New Engine - First Flight
What is a Break-in Flight?
It had been 5 1/2 weeks from the last time I flew, by far the longest stretch since my first flight May 28th, 2016. I had more than the normal amount of nerves as I prepped for the flight, not only because of my downtime but also an unproven engine. With over 2,300 hours on the old engine, 900+ that I put on it, it was like an old reliable friend. The new engine? It had yet to prove itself.
In a nutshell, the goal of the engine break-in is to run the engine hard, high manifold pressure, without overheating the cylinders. Minimizing ground and low power operations is important to reduce the chance of glazing.
A few days before finishing up my mechanic put the plane back in the hangar and asked if I had time to look over the engine for anything they might have missed. He doesn’t normally do that but he also knows that I’m very familiar with the plane and just wanted an extra set of eyes. I was also glad to give it a good inspection before the cowling was back on.
The first flight is 30 minutes of edge of the seat flying. Staying close to the airport, full power, watching the engine monitor for anything that may hint of a problem, listening to the sound of the engine for any changes, and your backside for anything that feels different.
Pre-Flight and Run-Up
Arriving at the hangar I pulled the cheeks off the cowl and looked over everything, checking the travel of the control cables, looking for any loose fittings, nuts, etc. I checked to ensure that there was torque seal on everything so I would be able to see if any nuts came loose during the flight on the post flight inspection.
Satisfied that all looked correct, I pulled the plane out, closed up the hangar, and climbed inside. It was good to be sitting in the plane again. Before starting the engine I listened to the ATIS for the weather and went through all the pre-takeoff checklists to minimize the time running on the ground. Then I started it up.
The new lightweight starter spun the prop quickly and it caught on the third blade. I was back in my plane with the engine running and a smile.
Fullerton’s airspace ends at 2,499′ because the northwest corner sits under the 2,500′ shelf of LAX’s airspace. I planned to ask tower if I could climb to 2,700′ and circle over the airport, staying on frequency just incase something went wrong I would be able to tell him immediately and glide back to the runway. It wasn’t quite what he would approve.
After taxiing down and a quick mag check and scan of the engine gages I called up Ground.
Me: “Fullerton Ground, Mooney 1015Echo, southeast runup with Delta, taxi two-four and this is gonna be the first flight on a new engine break-in. Like to if I can climb on the downwind up to twenty-seven hundred and then circle over the airport if that’s ok.”
Ground: “Mooney 1017Echo, if I got that correctly I can give you up to two thousand, maybe twenty-four hundred but if you want to go higher than that you can talk to SoCal, what would you like to do?”
I hadn’t factored into my plans that once I climbed above his airspace he wasn’t going to work me anymore. In that space above him I can fly around without talking to SoCal so thought I could just stay with him on the radio, but he had other plans. Wanting to stay in contact with him in the event of an emergency instead of going from SoCal back to him I opted for lower and staying on frequency.
Me: “I can go up to twenty-four hundred if that works for you, it’s 15Echo.”
Ground: “Mooney 15Echo you have Delta in the southeast runup, runway two-four taxi via Alpha.”
Me: “Two-four via Alpha, 15Echo.”
The Flight
I began the taxi to the runway telling myself out loud to “be super-super-super ready to pull the power.” Saying I was spring loaded to reject the takeoff is an understatement. Yes, I was nervous.
Me: “Fullerton Tower, Mooney 1015Echo holding short two-four at Alpha.”
Tower: “Mooney 1015Echo, Fullerton Tower, turn right turn, it’ll be right turns always, you’ll always be north of the runway within the Delta airspace. Right turn after the antenna, wind 210 at 3, runway two-four cleared for takeoff.”
Me: “Right turn after the antenna, right turns only north of the runway and stay inside the Delta, 15Echo.”
I lined up and pushed the throttle forward, watching to ensure the oil pressure came up and the airspeed was alive. The engine felt good. It was smooth and with just myself in the plane it jumped off the runway. I pulled the gear up, retracted the flaps, and continued the climb upwind until I passed the 679′ KFI antenna before rolling into a right turn while watching outside with constant glances at the engine monitor.
