Share your cross country mis-adventures with us!

[sonex1374]

Hi guys,

John, Gary and I are planning to do a podcast on how to handle unforeseen issues, break-downs, challenges or general mis-adventures while flying out of your local area and on the road. I'd love to get some of your stories to add to the topic. The goal here will be to offer some strategies to handle these events when they come up. Sometimes it's pre-planning that makes the issue manageable, sometimes it's sheer determination that helps you bull through it. In any case, we'd like to include as much practical experience as possible.

So send me a note, a PM, or simply post it here and let's hear what you've had to deal with on a cross country flight, and especially how you made the best of a less-than-ideal situation!

Jeff

[fastj22]

Hi guys,

John, Gary and I are planning to do a podcast on how to handle unforeseen issues, break-downs, challenges or general mis-adventures while flying out of your local area and on the road. I'd love to get some of your stories to add to the topic. The goal here will be to offer some strategies to handle these events when they come up. Sometimes it's pre-planning that makes the issue manageable, sometimes it's sheer determination that helps you bull through it. In any case, we'd like to include as much practical experience as possible.

So send me a note, a PM, or simply post it here and let's hear what you've had to deal with on a cross country flight, and especially how you made the best of a less-than-ideal situation!

Jeff

I'll share. We landed in Reedsburg, WI on the first stop back from OSH. I went to hook up the grounding wire to the exhaust pipe and found it missing. At that point I knew I would have some quality time with Gary figuring out the situation. In every basket of pits, there's always a cherry.

[mike.smith]

I'll share. We landed in Reedsburg, WI on the first stop back from OSH. I went to hook up the grounding wire to the exhaust pipe and found it missing.

Your exhaust was missing!?

[mike.smith]

I'll share. We landed in Reedsburg, WI on the first stop back from OSH. I went to hook up the grounding wire to the exhaust pipe and found it missing.

Your exhaust was missing!?

[mike.smith]

When I had a prop strike on Nantucket Island 3 years ago, I had planned for it to be a day trip so I didn't take my canopy cover with me. It became a 2 week ordeal and it was on an island, and of course you can't leave a Sonex out in the open without a cover! So I had to pay $50/night for a hangar until I could come back 5 days later with my canopy cover so I could move to a $10/night tie-down (while I rebuilt the engine).

When I travel I take a full tool kit, plus extra parts (rear oil seal, magneto, voltage regulator, extra throttle control wire, hardware, etc). I show my tool kit on my recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbgek8-X14o

[fastj22]

I'll share. We landed in Reedsburg, WI on the first stop back from OSH. I went to hook up the grounding wire to the exhaust pipe and found it missing.

Your exhaust was missing!?

Oh the story is just starting. So there is no exhaust pipe, and Gary says, damn, a couple of other UL Power guys had lost theirs too. Seems the factory welds on the muffler were sub standard. Well we scratch our heads, refuel and decide to press on. 5 minutes into the next leg the CO alarm goes off and we return to Reedsburg only to see the exhaust pipe on the runway as we land. I grab it, we pull the muffler off and take the airport car to a shop to get it welded back on. Back in the air three hours later and no CO. Clean living man. It’s not the failure, it’s the recovery!

[peter anson]

Well at least you didn't have to read a news item headlined "God smites Wisconsin man with muffler".

Peter

[GWMotley]

Image if the tail pipe were to hit someone or something. My thought was that we may have just “beaned a cow on the head” but you are right it would have been much more disconcerting if it hit a person. Just one more thing to think about when building and maintaining an airplane. Always a learning process my friends.
Gary

[Arjay]

Before I purchased my aerovee powered legacy Sonex in 2014 I went to inspect it in the hangar where it was kept in Columbia, SC (KCUB). The owner said there was something wrong with the carburetor, but he said he didn’t know what was wrong or how to fix it. Upon looking I discovered that the throttle cable was not attached. And, after hooking up the throttle cable to what I was to learn later was called an “aerocarb” it ran fine. Over the next few weeks we got a local A&P to do an annual. At that time I had exactly zero time in a Sonex, had not even sat in the airplane. But, I had some tailwheel time in other fine airplanes like Baby Lakes, Pitts, Decathlon, Citabria, Champ, Cub, etc. so I wasn’t too worried about flying the Sonex. But, I was concerned that I could find my way home, because my cross country skills were really very rusty. So, I purchased an up-to-date sectional, plotted the route, collected all the necessary frequencies and other information needed, and my wife and I drove to Columbia to get the airplane. After the seller gave me a brief familiarization of the cockpit, I thought I knew enough to fly her, took off, did a wing wag, and headed home, up the lake north of Columbia. I thought I knew everything I needed to know, but what I didn’t know was how to use the GPS. Big mistake!!

After about an hour, I came to realize I wasn’t on course; had no idea where I was. But, I was passing a fairly good sized airport, even though I didn’t know which one. So, I landed there. Remember, this is my first landing in the Sonex and I had absolutely no training in that airplane. As soon as I touched down I knew something was wrong. The airplane wanted to go left, and was vibrating terribly. Carefully, I taxied up to the FBO and got out. The left main tire was flat. (it wasn’t flat when I left Columbia). The airport was Tocoa, GA (KTOC), about 80 or so miles north of where I was supposed to be. The mechanic at the FBO said he could fix the tire, but it would take a few days to get a new one. So, I had to leave it there.

When the tire was fixed, I went to TOC, picked up the airplane and flew it home to LZU. On downwind for my second landing in the Sonex, at LZU, the engine died (I believe it was caused by vapor lock). OOPS!!!!. So, my second landing in the Sonex was DEAD STICK. You know what? That landing was the best one I ever made in that airplane. For 5 years I have been trying to duplicate that landing without success. The pucker factor is really really powerful!!

By Ron, Luftwaffe Sonex 695, tailwheel, aerovee with aerocarb, based at KLZU

[rbarber]

You guys know most of mine: two canopy failures, lost prop, attempted suicidal engine, full on suicidal engine, several flats, etc. This a terrible way to get experience!

R.
Robert E. Barber
N157SX (Sexy Hexy) ~970 hrs (without the Hula Girl!)