The trials and tribulations of parking outside

[rcpilot]

So it's been a couple of rough weeks at Brookhaven Airport(HWV). Two weeks ago someone was showing their Swift to a potential buyer. Apparently the plane had not been flown or run in some time. When the owner started it up it went full throttle and apparently he was unable to get it under control before if broke it's tie downs and went careening into parked aircraft. It damaged 7 in all and came to rest against 2 planes parked directly across from me. And there it sits probably waiting for the insurance companies and/or FAA to come have a look. Then this past Saturday Long Island had not 1 but 5, yes 5, tornadoes. Apparently one of them thought HWV was a nice place to touchdown. A co-worker and fellow pilot, texted me a picture of a Cessna on it's back and suggested I might want to go have a look at my plane. I did. There were a few people out doing the same. My plane was still tied down but apparently my rudder got a little dinged up bouncing back and forth between the elevator halves(on the Zenith 601 the entire vertical fin is the rudder). And looks like I'll be fashioning a gust lock to prevent this in the future. My TailBeacon was loose but I was able to tighten it back down. To my inexpert eyes it appears the skin on the rudder just needs to be banged out or replaced but my mechanic is going to give the whole plane the once over to play it safe. Being it looks like this repair is going to be involved I opened a claim with my insurance. Assuming the rudder was the only casualty the bill shouldn't be that big. After these last 2 weeks I wouldn't be surprised if no one wants to insure planes at HWV anymore.

[rcpilot]

The verdict is in. Mechanic had a look at the plane today. Good news only the rudder was damaged. Bad news it will have to be replaced. So looks like no flying for a while. Could have been worse. I found out my neighbor at the field had his tiedown straps break and apparently his plane was picked up by the wind and dropped. Has damage to his landing gears.

[rcpilot]

Making slow progress. Parts arrived last week and I brought the plane over to the mechanic on Saturday. So far he got the rudder off. Waiting for him to get to work on fixing it. Thanks to his regular work and storm related work he's busy so it may be a while.

[rcpilot]

Mechanic deskinned the rudder. Frame looks OK so he'll just have to reskin it. Supposedly he was going to work on it today so with any luck by New Years I should be back in business.

[MrMorden]

But did he make the sale?

[rcpilot]

As hard as this is to believe, the plane is still not repaired yet. So my A&P decided he did not want to do the job of building a new rudder. One of his customers recommended someone but there was a bit of miscommunication about when the guy could start the job, not to mention he's in Maine. Although my A&P flew the parts to the guy, he only started working on it last week. From what my mechanic has told though seems like this guy knows what he's doing. A schematic drawing was missing from the instructions and he reached out to Zenith himself to get it. Not to mention apparently the part that mounts the rudder to the fuselage (it had a seized bearing and the holes to mount it to the rudder didn't line up) has to be replaced. It's not part of the rudder kit and like pretty much everything else Zenith currently makes doesn't exactly fit my Czech Republic version Zenith (why the existing part didn't line up with the new rudder). On the plus side my mechanic said from the pictures he's seen looks like the guy is doing a good job which will include painting and reinstalling my Uavionix Tailbeacon. So hopefully a couple weeks more and I'll be back in business. Just in time for the longer days and nicer weather.

[rcpilot]

At long last the new rudder is complete. All painted, N number and Tailbeacon reinstalled. Now just to pick it up and have my guy put it back on the plane. My mechanic "volunteered" one of his customers to make the trip to pick it up. Originally looked like we were going to have to go to KMLT. That would have been a hike but the guy who assembled it also has a shop at Plum Island(2B2) we'll be able to pick it up from there. Now if the weather would just cooperate.

[rcpilot]

Just in time for Easter, my plane is all better. My mechanic and I reinstalled the rudder. That day it was a bit too windy to test. i was able to start it right up and taxi back to my parking spot. The next day it was a little colder and the plane gave me a hard time about starting and I had to use a battery booster. After my first trip in the pattern, I notice that the transponder went off. I tried booting it back up but it would just shutoff again. I also see I have low volts. Hmm. A couple more trips in the pattern to test the rudder(probably not the best idea) and then back to my parking spot. Shut everything down and then just check the avionics. All good. Try restart and no go. Won't even turn over. At this point I'm thinking bad battery, perhaps from sitting 4 months through the Winter. Order new battery and just to test my theory I hook up my booster and at least the engine turns over. Swap out the battery and it fires right up. Good voltage. Of course too windy to fly but next chance I'm going to test it out some more.

[Sling 2 Pilot]

I’d bet, with new battery installed, your transponder will be good to go on the next flight. Keep us updated.

[chicagorandy]

I'm not an airplane mechanic nor do I play one on the TV, but I have owned a boat-load of crap cars in my 73 years. If under power you get low voltage I would first suspect the alternator? I dunno, but worth checking its output too. I am 'assuming' that airplane engines like auto engines only use the battery to start the thing, then the alternator powers the systems and recharges the battery?

[rcpilot]

I'm not an airplane mechanic nor do I play one on the TV, but I have owned a boat-load of crap cars in my 73 years. If under power you get low voltage I would first suspect the alternator? I dunno, but worth checking its output too. I am 'assuming' that airplane engines like auto engines only use the battery to start the thing, then the alternator powers the systems and recharges the battery?

While you can have an external alternator on a Rotax, I just use the built-in stator. Once I swapped out the battery and started it up I was getting good voltage, even with all the lights and avionics on. I'll test it some more in the pattern because it's possible the voltage regulator is an issue(when it went the last time it was intermittent).