Heading northeast along the northern border of the airspace I turned on the autopilot to hold altitude and heading. I initially thought I could use the autopilot the whole time so that I would be able to give more attention to the engine monitor, but as I started my turn to reverse course I found that wasn’t going to work. Running full power with a true airspeed of 178mph the standard rate turn of the autopilot would put me into the final approach course.
I kicked off the autopilot and rolled into a steeper turn, rolling out on the opposite heading and then turned it back on for the return leg to the southwest. I continued that pattern around the racetrack five more times with tower calling out traffic before announcing on the final turn that I was inbound to land.
Me: “Fullerton Tower, Mooney 1015Echo, turning inbound like to come back and land this time.”
Tower: “Mooney 15Echo, do you have the airport in sight?”
I was only 5 1/2 miles out, but even though the airport was reporting 10 miles visibility it was a good question as I was flying into the haze and a setting sun. Leaning forward and looking ahead to my right I replied, “Affirmative, 15Echo.”
Tower: “Mooney 15Echo, enter a right base runway two-four, number one, winds two-five-zero at eight, altimeter two-niner-eight-eight, runway two-four cleared to land.”
Me: “Right base two-four, two-four cleared to land, 15Echo.”
Now it was time to see how well I could land after 5 1/2 weeks. I talked my way down, calling out the airspeed as I slowed over the fence, and settled down for one of my better landings. Exiting the runway I thanks tower for his help and taxied back to my hangar.
With the plane tucked away I pulled the cheeks off the cowling again to look for anything that might have come loose or started leaking during the flight. None of the torque seal on the nuts and bolts had been broken and the hoses all looked good. I headed home after 31 minutes of flying with a plan to return the next evening after work.
Second Break-In Flight
Pre-Flight
After work I drove back to the airport to hopefully make the second break-in flight. I say hopefully, because until I looked over the engine I didn’t know if I would be flying or waiting for my mechanic to fix something. When I left the plane the day before it was running well and everything looked good after shut down.
I pushed the hangar doors open so the breeze could come in and get rid of some of the hot stale air from the day, then I grabbed my flashlight and started looking over the engine. As expected all the torque seal was in place, not much chance of it moving while the plane is just sitting in the hangar. I looked closely at all the hoses and cables and found no leaks and nothing that appeared to be loose. Having looked over the engine I turned my attention to the pre-flight of the rest of the plane and then pulled it out of the hangar.
Taxi and Take Off
Just like the evening before I listened to the ATIS for the weather and went through all the pre-flight checklists except the engine run-up checklist prior to starting the engine. It fired right up and I made the short taxi to the run-up area for a quick mag check before calling up Ground.
It was the same controller as the previous day so I asked for 2,400′ north of the airport thinking he would give me the same instructions. I was almost right in my assumption.
Me: “Fullerton Ground, Mooney 1015Echo, southeast runup with Romeo, and if we can would like to make laps on the north side of the airport again.
Ground: “Mooney 1015Echo, Fullerton Ground, runway two-four taxi via Alpha, winds one-seven-zero at five, altimeter two-niner-niner-three.”
Me: “Two-four via Alpha, 15Echo.”
As I rolled up to the hold short line I called up Tower.
Me: “Fullerton Tower, Mooney 1015Echo holding short two-four at Alpha.”
Tower: “Mooney 1015Echo, Fullerton Tower, right turns north of the airport approved, runway two-four cleared for takeoff.”
Me: “Right turns north of the airport approved, two-four cleared for takeoff, do you want me at two thousand four hundred again?”
Tower: “Two thousand is ideal, if you need two thousand four hundred that’s also approved Mooney 15Echo.”
Me: “I can do two thousand, 15Echo.”
That would put me out of glide range at the eastern end of the circuit but barring a catastrophic engine failure I should still have enough time to limp back to the airport.
I was still a little more nervous and queued up than normal as I pushed the throttle in, ready to pull power if anything looked, sounded, or felt wrong. Just like the previous (and every other flight) I confirmed oil pressure and airspeed as the take off roll began. The plane lifted off well before my abort point of taxiway Charlie and I was flying again.
A Long Flight to Nowhere
The second flight of the break-in is supposed to be about two hours long, again staying in the vicinity of the airport. I lost track but I think it was about 17 laps before I was ready to turn inbound for landing.
Me: “Fullerton Tower, Mooney 1015Echo turning inbound, I have Tango, like to come back and land.
Tower: Mooney 15Echo, enter right base runway two-four, number one, wind one-eight-zero at four, runway two-four cleared to land.
Me: “Right base two-four, two-four cleared to land, 15Echo.”
As I turned final tower came back with what was a, “Hey, just looking out for you” radio call. He knew I had just been flying in circles for almost an hour and didn’t want me to miss putting out my gear.
Tower: “Mooney 15Echo, just a heads up, we almost always look for gear but it’s exceptionally difficult on a Mooney and especially at night. Just a heads up. I’ll continue to look, I’m sure you’ll drop it anyway.”
I’ve got over 900 hours and almost 800 landings in my Mooney and haven’t forgotten the gear yet. But, I’m as capable of forgetting when distracted or out of my routine as anyone else and appreciated the heads up. Still indicating over 150mph I had a ways to go before gear extension speed.
Me: “Yea, I gotta slow down about another 30 before I can drop it, thanks.”
After putting the plane away in the hangar I pulled the cowling cheeks to look over the engine. It looked good and I headed home with the plan to look for leaks again before the next flight.
When I took a look at the Flight Aware after I got home I saw that I had flown 275 miles, never more than 7 miles from the airport. I could have gone almost all the way to Mesa-Gateway Airport (KIWA) in AZ to visit my parents, I just never left Fullerton’s little box of airspace.
Third Flight with Company
Once the first couple flights are done, assuming no issues have been found and the engine is running well, it’s time to stretch out the flights. That is keeping in mind the need to still run high power settings, which means staying below around 5,000′ if possible. For me, flying out of the LA Basin, it means that it’s time to put on the life preserver and going cruising along the coast at 1,000′.
My son and his fiancée were coming down to visit and wanted to go for a flight. I told him that if I could get in the two flights and the engine was running without issues that I would take them. Two days after flight number two, we headed to the hangar where again I made a thorough inspection of the engine. Finding all was in order we donned life jackets and climbed in the plane.
She’s a Dodgers fan, proving that nobody is perfect, and so the plan was to fly past Dodgers Stadium and then continue west out to Point Dume before reversing course, overflying LAX through the Special Flight Rules airspace, and then Rancho Palos Verdes and the Long Beach Harbor. All total it should be about a one hour flight.
I've Never Had That Happen Before
In the event of a water ditching I had gone through a briefing of how the life preservers worked, not to activate them inside the plane, that the plane would float for a bit so there wouldn’t be a huge rush to get out, etc. After climbing inside I briefed them both on the seat belts, the order of exit (which should be obvious but you never want to assume), and her job of opening the door prior to landing if we were landing somewhere besides the runway.
“Don’t worry, if that’s happening I will remind you to open the door” I said.
After all the necessary checklists and run-up were performed we were taking off and turning northwest toward Los Angeles and Dodgers Stadium. I had put my son in the backseat and his fiancée in the right seat so she could fly later. That is when my son said, “Uh, dad, there’s fuel coming out of the right cap.”
I leaned over to where I could see the fuel cap and sure enough, there was a small steady stream of fuel getting sucked out by the slipstream and running to the trailing edge of the wing.
“I have never had that happen before” I said, and then called up the Tower.
Me: “Fullerton Tower, Mooney 1015Echo, we have a fuel cap that isn’t seated right and is leaking fuel, we need to come back and land.”
Tower:” Mooney 1015Echo, make right traffic runway two-four.”
We came around, landed, and I asked to taxi to transient. There was no reason to go all the way back to the hangar. I shut the engine down, she climbed out so I could get out and my son stayed in the back seat. I removed the fuel cap, examined the seal which didn’t have any damage, and put the cap back on making sure it was straight and seated well.
