John’s
Swift Story
N2398B Gets Unscheduled
Maintenance
I am sure that I am not the only person who has ever bent a prop on an airplane, but this was a most embarassing situation for me. As you might imagine, I had to eat a lot of crow around LaPorte (T41) airport. But, crow doesn't taste so bad if you get enough tobasco sauce on it.
The story starts many years ago when I saw a Swift
for the first time. I think it was at a fly-in in Chilhowee TN where we were
flying gliders. Anyway, there was a Swift there and man did it look good. Well,
that went to the back of my mind for about 20 years until my oldest son Richard
and I were at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston where there was a
polished Swift parked outside the hangar. I drooled at it for a while and
decided that I would definitely have one some day.
In the fall of 2000 I started looking around a little more seriously. I went out to Zuehl and met Ed Lloyd and the Goldings. That did it, I was definitely in the market and started to look around. There were several criteria: bubble canopy, Lycoming O-360 and it had to be painted. The first one I looked at seriously belonged to Buck Jewell, and I drove up to see it in Dallas. We made a deal, then I had to make the dreaded phone call to my wife. The five most dreaded works in our household are:" Honey, are you sitting down?" This was only the third time these words were uttered. Once it resulted in a Cessna 170 (N2363D) and another time it resulted in a Boy Scout patch collection worth more than both my airplanes combined. Anyway, Here is a picture of Buck Jewell (previous owner, handsome guy on the right) and me the day Buck ferried it down from his place in Dallas. Note that the prop is not bent.
Being
no idiot (at least up until this point) I contacted David Beaver, a
Swift-familiar CFI here in Houston to get some dual time. The insurance
required 5 hours of dual. David came over to LaPorte and we did about 1.5
hours, including many landings. I got the feel of it, and was confident of my
skills. It does handle quite a bit differently from my 170. David provided a
lot of pointers which were very helpful.
My overconfidence extended to a feeling that any old CFI would do to complete the insurance requirements. I mean, heck, I could handle this airplane. So, I went to one of the flight schools on the field and hired a CFI to "ride along" with me so that I could work on completing the dual requirements for the insurance. This was stupid. The CFI I hired had less flight time than I had and really had no experience in this type of airplane.
Here is a Picture of me with David.
So
what happened had nothing to do whatever with flying. We taxied out to the
run-up area and started through the checklist. When we got to the mag check,
one was running rough, and the unnamed CFI said "Run it up to full power
and lean it out. That will get rid of the fouling on the plug." Without
thinking, I did what he said, and the O-360 did its 180 horse power thing.
Brakes were on and the thing went right over on its nose. Although it took only
a second, it seemed like forever. Sorta like slow motion. It was nauseating.
All I can say is (1) I should have known better and (2) the CFI had no experience with this type of aircraft, so he didn't have a clue.
Lesson Learned - Just because you are a CFI doesn't mean you are capable.
This is a shot of the post- incident condition of the airplane.
Here's
a little closer shot from a different perspective. Note that it was also
a gloomy day - weather-wise.
This all happened while my airport friends were at lunch. They were
sympathetic upon their return. The next day, however, the sympathy turned
into good natured kidding. I deserved it.
Everyone knows the drill when it comes to a
prop strike. The prop itself was beyond repair, so a new one had to
be obtained. You also have to pull the engine and get it checked out.
Since there were 1244 hours on it, I decided to get a major overhaul as
well. This took a while since there was also insurance claims to be made.
Anyway, the overhauled engine arrived at the beginning of the summer.
My oldest son Richard also arrived at the beginning of the summer.
He is an aeronautical engineering student at MIT and was most anxious to
help out with the re-assembly of N2398B. He also managed to get 50 hours
of dual with me in the 170 which included a great trip to Minneapolis to see my
mom and Dayton to spend a couple of days at the Air Force museum.
Here is a night shot of us working on the installation in my hangar.
Here's
a picture of me while we were hanging the engine. We had never done this
task before and found quite quickly that a dyna-focal engine mount can be a
challenge.
We
finally got the engine hung. and started connecting up all the stuff. Got
a chance to rebuild the air box along the way as well as replace all the oil
and fuel lines. This turned out to be a hidden blessing. One of the
oil lines had been stripped out and was in imminent danger of failing.
What a great deal that we decided to replace them all.
After getting things hooked up, we found that we were missing our 13/16 wrench.
We looked everywhere, but it never turned up. Maybe some day we
will find it in the belly of the beast, but maybe it accidentally fell into the
trash can or got left at another hangar where we did some of the work.
Here's Richard
putting the safety wire on the prop. I know there was a discussion about
oil coolers a while ago. Note the position of the cooler and the
large air duct. It works great.
Richard
watching retract tests for the annual.
There wasn't a good weight and balance in the
papaerwork for the airplane so we took the time to redo that.
Richard does the
weighing. The whole reassembly process was a great deal of fun for me.
Richard is a very hard working and capable guy. I could just turn
him loose on stuff and he would get it done well. He even enjoyed putting
safety wire on those hard to reach places, which was great for me.
The
day finally came to roll out the airplane and test the engine. Of course,
the battery was a little low. I couldn't crank the engine enough to
circulate the oil, so the process had to wait a few hours for the battery
charger to do its magic.
Once we got around to starting the engine, it fired immediately and we did a
quick system check before shutting down.
Here is a shot of
my wife Ginny with the Swift. She has been very patient with me
throughout all my aviation adventures. She still tolerates having two
airplanes, but I am not going to push my luck any farther for a while. I
keep telling here the 170 is for the kids to learn to fly in. That goes
over real well!
As of this writing I have 15 hours in the Swift and have to say it is really
great to fly. I am very happy I got it and very happy that the prop
strike mishap turned out for the best.
John P. Cross, November 2001
.