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"We are Close to being back in the Air" was the headline of an Extra edition of the online Yellow Rose Squadron newsletter!
“The Yellow Rose roared back to life today” Stated — Ray Clausen
San Marcos, TX – Despite the heat, there were cheers, smiles, and thumbs-up everywhere. It has been a long time coming, and hearing all that gasoline turn into noise was wonderful! We were on the right track Saturday. The instructions we had for pre-oiling the engines were just a bit confusing and the numbers we were getting from the different
oil pressure gages caused just too much uncertainty to chance a start of the engines.
After the last foul-up during pre-oiling, I felt it best to stop and consult the engine builder before going on. I sure am tired of having to make those calls, but I'm sure it was the right call. This morning (Monday)
we phoned and got some guidance, and some reassurance, from Roy, the engine builder. After talking with him, we headed out to the plane with renewed optimism.
We essentially started from scratch and performed the pre-oiling process again. Just as we had on Saturday, each engine gave us the same oil pressure readings and those readings didn't match what the
instruction sheet said we should see. We charged on and when both engines were done, we retired to the break room for a brief rest and a call to Roy.
After a little phone tag, we got him on speaker phone
and Ron Dietes read to him the instructions we followed. Ron and I gave him every detail we could and asked his opinion on the engines and whether to start or not. I was insistent on a speaker phone so more
than one of us would hear Roy's response and instructions. There were lots of smiles when he said that it sounded like we had
thoroughly pre-oiled both engines and should start them and go through a normal warmup. He did say that if the oil pressure didn't come up within a few seconds that we should shut down the engines.
With that, we pushed the Rose out into the bright (and REALLY hot) sun and brought out the fire extinguisher. Ron and Grant climbed in while Jim Liles manned the fire bottle and the rest of us stood around looking like expectant fathers. When the right engine began to run, the cheers
almost drowned out the engine noise, but my heart was still in my throat and I couldn't breathe.
Maybe it was some sort of A&P connection between Ron and I, but he knew that noise wasn't the measure of success, oil pressure was, and I had no way of knowing how that was going. Ron looked around the plane and found me, and with a HUGE grin flashed me a thumbs up. Now I
was breathing again, but we had one more engine to go. As the new left engine rumbled to life, belching smoke, it took a few seconds to stabilize and heads were down and hands on the controls in the cockpit. Soon, the grin appeared again with the thumb pointed skyward, and my cheers
joined the chorus. It was a really great day!
We have some tuning to do and the prop governor cable adjustment is a pain, but its all downhill from here. Ray Ender brought in the repaired piece for our aileron trim control, so I'll be working on cables Wednesday. Once the cables are rigged, we can rivet up the flap area. When the parts come in for the gear release cable, we'll get it made and installed.
Unfortunately, we will have to do another retract test to check out the new cable but it does need to be tested.
I'll be coordinating with Mike Renck on scheduling the maintenance flight. As Operations Officer, he schedules pilots and I believe we are planning to have Al Maxwell fly her. It's best to have someone outside our unit evaluate her and he can turn around and start checking out our
pilots. Rest assured that we will get the word out when we set the date for the return to flight.
Many folks have worked incredibly hard to get us to this point. Some just can't make it out to the hangar and from many of them, I have emails of support and encouragement that have really helped during some of the tougher times. Some folks have begun to come out as we near
the light at the end of the tunnel. But I really want to express my heartfelt thanks to those have been with me through this entire
project, having no idea what the task of the day would be. Maybe sweep the floor, hang an engine, clean dirty parts, re-attach a wing. I've mentioned some individuals in previous newsletters but I won't get into that here. That list would be a long one! They know who they are. Their devotion to the project has been a blessing and an inspiration.
I'm honored to be the Maintenance Officer of the Yellow Rose
Squadron this period of the Rose's history and proud to work with all of the Squadron members.
Now, let's get her in the air!
Thanks!
Ray
_________________
Mike
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