Splash and Dash Searey Seaplane Delights
                           Apr 19 11:13
Guest User - Request Membership Layout | Log In | Help | Videos | Site | Emails 
Search:  

 Photos
View		 All Photos | Add Photos | Emoticons | Album View | Mark Unread
Search Photos:     

  
Fire and Ice
Previous 		SeaRey To Lilly's.jpg
Next
 Photo Info
Posted By: Nickens, Dan
Date Posted: May 20, 2016
Description: Discrimination is alive and well in California. The elite get the best spots. The little guys get pushed aside.

You know what really sucks about that? The prissy flyer had a smoothly routine flight at 42,000' from one full service FBO to home. The little guy battled the elements at 500' and endured a critical in-flight system failure. Now there is no room at the inn?

The jet captain tosses the keys to the ground guy, gets in his beemer and heads to Starbucks for a cappuccino.

The Searey driver grabs the wing to keep from being blown away while dialing the local Hotel 8 and looking for an Uber ride.

Really?

Reality. Deal with it.

Yep. No way would I trade for the jet guy's job.
Date Taken: July 30, 2015
Place Taken: Van Nuys, CA
Owner: Nickens, Dan
File Name: Failure to Deliver 6304.jpg   - Photo HTML
Full size     - <img src="/show.php?splash=71q0jZjvZh">
Medium    - <img src="/show.php?splash=71q0jZjvZm">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=71q0jZjvZs">
Category: Yacht_Tending_USA
Favorite option: If you want this item to be marked as a favorite, click on the black heart. Failure to Deliver    Make Cover Photo     
Clear Cover Photo      

Click on photo to view the original size.
Viewers 

  

Read what others had to say:

Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Though some days I might be tempted.

This was one of those days. After flying back to the U.S. from a fine SuRi adventure I was asked to divert to southern California to pick up the old SuRi SeaRey. ""Simple. Just pick it up from maintenance and take it to Lake Tahoe. The new guy will take it from there.""

After a quick test flight out of Carlsbad, I headed north to Van Nuys for an overnight at the corporate hangars. The weather wasn't great. Marginal VFR clouds would make the normal overland routes through Los Angeles airspace tricky if not impossible.

So what? The clouds were just fine for low altitude route over the Pacific. It's an amphibian, right? Fine.

Fine except that it required a big deviation around LAX. There I was, fifteen miles west of LAX out over the open Pacific, fat dumb & happy. Despite the airplanes checkered history, the flight had gone flawlessly. For no good reason other than just to verify how nicely everything was going, I flipped through the computer screens to the full engine page. That's when I saw that voltage had dropped to 11.7 and was draining at a seven amp rate.

""That can't be right!"" If it was, there should have been a low voltage alarm, right? And the red discharge light should be illuminated, right? No alarm. No light. Just the computer insisting the electrical system was discharging. As if to add emphasis, the voltage dropped to 11.6 as I stared incredulously.

The airplane had to have volts to fly. No volts, no fuel pump, no fuel for the engine.

Now what? Obviously it was time to shed some electrical load. I started turning things off and got down to -4 amps.

Time for some in-flight troubleshooting. Could be a tripped circuit breaker? Nope. Pulling it and pushing it back in didn't do anything but it was a least something to try.

Turn off the transponder? Under LA Class B airspace? Uh uh. But, if the volts drop enough the fuel will quit flowing. An administrative issue for turning off the transponder versus a long swim to shore? Well, I could just declare an emergency and then there won't be an administrative issue. Maybe later, eh? I decided to ponder the problem rather than act.

So, how long did I have before I had to swim to shore? How low will the voltage go and the pumps still pump fuel? I had no idea. That was research that would have to await another day.

Maybe I could get to land. Maybe even to an airport. Nearest airport? LAX. Not going there!

I knew once I got closer to Point Dume I would be clear of LAX's surface area and could head east again. That would take me near shore and with just a short hop over land to get to Santa Monica.

Santa Monica? Isn't that where Harrison Ford crash landed on the golf course? That sure made some headlines! I reckoned a second crash on the golf course wouldn't please the locals intent on shutting down the airport. Still....it was an option.

A more convenient location would be Van Nuys. That's where I was supposed to go anyway. That's where the company hangars are. And they have a full time mechanic with lots of tools. And it was actually closer, but I'd have to climb a 2100' hill to get there. I could do that. (Hopefully.)

Except that Van Nuys has a control tower. That wouldn't be too nice if the electric gear wouldn't come down and the radio went quiet from lack of electrons.

I checked the chart and there found no uncontrolled fields within comfortable range of the electrically crippled plane. Van Nuys was it.

The voltage was actually holding up pretty good. So, topping the hill I spent the electrons and called the tower. The controller gave me a squawk code. I dutifully tried to punch it into the Garmin. It all went in except for the last number, a seven. No amount of pushing the 7 button would make it appear!

I wasted more electrons and asked the tower for a new code without a seven. He gave me a new code with another 7 anyway. More electrons were wasted explaining (again) my problem with sevens. He settled for a simple ident instead.

Now there was a big question. Confess the electrical issue before lowering the gear? The drain of gear operation might drop voltage below radio and fuel pump limits.

Oh well, I didn't want to generate more excitement than necessary. Eleven point five volts in a big battery should be good right? If not, what the heck. I just came in high and close to the grass.

It was good. No issues.

Well, there was an issue with the jet mechanic: ""I'm not working on that thing!""

""Fine. I just need a place to work on it.""

""We don't have room.""

