It was a glorious evening to stop by the airport and put some freebies on people's planes.
The stall warning on a lot of little planes is a small, metal vane. It sticks out into the airstream over the leading edge of the wing and as long as that airflow is there you don't hear the stall horn. Something like that.
The Diamondstar has a hole instead. To test it you are meant to suck the air out of the hole and the stall horn will go off. I never did that.
You also are meant to have the hole plugged all the time you aren't flying, so a mud dauber doesn't sneak in there and build a nest. Apparently it happens often enough in the south to be a hazard. The plane comes with a plug and a little "Remove before Flight" flag on it. It's a terrible fit and I had three get blown off and lost on the airport before I gave up.
Then I saw that a place was going out of the Diamond accessory business and these really nice stall hole plugs were going for $6 when they were usually $39. I bought four. Maybe I bought five, put one on the plane and instantly lost it. I'm not sure. But I came across those four in the house this morning.
I put them on friends planes (Susan, Scott and Ariel) and then I left one in a bag for a stranger with a DA40. He had gone flying so I left it with his wheel chock and tie down chain along with a note. We'll see if that happens to bring him to the blog.
1 comment
What a nice gesture! And such a contrast between the airport admin and city, which would just as soon bulldoze the runway, ramp, and every airplane on it, and the pilots who are so kind and thoughtful. I had a flat tire on a Saturday morning one time at SMO in an RV-6 and people were very helpful. Nice controllers there, and the observers who gather there seem quite friendly.
Though I probably should, I don't usually bother with stall vane covers -- some airplanes I fly don't even have a stall warning system. Of all the things that could get plugged up, I worry about that one the least. Now having an air data computer's sensor get plugged up, that's a different story. Dunno if you've ever had the pleasure, but things get interesting in the cockpit rather quickly when that happens.