LA Basin Tour
After that short detour we were again climbing out to the northwest. For a minute there was just a little fuel from the cap but it stopped and we continued the flight. I flew the loop around Dodger Stadium and then handed the controls off to her and talked her through the rest of the flight.
She did an excellent job, taking us around Los Angeles, past Pacific Palisades and Malibu out to Point Dume and back to Santa Monica before heading southeast over LAX. Once past LAX we began a descent over Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes Estates before turning east at Point Vicente and flying past Point Fermin and the Long Beach Harbor. It wasn’t until we were turning northeast to transit Los Alamitos Army Airfield that I took the controls back for the last bit of the flight. It was a great way to put another hour on the engine.
Flight Four - OC Coast to San Diego
Monday after work I slogged through the traffic from Irvine to Fullerton. I wanted to fly to Phoenix that weekend to see my parents and needed to get in some more hours before the trip. My goal was to get to 10 hours, or close to 10 hours to do the first oil change before logging another four hours on that flight.
Typically when I fly the coast it is slower at a low power setting. I did not realize first how fast the plane is at 1,000′ flying full out, and second how far I could go in two hours. I departed Fullerton and headed to the coast flying over Los Alamitos AAF. Reaching the shore I turned right to fly past Long Beach Harbor and out to Point Vicente before reversing course and heading south towards San Diego.
It was hot so I anticipated clear skies the whole way, but passing Laguna Beach I had to climb above the marine layer ahead of me to continue on south bound. Legally I could have dropped down to 500′ and maintained necessary clearance, but that is a suckers bet. There’s no guarantee that the 1,200′ overcast wouldn’t drop down to fog right off the surface of the ocean, and 500′ doesn’t give much reaction time if the engine quits.
I climbed up to 2,700′ and cruised along admiring the way the clouds got hung up along the shoreline, the stretches of beach I could see through the breaks in the clouds, and the beauty of the slowly setting sun across the blanket of clouds and the ocean.
As I approached the Del Mar Racetrack they broke up enough for a beautiful view of the grounds and I made a turn back to the north. Wanting to log a little more time and catch more of the sunset I flew past Long Beach and San Pedro to Rancho Palos Verdes before transitioning through Los Alamitos airspace back to Fullerton.
Even with the detour at the end the flight only clocked in at 1:37 despite flying 268 miles. But what a beautiful flight it was!
Flight Five - Adding More Coastline
Racing a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction)
It was another slow crawl through California traffic back to the Fullerton airport on a Tuesday. I was hoping to fly a similar route as the night before, but in an effort to log a little more time I would first fly to Point Mugu.
There are basically two ways to get to from Fullerton without a Bravo Clearance. One is to climb up to 4,500′ and go over LAX through the Special Flight Rules Area. The second is to stay low under the Bravo and head past downtown Los Angeles.
I wanted to stay low so was hoping to take the second option. There was one potential hiccup in the plan, the Dodgers would be playing the Giants at home with a 7:10pm start time. After the tragic events of September 11, 2001 stadium TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions) were put into place.
For me to make my intended flight I had to be through the area of the TFR before 6:10pm when it went into effect. I was airborne at 5:54pm and heading northwest at full power, both to help with the engine break-in and to get past the TFR. I took a picture and video from my phone as zipped past at 165mph and exited the western border 6 minutes before it went active.
The rest of the flight was beautiful. I flew to Point Mugu before retracing my path east to Santa Monica and heading over LAX and then along the coastline down to Del Mar. On the return trip north I could see the marine layer moving in to Orange County and decided to cut inland flying north over Laguna Hills, Irvine Lake, and the 241 corridor. I sent my wife a text that I would be over the house in a few minutes and flew a quick figure eight overhead before continuing on to land at Fullerton.
I wanted to do the first oil change at 10 hours, so with a total of 7.6 hours on the tach and a 4 hour trip coming up to Arizona I went ahead with the oil change anyway. Sooner is better than later. Heading home after the flight and oil change I was feeling good about the upcoming trip, even if it would be hot staying down low, it would be worth it to see my parents.
