Hi welcome back to Zack of all trades I'm Zack. Wanna go flying?
First things first; I'm not a flight instructor
I've never been a flight instructor
I don't even play a flight instructor on TV
Or YouTube for that matter
As such, nothing in this video should be taken as instructional
Real quick-like I want to answer some of the questions that people will
invariably have when you show them an airplane.
This airplane is a 1947 Stinson 108-1
It's got a PZL Franklin 220 horsepower engine in it, which means it goes 300 miles an hour
No
it doesn't
it's very slow in fact it goes about 110 miles an hour
but because of the big engine
it doesn't need very much distance to take off
gross weight on this airplane is 2230 pounds
this particular one weighs in empty at I believe 1450
all that said, I have about a 775 pound useful load on this airplane
so that's got to be split up between fuel and people and whatever
I'm gonna bring you along with me we're gonna go through pre-flight and then we're gonna
go take this thing flying.
let's go
the first thing I do when I get to the plane
is take off the pitot cover
hang the keys up here on the trim wheel that way I can
see them from anywhere around the airplane well almost I can't see it from
the back
next I'll set the parking brake
which fortunately, I can do by hand
I'm gonna extend the flaps then I'm gonna turn on
the master switch I'm gonna do a couple of things when I turn on the master switch
first off when I turn it on I'm gonna look to see which one of my fuel
gauges shows the most full that's the tank I'm gonna use and I'm also gonna
turn on my pitot heat and my landing light my strobe and nav lights stay on all the time
here we go
battery's on
hmmm looks like I've got more gas on the left-hand side
so I'll make sure that my selector is on left
pitot heat,
landing light
lights work
pitot's warm
Now I'll come shut those off
check the rest of my lights
red light's red
strobe's strobin'
marker lights markin' and the
aaand the green light's green
I'm gonna get in on this side
shut off the master
I said shut off the master
since I'm standing right here
I'll go ahead, sample the fuel
out of the right side
make sure there's no water or schmutz in my fuel
looks good on the right side
and then again in the realm
of "since I'm over here" we're just gonna start checking things out
checking the flap hinge fastener
fastener
push rod fastener
fastener
fastener
aileron
push rod
also gonna just, grab the wing tip and wiggle the airplane
sometimes crazy things show up crazy ways and I'm gonna back way up count my
now I'm gonna back way up
count my vortex generators, there should be 34 of them
if there are any more than 5 missing
the aircraft is un-airworthy
they are all there
okay
next I'm gonna untie it
I don't remember what this knot's called it's called a storm knot or a
hurricane knot or something to that effect and they say that it tightens on
itself as the as the airplane rocks and Wiggles as in in a windstorm so
that's the one that I use
why do I use a rope instead of a chain?
well maybe someday we'll talk about that
gonna check my brake make sure that there's no leakage going on
everything's good and snug
the bolt that holds on the wheel is there
perfect
next move is to climb up on the tire here
and
check my fuel level
I have this specially calibrated fuel stick
it's like a straw, just put your finger over the end to the top of it
pull it up it looks like I'm at 1 and a half
which, I've already checked this out one and a half coincides with about 16 gallons on this side
next I'm into the cowl
engine compartment
several things I'm gonna check in here
let's see
I'm gonna check the oil
I am at six and a quarter
I'm gonna check to make sure my oil cap is on that makes a big mess if it's not
check the alternator belt, not too tight but not loose
check the magneto P-leads make sure that they're attached, cuz those are what shut the engine off
prevent it from firing so when you turn off the key that's what it's doing I'm
also gonna check this heat shield here this was added somewhat recently I wanna
make sure that it's not loosening up any the oil drain plug make sure that it's
still safety wired so that it can't vibrate loose and drain all my oil in
flight and I'm also gonna look in between the cylinders and just in the
general area make sure that there's no birdie nest because birdies like to build nests
in places like this
next I'm gonna go look over my prop which is in pretty sorry shape it's
going real soon up to the prop shop to get refinished and rebalanced
you want to listen for a ring when you tap it if it's not... if there's a crack in the prop it won't ring like that
no bird's nest
Ok
get in over here
checking that same heat shield
Checking the safety wire on my oil filter
checking my oil cooler door, flap, thing
another good look-around
there's not quite as much stuff to look at on this side
now's when my sequence is gonna get a little bit funny for fuel sampling I was taught that you
always want to sample highest to lowest in that order so that if there's any
crud in your fuel system you'll catch it at the highest possible level for
example if I went first to the lowest point and was draining fuel there then
whatever crud that I get has got to come through all the rest of the fuel system
and could potentially if there's more than you know say there's two pieces of
crud one piece of crud could potentially get hung up somewhere in the fuel system
so you want to catch it so I was instructed you want to catch it as high
as possible so I'm gonna go ahead and check the left side fuel tank then I'm
gonna go back to the gascolator
all right now out of the gascolator and so somebody's probably gonna ask
why am I not dumping it out after every after every tank so the thing about that is is
if you check tank the first tank whatever that is and there's no crud in
there then you check the second tank and now in there there's crud
Where did it come from?
it came from the second tank or you go
right left and then you check the center you check the gascolator and there's
crud in there at the last time you can pretty well see where it came from
now I'll check the level on the left
2
which coincides with about 17 and a half gallons
we'll count 34 vortex generators
yep
untie this side
check all the same stuff
now when we come back to the tail let me give it a wiggle just like I did on the other side
check these fasteners
I'm going to count 16 vortex generators..
