This morning seemed to be working out OK. Work up feeling good. Weather was good. Had signed up for the airplane yesterday. Other Half was up and willing to come along for the ride.
Went out the airport and got there a little early. No problem, I could still go out and pre-flight the airplane while waiting for the person who could give me the keys to show up. So I went out there and there was another pilot there who seemed to think HE had Gulf November reserved. Nope, I did. I had signed up for it the day before. No, no he said - no one had it reserved, so he signed up. We went back and forth a few times, then went inside to check the Official Schedule.
Yep, my name there, Sunday 8 am. Yesterday’s sign up sheet was still there and his name was on that. Oops. Well, no big deal, Bravo was also available as the guy who had it at 7 am was back early. OK, end of problem, back outside to preflight.
Preflighting went pretty good. Gulf November is Griffith Airport’s oldest Warrior, and the upholstery was certainly showing the wear (the duct tape needed repairs) but mechanically the airplane was intact and the engine maintained. Did notice we were a bit low on gas. Probably had enough for the flight, but since the only time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire (and that was definitely not in this morning’s plans) I decided to have the tanks topped off. For just in case.
OK, back inside now, waiting for the front desk gal to get settled in and get me the papework and keys. Also asked the line guy to fill up the tanks, which he did. Great. Now we can go fly.
Meanwhile, Mr. Wrong Airplane had got in, started up, and gone out to the runway to take off. Although he was using the correct runway based on wind direction, which was 26, over the radio he kept announcing he was using 8, which was totally wrong. I really hoped this trend he was experiencing would not continue in a bad way.
The Other Half was being stiff and sore this morning, so it took him a little bit to ease into the airplane. He expressed displeasure at the very worn condition of the interior, and yes, it does look like shit, even though they did replace the seat belts last year and relabeled everything (after 30 years the lettering wears off, ya know?).
Well, got out the checklist and began the start up procedures. It was a VERY reluctant start, took three tries. Hm… starter seems weak. Pretty sure it was the starter - judging by the whine from the electric gyros the battery was up to snuff and it wasn’t cold enough (ha! It was definitely warm) for stiff oil to be a factor. Once it actually caught, though, the engine settled into a steady droning rhythym
Hey! Looks like we’re going to get off the ground today!
(Of course we didn’t)
Pushed the throttle forward to start rolling. While the engine certainly made more noise, the airplane didn’t move. Well, it sort of shook in place but it didn’t move forward. Huh. Checked the parking brake. The parking brake was on. Really, they don’t encourage you to leave the parking brake on overnight, because sometimes the brakes will get stuck in that position. Very annoying. That’s one of the reasons we have and use wheel chocks.
The brake handle didn’t want to release. It was like it was welded in place. I suppressed the urge to use percussive maintenance because making a habit of whacking and hammering at parts of the airplane tends to make one’s passenger very nervous. And they’re usually nervous enough already. Eventually, with much two-handed tugging, I got the lever to release. I made sure it was all the back in the “off” position.
I pushed the throttle forward, from about 1000 rpm’s to around 1500 rpm’s.
The engine made more noise.
The airplane didn’t start rolling.
Huh.
I peered over the instrument panel and out the windows. Had I left chocks on the wheels? No - there were the chocks right there (I try to leave them where I can see them, for just such occassions). Were we in a dip? A little bit. I nudged the throttle further forward.
Finally we start rolling.
First I notice is that the beast is pulling to the right. That is not correct. Even a tailwheel airplane, which does tend to pull right, does not do so at such low speeds. This Piper Warrior is a tricycle gear airplane, however. It’s very stable on the ground. It goes the direction you point it in a tame and docile manner. Except today.
Alright, I’m starting to think Something Is Not Right here.
What I really need to do is taxi this in a straight line for a bit and see if it’s me, the ground, or the airplane. The parking area is not conducive for this, really the only place is the runway. Fortunately, it being early on Sunday morning, the runway is very empty. I finished the initial checks on everything else, including the radios, then announce my intention to go on the runway.
Going down the runway it was more and more apparent that something was very wrong here. The airplane was, if anything, pulling even more strongly to the right. It was not a gentle tendency - when I took my feet off the rudder pedals (which are used for ground steering) we had more turning motion than forward motion. It could force it straight, even force it to turn left, but the key word here is force. We also needed 2200 rpm’s to keep moving at normal taxispeed. Contrast that to the normal taxi rpm’s, which were 800-1000. Even at idle, you usually need to use the toe-brakes to keep from rolling unless you’re on turf. Under normal conditions I think I could get up to flying speed (eventually) with 2200 rpm’s, but not today - we were barely moving forward. No way was this airplane going to take off, it just wasn’t going to get up enough ground speed.
There’s an old joke that you know you landed gear up when it takes full speed to taxi - the landing gear in a Warrior was fixed and welded in place, but with a max rpm of 2600 rpm, we were a little closer to the old joke than I liked.
This is the point where I look to my Other Half and announce that no, we are not going flying today and explain we’re having problems with ground handling. So I turned it around and went back to the parking area with the engine grinding away at what is normally cruise speed. I was getting a little concerned - the temperature gauges were starting to rise in a manner I usually see only in take off and climb at full power.
Got it parked, got it shut down, got pissed off. I ordered the Other Half to go back inside the building - with his back problems he has no business pushing airplanes around. Silly me, I hadn’t considered something when I went to shove it into the parking slot myself: effectively, it had the parking brakes on. I couldn’t budge it. Granted, even on a good day it’s a struggle, since the airplane weighs about 10 times what I do, but today I really simply could not do it.
I said some Very Naughty Words and went inside.
One of the mechanics was handy, the one who also happens to be the head CFI these days, and I explained about needing 2200 rpms to taxi and that yes, the brake handle was off but it was pulling to the right and yeah, I think there’s something wrong with the brakes. He said yep, that’s what it sounded like. But there wasn’t anything to do about fixing it immediately, and the other planes were all taken. Which is how it goes sometimes.
But I did have this flash of Mr. Wrong Airplane - what if he had taken Gulf November anyhow? I imagined him gamely firewalling the throttle and the poor airplane struggling to get up to speed before it ran out of runway. Maybe just as well things turned out the way they did.
What else can I say? I’ll try again next week.