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Kim. 1. Could the very low battery do all of this? IMHO Yes. A dead battery is a big drain on an electrical system. The charge of the generator starts around 1200 rpm - did you notice how much the charging rate was at the AMP-meter ? 2. Even if the battery was very, very low, once it ran awhile wouldn't the radios work just fine? NO The generator is producing energy from 1200 rpm on. If the battery is dead , it'll drain all energy. 3. Any thoughts to why the breaker was off? A short while working on the plane , someone did a precaution and forgot about it. It also might have happened on the flight to your airport and the battery was already emptied on landing. Please note the aircraft engine uses it's own electrical devices to generate power for the ignition. (Magnetos) Unlike cars where the electrical system is feeding the ignition as well and a good running engine might be seen as an indicator for a healthy electrical system, in our aircraft that's not the case. 5. My instructor turn off the fuel shut-off under the ignition switch. It continued to run and run and.... He finally used the mags to shut the engine down. He mentioned he never does this in other craft. He usually runs the fuel out and it quits. He was not comfortable shutting it off like this What did we do wrong? Question here is whether your instructor did turn off the right valve. The ignition switches are placed anywhere on dashboards. If you say under the switch is a fuel shut-off, that makes me wonder. Locate and identify positively the header tank valve. However I rarely shut off the Ercoupe that way. I spoke to my mechanic about it and he said that it is totally fine to just switch off the engine (like you do in your car) on aircraft without mixture control. He is an old guy and has experience. I always close the header tank valve though. A dripping carburetor can empty you of a few gallons of fuel over a week. No need to loose that. It also floods the carburetor and renders any previous attempts of leaning the engine out while shutting down useless . Tell your instructor that an Ercoupe is a special bird and that it is normally just shut off by the switch. If he has problems with that, get rid of him because he will also have no understanding of other Ercoupe specifics like the two control , crabbed landings etc. Your Ercoupe is no Cessna. Tell him this. Hartmut ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim Blackseth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ctech" <[email protected]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 4:14 AM Subject: [COUPERS-TECH] Kim Blackseth's First Flight Lesson > ----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- > > > As some of you know, after making some minor modifications to my > Ercoupe to make it work for my disability, today was to be my first > flight lesson. I never got off the ground and have some questions. > > The plane was flown to me by it's former owner and parked in early > October. It ran great. We spent 6-8 weeks preparing it for me. New > throttle handle, trim tab handle seat back modification, new PTT > switch, etc. We never started it. > > Today we tried to start it and it would not turn over. I tried my > new Black & Decker Battery device we discussed on this list a week or > so ago. I had a sneaking suspicion it might have a low battery after > sitting for a few weeks, so after the recommendation on the list, I > bought one. I did nothing. After poking around a bit, I tried a > traditional jump and it started right up. > > We let it run 10 minutes or so and noticed the alternator circuit > breaker was off. We re-set it. At this point we noticed radio > issues. We could hear the tower, but not transmit. If we revved the > hell out of it (figuratively) we could weakly transmit, but ground > could not understand us well enough to proceed. > > For obvious reasons we aborted and I'll have FSS Service center take > a look tomorrow. My questions are: > > 1. Could the very low battery do all of this? > 2. Even if the battery was very, very low, once it ran awhile > wouldn't the radios work just fine? > 3. Any thoughts to why the breaker was off? > > 4. I noticed the "primer" in the cockpit leaked a bit when using it. > Is this just a gasket or O ring? > 5. My instructor turn off the fuel shut-off under the ignition > switch. It continued to run and run and.... He finally used the mags > to shut the engine down. He mentioned he never does this in other > craft. He usually runs the fuel out and it quits. He was not > comfortable shutting it off like this What did we do wrong? > > Continuing to learn... > > Kim Blackseth > N2332H > ============================================================================ == > To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm > > > > ============================================================================== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm
