OT stranded family in Pecos, TX needs A&P

flyeyes · #1 06-15-2006, 11:36 PM

Hi All.

This is way off topic, but I thought perhaps someone on the board is an A&P who might be able to help someone off the Cirrus board who is stuck in Pecos with an apparent bad starter (It would be a Continental IO-550-N)

Clipped post from the Cirrus board:

Quote:

Yikes! My name is Chad Lester, and I'm stranded in KPEQ (Pecos, Tx) with my wife Drea and our 8 month old son.

We stopped here for fuel on our way to Mobile, Alabama and our starter failed without warning. There is no mechanic on this field, but after talking to a mechanic at Cirrus, we're 99% sure it's the solenoid in the starter. He gave us an authorization to have a new one shipped overnight to us at our address under warrenty, but we didn't get this authorization until after the Cirrus parts department was closed.

We think the nearest Cirrus Service Center is at KABI. But by the time we figured that out, they were closed. We're hoping that some nearby service center might have a spare starter and a mechanic willing to travel here to install it.

If we can't get it fixed before the weekend, we'll probably just take a commercial flight out of here and come back to fix it next week. But honestly, I'm not sure how we're going to get out of Pecos yet. There don't seem to be any car rental companies here. The nice lady at the FBO loaned us her car so we could get dinner and get to a Hotel but driving 90 miles to the nearest commercial airport (Midland-Odessa) may be too much.

At this point we don't know what to do. I guess we'll be calling nearby service centers in the morning, but if anyone is out there who might be willing to help us out with a ride, please let me know.

Feel free to email me! chad.lester@gmail.com, or just give me a call on my cellphone: 415-430-7335.

pierre smith · #2 06-16-2006, 06:18 AM

Seriously,
We had many Agwagons and 'Trucks here when my boss was an Ag dealer for Cessna and we propped many IO-520s by hand. I was younger and stronger then but they start a lot easier cold than hot. Prime the engine liberally and prop it. You may have to find an old-timer to teach the technique, but I've seen a couple of P@W 1340's hand-propped on a bet too! The R-985 450 HP engines are even easier,

flyeyes · #3 06-16-2006, 12:07 PM

Airplane apparently started normally this morning after resting (and cooling) overnight. Probably a starter or contactor on it's way to it's eternal reward.

Pierre--

Thanks for the suggestion, but the sense I got from this guy was that it would have been way beyond his experience/capabilities.

I have hand propped IO-520s (and 470s and 360s FWIW) in the past, but the 3-bladed prop on the Cirrus makes me nervous. It's certainly not the airplane to try to figure the technique out on...

James Freeman