Sport Pilot Talk

Hey all...

I posted a lot of this stuff on the CTFlier Forum, but I know there are a lot of people here not on that board.

My good friend Bill Ince and I flew our CTSWs from Winder, GA to Page, AZ for the annual CT / LSA fly-in. The trip out was great, and we had a great time there. Flying back was...challenging. We got behind a huge line of weather stretching from south Texas to North Dakota. We went south to get around it, and made it to Victoria, Texas just in time to get stuck under hurricane Patricia! We were weathered in for a long time and ended up getting home SIX days later than intended.

On the plus side, I took a lot of video!

The Grand Canyon (video is 4x speed to avoid boredom...that is a BIG hole) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmDJRCj-K2Q

Flight of Three on Lake Powell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtVgFmHIIGM

Landing at Sedona:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYzpLCgPmpM

The flight to Sedona the morning after the fly-in, a flight of eight airplanes at 7500ft over a scattered layer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgjVhFGSmHE

Some low flight over an unoccupied portion of a large copper mine near Tucson (flight of three):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha5RquHMqZI

And our MVFR landing (with cockpit audio) at Victoria, TX. The rain starts just as we land and doesn't quit for four days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxJ1ZpdqaJc

Great stuff, Andy!
Thanks for taking the time to capture, edit and post the footage.
Really enjoyed making the trip with you.
Maybe GoPro is in my future somewhere.

Incredible videos, Andy! Thanx...

ct4me wrote:Incredible videos, Andy! Thanx...

Glad you were able to star in the Lake Powell video, Tim. I hope to see you again next year!

I haven't watched them all, but the final MVFR arrival was quite nicely done.

I also like your camera placement.

*

Thanks everybody!

Dale, the layover was annoying, but not bad. Before the trip Bill and I had spoken a lot, but never met. It could have been torturous if we'd decided we didn't like each other, but we got along great the whole time and misery loves company!

IIRC the total breakdown of delays was:

1 day in Tucson, AZ because of a broken exhaust pipe on my engine (discovered on preflight -- do those checks, kids!);

1 day in Carlsbad, NM due to weather;

3 days in Victoria, TX due to weather;

1 day in Beaumont, TX due to weather.

Overall quite an adventure. I would not trade the experience, even though it was frustrating at the time.

So about that exhaust failure...

We were getting ready to leave Ryan Field (KRYN) in Tucson for our 1400nm trip back home, and I decided to take the top cowl off and give everything a good once over. As soon as I removed it, I saw the right side of the compartment was covered in light gray dusty residue. A closer inspection revealed:



The #2 cylinder exhaust pipe was broken completely at a weld. So that ended any dream of an immediate departure. Once we got the bottom cowl off and looked everything over closely, I also found that the muffler was cracked in an almost spider-web fashion from the weld joining it to the exhaust pipe:



I pale when I think of what could have happened on the trip home! But my button-style CO detector was still a normal yellow color, go figure. I guess I probably flew with that damage for 2-4 hours before finding it.

Luckily, Roger Lee was close by, and found me a top-notch certified stainless steel welder on the field. We got it fixed, but were not able to leave until the following day. I know that two different pilots thought my airplane "sounded different" when were at breakfast in Sedona, but didn't bother to mention it. That was about two hours of flying before I found the break.

Here are the repairs -- amazing work. The welder didn't just bead weld the cracks...he did that AND added stress relief patches on the inside and outside of the pipe curve, and welded a stainless patch/plate over the end of the muffler. It's now *way* stronger than it ever was from the factory. And he did it in three hours for $275!

Excellent pics, Andy.
I'd say you dodged a bullet that day, for doing AN EXCELLENT PREFLIGHT INSPECTION, which I am a big advocate of.
That is a good lesson and example for all.
Thank you.