Seat of the pants flying

[Slick Goodlin]

Well, on Friday I set a new high (low?) score for myself on the least-equipped [i]certified[/i] airplane I've flown yet.  I didn't think I could beat seven instruments but this one had five, or maybe four.  I had a hard time telling if the (non-sensitive) altimeter moved or not.

[Colonel]

All you really need is an oil pressure gauge and a tachometer.

I really like an oil temperature gauge too, but like cylinder head
temperature, it's not essential, just really nice to have.

[David MacRay]

Tachometer? Are you deaf?

[Colonel]

Three old pilots, all hard of hearing after a lifetime of
flying, are walking down the street.

First one says, "Windy today!"
Second one says, "It's not Wednesday, it's Thursday!"
Third one says, "I'm thirsty too, let's find a bar"

[Slick Goodlin]

[quote author=David MacRay link=topic=8973.msg24576#msg24576 date=1536160218]
Tachometer? Are you deaf?
[/quote]
I thought the tach was a little redundant too.  A hot, humid day and a fat pilot pretty well call for full throttle all the time anyways.

[Colonel]

It's a gearhead thing.  Admittedly, if you are used to an airplane
and you know where the throttle goes (eg fixed pitch) if the tach
breaks it's probably not a huge loss of information.

Reminds me of a guy I used to know.  Had a helicopter, flew it
around like a pickup truck.  He'd land beside a convenience store,
leave the engine running, zip inside for a pack of smokes and off
he would go.  I have no idea how he had enough hands to smoke
while flying a helicopter.

Anyways, one day his airspeed indicator stopped working.  Kind of
important during an auto.  I offered to fish a piece of lock wire
through the pitot tube which was almost certainly plugged up by
mud daubers, but he declined my offer.

So, he flew around with no airspeed indicator.  Then his MP gauge
stopped working.  Vibration is terrible in helicopters.  He kept
flying - said the governor did a pretty good job of that, he could
feel it moving in his hand.

Then, his attitude indicator failed, which I was somewhat in awe
of, because he would fly at night to his ranch and descend vertically
through a hole in the trees and hover taxi to his barn.  I guess if
you stay low enough, you don't need any flight instruments.

And his light bulbs burned out, so I changed those, to make his
night flying easier.  I have no idea how he did the descend-through
the-hole-in-the-trees with no lights.  I installed LED replacements
in the hope that the filament vibration problem would go away.

Oh yeah, he kept landing it in snow and plugging up the breather tube
which didn't have holes drilled in it, and blow his crank seal.  Did
that at least twice.

I've probably missed a bunch of stuff, but you get the idea.  You
might criticize his maintenance, but gosh, could that boy [i]fly[/i].

[David MacRay]

You are probably right in a way. I'm not diving and need to take a peek because, "that sounds like redline." in the flying clubs 172.

[Colonel]

Not sure anyone cares about reality, but you aren't about to
hurt a four-banger Lycoming by winding it up a bit.  Most
anyone that flies a Pitts S1 will see 3200-3400 RPM.  The guys
at Reno have been doing that for decades.

You want to fatally wound a Lycoming?  Don't fly it.  Let it
sit and corrode internally.

PS  I want a tach so that in the absence of an airspeed indicator
I can set the power setting and know my fuel burn.  Running out
of gas is an option for Ottawa flight instructors, but not the rest
of us.

[David MacRay]

It's an option... you just don't feel like choosing it. I'm with ya.

[Slick Goodlin]

[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=8973.msg24585#msg24585 date=1536204298]
You want to fatally wound a Lycoming?  Don't fly it.  Let it
sit and corrode internally.
[/quote]
That's true of any aero engine, including a forlorn little Continental that had to be replaced this past weekend due to neglect.  Poor thing probably had fifty hours SMOH.