Flying Again!

19-20th of July; Western Washington Airspace --

After having not been at the controls of the Mooney since the 31st of May, Grumpy wondered if he had lost his "touch". Venturing out to the air field with all equipment remembered -- this time! -- his flying spirits were already aloft, in anticipation of the exhilarating feeling of defying gravity by movement of the aircraft flight controls.

Upon preflight checking the Mooney, and after having first installed a couple new labels that the Owner of said Mooney and Grumpy had designed, Grumpy began the Engine Start check list. At the third step, 12 volt power is required; alas no -- I mean ZERO!!! -- 12 volt power. A dead battery was his first thought. After checking the Master switch and Avionics switch, Grumpy dismissed that possibility: both switches had been in the "OFF" position when the airplane was last parked.

Not having a voltmeter and other trouble-shooting tools available, Grumpy returned to The Castle, while thinking of other possibilities to cause the seemingly dead battery. A sneak electrical load was a possibility; a low current leak to ground was another.

The more promising possibility: an inadvertent displacement of a ground connection when Grumpy was installing the new labels. A screw had to be loosened in order to remove one of the old labels.

Returning to the airplane with the voltmeter, some extra wiring terminals and other tools, Grumpy first checked the recently-new battery. 12.7 volts!! So, the battery was NOT dead. Moving into the cockpit to check for a displaced ground wire [meanwhile begrudgingly anticipating the need to lay on his still-painful back in order to observe the back/underside of the instrument panel] Grumpy felt back there where the ground wire was supposedly loose. Voila!! 12 volt power was instantly restored [The Master switch apparently provides a 12 volt signal to a relay which actually turns on 12 volt power to the instrument panel and the ignition circuit. The simple matter of tightening the screw by which the grounding terminal was attached was quickly accomplished and the problem was solved without pain.

Now it was too late in the day to take the one to two hour flight that Grumpy had planned. So it was back to the Castle to wait until tomorrow (Saturday, 20 July).

Saturday morning dawned -- or I should say, "dripped" -- with a 1000-2000 foot deep fog under a thermal inversion that took all morning to finally dissipate sufficiently for VFR operations. By that time, Grumpy had accumulated a passenger who was eager to see the countryside from the advantage of a few thousand feet above ground level.

This passenger brought a couple of surprises with him: the nine-year old friend of my brown-eyed Granddaughter and the nine-year old's four year-old little brother. The pleadings of two pairs of big brown eyes were more than Grumpy could withstand. Strapping them securely into the rear seats of the Mooney and with their Papa in the right hand seat, Grumpy took off heading for Mount Rainier.

It being a fairly warm day [Grumpy read 81 degr F while cruising at 10,000 on the South side of Rainier!] and with the added load of the three passengers, the Mooney would not climb fast enough on a direct heading toward the East side of Rainier. So Grumpy zig-zagged gently as we continued to climb to a certain safe altitude above the terrain and outside of the "forbidden" airspace over and around Rainier National Park.

After reaching 10,000 feet, Grumpy reduced power to "Cruise" and maintained that altitude as we slowly turned around the South and West sides of Rainier. We could see Mt Adams nearby to the Southwest and Mt St Helen's further away to the South west. In the distance to the South we also spotted Mt Hood on the other side of the Columbia River East of Portland OR.

After reaching a heading back toward my home field, Grumpy established a low power descent of about 600 feet per minute to be accomplished within the 40 miles of distance back to the home field. Our air speed was now a steady 140 mph, so that distance would be covered in about twenty minutes.

Two eager aviators and one Old Dog

We soon landed after circling the field in pattern while two or three other aircraft were also on the radio requesting landing or take-off clearance; Grumpy spotted two (one, a helicopter taking off) but never saw another. Grumpy's landing was very acceptable, though not an ideal "greased-in" type for which he continually aspires.

When and where next? Check back on Monday or Tuesday to find out!