aftCG
Well-known member
Took another pilot flying the other day and for the first time ever the plane ran rough on the mag check.
I tried to walk him through leaning it out and clearing the plug but things didn't improve, so we scrubbed the flight and parked the plane.
Yesterday I went to my hangar to work on the kitfox and decided to see if I could try and clear it, and if that didn't work I would taxi over to my mechanic.
I started the plane and warmed it up a while then did a check at 1500. It ran fine. Taxied out to the open ramp and checked the mags at various power settings and it never missed a beat.
Two observations.
One, this is one of few times that sitting side by side would be a definite advantage, because I could have witnessed the procedure accurately.
Two, I realized after I went home the other night that I had the ability to tell exactly which spark plug was fouled and didn't use it.
By just running it on the dead plug and watching the multi probe EGT it would have indicated which cylinder suddenly had drop in temperature in seconds.
My annual times out at the end of the month. It's been a great year with lots of hours flown. We may complain about the cost as hassle of annual inspections but my plane has had 100% dispatch reliability with nothing but oil changes, tire pressure and pumping grease into the tail wheel.
I tried to walk him through leaning it out and clearing the plug but things didn't improve, so we scrubbed the flight and parked the plane.
Yesterday I went to my hangar to work on the kitfox and decided to see if I could try and clear it, and if that didn't work I would taxi over to my mechanic.
I started the plane and warmed it up a while then did a check at 1500. It ran fine. Taxied out to the open ramp and checked the mags at various power settings and it never missed a beat.
Two observations.
One, this is one of few times that sitting side by side would be a definite advantage, because I could have witnessed the procedure accurately.
Two, I realized after I went home the other night that I had the ability to tell exactly which spark plug was fouled and didn't use it.
By just running it on the dead plug and watching the multi probe EGT it would have indicated which cylinder suddenly had drop in temperature in seconds.
My annual times out at the end of the month. It's been a great year with lots of hours flown. We may complain about the cost as hassle of annual inspections but my plane has had 100% dispatch reliability with nothing but oil changes, tire pressure and pumping grease into the tail wheel.
