Colorado Adventure: New Friend, Shredding, and Lessons Learned...

I have known Dave for awhile now as he also belongs to the Holloman Aero Club. We forged a friendship however on our recent flying adventure to his family cabin in South Fork, Colorado. We departed Alamogordo Regional (KALM) under marginal VFR and headed directly north over Santa Fe, Taos and arrived at Astronaut Kent Rominger Airport (KRCV) just outside of Del Norte, CO. Boy was it cold! Luckily, Dave has access to a hangar. I don't have a block or oil heater for the motor and I didn't bring anything to keep the motor warm. The hangar was heated to 45 degrees and we thought we'd be ok. Key word is thought.

We got to the cabin in South Fork, quickly settled in and grilled some amazing steaks and interacted with the local wildlife. This place was beautiful! Cliffs gazed over the Southfork in one canyon while the canyon over, the Northfork was feeding the Rio Grande. Fly-fishing heaven! Dave had other things on his mind. He was so lonely he thought he'd make some moves on one of the does. It must have worked (see below)!.

We spent the next day shredding the slopes at Wolf Creek Ski Resort and keeping an eye on the impending storm that was incoming. You never would have guessed it based off the beautiful weather we were currently enjoying. In the mountains, weather moves fast. We decided to call it quits and beat the storm back home.

We arrived at the airport only to find my plane outside. What!!!. Another guy who shared the hangar decided he wanted to fly (can't blame him there) and pulled my bird out to an even colder environment...and didn't put it back!! The lesson learned is shortly coming. At an elevation of ~8000 feet, I didn't want to flood the engine while I primed. But, the engine had a hard time starting and staying running. I tried priming a little more...no improvement...in fact, I flooded it! Crap! Daylight was burning and the storm was coming. Let's take a break, give time for the fuel to dissipate, and think about this. About the only thing I could think of is why I didn't bring or buy a light bulb I could have put in the cowling to keep the engine warmer. And, I wasn't too happy with the guy to pulled my plane out and left it in the below freezing temperature.

Fast forward 15 minutes. I tried starting the engine again, very careful to consider the mixture and priming. The engine fired right up but quickly returned to sputtering and backfiring for a good while with little to no improvement. Oil pressure was fine and CHT and EGT temps indicated the motor getting warmer. As I tried to apply a little throttle, the engine sputtered even more! We were dumbfounded. Dave (an A&P) and I looked at each other inquisitively. The light bulb then lit up above Dave's head. "Why don't you try the carb heat?", he said. I applied carb heat and almost immediately the engine came to life. Duh, the air/fuel mixture wasn't getting enough air as there was icing in or near the carburetor. We performed a thorough engine run-up and departed just in time. Dave saved the day!

The flight home was beautiful as the sun dipped behind the horizon highlighting the mountains to the east and the impending storm to the west. But I was deep in thought with the lessons I had learned on this adventure. I should better prepare for cold weather adventures. Living in the relatively dry and warm south-west has spoiled me. I need to invest in a block or oil pan heater for the plane. At the very least, I should have followed my gut instinct to try and mitigate the cold with a simple light bulb in or near the cowling. Experience is the ultimate teacher...I was humbled.

Not to dwell on the negative, there were many positives. The awesome adventure that 52E allowed us to enjoy. The friendship that was forged. A new location for fly-fishing and skiing adventure. Heck, you could even argue that the lessons learned were a positive. I'm going to treat them that way.

Until next time. Enjoy the pics!