Been having a lot of calls with Glen at the Royal Aero Club this month about the progress on Squibby.
Basically, when they looked at all the cylinders, the other three were completely U/S. So I had a few choices:
Option 1: 4 overhauled low-compression cylinders, standard size
Option 2: 3 overhauled low-compression cylinders, oversized, to match the one they installed in Narrogin
Option 3: 4 brand new low-compression cylinders
Option 4: 4 brand new high-compression cylinders, making engine 160hp instead of 150hp
Options 1 and 2 were almost identical cost.
Option 3 cost 2-3 times as much
Option 4 cost the same as option 3, except for an extra $1500 cost to do all the engineering work and paperwork required to officially modify the aircraft specs.
Replaced windscreens
Stabilator bearings were completely shot.
I taxiied out with Glen to run up the engine. It definitely felt more powerful. The static RPM was higher than the 150hp version - was getting around 2450 rpm. Just felt like it wanted to go. Glen talked me through leaning the mixture on the new EGT guage.
Next day, nothing for it but to take to the air. I decided to go to the training area for an hour or so. Glen told me I should keep the RPM at 2450 (ie, higher than normal), for the first 5 hours or so, while I bed the rings in. No circuits, or low power stuff in that time. Can expect high oil consumption and then it should suddenly drop to near-zero.
As soon as I pushed the throttle in on the take-off run, I could feel the difference. It just accelerated quicker. I was under instructions to watch the RPM during the takeoff run. Glen said that if it hit the redline, would have to increase the pitch of the propellor a little. Fortunately it didn't - although it got to around 2500 rpm, whereas I used to get around 2300. And when it came time to lift-off (sooner than I expected), Squibby bounced into the air. While it was just me (no passengers, and 140litres of fuel), I got a very respectable climb rate of 700fpm. Certainly higher than I had experienced in Squibby before.
Levelled out to 1000 fpm, until out of the control zone. Did have to throttle back, to avoid redline. When I was able to climb to 2000, SQB was able to maintain 1000 fpm for the entire climb. Glen said that the extra 10hp would make a significant difference - and he was right.
I spent the next hour or so zooming around the training area at 2000 ft. When I was learning, the training area seemed so big. I suppose we changed directions more often, to stay in approximately the one place. But when you keep heading in one direction, it only takes 15 minutes or so to reach the end, even in pedestrian old Squibby. I spent a while checking if the VOR would work, but it didn't, and after a while looking inside (while keeping a lookout of course), I started to feel sick. I've always been pretty susceptible to motion sickness - which doesn't bode well for a future instrument rating.
I'm just enjoying zooming around at the moment. All through the ferry flight, it was direct routes from A to B. Now I'm just enjoying climbs, descents, turns, just getting back to basics, getting to feel at home in Squibby. I just flew down to Mandurah, not far from Murrayfield. I circled around the coast down near Mandurah. The main thing I was struck by was the amount of development going on down the Southern Corridoor. It's getting more and more built up from Perth through Rockingham through to Mandurah. I can see why - the beaches look lovely, and there are still stretches of beach without housing along it.
When time was up, I returned via Forrestdale Lake, for a landing on 24R. I don't know if it was just luck, or whether I'm getting a good feel for SQB, but I did probably my best landing in this aircraft so far.
Taxiied back to Aero Club, to give Squibby a lookover. It had lost a cowl screw - they are all getting really dodgy - something to fix next service, I guess. It had not lost any noticable oil, which was a bit surprising. Still had 8 litres.
Parking: Now it was time to find a permanent parking place. I had to stuff around a bit, while the parking person was at lunch. I went over to the itinerant parking to wait. I was eventually assigned 222J, a nice spot on the grass, which is now officially Squibby's. It's as close as I can reasonably get to the Aero club building. While I was taxiing to it, I just conked out on the taxiway. When I parked in the itinerant parking bay, I'd turned off fuel. When restarting to taxi to the permanent place, I rushed my startup checks and missed turning the fuel on.
It's the second time I've done that - I did it in a 172 while doing my refresher trainer. It's a very bad habit. Especially since both times I've done it, I've realised what the problem is the moment the engine has spluttered, but I haven't been able to prevent the engine from dying completely, even though I immediately turn the fuel selector to 'on', and ensure the fuel pump is on. A dying engine would be a very bad thing to happen during takeoff. I'll have to take more care doing my checklists. So I spent a minute or two on the taxiway, trying to coax the engine to re-start.
more and more things to fix.
I was in our local aviation shop looking for a headset bag.
Also looking for a pitot cover, but they didn't have any that would fit over the Musketeer's tiny tube.
