Man, it never ends. Yesterday was not a good day.
Been waiting all week for the CFI to test fly the goddamn plane as he wanted to do it himself and see that all the avionics were working and calibrate everything. Fine, I get that - sometimes you don't want any distractions. Finally, after the days and the weekend has gone by he calls and says the EGT meters don't turn on with power, so he couldn't do the test flight after all. Well, if someone had just turned the power on 3 days earlier, we could have troubleshot it and not lost all this time... Turns out all the engine instruments have been wired to the radio switch...
So I go out to run engines myself so we won't lose anymore time. When I turn up and check oil in engines, it just gushes out. Not only that, it's a reddish yellow in color. Turbine oil is clear, so I freak out at this. Did someone put 5606 in there by mistake? Are the hydraulic pump seals leaking into the engine oil? What is going on? Nobody knows who's serviced the engines with oil. I call around the FBO's asking if anyone serviced it with oil when it got refueled. No, no one knows nothing. I email Morris pictures of the oil color. Finally seize an A&P on the field there with turbine experience and he comes and has a look at the oil. Says it's fine - old turbine oil that's been sitting or when it gets in contact with air can get pretty yellow or amber in color. Phew - I was convinced someone had dumped 5606 in it by mistake.
Start the right engine up. Left torque gage comes on. OK.. Easy fix, just swap plugs around. Start left engine, no 15psi fuel pressure. I have a feeling it's a gauge problem and fire her up anyway, thinking if she truly doesn't have fuel pressure, then she won't start. Sure enough, she starts up just fine, so she obviously gets fuel. Fuel gauge comes alive, but now shows too much pressure, above redline. I run it a little, convinced its just a gauge problem, but shut it down eventually just in case it isn't.. "Air in the line" A&P guy says - "they'll self bleed"... OK. Let's hope, but it sure didn't look like it was chilling down...
No gyro pressure either. Nobody knows why, say they haven't touched the instrument except move it. Computer flag still doesn't retract on ADI, nobody knows why...
Man, planes... I sometimes wish I could be into something that wasn't some damn complex or expensive. Like knitting. Or Sudoku.
