Warbird Information Exchange

Friday...Plane was acting a little odd. Didn't want to start. Had to get a jump start. (No, I didn't have them push it and pop the clutch.) Did my run-up and the ammeter just didn't look right. It was WAAYYY over into the "charging" range. I decided..."what the hell, it's running. Let's go." Went to full power and the gauges suddenly went FUBAR. I had only started my roll so I immediately cut the power and got on the brakes. Told the trsffic I was aborting. Got off the runway and said, "I don't think so." My instructor just smiled and said, "If you hadn't pulled the power and hit the brakes, I was about to. That was the right decision. If you ain't comfortable with it, don't go."
I was actually kinda' proud of myself for making the decision without waiting for him.
The plane's due for it's 100 hour check in 7 more hours so they decided to go ahead and do it now. I'll find out what the problem was when I go for tomorrow's lesson.

Mudge the abortionist
(That sounds wrong.)

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Land of the free because of the brave

Mudge the sensible!!!

Mudge the cool and level headed

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It's you and me against the world.

We attack at dawn.

Mudge the Abortionist

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The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. - Gus Grissom

there are old pilots, and there are bold pilots.......



Mudge the 'guy who lived to fight another day'

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One day I looked up and he's pushing 80...
He's got brown tobacco stains all down his chin.
To me he's one of the hero's of this country, so why is he all dressed up like them ole men....

I am not quite sure if you had a problem or not. The CFImaay know. If the battery was dead and you had to jump start, sometimes the generator will not come on line without some charge in the battery to excite it. An alternator should go ok. Anyway, after a gpu start on a low battery, the amp meter should show a good rate of charge for perhaps a half hour tapering down as battery charges up. It doesn't seem if the other gauges should have gone nuts.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Alternators have a circuit breaker that will pop if there is too large of a load, which can occur if the battery is too low. We had a Cessna 210 that the owner jump started and the breaker popped. He didn't know it and through another foul up landed gear up. Also watch for overcharging, I had a BT-13 with a 14 volt generator that welded the voltage regulator points during flight. The voltage got as high as 22 volts, needless to say it boiled the battery dry. Lessons learned; DON'T FLY WITH A MALFUNCTIONING AIRPLANE! Good call on your part to abort.

Having to get a battery cart for a jump on a frequently operated plane is a clue of something wrong (unless someone left the master switch on for a couple of days). Either the battery is bad or there is some electrical glitch causing the problem. These things typically don't go away by themselves. Good choice!

Good job Mudge! They can teach you how to fly, but they can't teach you judgment. It's good to know that you show good judgment while in the airplane. Nicely done.

Gary

When you have a questionable problem with an airplane, the best place to be is on the ground .

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Good call Mudge,
Its a good idea to look at the Amp gage after start-up because if the starter gets hung-up (which is common in Warriors) it will show-up on the Amp gage as a Neg. charge, shut the engine down quick or the starter will blow.

Phil