Chapter 30 Bad Days

A very bad day!


The Redhead's annual schoolteacher weekend is set for New Braunfels on the weekend of June 25-27. Last year they went to Granbury and I flew her there and they dropped her off at Terrell on the way home. She really wants to make the entire trip with them for fear they will gossip about someone and she will miss it. The other 3 all live in the Tyler area and the best route from Tyler to New Braunfels joins I35 south of Waco, so.....
It is worked out that I will fly her to Tyler on Thursday and we will eat at the Cajun place in Mineola. I will fly back home on Friday morning and pick Sandra up in Tyler Monday morning. This is all dependent on weather.

On Thursday, rain is scattered all over the area. Contrary to the normal patterns, the bands are generally east west, moving east. By early afternoon, there is a wide opening between bands that runs from just south of I20 almost to the Red River. But we need gas before we head for Tyler. So change the plan from T31-SWI-TYR to T31-HQZ-TYR. Mesquite is more a straight line anyway. Flight Service blesses this proposal and opines that other than some widely scattered rain, we should have at least 3000' to work with.

Off we go. The hangar owner has decreed that the mouse shall henceforth reside on the west side of the hangar instead of the north wall where it had lived for the last year. This puts it right inside the west door which is good, but this door hasn't gotten much use over the last year and the rollers are rusty. After the rains of the last month, they are stuck pretty bad. It is all I can do to get them open. After preflight, I get the WD40 from our box and give them a good shot.

Take off and head for HQZ. No problems, we can see some showers to the south, but Mesquite and all of Lake Ray Hubbard are in the sun. Enter the pattern, land and taxi up to the self serve area. This area is typical of self serve Avgas. An island with a pump, hose reel, ground wire reel and card reader terminal. Avgas "islands" also usually include a box containing windshield cleaning stuff and a stepladder for those who are fueling high wing planes.

We shut down and Sandra heads for the FBO, a 100 yard walk here. I get out, stretch and walk up to the island. Get the ground wire and back to the plane to attach it. Back to the island and do the thing with the card reader. Turn on the pump, pick up the nozzle, get into tow posture, nozzle in right hand, hose across left hip, to unreel 40' of hose and start for the plane. The remainder of this happens in extreme slow motion.
Sharp pain in right shin accompanied by the sound of aluminum banging against steel. What is this? The stepladder was leaning against the inside of the protective stanchions and the legs of it were sticking out into the walkway and I have just run into them. I have enough momentum that I am going to go down. My right leg ain't going any further, but the hose across my left hip is turning me to the left and I will land on my right shoulder. If I let go of it, the heavy nozzle will fall between my legs, possibly making the situation worse. The ground is coming up. Fortunately (I think) I will clear the sidewalk and land on the dirt. My shoulder hits followed by a blinding pain as my rib cage hits my thumb knuckle and the nozzle.

When everything stops moving, I cannot breathe. Roll onto my back and contemplate the sky and fools who leave 2 feet of ladder sticking into the walkway. Also think about people dumb enough not to have seen it before walking into it. Finally take a breath. Then try a deep breath. Bad catch, but I can breathe. Raise my head and look. My feet are still attached, but my ankle hurts. The ladder is now innocently laying flat under my feet. Kick it clear and roll over onto my hands. The right wrist is sprained, but works. Lever myself up. Check breathing again. Still working, and the catch is smaller. No broken ribs. Take several breaths, pick up nozzle and start for plane.

Bring gas up to 40 gallons and put nozzle back. Unclip ground wire and reel it back up. I don't want to, but I must check my shin and ankle. Blue jeans and heavy cotton socks have protected me somewhat, but I have an 8 inch scrape from mid shin to just above the ankle. A few drops of blood, but nothing serious other then the sweat in the sweat sox causing much stinging. The wrist has full motion and only hurts at the extreme limits. The ribs hurt, but I can breath fine. No pain except at the limits of a deep breath. I guess I am good to go.

Take off and dodge slightly north to avoid a shower along I20. Uneventful flight except for an involuntary cough before entering the TYR airspace. Enter a right base for 22 and execute a good landing. Taxi up to Tyler Jet and shut down. We are the only plane on the ramp. Go to the bathroom and inspect my shin. Still only a few drops of blood soaked into the sock. Check the ribs in the mirror and see no marks indicating serious injury.
Kerry and Retha arrive and we pile bags into their Safari. They are not very complimentary of my grace and coordination. Out to Lindale to unload the bags and relax a little. I take 2 Tylenol extra strength and clean up the shin. About 6:30 we head for Mineola and good Cajun food.

