Sat Nov 19, 2016 5:33 am
#1498605
Well, after a long, grueling two year quagmire of equal measures technical problems as well as molasses-like pace, my old Turbo Commander 680V has now flown! Here's the story:
Hitched a ride in my friend Steve’s beautiful all-done-up G1000 Turbo Commander 980 up to Stockton and to the mechanic to see my old heap. Instructor was driving up from LA to help with final test flights before we could start training. But because he’d left his phone at a restaurant stop and had to return for it, he got there too late to do a test flight that afternoon. Sigh. So we stayed the night. All we were going to do was an idle fuel flow test flight to see that she behaved, maybe adjust FF’s slightly, and then head for LA to start the training. What could possibly go wrong?
Anyway, we stayed the night and morning after there was of course pesky ground fog. After that had lifted, we did a high speed taxi, which went OK, but on the squirrely side. Anyway, it was time for the first flight in a long time and I was rather excited. Instructor took off with mechanic in co-pilot seat, did a right turning climb up to 10500ft. Plane behaved well on climb and cruise (except for the ratty old radios that are garbled and bleed between freq a lot).
Temps, FF etc all good, but when it came to check what we came for, the idle fuel flows, it kind of went south. You’re supposed to retard power to the stop (before the gate that takes them into reverse) and hold 120kts, gear out, full flaps and note the descent rate, hp and FF’s. We were descending 2500ft/min with FF too high and engines producing too much power. It should be around 1500ft/min. On top of that, she wanted to bank right, which means the left engine was producing too much power or the right one not enough. On the ground again, Morris the mechanic turned up the right engine 5 clicks, and the left down 1 clicks. Next test flight the IFF’s were worse and we were now descending 2700ft/min. So something wasn’t right. She also idled high on the ground and instructor had to ride her well into beta to not become a juggernaut. And the landings were “sporty”, as she squirreled and stopped flying when power rolled off.
So back in hangar to check blade angles again. Somehow they’d changed with all the rigging. But by that time we were out of daylight and Morris was eager to get home to dinner. I had a friend over from Sweden waiting for me at my home, as well as my little 4 month old, so was really under pressure to get the old girl back to LA. Just frustrating, making excuses to my friend and my wife. But there we were, staying another night at a **** motel (Stockton really makes Milton Keynes feel like Paris..). New test flight in morning, but will probably have to redo the fuel settings, governor adjustments again as with the new blade angles, everything that end is probably out of whack.
Next day, we test fly and lo and behold, almost everything lines up and works good. FF’s, torque, rpm’s. When we do the IFF test, she descends 1800ft/min and has no tendency to yaw or turn. Great! Morris is happy with that, we file a flight plan and for the first time in almost 2 years, I get to sit left seat and fly. I was a very happy guy. But it also highlighted some things that needed doing sooner rather than later…
The positive was that she flies nice and smooth, produces a lot of power and the engines start very cool and nice, so that’s good. They spin up in about 30 seconds or less, which is very fast for Garretts. Stable as can be. We burned 59gal/hr going back, averaging about 235ktas at 17000ft. Couldn’t really go much higher with the pressurization problem (more below), otherwise I think we would have been able to see 250ktas and about 55gal/hr. I even managed to almost grease my first landing back at Chino! Had minor streaking on left nacelle below intake after landing. Didn’t feel like oil, more like graphite or something. Heart sank a bit, until we figured out that it was just some residue inside the bleed air lines that heat the engine intake. I’d put them on going through some clouds on way down. Phew, very thankful it was not a seal or something in engine. Will have it checked.
But the panel is a disaster. Unfortunately my plan of flying her for a few months and then do the panel next year will probably not work. She needs to go in for panel and avionics work sooner rather than later, or else I’ll go nuts. As it is now, only the backup GS/VOR works and can track anything (and it’s ancient), and since there’s no legal GPS in it, I can not do any serious IFR. At best I could transit a layer, or maybe do an ILS if I was vectored to it, but that’s about as comfortable I’d feel about it. And you hear the LOC identifier morse code on every freq in the background – still haven’t figured out how to shut that off. Only way to shut the noise up is to turn the VOR/LOC off on the head which does wonders for your ILS approaches to minimas..
Also, pressurization isn’t going much above 2psi, so there are obviously some other leaks we have not yet found. All off this can of course be fixed – and will be fixed – it’s just frustrating after so much time to have to go pretty much straight back into a shop for panel etc.
