So, here I am, a couple of days before Christmas, a week of time off ahead of me, and a trip to Catalina Island with the family planned for a few days from now. Being Winter, the sun sets at 5 around here, and so this means I may well need to be night current.
The plan: fly the Cessna 172/180hp I have scheduled tonight, 3 landings, back home by 9 p.m..
So, I get to the airport at 7:30ish. Winds calm, 10 miles+ visibility, no clouds (well, effectively, they are up around 12,000). Temp dew point spread is wide. TAF is showing clear conditions until tomorrow afternoon sometime.
I hadn't yet reserved the plane, but unlikely I'd need to; it's night, that plane had been sitting most of the day, no one is going to be taking it.
I get to KMYF, park, go to the aircraft.
Fuel in the tanks, all good. Then someone shows up. "You got this plane?" he asks. I say "well, no, but about to schedule it". "Well, I just did" was his response. We chat, he's going to go up to get night current like I am.
So I yield, as there is a Piper cadet parked right next to his that will do me fine.
I preflight.
He preflights.
Before I am done, I see him walking away. "What's up?" I ask. "Well", he responds, "one of the nav lights is out. Can't fly it. Going to get another plane". And he does.
I finally am ready by, oh, 8:15 p.m. and call ground and get a taxi clearance to runway 28R.
When I get there, the other pilot is ahead of me, and I see him shortly get cleared for takeoff and depart.
I start running thru my checklist. All good, until I run thru the flaps. The checklist doesn't really say "run thru the flaps" but I always do, and one time, in runup with this same cadet, the cable snapped so I damn well now always run thru, knowing that can happen. Before it was academic, now, well, that cable snap was enlightening.
It's dark of course, so I shine my flashlight on the flaps as I run thru the positions. 1 notch, 2 notches, full flaps. Now retract, 2 notches, 1, then 0. Except, the flaps are still fully down.
"One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand four, one thousand five". Flaps come up.
I try again, same thing.
Okay, tower, I need to taxi back. Flaps that come up 5 seconds after you retract them doesn't seem all that safe. Certainly don't want to be up in the sky wondering what the issue is.
I taxi back, park, tie down, call the owner and leave a message, check a 172 for fuel but am disappointed, find another cadet that has plenty of fuel, schedule it, preflight, and get my night currency done. Tower was closed by the time I got started. And no question it is officially night, because by now, the sun had set a good 5 hours ago.
I check my phone once the 2nd cadet is parked and there is a message from the owner. I listen. Then call back. Turns out the flaps issue is a known problem - near the 100 hour inspection time, the lubrication on the hinges has dried up and needs replacing. Solution, he says: go get a few drops of oil from the dipstick and apply to the hinges of the flaps and then run them and see them work. He also adds that this 5 second delay is unlikely to happen in flight because of aerodynamics, as airflow will counter the resistance that the lubrication is designed to overcome. Makes sense.
I decline to do this: while I probably could have figured out the right hinges to lubricate, I figured it is best he show me in person before I go doing this kind of thing myself.
Next up, I tell him about the nav light outage the other pilot experienced. He explained that likely a good rap on the wing next to the nav light would restore it. Turns out water can invade the system after a wash or rain, and banging on the wing a bit fixes that problem. Good to know, given my plan to use that plane at night in a few days. So, I hang up, walk to the plane, open it, turn on the battery and nav lights, observe the light is out, bang on the wing, and voila, it lights. Call him back, report success.
Tomorrow's plan was some IFR approaches under the hood in that very same cadet that needs the cable lubing. I was scheduled for early morning, before I could meet with the owner to see the flaps issue resolved. So, no choice but to cancel. Will get those approaches in some other time, no rush.
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