Friday, July 16, 2021

Not Flying - IFR Stage Check 2 Ground Lesson

Today was scheduled to be Stage Check 2 in my IFR training.

An instructor named Aaron was going to conduct it, very good and memorable name he had.

I arrived early and pre-flighted N6288J.

Since it is raining cats and dogs with a low ceiling of MVFR at best, it would be perfect IFR weather for the check and to get some actual time in the clouds.


The plan was a round-robin to Flint, then Linden, and back to Pontiac, starting with a VOR 36 approach at Flint with a circle to land on Runway 9 with a missed approach and then an ILS approach to Runway 9, then off to Linden with an RNAV circle to land and then back to Pontiac for an RNAV 9R circle to land on Runway 9L.

I prepped and then filed the flight plan and since it is my second time doing it, I am getting better at it, which is nice.

Then back to the plane.  Good start-up.

So, are you wondering why this post is labelled Not Flying rather than Flying?

Because:  The plane was not so good on the run up. Drat.

During the mag check, the magneto ran as rough as a magneto has ever sounded to me before.  I mean serious vibration and very rough sounding.  We tried to lean it and burn off any carbon, but no dice, still rough.  

Both Aarons in the aircraft unanimously decided it was a no-go as a result.

I'm definitely not going up in IFR with a known rough mag.  Heck, I would not do that VFR either. 

So I taxi'd it back to the maintenance hangar and shut it down.  Even on shut down it sounded rather awful.  

So we went inside and did the ground portion of the Stage 2 check - Aaron was happy I clearly was studying and I could answer most questions without issues.  I certainly did stumble on some, and I learned quite a bit from the check as well and will tighten things up, which is the point.  I still have a lot to learn though.

So I passed the ground portion of the Stage 2 Check, but the flying portion will need to await another time.

4 comments:

juvat said...

I learned very early in my flying career (and not the hard way fortunately) that the saying "It is infinitely better to be down here wishing you were up there, than to be up there wishing you were down here is always true. Sounds like you made a wise decision. Good on ya'.

Old NFO said...

Concur with Juvat!

B said...

What Juvat said.

I learned when diving (the hard way) that if something isn't right and can't be fixed or replaced, the it was time to call the dive.

I do the same with flying....rough set of of plugs, fuel flow doesn't feel right, slow throttle response, wonky DG or horizon (even in VFR) or anything like that, I taxi back to the hangar. If someone else is unhappy with that decision, well, I am the PIC. IF they don't like it, they can fly their plane.
In flying, you are responsible not only for yourself, but any other passengers (and the instructor is a passenger as far as I am concerned). You are the PIC, you make the call.

Aaron said...

juvat: That's for sure.

Old NFO: As do I.

B: Yes indeed. If somethings not right, then I'm not going.