We pull into a parking place right in front of the door. It is closed! A hand written sign also proclaims that they are closed permanently, and thank you for your patronage. Bummer! Just one more nail in the coffin of this day. We go around the corner and eat at the East Texas Hamburger Factory. Very good hand formed hamburgers, and a piece of scrumptious coconut pie. But it wasn't etouffe.

Little Kerry is away in college, so we get his bedroom. I take more Tylenol and sleep better than I had any right to hope. In the morning, My wrist is stiff, my ankle is sore and my side hurts when I take a deep breath, but I am ambulatory. By nine, Big Kerry is off teaching driver's ed, Molly has finally arisen from her late night as a waitress and we are all showered and dressed. Sandra and Retha are all packed for the weekend and Flight Service opines that everything is IFR right now but lifting fast. By 11:00 the entire route should be marginal VFR. By definition, any ceiling between 500 and 5000' is classed marginal VFR. For my return to Aero Country, 2500MSL will do just fine as long as the visibility is good.

We get in the Astro and go around the corner to pick up Kay. They will drop me at the airport on the way to get Becky. By the time we get to Pounds Field, the clouds are broken at about 1200AGL which gives 1900MSL. I do a leisurely preflight and order some gas. Re-check weather and saddle up about 10:45. Get the ATIS (broken at 1600) and call the tower.
"Pounds Tower, Musketeer Five Niner Four Lima Bravo at Tyler Jet with Kilo, ready to taxi"
"Musketeer Five Niner Four Lima Bravo, taxi to one three."
Taxi from the east end around to the north end. Both 13 and 17 start here. Run up is fine.
"Pounds, Four Lima Bravo is ready for departure."
"Four Lima Bravo, cleared for takeoff. One three or one seven, your choice."
"Uh, I'll take one three and depart straight out from the downwind."
"Approved as requested. Have a nice flight."

Over the last 2 years, there has been extensive runway work done at TYR. The commercial flights use 4-22 which is 7200' long. Only light GA traffic uses 13-31 or 17-35. Out of a dozen or so trips in or out of TYR, this is my first experience on 13. I pull out and line up while advancing the throttle. Suddenly, the plane is bouncing up and down as it goes through 45mph. Quick re check indicates that nothing is wrong and the magnitude is lessening. The runway surface is wavy! Just enough and at the right interval to set the Mouse going up and down on the donuts. As the weight on the wheels lessens, the bounce goes away, and the takeoff becomes normal.

Straight out on the downwind is a rain shower at about 2000'. I side step around it and level off at 2000'. Past the shower, are scattered clouds at 2500-3000 and good visibility the rest of the way home.

When it rains, it pours!


By late Friday afternoon, it has clouded over completely. Saturday, it rains all day and the sun makes a brief appearance in the late afternoon. Sandra calls Sunday afternoon to discuss plans for the pickup and at that time it is solid IFR everywhere north of Waco. She is at that time on the road back to Tyler with the "girls" somewhere north of Austin in bright sunlight. Monday's forecast looks like a window may open, so she will spend Sunday night with Retha.

By late morning Monday, there is no window at all. She and Retha go to Canton and Sandra spends Monday night with her sister. The plan now is to pick her up in Canton weather permitting, else meet her and Marie in Terrell for Lunch Tuesday. We ate lunch at Schlotzky's in Terrell on Tuesday.

This completes the second wettest June in Dallas history. It rained 21 days that month which was an all time record. Further, the total rainfall is now nearly 10 inches above the normal average and rapidly approaching the normal annual average. No wonder I have so little time so far this year.

And then more bad luck


We visited the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art in Shawnee, OK in the summer of 2002. We were impressed that an unquestionably world class collection of Renaissance Art would exist in the middle of nowhere on the Oklahoma Prairie. In May, a blurb appeared in the travel section of the Dallas paper about a collection of Etruscan jewelry and artifacts would be showing there from June to October. The write-up said that Shawnee would be the only place that this exhibit would be. Shawnee went on our list of places to go again.

