No-Go x2

The latest in a string of setbacks, including the old standby - weather - has really put a damper on the training. I wanted to really get back into it this week, and get at least one solo practice in before another with the instructor, which is scheduled for tomorrow.

On Monday, the weather actually cleared up, and I called down to the flight school about an hour ahead of time to make sure a plane was available. One was, so I wrapped up the few things I had at work and went over to the field. I caught my instructor, who said, "What are you doing here?" since this was a bit of a last-minute plan. I told him what I wanted to do, and then he pointed out to the hangar, where any one of the three planes I could fly was each stacked behind at least two other planes, including the Twin Star. The twin is a heavy enough aircraft to manhandle around on a good day, but this day had a foot of snow outside the hangar door. Deciding that not raising a lot of tempers on a freezing afternoon (no one else but one plane was flying) was a far better choice than catering to my whims. I also figured that I had two flights already scheduled ahead of time for the week, so I could wait.

And that brings us to today. I arrived on time at the field, wiped some frost from the wings (several times), preflighted the plane, got gas, and was ready to go. I made extra sure to take things slow since the plane would slide around in the snow. I was mentally prepared for a brief practice run (that would have amounted to barely an hour), and had my checklist from before all ready.

I taxied down to the runup area, and was planning ahead to my takeoff, which I decided would be another soft-field practice (pretending that there may have been some snow still on the runway). I pulled into the runup area, and as I straightened out to prepare for the runup, I began to hear a loud whine coming from the front (either the instrument panel or the engine). I let it go for a bit to try to isolate it, with headphones on and off, but couldn't place it. It sounded like a very loud vacuum pump or gyro, but way too loud compared to the typical sounds of this plane. At first, I actually thought I was hearing music over the radio, or hearing my cell phone (which was off anyway), since the tone changed a bit over a few seconds.

I went ahead with the runup, and I could still hear the sound over the engine, with headphones on. I considered that it could be a slipping alternator belt, but that didn't sound quite right, either. In any case, I went through the checklist, and all the gauges checked out OK, including the suction. I idled the engine, still heard the sound, ran it up again, and back to idle, and even cycled the fuel pump just in case. Still no indication of what the sound was or how long it would continue.

I sat for a bit and considered what it could be and whether I wanted to deal with it in flight. The final decision was made..."Ground, I'd like to return to the ramp"

I taxied back, and played a bit with the throttle to see if the sound would change or go away (or get worse). But it just stayed constant all the way to shut down. As the engine cut off and the prop was stopped, I thought I heard it continue for just a second, and then I just heard the normal wind-down of the instrument gyros.

I told the instructor that was there what was going on, and I wrote it up in the squawk sheet, so hopefully someone will be able to figure it out. Even more important to me, if there is a problem, I hope I hear about it so that I know I made the right decision. As it is, I will still wonder if it was nothing (I'm sure it wasn't my imagination), but I know that I made the right choice for the given conditions. I'm still a student, it isn't my airplane, it was near the end of the day, it was 20 below, and I heard a funny sound. That's enough little things that if something did go wrong, I'd feel like a complete idiot if I had ignored it.