CASCADE FLYER September 2010, Vol. 10, Issue 9 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Many thanks to Test Pilot and Aeronautical Engineer, Sonja Englert for being our speaker in August. We have heard many, many, different stories on the spin testing of the Columbia 400, but after hearing it from directly from Sonja I know all the rest were just guessing. Exactly the sort of program we love to have. If you have someone local you would love to have speak at our meeting then drop me their name and I'll try to book them in. Be sure to drop in this month to see what magic may happen. Festivities start at 6pm in the Flight Services Building. Chow down at our 6:30pm potluck and stay for a formal program at 7pm. Calendar: 16 September - Monthly Meeting 18 September - Monthly Flyout 21 October - Monthly Meeting 23 October - Monthly Flyout 18 November - Monthly Meeting 20 November - Monthly Flyout 16 December - Monthly Meeting - Holiday Party! 18 December - Monthly Flyout Web doings: As always you can check out current and past CO-OPA newsletters, view our membership list and view hot aviation links on our website at http://co-opa.com To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: I received many emails about the fantastic Airshow of the Cascades last month. Literally it was the last possible moment that the East Coast A-10 Demo Team showed up. But they showed up in style. The A-10, Julie Clark, Renny Price and many, many more great acts took to the skies. I hope you all got a chance to see the show. Omigosh. December is already on the CO-OPA calendar! I sure hope someone can find the missing tail wheel spring before our December Holiday Party! Random Thoughts: "If it ain't one thing, it's another" -- Richard "Dimples" Fields On a few recent flights I had been getting reports of poor, to sometimes no, modulation on my radio transmissions from N6157R. This led to much jiggling of connectors, switching of radios, and general reading of tea leaves to discern a pattern and maybe root cause. No luck with that as the problem kept dancing away when examined closely. All problems forgotten in the blue skies of August, two planes from the CO-OPA departed early, not early enough for Don, for the beaches and shopping of Florence. A great day was had by all, and I hope someone else wrote a fly-out report because it was wonderful. So, time to head home. Pre-flight done, pre-start checklist done, ignition on, starter on, click, click, click... Uh, oh. The battery is dead. I KNOW the master was off. Clearly I could have forgotten, but Ed when sitting in the right seat, carefully, and quietly makes sure I never make THAT mistake again. At least not when his ride home depends on it. Argh. I know the drill. Shut down and ask someone from the FBO, or a kind passerby, to give me a jump start. Even if my electrical system is dead all I need to get home is a working engine and my handheld radio. And the handheld is optional since we will not have to talk to any towers. So we head back to the FBO to beg for a jump. The folks at the Florence FBO have already been wonderful to us (their loaner car was much improved from the one they used to have) but time for a favor. Gary Rose, the airport manager, laughed at my request for a jump. Nah, he said, I'll just come out and prop your airplane for you. Are you sure I replied, you feel comfortable propping a 520 cubic inch engine? Sure he said, he had been propping airplanes since he was a youngster. I confessed to him that I had never done, or even seen, such a thing done on a large engine but if he would walk me through the procedure I was ready to try it. Ed gave me a sideways glance of disbelief. Back in the airplane, Rose in front of the prop. Magnetos off, Rose pushed the prop hub to check that the brakes are on, and pulled the prop over one blade. Prime the engine he called, mags hot he called, and with a mighty heave the engine kicked over a few times. Then died. Uh, oh. So we repeated the procedure twice more. Same results. Rose is starting to puff just a bit and asks me if I am sure I'm priming correctly. He suggests that when it starts to die again that I hit the high boost pump. Magnetos off, Rose pushes the prop hub to check that the brakes are on, and pulls the prop over one blade. Prime the engine he called, mags hot he called, and with a mighty heave the engine kicked over a few times, I hit the boost pump as it starts to die, and the engine starts up wonderfully. In hindsight I realize the problem. The Cessna 210 series has a 2-position fuel pump switch. High boost essentially jams fuel into the engine. Three seconds of high before a normal cold start is the perfect amount of engine prime. Any more will flood the engine. If the mechanical engine driven fuel pump dies in flight the high boost will keep the engine running, although at a very rich setting. The low boost pushes less fuel into the engine, and only does so when the engine is cranking. The TSIO-520 will just not start, flooded or not, unless the low boost is on. The problem was that even though I primed normally, and had the low boost on, when Rose hand propped the engine the low boost was not doing its job since he was cranking, not the starter. A shot of high boost just as the prime ran out got the rpm's high enough for the engine driven fuel pump to kick in and rev up to idle. The battery in 6157R is only 3 months old, the alternator only 2 years old and the regulator is only 3 years old. Clearly my electrical system is cursed. After limping back to KBDN it was