Sandra's "summer vacation" would be from June 24 to July 19, so the window was very small. We already had a 2-3 day to Natchez, MS on the list and the weather still showed no signs of being cooperative. There was rain all over the area the first week of July, but the second week, it began to look a little more like Texas summer. On Wednesday the 7th, the forecast for Thursday looked doable, so we agreed that we better seize the day.

Thursday morning came with broken clouds at 1200', but clearer north of the Red River. Flight Service blessed the trip with the caveat that there was a line of convective activity (possible thunderstorms) north of Witchita, KS. The line was predicted to move to the south east and should pass east of Tulsa in late afternoon.

We took off about 10:15 into scattered to broken at 1500AGL. We got flight following as we climbed atop them. At 4500', the air was smooth and cool with occasional lines of marshmallows scattered about 2000' below us. We bore slightly west of north, passing about 10 miles east of Ardmore looking for the highway which leads straight north through Sulphur and Stratford to Shawnee. We got next to the highway at Sulphur and on the next handoff, Fort Worth Center told us to report Shawnee airport in sight. South of Stratford, we could easily see both Pauls Valley and Ada some 30 miles apart. With a 15 knot quartering tailwind, we got to Shawnee very soon and began our descent to pattern altitude

Careful planning this time. We know that we cannot make a picture of the monastery due to the large trees on the grounds. The right traffic pattern to 17 goes right over it. There is no traffic, so we make a wide downwind and Sandra takes pictures of the building as we approach and then from behind on base and final. In spite of the distraction, or perhaps because of it, I am not sure when the tires touch the runway. Get off at the next exit and taxi in.

What's that noise?


As we are turning into a tiedown spot, we hear a rattle from under the cowling. I look behind to see if I have run a wheel over a tiedown ring. None in sight. As we stop, the rattle happens again. When I pull the mixture, the rattle becomes a growling howl. This is not good! We get out and I look on the ground around the nose and see nothing amiss. I decide to go inside and potty, etc before checking further as the engine will be too hot to restart anyway.

Inside, we learn that Shawnee no longer has a courtesy car. It died and the city has not deigned to replace it. The nearest eating places are 3/4 mile away. The Museum is 2 miles in the other direction.

Back out to look after the ailing Mouse. Nothing is apparent to the eyeball under the cowling. The starter motor is cool, and the alternator is about as warm as the cylinder heads. Get in and crank it. No unusual noises. Start it up. It starts and sounds normal. Turn on the alternator and the unholy protest begins immediately. Shut down immediately. Now we know the alternator is fried.

The attendant begins looking for a mechanic and we discuss our options. It is only a little after 11:00, so we have time. I call Dave and describe the problem. He concurs that the alternator is dead. But since there is no protest until the alternator is turned on, we should be able to fly it back with all the electrical stuff turned off.
Now for lunch and a mechanic to verify the problem and implications. The airport manager has come in now and he gets on the phone looking for an A&P. He also volunteers to take us to the museum as he opines that it is something that we don't want to miss. We hoof it to Shawnee's version of Restaurant Row. There is a Pizza Inn, a Mexican place, a Sonic and a Schlotzkys. We choose Schlotzkys. Fed, we hoof back and lay around the FBO to cool down.

The Mechanic will be there around 3 and he doesn't need us so shortly after 2, Jerry loads the Redhead and I into his truck and takes us to the Museum.

Another "Don't miss"!


What can I say? We were bowled over by the quality of the permanent exhibit as we saw it in 2002. This is a whole 'nother ball game. The exhibit starts with maps and history (what is known) of the Etruscan culture and proceeds with some pottery and sculpture examples. Then comes the jewelry.

There are over 200 pieces on display and they are exquisite. They almost exclusively in gold and demonstrate all forms of manufacture. Sheet, repousse, embossing, granulation, etc. the detail work is unbelievable. Some of the gold wire used in the details are finer than a hair. The globules used in the granulation process are nearly invisible to the naked eye. Some of the pieces are mounted in the display with a magnifying glass so you can see the detail. And this was made in the third and fourth century BC.

This stuff will be there through Oct 31, 2004. This is the first and only time it will be on display in the US, and I would advise anyone who can to see it. You will not be disappointed. If you have never been there before, also check out the permanent exhibit, it is worth a trip by itself.

Now to get home.


