First Flight of 2013

With the solar tender hooked up and doing it's job I thought it would be good to test flight.  Yeah, I know, test flight what? The batteries were holding a full charge despite the cold wx and I really just needed any excuse to fly.

I gave Vince a call and we headed to the plane. I had left 08Romeo plugged in so it was a normal pre-flight and start up.  No real wait time as the CHT's and oil temps looked great. We taxied out for a south east departure planning on a round or two of landings at Millville-KMIV then home again.

We launched off of runway two seven and climbed out for our left turn on course. Hmmm, the JPI engine monitor is now giving me crazy temp scales. The graph is full scale yet my CHT's look great and EGT's may look a tad high. No time to think this through in the air.

I made a call to the tower to advise I would be returning for a full stop. I was abeam the numbers for runway three -two and that's what they gave me to land.  Tower, 08Romeo, I prefer runway two-seven, 08Romeo cleared to land two-seven. I did not want to dash and dive for three two and chance a problem with my mind already wrapped around the engine monitor.  Mind you the oil temps were perfect and 08Romeo was purring like a kitten the whole time.

I must have hit the set button and the graph was not on the 50% scale. A quick check through my POH and the JPI monitor insert and we were headed back out. This time the scale looked as it always had and the EGT/CHT numbers were still looking typical for my Sundowner. We made the hop to Millville, put one full stop in the book and scooted back to Wilmington to end the day.