Preflight

Why bother? The airplane had just been flown, the engine was still warm. Everything looked great, so why bother with all the ground procedures...Turn and burn, Baby!

...eh, not so fast. During the autopilot check in the run up area I didn't get any pressure from the roll servo. Pitch servo was weak and the electric trim didn't seem to have full range. Since I REALLY wanted to revisit the PTW LOC28 with my new understanding of the the navigation/autopilot system, this was a key element for my flight. So, we back taxied to the ramp area for some trouble shooting. It turns out resetting the autopilot circuit breaker did the trick.

We rolled back to the run up area and continued with the checklist. As I pushed it up to 1700 RPM I noticed the #1 cylinder was not responding. (Was it off line during our taxi? Not that I noted, but I didn't specifically look at it either. I just remember seeing green.) Pop Pop, etc. CHT at zero, and EGT below 200 seemed to indicate she just wan't firing. Back to the ramp.

So I got to see how to take the bonnet off and got a good look at the engine. Smaller then I expected and what a beauty. Spark plug changed, buttoned up and subsequent check proved that a failed plug was the problem.

Unfortunately the delay went beyond my planned endurance. So while we had a simply georgeous Pennsylvania afternoon, I was unable to take advantage of it. Rats.

Sr20
Time = 0.6 hours.