Well...not so good news today. They did make it to the island of Providenciales yesterday and Steve was dismayed at how slow this airplane is compared to the Columbia! It took them 5 hours to get to Providenciales, which was just their first fuel stop when he was in the Columbia. He got spoiled! The bad news is that they are having some maintenance issues with the plane. The problem with the airplane is that the engine stops when put in the idle position. Apparently, it did this when they landed at Fort Lauderdale as well. It does not appear to be anything critical, but they have to investigate it. They are in contact with the JAARS maintenance staff and have gone through several theories of what it might be, but none of the theories have proven to be accurate yet. So now, with all their investigating and looking at the engine, they have discovered an “apparent” cylinder crack. The small crack at the base of the cylinder does not seem to have relation with the symptoms they are seeing of High Cylinder Heat Temp (CHT) and low Exhaust Gas Temp (EGT), but since it looks like a crack it must be investigated. So now they are out on the ramp pulling the exhaust stacks off to get a better look at the cylinder. Most likely, they will be spending another night on the island of Providenciales.
Steve said he would contact me later on today to give me an update on their progress.
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