Back at the airport, the weather shows the expected line of thunderstorms running northeast from just north of Tulsa. There is a Spartan Aviation student there on a solo XC who now has a worry about getting back. Everything still looks good in the direction we are going. The A&P has visited and concurs that if it starts and runs without obvious problems, we can fly it home.

Once you are done with the starter motor, you need nothing further from the electrical system to make the airplane fly. The engine runs off magnetos. All the instruments we need to fly are either vacuum driven (DG and AH) or static air (VSI, ASI and altimeter) driven. But it will mean making the return trip with no VORs, no ADF, no radios and no transponder. Until we get within about 10 miles of Aero Country, that is no problem. We made the trip here without using any navaids, we can make it back.

By going 7-10 miles east of ADM, we can avoid their airspace. This will also take us between, but well clear of the Gainesville and Grayson County airports. About 5:15, we saddle up. Turn everything off, lights, radios, everything. Set Com2 to AWOS and Com1 to CTAF but leave them off. Set audio panel to tx/rx Com1 and listen on Com2. The engine starts with no complaint. All engine gauges (except Ammeter) look normal. Start taxi and turn on Com2. After setting DG and altimeter, turn Com2 off. Run up is normal and we turn Com1 on. Look and listen for traffic then announce position and hold after the Cub doing T&Gs. As he takes off, we announce rolling and start down the runway.

After liftoff, we are gaining on the Cub. He is closed right pattern and our highway is to the left, so we sidestep left as he begins his turn to crosswind. Over Tecumseh and leveling off at 3500, I turn off the battery master switch. We are now completely in stealth mode. The Turn coordinator is off. The fuel gauges are off. The Oil temp is off. The intercom is off. Even the Hobbs is off.

At 3500, we drone south against a 10 knot headwind (forecasted to be 20-30 at 6000') in generally smooth air. The highway is on our left until it jogs west across the Canadian River. We keep it a few miles to our right past Stratford and Sulphur. We pass over Goddard, a private strip 6 miles east of ADM and aim for the bend of Lake Texoma. We go just east of Whitesboro, both looking diligently for traffic and soon are over Gunter.

Set Com2 to McKinney AWOS and Com1 to Aero Country CTAF. Over the nursery, 7 miles north of Aero Country, turn the Master back on. Check the AWOS and turn Com2 back off. Check fuel level and oil temperature for the expected readings while announcing inbound. No traffic visible in pattern and nothing on CTAF except a plane doing T&Gs at Northwest. Wind is reported at 160@11G17, but other than having to add some power on final, it was an excellent landing. Other than another grinding howl at shutdown, the engine has purred as normal all the way.

Now the work begins.


Friday, I go out to remove the Alternator. Starting about 1:00, I soon discover that you have to disassemble the Mouse to get it out. The spinner comes off, the prop comes off and the cowling comes off. Then the alternator comes out. The damage is obvious. There are 3 teeth broken off the drive gear. These teeth and the pieces ground off the adjacent teeth are now in the oil pan, if not back up in the crank and rod bearings. A cursory look at the ring gear on the engine doesn't reveal any obvious damage to it. If it is OK, then all we will have to do is drain, fully flush and refill the oil and filter.

Dave will get with the engine man he recommends and I take the alternator to Lancaster for repair. Then stew all weekend. This has not been a good year for flying.

On Tuesday (7/13), Dowling comes out to look at the ring gear. One quick look and he gives us the bad news. The leading faces of the gear have scratches on them. This is not the worst part, the leading edges of the teeth have been rounded off and the trailing edges have knife edges on them. The ring gear is toast. The engine will have to come off and be opened up to replace the ring gear. Dowling will do it for a very reasonable price, plus parts.

The rest of the day is spent lining up parts and space to do the work. On Thursday, we move the Mouse from the hangar to Dave's and begin the disassembly. By five, we have most of the stuff off and have drained the oil into a clean bucket for analysis if needed. The inlet side of the oil filter is full of metal shavings from the chewed up gear.

We have one sure replacement gear and a line on a second one. I am also looking for a new intake manifold piece containing the alternate air inlet door. I go back out to the airport Monday to complete the disassembly and find that the A&P fairy has done it already. All that remains is removing the engine mount bolts and taking the engine off. We are only waiting for Dowling to be ready for it.