I had an interesting day today out in Leesburg yesterday.

I went out for a three hour training session, including a flight. Yesterday’s storm cleared the air and presented us with a beautiful day. There were some overcast cumulus clouds at around 2700, but they were moving off to the east, so my instructor Alon and I initially filed a flight plan with FSS to go out to Winchester/HOAGE, but we immediately had to cancel and re-file due to low ceilings on the ridgeline just west of Leesburg.

We re-filed for Frederick, then went out to the field to pre-flight the 1982 172P we were to be flying. I chose the 172P because it had a carburetor rather than fuel injection, and I wanted to get some experience flying a carburetor aircraft before the weather got too cold and I switched over to an injected aircraft. Also, the 172P is a little cheaper to rent, so I figured I could stretch those dollars further during this first part of my training.

We did a slow and thorough pre-flight, going over every inch of the fuselage, rivet-by-rivet, top to bottom. Early in the preflight, minor problems started to appear. First, there were two rivets missing from the canopy, and one too-loose screw near the alternator assembly. Not a big deal though, and not uncommon in older aircraft, as you well know. Then we noticed that one of the hinge-pins on the right cabin door was loose. The door operated fine and did not pose a safety threat (and according to FAA rules were not a problem), but the combination of that issue and the one on the canopy made Alon feel a bit uneasy.

Finally, we were checking the cockpit and found that the pilot’s radio was inoperative. It received just fine, but could not transmit, which meant that Alon and I would have no way to communicate (except shouting) for the duration of the flight. We found that the broken comm was noted in the maintenance book, but the repair could be legally deferred, because the craft still had one working comm.

He hesitantly offered to take me up anyway, but I was adamant that if I could not ask questions during the flight that I wouldn’t learn anything, and we would both be frustrated. Also, at that point, neither of us completely trusted that the aircraft to take us up.

We completed the formality of pre-flighting the aircraft, just so I could get the experience, then radioed back to the FBO to see if there were any other 172s available. All of them were either out or grounded for repair, so we had to scrub the flight.

So, today was disappointing, but I learned a valuable lesson; go with your instincts, because what is technically airworthy according to the FAA is not always safe. Little things can add up quickly, and I’d rather learn that lesson on the field and not at 4000 feet.