Bob to go full rich for the check. I was concerned he had missed a check list item and double checked everything one more time.
After being cleared for takeoff and left closed traffic we began our takeoff roll. Bob was rusty and trying too hard to keep the nose from coming up so he had the cyclic too far forward allowing us to accelerate faster than the rotor could keep up. At my direction we stopped and did the pre-rotation over again. We moved across the runway more than I would like and lifted off early because we had been hard on the tailwheel. The takeoff was not dangerous, just a little inelegant. The second takeoff was better and the third looked pretty good lifting off at 50kts and climbing out nicely.
At Santa Maria (SMX) we report downwind abeam each pass and receive landing clearance on each lap. On our third round I did not hear a side tone when I made my radio and there was no response from the tower so I asked Bob to make the call. I did not hear him make the call so I realized for some reason we had lost the radio and I took the controls and headed out of the pattern. I did not hear the side tone on the intercom and suspected we had lost the intercom too. SMX is class Delta so two way radio communication is required.
For some reason Bob had forgotten that in the case of radio failure to squawk 7600 and the intercom was not working. I first tried to write 7600 on the body but because I was reaching over the stick the writing was difficult to read. I tried passing Bob a very shaking note with 7600 on it but still failed to communicate. A second time was successful and I headed back to the pattern. I could see a green light gun signal and landed waiting for a second green signal to cross taxiway Alpha to parking.
After we shut down I called the tower on my cell phone and they said I had dropped off the radar (lost the mode C transponder) and they had given me a green light before I had departed the pattern. I got the admonishment: “don’t fly that thing till it is fixed”.
Bob went through the startup check list and only heard clicking when he pressed the start button. I walked over to Coastal Valley Aviation and got a tow back to the hangar for The Predator. I still didn’t know what had happened but I suspected the alternator had been left off despite the check list and reminders. We put her on my trickle charger and headed off to lunch.
I was surprised my Battery Tender was able to breathe life back into the battery over lunch and after a preflight and a quick maintenance flight Bob checked the weather and we were good to go.
Bob realized he had missed “alternator on” on the check list the first time around and simply glanced at the toggle switch each time I reminded him. He had been misinterpreting the volt meter each time I had asked “temperatures and pressures in the green?” From twelve to ten volts there are red lines across a green background and from ten down it goes red. We didn’t lose communication till it was reading in the red. The lines are to tell you the voltage is low and the alternator is not charging and the red is to let you know the battery is not making enough power to run the radio, intercom and transponder. I will add this explanation to my preflight briefing.
Bob did not miss that check list item the rest of the week although I did find the occasional missed item. It is hard to slow down and methodically work through the check list when you want to fly.
I have a backup radio but I can’t reach it from the back and apparently had not briefed Bob properly because I was not able to communicate that I wanted it. I was not able to communicate much of anything. I will add that to the preflight briefing too.
I feel the story will have more value if I break it up so I will write more about my week of adventures with Bob.
I am off to change the ignition wires on The Predator and I will write more when time permits. I feel there is a lot to learn from our adventures. I find value in writing about things and hope you find value in reading about them.