Piper J3
Well Known Member
I may be joining the “Sinker Club” for 2nd time. Today I did several TO/Landing to full stop at a remote airport and on last TO had horrible stumble/vibration at about 500 AGL before turning crosswind. My first thought was I lost a tip of one propellor blade. I’m guessing power loss of about 10-20% - enough power loss to eliminate climb. I pulled throttle back to see if vibration would get better and it got a little better but not total solution. I checked both ignitions and they were working equally well. So, I keep power reduced and turned 180 degrees and landed on runway in opposite direction. Yeah, I know – don’t do that. Engine ran and tested well on the ground, so I did a flight and stayed in traffic pattern, and once satisfied everything OK, I flew 30nm back to home airport. While all this was happening, I never experience fuel smell. I will weigh floats tomorrow and thinking about bumming Marvel Schebler floats from friend who is waiting to do installation in his own RV-12.
Running fresh 93E10 with 75F OAT, so possibility of Vapor Lock? Also, fuel purchased today may still be Winter Vapor Pressure...
A couple questions:
• Is this normal "sinking float" failure mode that must folks are seeing?
• Is everybody happy with the newest Marvel Schebler Floats MS80-430?
Thanks for listening…
Running fresh 93E10 with 75F OAT, so possibility of Vapor Lock? Also, fuel purchased today may still be Winter Vapor Pressure...
A couple questions:
• Is this normal "sinking float" failure mode that must folks are seeing?
• Is everybody happy with the newest Marvel Schebler Floats MS80-430?
Thanks for listening…