But hey, it’s not like I haven’t been here before!
All in all a happy beginning!
Hitched a ride in my friend Steve’s beautiful all-done-up G1000 Turbo Commander 980 up to Stockton and to the mechanic to see my old heap. Instructor was driving up from LA to help with final test flights before we could start training. But because he’d left his phone at a restaurant stop and had to return for it, he got there too late to do a test flight that afternoon. Sigh. So we stayed the night. All we were going to do was an idle fuel flow test flight to see that she behaved, maybe adjust FF’s slightly, and then head for LA to start the training. What could possibly go wrong?
Anyway, we stayed the night and morning after there was of course pesky ground fog. After that had lifted, we did a high speed taxi, which went OK, but on the squirrely side. Anyway, it was time for the first flight in a long time and I was rather excited. Instructor took off with mechanic in co-pilot seat, did a right turning climb up to 10500ft. Plane behaved well on climb and cruise (except for the ratty old radios that are garbled and bleed between freq a lot).
Temps, FF etc all good, but when it came to check what we came for, the idle fuel flows, it kind of went south. You’re supposed to retard power to the stop (before the gate that takes them into reverse) and hold 120kts, gear out, full flaps and note the descent rate, hp and FF’s. We were descending 2500ft/min with FF too high and engines producing too much power. It should be around 1500ft/min. On top of that, she wanted to bank right, which means the left engine was producing too much power or the right one not enough. On the ground again, Morris the mechanic turned up the right engine 5 clicks, and the left down 1 clicks. Next test flight the IFF’s were worse and we were now descending 2700ft/min. So something wasn’t right. She also idled high on the ground and instructor had to ride her well into beta to not become a juggernaut. And the landings were “sporty”, as she squirreled and stopped flying when power rolled off.
So back in hangar to check blade angles again. Somehow they’d changed with all the rigging. But by that time we were out of daylight and Morris was eager to get home to dinner. I had a friend over from Sweden waiting for me at my home, as well as my little 4 month old, so was really under pressure to get the old girl back to LA. Just frustrating, making excuses to my friend and my wife. But there we were, staying another night at a **** motel (Stockton really makes Milton Keynes feel like Paris..). New test flight in morning, but will probably have to redo the fuel settings, governor adjustments again as with the new blade angles, everything that end is probably out of whack.
Next day, we test fly and lo and behold, almost everything lines up and works good. FF’s, torque, rpm’s. When we do the IFF test, she descends 1800ft/min and has no tendency to yaw or turn. Great! Morris is happy with that, we file a flight plan and for the first time in almost 2 years, I get to sit left seat and fly. I was a very happy guy. But it also highlighted some things that needed doing sooner rather than later…
The positive was that she flies nice and smooth, produces a lot of power and the engines start very cool and nice, so that’s good. They spin up in about 30 seconds or less, which is very fast for Garretts. Stable as can be. We burned 59gal/hr going back, averaging about 235ktas at 17000ft. Couldn’t really go much higher with the pressurization problem (more below), otherwise I think we would have been able to see 250ktas and about 55gal/hr. I even managed to almost grease my first landing back at Chino! Had minor streaking on left nacelle below intake after landing. Didn’t feel like oil, more like graphite or something. Heart sank a bit, until we figured out that it was just some residue inside the bleed air lines that heat the engine intake. I’d put them on going through some clouds on way down. Phew, very thankful it was not a seal or something in engine. Will have it checked.
But the panel is a disaster. Unfortunately my plan of flying her for a few months and then do the panel next year will probably not work. She needs to go in for panel and avionics work sooner rather than later, or else I’ll go nuts. As it is now, only the backup GS/VOR works and can track anything (and it’s ancient), and since there’s no legal GPS in it, I can not do any serious IFR. At best I could transit a layer, or maybe do an ILS if I was vectored to it, but that’s about as comfortable I’d feel about it. And you hear the LOC identifier morse code on every freq in the background – still haven’t figured out how to shut that off. Only way to shut the noise up is to turn the VOR/LOC off on the head which does wonders for your ILS approaches to minimas..
Also, pressurization isn’t going much above 2psi, so there are obviously some other leaks we have not yet found. All off this can of course be fixed – and will be fixed – it’s just frustrating after so much time to have to go pretty much straight back into a shop for panel etc. But hey, it’s not like I haven’t been here before!
All in all a happy beginning!JAA and FAA PPL, ASEL, AMEL.
FLYER Club Member