So I say to the man "I've got a Musketeer, and ..."
"Have you? Which one?" he asks.
"It's from over east, it's new here..."
"What, Squibby?"
Now I'm intrigued.
"How do you know Squibby?" I ask him.
"It's famous. I saw it here the other day, and nearly fell over. There aren't many around. Great aircraft - got a bum rap here, and there aren't many around. But very nice to fly."
Turns out he trained in a Musketeer. We spent some time talking about the handling characteristics.
I remember when I was buying Squibby, Simon explaining to me, that Squibby was a bit special. He said that while there were heaps of Cessna 172 and Piper Warriors around, there were hardly any Beech Musketeers. They didn't take off in Australia. So they're a bit different here.
Also, when Simon spoke on the radio, because he had a very distinctive (ie non-Australian) accent, he was very recognisable. When I was flying Aero Club aircraft, I always felt kind of anonymous. Now I feel more recognisable, so I guess I don't want to make any really dumb mistakes when I'm flying.
When I got home, I went to the aircraft register and did a search for Beech 19A's. There are four in Australia on the current register:
| SQA | MB-289 |
| SQB | MB-290 |
| MJQ | MB-334 |
| MJR | MB-335 |
I'm trying to do my first five hours pretty quickly, to bed the rings in.
I decided to do another hour by heading North up the coast. I couldn't find anyone to come with me: Kim was on call - she still hasn't experienced Squibby from the inside. Called a few other folks - friends, a brother, but at short notice, nobody was up for it. Shame - it was such a beautiful Autumn day - cool but not a cloud in the sky - I really wanted someone else to experience it with me.
I didn't strictly need fuel - but decided to put another 40 litres in, just to be comfortable. Unfortunately, I spent more than an hour waiting for fuel. Some mix-up, they tried to phone me, but my phone had run out of charge. I remember from doing my training how horrible it feels to be stressed leading up to a flight. Now I don't really like to fly if I'm feeling stressed, so while I was waiting I just sat around on the grass watching all the activity. Sunday is a busy day at Jandakot - everyone has all their toys out. I saw the guys from Fighter Combat International (http://www.fciwa.com/) heading out in their Nanchang CJ-6 and I think a Texan - I love how the big radial engines sound on takeoff.
Heading up the coast means a Fremantle departure, which I haven't done many of. I took a lot of cranking to get the engine to start - I haven't got the hang of it yet. Took off from 06L, circled around to head towards Murdoch. You have to stay at 1000 until crossing the freeway, then pull up. I remember with old 150hp Squibby I was worried about climbing to 1500 by the end of Murdoch, which is what you're supposed to do. With new 160hp Squibby, it only takes a few seconds.
It was a beautiful day, and at Fremantle Golf Course I turned north to track coastal at 1500. I love flying up here, along all the beautiful beaches. I could look out to the east and see the built-up city. I flew for about 25 or 30 minutes, watching the world go by. I could see Perth Airport, then further on I could see Pearce military airport. North of that was quite a big fire. I had seen Water-bombers at Jandakot, and this seems to be what they were dealing with. They were asking on the radio whether Pearce airspace was active, because they needed to get in to the fire. It wasn't active, because of the weekend.
The wind was easterly, blowing the smoke a long way across the coastal plain into my path. I considered turning around before I hit it. But it was so thin, I could easily see right through it, so I just cruised through it. I could smell it pretty strongly, but there were no visibility issues. I headed up as far as Two Rocks before turning around.
Once you turn around, you have to stick on the ocean side heading south. I got overtaken by some sort of retractable. It was surprisingly bumpy out over the water, not sure why. Something to do with the Easterly wind, coming over the hills, then the hot land? Things almost lifted of the seat sometimes. As you cruise down the coast past Observation City hotel, you start approaching Cottesloe Beach. You have to look out for aircraft coming across from Rottnest - one Cessna passed across my nose.
As I approached the Powerhouse, the VFR approach point, I could see that there was an aircraft ahead of me, doing the same approach into Jandakot. I seemed to be catching up to it. There are very few aircraft Squibby catches up to, but I had to reduce my speed significantly to stay behind him. We were both routed straight onto a final approach. Turned out I was following the Aero Club's Chipmunk. I came in a bit fast, and touched down before I meant to, but somehow the landing just stuck, and felt nice. I was even able to take the first taxiway exit, which means you've done a pretty short landing. I think I've been landing it like I learnt on the Cessna, whereas I've heard people say the Musketeer needs to be driven all the way down - maybe that's what I did this time. Still learning.
It feels great, taxiing up after a great flight, and parking in your own bay.
Next weekend I'm hoping to take my Dad up for his first flight in Squibby.