Yesterday, 8 of us "Boys with Toys" (all RVs) flew to Llano for some Coopers BBQ.
You know it was great!
Flying home we briefed up a 4-ship flight to do some formation work.
Sitting number 2 on the wing of Bobby "Luke" Lucroy, I hear the dreaded: "Bogie", you need to abort. Your left wheel is leaking hydraulic fluid - lots of hydraulic fluid.
Dang, we eventually clear the active, so the other folks can depart, and of course "Luke" sympathetically aborts with us.
We slowly taxi our bird back to the ramp and then took the opportunity to practice turns to see when the tail wheel would unlock and so forth. Actually it was a good mindset practice, should we lose a brake ever in the future.
Here is the kicker: "Luke" has everything needed in his go-bag. We removed the left wheel fairing, and dissasembled the left brake, and found the o-ring in the piston was indeed broken.
Replaced the o-ring (of which "Luke" had several spares), reassembled the caliper and then of course, "Luke" had almost everything needed to bleed the brakes. We were short a little on the hydraulic fluid. Oh, and he had safety wires and a safety wire pliers so we could put it back together properly.
But of course, a local at the airport ("Estes") had some hydraulic fluid which promptly brought over.
From abort to repair to again taking off, we were on the ground less than 2 hours.
This is why I love the experimental world. If I had been in my Bonanza or single ship, we would have been SOL.
Thanks "Luke". Thanks "Estes". Thanks "Experimental World".
You know it was great!
Flying home we briefed up a 4-ship flight to do some formation work.
Sitting number 2 on the wing of Bobby "Luke" Lucroy, I hear the dreaded: "Bogie", you need to abort. Your left wheel is leaking hydraulic fluid - lots of hydraulic fluid.
Dang, we eventually clear the active, so the other folks can depart, and of course "Luke" sympathetically aborts with us.
We slowly taxi our bird back to the ramp and then took the opportunity to practice turns to see when the tail wheel would unlock and so forth. Actually it was a good mindset practice, should we lose a brake ever in the future.
Here is the kicker: "Luke" has everything needed in his go-bag. We removed the left wheel fairing, and dissasembled the left brake, and found the o-ring in the piston was indeed broken.
Replaced the o-ring (of which "Luke" had several spares), reassembled the caliper and then of course, "Luke" had almost everything needed to bleed the brakes. We were short a little on the hydraulic fluid. Oh, and he had safety wires and a safety wire pliers so we could put it back together properly.
But of course, a local at the airport ("Estes") had some hydraulic fluid which promptly brought over.
From abort to repair to again taking off, we were on the ground less than 2 hours.
This is why I love the experimental world. If I had been in my Bonanza or single ship, we would have been SOL.
Thanks "Luke". Thanks "Estes". Thanks "Experimental World".
.