yep
check faster there
check the fastener there
now I'll get underneath
I'm going to check for a pin in that fastener
check for a pin in that fastener
while I'm here I'm going to check that fastener exists that fastener and that fastener
now go to the other side and check all the same stuff
now I'm going to give my tail wheel a wobble make sure that my spring is still nice and tight
don't want to have that thing come loose, it's bad news I'll go ahead and untie it here
count VG's, then we'll look at the back of that wing
and now we're complete
since I've set the parking brake I can pull the chocks
I have specially calibrated chocks
that fit just perfectly so if one of my tires starts getting low my chocks get tight in there
oh I almost forgot I've got to clean the windshield
what do we use to clean the windshield? TADAA lemon pledge. Lemon pledge is the stuff
for plexiglass windshields there's something very important to remember
when you're cleaning an airplane windshield is to pretend that you're a
molecule of air and only wipe that way don't go around in circles only wipe
that direction that way if it starts getting scratched up it'll be you can
see through it if you go round and round in circles then you're going to obscure
your view as the window starts deteriorating
Is this thing on?
alright I'm not entirely sure how well this is gonna work out the
audio part I'm gonna stick my little lapel mic inside of my headset here once
I get the plane going so hopefully it'll work out well and you guys can hear me
but first things first I want to get this thing fired up and warming up
before I go fooling with anything else seatbelts or anything else so here's the key
because it hasn't started for a couple of weeks I'm gonna give it three shots of prime
that's in (primer)
that's cracked (throttle)
CLEAR PROP!
we've got oil pressure
alright the avionics are on
as evidenced by the fact you can hear me
247
alright I'm going to go ahead and lean it out a bit just because that's what this airplane likes
I really hope that this audio is good
it sounds pretty good in my head
shoulder harnesses
I'll lower that idle a little bit
alright, yep you can see out the window
that's pretty cool
make sure that my shoulder harnesses are
tight enough
that they'll keep my face out of the panel
yet loose enough that I can reach the flap handle
that's one of those fun things about the ol' Stinson
ok
I'm going to let this critter warm up
while I'm at it, I'm going to write down my
before takeoff fuel load
Wow
the 5th was the last time that I flew
today's the 22nd
alright everything's untied
the wings are untied
the tail's untied
the brakes are now released
oh yeah the brakes feel good
we're just gonna take a nice long taxi
while I'm at it, I'm going to reset my trim
center it out
_____traffic, yellow Stinson's crossing midfield, south to north,_____
_____traffic, yellow Stinson's clear of the active_____
alright so while I'm taxiing I'm gonna go ahead and check my flight contols
if I turn the yoke to the left, the left aileron should go up
turn to the right, the right aileron should go up
pull it back, the elevator goes up, push it forward elevator goes down
I can't really see my rudder
so I'm gonna trust that when I push it left it goes left right it goes right
that means the flight controls are properly rigged
nobody has snuck in and re-rigged my flight controls while I wasn't watchin'
how you guys doin'? can you see?
looks like you can
hope you're recording, yeah you're recording. that's neat
ok here we are at the runup area
we're gonna go with our acronym of C.I.G.A.R.
Controls are checked
Instruments both flight instruments and engine instruments are checked
Gas- I've got 17 1/2 on the lefthand side, I got the selector to the left
Attitude- my trim is set, my attitude is good
and Runup is next so I'm gonna go full rich
actually you know what I'm gonna pull up a little bit further here
alright full rich on the mixture
bring the yoke back
gonna bring it up
cycle the prop
there's 3 cycles
let's see if the carb heat works
it does
and now mag check
both mags workin
little bit more of a drop on the right than the left
but it's acceptable
now my oil temperature is up in the green band
first notch of flaps
alright so we're gonna climb out at 84
anything happens before 500 feet
well that's uh 750, anything happens before 750, I'm gonna go straight ahead
after 750, I will plan to come back
_____traffic, yellow Stinson's taking 22 for left closed traffic,_____
first notch of flaps
you guys ready to go?
tail's up
will she fly?
heck yeah she'll fly
drop the smack back down to about 2200(rpm)
there's about 850' in altitude, ahh a little less
_____traffic, yellow Stinson's turning left crosswind for 22,_____
awww she feels happy today! man oh man does she
_____traffic, yellow Stinson is left downwind over the golf course 22,_____
alright I'm abeam the numbers
gonna pull on the flaps
at about my 45
carb heat
throttle reduction to about 16, 17
_____traffic, yellow Stinson's turning left base for 22,_____
alright what's my wind doin?
ohh it's a pretty fair amount
_____traffic, yellow Stinson's turning final 22,_____
shooting for 74 (mph)
goin around
inside the wihite arc, here comes the flaps
power reduction
at the 45 carb heat
crank crank
_____traffic, yellow Stinson's turning left base for 22,_____
little high
or a lot high
_____traffic, yellow Stinson's turning final 22,_____
we have all the flaps
all about them flaps
let's see if our mag switch works
oh it seems to
lemme shut you off real quick, gotta get some gas
CLEAR PROP!
alright are you back?
gonna let this little 150 get out of the way
_____traffic, yellow Stinson is crossing north ramp to south, 22,_____
alright so I briefly did it
a little bit ago just before I shut you off
I'm gonna do this check real quick to make sure that my magneto off switch works
with the engine running, I'm gonna go ahead and just momentarily
switch it to off, you should hear a hesitation
there we go, I have confirmed now that it works
ahhh there's me parking spot
so you always want to shut off the avionics before you shut off the airplane
sooo
here we go
and that my friends, is a nice little turkey day stroll. Thanks for coming along
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