Gryphon's Aeire

Today the plan was to fly to Terre Haute, IN and do touch and gos at 3 airports around Terre Haute. It didn't work out that way.

Here is the Radio information for my flight.

Weather Brief

I called flight service and got my VFR flight briefing.

I was going to fly to Indiana and get pictures at 3 airports, 0I2, 1I7, and 3I3. I have been to all of these airports before, but I don't have any pictures.

Today there are some high clouds but no forecast of rain or snow so I figured I would head east.

I got to the airport and there was only 1 plane on the ramp.

The lineman was in the office and said he would pull the plane out.

We talked about it being right around the temp when they had to install the cold weather cowlings.

I used my radio and the ATIS was reporting with temp as -7. That is one degree below where the cowlings are needed.

The lineman headed out to the hangar to install them.

I finished up with the paperwork and went out to the hangar to start my pre-flight.

Everything was good.

The lineman pulled the plane out and I told him I needed fuel. He asked if I needed or wanted fuel.

I said it looked like the one take was about half and the other about 2/3rds.

He said ok and headed for the fuel truck. It took a few tries for him to get it started.

When he actually fueled the plane, it took 7.5 in one tank and only 5.2 in the other. It wasn't as low as I thought or as it looked.

That's ok. I was planning on about a 4 hour flight so I needed the fuel anyway. I didn't want to have to stop on the way back.

I finished up my pre-flight checks and got the current weather

I entered my planned flight plan into the GPS.

The auto pilot had been removed for repair so I was going to have to fly by hand so I planned on using the GPS for tracking.

I called Ground.

I said I was at Langa, with information Golf, ready to taxi for departure to the East.

Ground cleared me to 35, via Bravo.

I acknowledged and pulled out.

I taxied down to the runup area and did my final checks.

When I turned on my taxi/nav/Landing lights, the VOLTs light on the annunciator panel lit up.

I checked the magnetos and the volts light was still on.

The Amps meter was showing a negative 15-20.

The plane will fly without power, but the radio and flaps wouldn't work.

Right now, I had power, I didn't want to risk running out of power.

After a short wait, I decided I wasn't going to risk it and called Ground.

I said I was at 35, but needed to taxi back and the electrical system wasn't working properly.

He cleared me back to Langa. I acknowledged, taxiing back via Bravo.

I turned about and headed back to Langa.

I pulled in, parked, and shut down.

I cleared out my stuff, tied the plane down and headed inside.

I told the person at the desk about the power problem and she checked to see if there was another plane available.

158RA was available, but I would need to be back by 13:30. I didn't think I could make it leaving late and with my planned flight.

I told her that was ok, I would just reschedule for a different day.

I wrote up the problem and turned in the tach sheet and the book.

She told me they wouldn't bill me for the 0.2 on the Hobbs. I thanked her and headed home.

Not a very productive day, but a safe one.