determined that the field winding on my nearly new alternator was reading less than 1 Ohm when it should be 6 to 9 Ohms. The alternator was shorted out. Just like a car, that would normally be a simple swap out with a core return. But no; last alternator change I had upgraded to a fancy pants alternator guaranteed to last. But this being such a fancy alternator that would never have problems it needed to be shipped back to the factory for repair. Therefore taking much longer. Next time I'm buying stock parts. Thank you again Gary Rose, not only did you get us on our way promptly but taught us a few things as well. After 1,000 hours in 6157R, clearly I have a lot more to learn. Fly safe out there... Gary Miller August Flyout Fun ... It was a crisp August morning with just a hint of fall in the air and the hot coffee I made and consumed hit the spot. I rolled 757 (our Skylane N20757) out of the hangar, where we live, on Pilot Butte Airport "8OR5" and checked everything out. By 0815 we were in the plane and flew out to Bend to meet anyone else that wanted to go on the monthly CO-OPA Fly-out. Before long Ed Endsley and Gary Miller showed up and it was decision time on where we would go. After some time on the computer Gary determined that a day at Florence was the right choice. I called the FBO at Florence, confirmed the weather and checked on the availability of a courtesy car. They provide a courtesy car for a $10.00 donation and fill it back up with fuel. We waited around for a little while to see if anyone else would show up and then took off for Florence, it was a smooth flight and 1 hour and 3 minutes later we were on the ground. Gary and Ed took flight a few minutes after we did as they needed fuel and they landed just a little after we did. The folks at Florence Airport were very helpful and make you feel like you want to come back again. We drove directly to a cafe and had breakfast; we had a lot of time for hangar flying as they were definitely not a fast food establishment. We then drove South across the bridge and drove several miles out to the South Jetty where we saw lots of people fishing, crabbing, picnicking and just plain relaxing. This was on the bay side of the dunes not on the ocean side and you can see by the photo that the wind was blowing some but the temp was reasonably warm and it was a fun time. We drove back into town and spent some time going through the shops in the "Old Town" part of Florence where they had lots of local art, collectibles and other interesting stuff. You could spend hours and $$$ if you choose as there were lots and lots of things to look at. It is really amazing the talent people have in making some of the things they do. After we were all done looking we headed back to the airport and loaded up to head back home... well Gary had a dead battery and the guy from the FBO came out and propped his 210.......WOW !!! I have propped small planes many times but I wouldn't want to prop that big of an engine....but.....he is a big man and it didn't seem to be a problem for him. We were soon in the air, headed for Bend.......it was a fun and uneventful flight.....we landed at Pilot Butte International and Gary & Ed landed at Bend. In years past we used to have quite a few planes go on our fly-outs but now for some reason we have very few most of the time. Those of us that do go have a great time and would enjoy having more show up. I, as the Temp. Fly-Out Chair, would very much appreciate it if you would e-mail me and tell me what you would like to see us do that would make it more interesting to you......... Thank You and may you have Blue Skies and Tail Winds..........Don Wilfong ED. That's 2 month's in a row we missed, the first when we were in Europe and then due to the Cardinal still being in annual, but it's back! Don's first C-180, circa 1900+ (photo) Madras Airshow (lots of photos in the PDF version!) ============== I was not present for the Friday evening show but it seems the events required significant concentration Actually now called 'Airshow of the Cascades', the largest to date, was held August 27 and 28. Unlike last year, comfortable temperatures were the rule and the wildfire smoke that had plagued the area for the previous week was absent. There were many aerobatic displays and here are photos of just a few. Thanks to Don and Ed for the Friday evening shots: Julie Clark's American Aerobatics T-34a The Alpha Jet It was Steve Ellison's first public aerobatic display Gary, in 'commentating mode', with friend A-10 Thunderbolt, AKA Warthog The Fraser Blues Navion aerobatic team A close-up of the business end of the A-10 … this one and its pilot had seen extensive duty in Afghanistan. The Dornier 'Alpha Jet' is a standard European military trainer that is also sold for GA use! Butler Aircraft DC-7B demo The largest crowd ever … 20% over last year For a more leisurely descent … Central Oregon SkySports Skydivers … and on the ground, DeLorean lives … would be 'Back to the Future' except no flux capacitor. ====================================================================== COOPA officer contact info: President Gary E. Miller 109 NW Wilmington Ave Bend, OR 97701 541-382-8588 gem@rellim.com Vice President --------OPEN---------- Secretary/Treasurer Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 Temp Fly-out Chair Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 wilfong.d@gmail.com Program Chair --------OPEN---------- And finally, send Newsletter inputs to Mike Bond 22052 Banff Drive Bend, OR 97702 541 317-8443 mvbond@spiritone.com