Cylinder Head Temperature

Hurricane Florence was finally dissipating in North Carolina and there were no ill effects in central Florida. It should be a good day to go flying. I asked Alexa about the forecast and the typical response came back with 30% chance of thunderstorms. But the next line got my attention; A high of 93°s. I sat down at my office computer to start my weather briefing. Soon I got a text message from my student. We were good to go.

I met my student at the FBO and drove over to the hangar. I was just after 9:00AM and the Florida temperature was already in the high 80°s. I had done some work on Sally the previous day and left the top cowling off. We reviewed the major parts of the engine and went over the normal preflight engine checks. He burped the engine then buttoned her up. Next, he climbed into the cockpit and pulled the checklist from the side pocket and went through each of the items. As we went through the checklist I pointed out special focus items, answered questions and helped him do a thorough walk-around.  (I also learned how to make some changes on the checklist to make it more efficient.) It took about 45 minutes. As he pulled Sally out of the hangar, I went back to the truck to drive it into the hangar.

We buckled in and completed the Start Checklist. Sally started quickly and smoothly. OAT read 31°s (88°F). Cylinder Head Temperature(CHT) read 220°F. Winds were calm, less than 5kts out of the south, but prevailing traffic was using RWY5. A long taxi for us. When we got to the runup area CHT was up to 240°s. I had already told the student to use the run-up checklist as memory items. In other words, not hesitate with each step but smoothly go from one to the next. By the time he finished his takeoff brief at the hold short line, the CHT was climbing past 250°. A CAP plane was on base turning on final. I asked the student to hold short but add power to 2500-3000 RPM to help cool the cylinder heads. Dropped back to 248°s. When the CAP airplane finally cleared were we back above 250°s. My No Go is 260°s. After the successful take off he chose a "cruise climb" at 70kts. It was 250°s passing 700'. We leveled at 1500' and the temp dropped back to normal.

I wanted to get 5 landings in today. We did three at Plant City and would have done another but it just getting too crowded. I decided to try some more back at Tampa Executive. Although not as bad, there were two in the pattern...and it was hot. We ended the flight with a great landing and taxied back to the FBO. It was hot. OAT read 34°C. (93°F)

The weatherman on the radio said the "feel like" temperature was 101°s. Time to call it a day.

Labor Day 2018

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. We celebrate this by ... taking the day off from work.??.

Sally got a new landing light. It's an upgrade from the original. It should be much brighter in the landing pattern at night. It looks like a nice piece of jewelry. I'm looking forward to becoming night time current again. Now, what is night time?  Is it sunset to sunrise, or end of civil twilight, or...

This year the annual discovered a crack on the right main strut hidden behind the brake line. Evidently, this is not an unusual problem, especially for a plane being used in a flight school. Certus had the expertise and tools to do this in my own hangar.

I replaced all of the original wheel pant fasteners with stainless steel screws. Not only will they last longer in the corrosive Florida weather, but I think they look better too.

It was also time to change out the Dzus fasteners on the wing lockers. Even though I have been using Corrosion X, over the years they have become discolored and looked old. These were also changed to stainless steel.

I took some time to clean the cockpit. I used some expensive leather cleaner but wasn't satisfied with the results. Next, I used a clean rag and some nail polish remover to attack some of the stubborn dirt spots. This worked well! I followed up with a good vacuuming.

Finally, I did the belly wash. Certus had said he didn't criticize me for the grime on the bottom of the plane because it was probably a good form of corrosion control. (Just his kind of humor.) So today I got down on the creeper and started at the nose cowling and worked my way back. Three rags later I was cleaning the tail light. (My arms and shoulders will be hurting tomorrow.)

Normally this would be the perfect time to take her for a test flight, but as I stood outside the hangar there was ill wind in the air. It was only noon and the clouds were churning into dark shades of gray. Tropical Storm Gordon had just been born in the gulf.