The plan for today’s flight was to go to Branson (KBBG) and to come back. Branson is a controlled airport so with a tower and is located about 50.8 nautical miles from Bentonville. The flight should be straightforward and would involve getting some flight following and a transition to the tower. I’m a little anxious about the handling of the ground clearance once on the airport but it should be just fine. At least that was the plan...

Wake up time! Time to check the weather

I just woke up and, after the last few weeks experience, my first worry is to check the weather. I’m looking outside the window and it is grey-ish. What should have been a normal Sunday morning will end up going weirder by the hour... I’m going to my iPhone to do a quick check of the local weather. What I find was not expected: the wind is calm, temperature is 59F. I’m thinking ok, the ceiling is going to be low and I’m going to be grounded but no instead, the ceiling is at 25,000 feet! Odd. I’m getting to my computer to further qualify the forecast, check the forecast for the next 3 hours and there I get confirmation that everything is as planned: Quiet. No wind what so ever, a ceiling that would drop to 10,000 feet, which is more than enough for my minimums. When was the last time did that happen? Oh remember: NEVER! I’m finishing getting ready and head to the airport. I might be able to catch an instructor or two on the way and get their opinion on what is going on!

As I’m arriving at the airport, I can spot Michael’s car. Great! But I can not find any trace of him. Most likely already in flight. I’m heading to the flight school and meet the new Chief Flight Instructor talking to Taylor. I’m exposing my problem with the weather: what I see is not what I read and they confirm that the air is smooth, that I should have no problem. Just got the green light to go flight! Time to head for the plane and start preflying.

Preflight

Everything is starting as usual, the routine is reassuring and I’m already starting to think about my radio call to Razorback. I’m getting in the plane and start the engine check list. Mixture: full rich, Carburator heat: cold, Master switch: on… The checks are going through naturally and with a positive answer each and everytime. Time to start the engine… Prop clear, Ignition switch: start. The engine starts. I’m checking immediately the oil pressure, it’s good! I’m ready for the engine run up.  While I’m finishing going down the checklist, I can hear that the engine is making a different noise, as if it is accelerating. Not that much but checking the RPM, I can see an increase of about 100 RPMs. That's something new! Never really happened to me before! I’m checking the oil pressure and oil temp and see nothing alarming. The outside temperature is low so I’m thinking that the engine might be getting a little warmer and might had some ice in the carburetor. It’s unlikely but you never know. I’m applying some carb heat to check what is happening and I see a light drop. This means most likely it was not icing. If it was icing I’m expecting to see an increase of the RPMs… The engine is running smoothly now so I’m not getting to stuck up on that event.

I'm clearing my mind from that incident and revert into going through my checklist. Time to move to the next element: Engine Run up!

Engine Run Up

Next on the checklist is engine run up. I’m moving the airplane in a more suitable location. I’m thinking taking off from 36 today since the wind is calm and that Branson is more north than south from Bentonville. The weather is called enough that I should not be worried about aligning the plane with the wind. And there is no wind today so it makes things easy.

I’m in position. Engine at 17,000 rpm: Done! Mag check: Left done! Wait no. That was not right. I’m putting the key back in the start position. The engine almost quit on me! This is not as usual. I’m thinking that I have done something wrong. I’m verifying all my instruments, all the settings. Everything looks right. Let’s try again! I’m turning the key back to the L position and I’m loosing RPMs fast. Yep! There is definitely a problem with the plane. I’m turning the key to the Right position and the engine is struggling when passing through the L position. At that point I’m not sure what is going on. I’m thinking one of the two magnetos might have some issues but I’m not sure. What I know for sure is that I’m not taking off before someone is telling me that everything is ok. I’m getting on the radio and call Jim at the FBO. I can see him through the doors. Then I see someone else getting on the radio. It’s the Chief Flight Instructor. He is now telling me that he is coming to check the plane. A couple of manipulation in the plane and the sanction is here: Left magneto is dead. Plane is grounded until repaired. This should be done by Monday. Bummer! Yet another flight that I have to cancel! One might argue that with one magneto, the plane is still flyable. True! But the consequences can be a disaster. If you have only one magneto and it fails then you are loosing the engine immediately. While two magnetos are here for improved performance, it does also serve an important safety aspect.

Conclusion

This day was really strange, between the weather that did not look as usual, the engine issues during the checklist and finally the dead magneto. Oh well, everything is fine and the checklist kept me safe. This is for sure something that I will never forget and it reinforced my belief in going thoroughly through the checklist.

Knowing one of the magneto is dead, I think helps explaining what happened with the engine gaining some RPMs. I believe that the magneto was probably not completely dead or did not start properly immediately. I think it did fire up while the engine was already running. This would have increase the efficiency of the engine by allowing a better combustion, which should increase the RPMs of the engine. And this is exactly what happened! While doing the other procedures to verify the engine, the mag probably died for good, resulting to the mag check failure.

I have no plan for the moment to go back flying and I will have to see when I can get another flight. I might have to do it one evening. Next week end I have some guest and the flight planned is just to go around the lakes. As I'm heading back home, I can only feel a little disappointed to not have made that flight but I'm glad I was able to catch an issue with the plane before anything wrong could happen to me or two anyone following me in that plane.