""Well, I suppose I'll just have to call the owner and tell him you want me to leave his favorite toy broken and outside.""

Somehow room was found.

The SeaRey may be small, but it has some pretty big champions. 		    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    With the SeaRey fixed, all I had to do was get it to Lake Tahoe. The new pilot would meet me there and take over. To get around some rain in the central valley I took a diversion and ended up at the Mohave airport. It was crowded with jets that had ended up there too.

(Mohave, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    There is surely a story to every plane left here. Why did someone feel this one needed to be broken in two? Sad. Very sad sight.

(Mohave, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Getting through sometimes means taking an indirect route, or maybe a brief diversion.

(North of California City, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    It's called Red Rock Canyon. There are red rocks, but they are in the minority.

(Red Rock Canyon State Park, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Dirt falls aren't quite as enthralling as waterfalls.

(Red Rock Canyon State Park, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Looks like a large dinosaur salt leaf.

(Owens Lake, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Dark and salty reflections.

(Owens Lake, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    The floor of the dry lake was clearly delineated in salt.

(Owens Lake, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Mountains are bigger barriers when they are topped by dark clouds.

(North of Lone Pine, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Taking a "work" break at the edge of a high lake reinvigorates the drive to finish a ferry flight. Even if the camera battery fails? Well, why not? Makes perfect sense. Electrons are my nemesis.

(Lake Crowly near Toms Place, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Strange shoreline.

(Lake Crowly near Toms Place, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Elevation 6781 and climbing.

(Lake Crowly near Toms Place, CA)

    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    "The new pilot is busy flying a jet. Can you just take stay over and fly the SeaRey?"

Well, yeah.

Flying around Lake Tahoe is great.....as long as conditions are right. Conditions are usually right in the morning. It's already a high place and midday temperatures make it effectively even higher. And after every one is up and out in their boats, the lake gets pretty choppy. Add then the wind picks up as the day goes on and the conditions get downright nasty.

So naturally the morning sailed right by on the ground. At noon the call came. The SeaRey was requested at the beach house.

Um, okay.

The pilot-friend-of-the-owner wanting to fly the SeaRey was no small guy. Heavy, hot, windy and wavy rules were in effect. The prospective pilot was, however, an experienced SeaRey flier. With some trepidation for the time of day, I traded the flying seat for the spectator seat.

Takeoff was much more traumatic than I imagined. It was really rough. And just before the point we should be flying, the plane was prematurely thrown into the air.

At that exact moment the engine quit. It went from full power to nothing before I could blink. Before I could even think of grabbing the stick, the nose rose, the tail smacked down and it all ended in a giant splash.

"What did I do?" the pilot-friend-of-the-owner asked.

"Nothing." (That was true. He could have pushed the stick forward and landed level, but maybe not. Didn't matter. It was my responsibility to do so...or not to let him have the airplane under the circumstances.)

"What do we do now?"

"We try to restart so we can get back to the beach."

Somewhat surprisingly that actually worked.

"It's running again. Can we fly?"

"No. It quit for a reason. I need to find out why."

But I couldn't find a reason. It now ran normally.

"I'm going to take it back to the airport for a detailed check," I announced. After a quick inspection I launched easily and uneventfully. I stayed over water until I got to the lake edge, then climbed so I would have a some nice places to put it down if it quit again.

It didn't quit. When I got back and looked carefully at the airplane, however, I found a subtle bend in one of the stabilizers. We were done flying.

Have you ever known a mechanical device that was just downright ornery? This one had given nothing but grief for a year. Despite all the effort and money expended, it just wasn't going to cooperate. Maybe it had decided that if the pilot was stupid enough to push limits, it would just go over them.

I had to call the owner and tell him about the latest fiasco. He had just one thing to say: "Sell it!"

(Whew! He could have said "You're fired!"

(South Lake Tahoe, CA)

    
  
Carr, Frank  - May 23,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    To answer one of your questions, Dan, which was: ""Have you ever known a mechanical device that was just downright ornery?"" I'm
thinking I might, I'm thinking it might be my SeaRey. At least it's in the competition. Suspect it was the builder.

Thanks as always for the travel log and photos. 		    
  
Randy Flood - May 20,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Dan......I am sure someone, somewhere, at sometime has told you this before........but you REALLY need to write a book about your
adventures!!! (or have you already??? If so, let me know so I can buy it!!) 		    
  
Nickens, Dan - May 22,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Not me, Randy. That would be work and I'd rather fly than write.     
  
Scott Alperin - May 22,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Dan- What did you find was the cause of the low voltage? The suspense is has me on the edge of my chair !!     
  
Nickens, Dan - May 22,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    It's an old story, Scott. After much anguish, money, and frustration I eventually found a simple loose screw on the charging circuit breaker. For the full technical details check out the Photos section of the SeaRey Technical Site, in particular look under the posting by Ken Leonard titled ""Regulator_Rectifier.jpg"" on July 21, 2015. You'll have to read to the end because it is a multipart tale.     
  
Scott Alperin - May 22,2016   Viewers  | Reply
    Many thanks     


       - About Searey.us -
     - Contact Searey.us - 		- Privacy Statement -
- Terms of service - 		Copyright © 2024 Searey.us & Brevard Web Pro, Inc. - Copyrights may also be reserved
by posters and used by license on this site. See Terms of Service for more information.
    - Please visit our NEW Chapter Place Website at: chapterplace.com or Free Chapter Management Website at: ourchapter.org. Good for all chapters, groups or families.