Alioth's Journal: Aviation gloom

Well, things aren't going well on the aviation front.

You may recall that one of the Auster owners had a tangle with a car while going to get some fuel, which bent the prop (and chopped the car up pretty well). It looks like even if the engine passes a shock load test (which I think it probably won't - Tony fitted a new prop and found the tracking was so badly off the prop was touching the cowling, so something is badly bent) there's a Lycoming SB (service bulletin) that mandates a tear-down of the engine even if the crank passes. Apparently any stoppage, even at idle power, can bugger up auxilliary gear shafts, and cause embarrassing engine failures.

This, understandably, is a Bad Thing (tm) if you're over the middle of the north Irish Sea.

So this means an engine teardown and rebuild. Since virtually all of the aircraft's value is in the engine, the insurance company might just write it off if the rebuild costs are too high.

What with all the grief the airfield owner is giving the glider club (that's a rant for another day) it's been more hassle than fun recently. Anyway, an engineer is going to take another look at it on the weekend - the work has to be done in England, so it's got to be made ferryable.

Suckage

[Shadow Wrought]

That really bites. Wasn't this one of your main glider towplanes?

Re:

[Alioth]

It is _the_ towplane! We have a winch too (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DrcQQWfoSM [youtube.com]), but it's not the same without a towplane.

Re:

[Shadow Wrought]

You know, I kinda thought it was the airplane, but I was hoping there was another one. Are there any suitable replacements out there, or is it looking like your gliding days are numbered?

Re:

[Alioth]

I don't know (yet). There are several factors - not just the Auster (an engineer is going to look at her today, and I don't know how long the insurance company will take to decide whether to pay for the repairs or write it off, it's the waiting that's the worst!) - but also the club's terrible relations with the airfield owners. Everything we do is wrong (even when it's right), and any incident on the airfield is our fault (even when it's quite clearly not). She's done everything except throw us off the air

That sucks...

[TinaMarie]

...but I'd make you a really good deal on a Tripacer. :)