Saturday, June 18, 2011

June 18th

So, I decided that today I was going to get the tach on the Flightstar sorted out.  Vic was off at some shelter fundraising thing, so I ran Tilly's legs off, then took the DRZ to the airfield and moved the wire to the other side.

All plugged in, and the radio worked, as did the tach, but I couldn't get above about 4,000rpm without the plane moving.  I strapped in and went for a circuit, but the tach was acting crazy again, even worse than before.  It was bumpy as hell, so I landed and put the tach lead on the other input lead to the regulator.  Another circuit, and everything was fine.  Well, electrically... it was still as bumpy as hell.  When I was taxying back, I turned off the strobes, and the tach went crazy - aha, this is the thing - when the battery is fully charged, the regulator shuts down - I need to change the regulator for a non Key West one, but for the moment just leaving the strobes on will do the job :o)

I went home again, and ran Tilly around the garden again, then fed her and headed back to the airfield in the Jeep now the thermals had hopefully calmed down.  After a few circuits, I started to smell petrol, which is a little troubling - I couldn't see any obvious leaks, and the fuel level didn't seem to be dropping, but better safe than sorry.  I pulled up and checked everything to eventually find that the gas cap had unscrewed itself internally, dropping part of it into the tank.  I'm hoping I can fish it out with a magnet, otherwise I'll need to drain the tank and remove it so I can tip it all out.  Bugger.  Ah well, I packed everything away and headed home.

Fred and Marsha came over - they've just got an 8 week old puppy, called Cashmere - Tilly's very interested, so we'll see how that goes when she's a little older :o)

No comments:

Post a Comment