First damage done

No, nothing important happened. I mean it was important to me because of this strange feeling that not everything is OK. It started just after preflight when I wanted to taxi Cherokee to get some fuel. I had really, really hard time starting it. I’m pretty much used to solve problems with engines not wanting to start. I understand flooding term, I know what leaning means. Yet it didn’t wanted to start. I manage to force it to venting it out (running starter for couple of seconds with mags off), the I repeat starting procedure using a little bit of primer and it worked. As it turned out that was only the beginning.

Run up process went as usual, we taxied back and departed. As soon as we were airborne I started to feel that not everything is as it should. I shared my comments with Terry and it turned out that I’m not alone – he alse felt that the engine is not working as it should. There were slight vibrations and it didn’t want to spool out above 2200 rpms even in level flight. We did tight pattern and landed. Further tries on the ground confirmed our worries – engine wasn’t spooling out and no matter what we do we couldn’t get off of vibrations.

End of flying for today. I taxied her back and called it a day hoping I’ll be able to fly this week again.

P.S. Later the mechanic checked everything and it turned out that one of the mags turned (apparently by itself) 10 degrees off advancing the ignition. Rare, but happens.

0.5h/0.0h inst : 1 to/ldg logged
16.8h/0.8h inst : 59 to/ldg total