Day 42 - Brainerd and Gull Lake

Tony Cacciarelli • Jul 26, 2020

Gull Lake and a Muffler Issue - July 26, 2019

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Low clouds in the morning

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Gull Lake

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Landed on Gull Lake

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Well, that's not right :-(

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Original Instagram Post

Had some ups and downs today. I got to the airport at 7am hoping to get out on the lakes before the winds started up. There was an overcast cloud layer at 500 feet, which meant no flying until it broke up. That didn't happen until around 11am, so I spent some time at the airport diner, which had good coffee and breakfast.

Once things cleared up I went out to Gull Lake, which is just 8 miles from the airport. I spent about an hour on and off the water, doing what the A5 is meant to do. After that the winds were kicking up and the water was getting choppy, so I decided to head back to the airport.

As I was moving the plane back into the hangar I noticed something that didn't look right with the engine exhaust on the right side. After getting the local mechanic and ICON involved, turns out one of the muffler mounts had cracked.

This is the first unscheduled maintenance I've had to do on this trip - after over 100 hours of flying in 6 weeks, and it's fairly minor. They're sending a replacement overnight and the mechanic was willing to come in tomorrow [on a Saturday] to get it installed. I may be a little delayed getting on my way to the next stop, Devil's Lake, ND, but just by a few hours. Maybe I'll sleep in!

😀👍🏼

My intention had been to hit multiple lakes around the Brainerd area, similar to what I'd done in the Adirondacks and Harbor Springs, but having to wait for the overcast layer to clear meant I only had time to do a few landings on Gull Lake. It was a short but nice day of flying once the weather started cooperating.

I didn't know it at the time, but the 'fairly minor' muffler problem would end up being the biggest headache of the entire trip.

There had been a few issues in the past with other A5s developing cracks in the muffler mounts, so ICON had made me aware of that and I'd been checking it with every pre-flight. It's not very obvious from the pic in my original post, but I could tell that the muffler was rotated a little from where it should be. It wasn't centered in the opening like it normally was.

At the time I thought it was fortunate that I happened to notice this as I was putting the plane away instead of when I did my pre-flight the next day. It would've been a Saturday morning with no mechanic at the field and no one at ICON to arrange a replacement part until Monday. In hindsight it actually wouldn't have made that much of a difference due to some other logistical issues that I'll get into later, but I had no way of knowing what was to come.

The problem was basically the way the muffler bracket was designed. It didn't have as much support as it needed, so the engine vibration would eventually cause a crack to develop. ICON was in the process of completely redesigning the way the mufflers are mounted, but it wasn't ready by the time I'd set off on this adventure.

At this point, though, I was still optimistic that I would be back up and running by the next morning. ICON had quickly arranged overnight shipping with Saturday delivery and the mechanic was ready to install the new muffler once it arrived. What could possibly go wrong...

On a more positive, nostalgic note, this ceramic biplane was on the wall in the airport diner in Brainerd. I recognized it immediately. My father had this exact same thing hanging in his office when I was growing up. There was a second one which was blue and white...I think. Funny how some things stick in your brain.