Kenny Keller provides a first-person update on an aircraft trip focused on extensive maintenance and a weather-driven decision to delay departure. He describes rotor-system disassembly and reassembly, blade tracking using a device called the Chadwick, ground run-ups, test flights (including autogyro/autos), and five hours of adjustments that produced a smooth-running aircraft. After completing maintenance and fueling, a flight service briefing reported icing and IFR along the route, leading Keller and his team to decide to stay overnight rather than fly VFR.
Chapters
All right, little update on our trip. We got here this morning, 8 o'. Clock. Mechanic spent a good hour explaining everything that he's done. He had the whole rotor system apart, among some other things that he did. So he did a lot of maintenance for this year with the annual, not just annual, but a whole bunch of updates to the aircraft. So we spent plenty of time talking. They put the blades back on. I did a good pre flight, took it out, did a couple run ups on the ground, and they put the unit they call the Chadwick on it to track the blades. You start it up, hover it, do some measurements and they chart some stuff and then they get up there and make adjustments on the rotor system. So we took our time. I didn't worry about weather. I'm just like, let's just get through the maintenance. We spent about five hours just testing everything, fine tuning the rotor system, test flying it autos. It's running great, super smooth. The tracking came out great. And then I looked at weather and it's just, I knew when I was out in the pattern flying it wasn't looking good. But I thought, I'm not even going to look at weather, so I'm not going to pressure myself. Let's get through the maintenance, what we got to do because we all want to go home, right? And we got everything ready to go, got it fueled up, call flight service. And right off the bat he's like, vfr not recommended. What is it you're doing? And I told him again, he goes, well, you got icing along the route and you got IFR along the route, what else you need to know? And I said, that's enough. And I hung up the phone, talked to everybody involved and like, well, we're gonna leave it, sit in the hangar, gonna stay one more night and try again in the morning. And I even start second guessing myself, you know, looking at the weather again and I'm like, stop it. Once you make the decision, you're done, you're done. Go find a restaurant, go find a hotel, chill out, try it again the next day. So that's day two. We left last night. We did a little video when we wanted to leave and just thought we'd fill you in. Say you just can't take too much time when you're getting ready to go and you gotta be able to make that decision that the weather sucks and ain't goin. So we'll be back tomorrow, see what happens next.
