Flew down to Hutchinson, KS to eat. Flight down was uneventful.

Taxiing out to leave, a black wasp flies in through my window, then disappears somewhere in the cabin. At exactly the same time as this, I begin to have trouble staying on the yellow taxi line.

It gets worse, can't turn at all, so I stop and ask my friend in his plane behind me if I had a flat tire. Sure enough, front tire completely flat.

We both shut down and tower called someone to pull me to parking.

While we waited, we found the wasp was now out by my landing light on my left wing. I assume it went through the vent in the cabin out to the wing. It then must have found a way through to the landing light area. I have a Horton STOL kit, so there is a gap between the new and old leading edge. Maybe the wasp used this space to get out there. I closed the cabin vent, hopefully trapping the wasp in the wing.

Anyway, now my plane sits 100 miles away needing a front tire fixed. And has a wasp in it.

I wonder now what caused my tire to go flat? It looked fine and taxied normally until I suddenly had issues on the taxiway.

At least I didn't get stun. And at least the tire didn't go flat during takeoff or landing. I am happy about that, I guess.

The ribeye was pretty good, too.

A brighter day tomorrow, I hope!

Cary

They had to replace the tube.

Total cost ended up being $410.

Bulk of the cost was the labor. It was a Cirrus shop ($115 per hour).

At least I got my plane back.

Ouch. Oh well, option is always to do it yourself, allowed by FAR Part43 Appendix A, para C. For that price you could even buy all the tools at a local Walmart and be money ahead if you weren't already carrying some of them. Most of the backcountry doesn't have a Cirrus shop handy.

Karmutzen wrote:Ouch. Oh well, option is always to do it yourself, allowed by FAR Part43 Appendix A, para C. For that price you could even buy all the tools at a local Walmart and be money ahead if you weren't already carrying some of them. Most of the backcountry doesn't have a Cirrus shop handy.

Yep, I think its time to start getting some of that stuff and keeping it handy. I need a good tool kit for the plane.

Anyway, lesson learned. Don't take your Cessna to a Cirrus shop.

Maybe the wasp stung the tire before trying to get into the cockpit to sting you?

I carry a can of latex inflator to try if I get a flat in the bush. Only has to work for one takeoff and landing.

Changing a tire is not too hard, but safely jacking up a plane can be.

I carry a spare t/w tire & tube, and a spare main wheel tube.
Also a pretty complete tool kit.
What I don't have on board is a means to jack the airplane up.
I used to carry a little bottle jack, pretty light and compact,
but all the 4x4 blocks etc required to make it work are not.
I do still carry a bolt-on jack point for the MLG legs.

I went through that on a fairly remote strip in the Bahamas about 2 yrs ago. Blew a main tire on a sharp piece of coral on a real hot day. A few friendly local island folks came to the rescue. They all lifted while I pulled the wheel and set the axle on a block. There was nothing easy about it. As Hotrod suggested, I'll have a jack and tire next time.

niente qui