4 August 2020
I’ve been a follower of Bangernomics for as long as I can remember. The science that is to find a vehicle that does the job at the most reasonable price possible. And the more unusual and least fashionable, the better – a combination that usually goes hand in hand. Maybe old habits die hard, but when the winged obsession took hold, I applied the same rationale.
“It’s rare I call a halt, but I have now parked the aeroplane”
Aeroplanes are admittedly a bit different – but the rewards of Aviation Bangernomics are even bigger. Fly a Piper Cherokee, and then try anything made by Miles or de Havilland, and the point will be amply made. There are, let’s say, conditions of use I will admit, but since I’m not using it to commute, they are ones I’ll happily accept.
If there’s a problem with Bangernomics, it’s mainly psychological. You absolutely can’t worry about what people think, but you also have to remember the first motivation, which is not to spend too much.
So, let’s say I paid £500 for my motor, and after a month, the temperature gauge starts going up. Say £300 with Mr Fixit to attend to the head gasket and it’s still economical transport. Then the ECU starts playing up… Let’s say 200 quid on eBay, including the ignition barrel and the speedometer. It would still probably be worth it, but… this is definitely the time to say no. Stick it on eBay for spares or repairs and find another one…
That’s not so easy with aeroplanes… It had taken some time finding the ideal Jodel to carry my diesel conversion, but I also knew that it might be a while before that engine was ready.
This was autumn last year, so I reckoned I might as well do some flying rather than have a nice Jodel just sitting there. A couple of weeks to renew the Permit, give it a service and check over, and maybe attend to a couple of oil leaks on the Potez. I’ve flown plenty of hours behind a Potez and I like them. Spares are also plentiful because people are wary of them. Bangernomics y’see.
The Permit was straightforward, but I couldn’t find the oil leak, and there was already the conversion designed to fix exactly that problem. Maybe best pull the cylinders and take a look. I’d find out why there was no torque on the through bolts… Which turned out to be thanks to a large crack across the main bearing webs. So that’s the source of the leak. No matter, I had access to a container load of Potez bits, among which was an engine that had been removed because it was burning oil. I rang Barry and asked if that was the only problem. Barry said that it was and other than that, it ran fine. Was the oil pressure OK? Barry said it was. So, just a simple matter of removing the top end from Barry’s engine (which revealed all the broken piston rings, and a perfectly intact crankcase), removing the Jodel’s existing engine, and installing its cylinders on to Barry’s.
More than I’d planned to do, but doable nonetheless. I then found out that the ancillaries wouldn’t fit. The starter and alternator conversions were on different sides. So the electronic ignition, which should have been a bonus, wouldn’t go straight on.
Meanwhile, my diesel conversion was taking its time. Official scrutiny is never a ‘yes/no’ affair. It was at this point experience should have come to my rescue. I should have removed the engine which I had just fitted and made the rest ready to accept the diesel, whenever that arrived.
But spring had sprung, and I still had nothing to fly. And I’d painted all the cylinders and tidied all the wiring, and, and… Surely it couldn’t be that difficult? Surely I could take advantage of all the work I’d already done? I spent huge amounts of time making the ignition fit, only to find the sparks were retarded by about 20°, and only after I’d worked out that the firing order was different. More bracketry required, the essential parts of which remained totally inaccessible and required the flywheel and all the various conversions to be removed, I think six times…
The engine finally ran well enough, but why was the oil pressure so high? The gauge said over 160psi when cold, or enough to split the oil cooler. I rang Barry again. Now he came to think of it, his aircraft didn’t have a gauge, or a cooler. The light went out, so he remained blissfully unaware. It was just the engine’s appetite for W100.
It’s rare I call a halt, but I have now parked the aeroplane. The diesel installation is closer than it was, so there are better uses for my time. And the Permit application for my Messenger is at last with the LAA and summer is not yet over.
I won’t think of it as giving up, more like finally accepting it’s time to stop…
Working vintage aircraft and cars make Mark particularly happy.
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