Day 16
This leg would take me from Daytona Beach to Miami.
It was a fine, warm morning as I walked out to C-GAQV; promising a lovely day for flying.
Takeoff went fine; I cruised south at 8,000'. On the way; I flew near Cape Canaveral - quite a view.
It was a very nice flight; I was heading past Palm Beach and seriously began considering flying on past Miami to Cuba. I still had plenty of fuel; it was a fine day and I was seriously enjoying a nice mellow flight.
Until...
Oh, crap..... :-X
Just past Palm Beach International I noticed I was starting to lose power in engine 1. I went through the standard checks; realized almost instantly this wasn't a simple power loss - the engine was going. So I shut it down; feathered the prop and retrimmed to a shallow dive. To my astonishment; the lightly loaded Dakota handled the engine-out brilliantly - she flew well at 105kts. This makes me feel better for the later, more remote stages; let me tell you.
But that's the future. Right now I'm flying a really big asymmetric single. I turned back for Palm Beach; which was no more than 10 miles behind. Cancelling flight following and tuning to Palm Beach Intl's freq; I could hear the airport was pretty busy; so I elected to land at the county airport nearby. The circuit was, in a word, hairy - I hit some major turbulence on the way down. While impressed with the DC-3's single-engine handling; I didn't trust her for too much on-the-deck manoeuvering; so I decided on a high, long approach into Rwy 15.
A bit too high; as it turned out. I touched down well down the runway and stood on the brakes; as it is I just cleared it.
Ground services towed the aircraft to the hangar; right now they're going over engine 1; trying to find out why it failed. Chances are a fuel line got plugged; something we missed in Kitchener perhaps. We should know by tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.
