Had a (mostly) free weekend and wanted to celebrate my freshly minted commercial certificate, so I did the least commercial thing I could think of and headed to the western slope to burn some avgas, my first time flying to Utah. Original plan was to hit up Hubbard, Mineral Canyon, Mex Mountain, Cedar Mountain, and then camp at Mack Mesa but some brake issues on the way knocked out the 3 furthest ones due to time. Unfortunately, those were the ones I was looking forward to the most, but the trip was excellent none-the-less.

Early Saturday morning, the only clouds to be seen were right over the divide west of Boulder, but it looked like I could make it so I went for it. Ceiling was about 14,500 I think (above all the peaks), so I crossed Rollins/Corona without too much rotor action and began to follow the Colorado river towards Moab.


Stopped in Rifle for gas and found myself with a soft right brake while testing them on downwind. Landed and a quick look turned up a leaky caliper. Thought this might be the end of the trip, but fear not. An IA was on the field wrapping up some annuals and offered to help me out. 12B got to hang out in the nicest hangar it has ever, and likely will ever, get a chance to sit in. Some quick work and no more leaks.




Departed Rifle delayed but I figured I could still salvage some of the trip so I pointed West towards Hubbard (9CO3).



Landed at Hubbard and ate lunch. There were some hikers on the side of the strip who were staying the weekend at the resort in Gateway. They got a video of me landing, and the commentary may be the best part. The guy had just started his PPL lessons and I think he got a kick out of seeing a plane land on what he thought was a hiking trail. They emailed me the video after I spoke with them. Hopefully I inspired another pilot to get out in the backcountry.



After hubbard I burned the remaining daylight buzzing around Castle Valley and the Moab area but didn't hit any other cool strips.
Headed east to Mack Mesa to camp and got to meet Ladd who keeps the place in tip top shape and even offered me coffee this morning.


Heading back this morning was glassy air with 25 mph tailwinds. These were great, until I crossed the divide with a 40mph tailwind which quickly turned into a rollercoaster rotor. At least I was heading downhill by this time, and expecting it. Right before hitting the rollercoaster:


Had a gopro on the wing for parts of it, so made this. Let me know what you think of my music selection. Not really, don't do that, don't care.


-asa

Nice, Asa!!

Beautiful country. Nice TO&Ls. I like how you stay in low ground effect until you have developed plenty of airspeed. 12B likes that too. !Bueno!

Thank you for posting the beautiful pictures and video. I hope to make it out there this coming Fri-Mon. Ladd is indeed a great guy at Mack Mesa. Looks like you have the 180 dialed in very well--nice landing at Hubbard!

Asa, very nice trip report as always! Thanks

Very nice, Asa! I had similar ambitions to head to the Western Slope for the weekend but didn't get myself organized in time and ended up staying local. Now, like Ted, my eyes are on the coming weekend...

asa wrote:....Stopped in Rifle for gas and found myself with a soft right brake while testing them on downwind. Landed and a quick look turned up a leaky caliper. Thought this might be the end of the trip, but fear not. An IA was on the field wrapping up some annuals and offered to help me out. 12B got to hang out in the nicest hangar it has ever, and likely will ever, get a chance to sit in. Some quick work and no more leaks. ....

The guy I bought my 180 from told me that the bore(s) in the RH caliper was rough, and that it tended to leak when the linings got most of the way worn down. So I should just go ahead & change the linings out before they got down to minimums.
I discovered he was right about the leak-- I used a hone and smoothed out the bores & replaced the o-rings the first time it happened, and went ahead & changed the pads out.
Just got a leak there again-- checked the pads, the ones on the LH side were at minimum so went ahead & installed new ones all around.
RH pads weren't down that low (guess I brake-turn left more than right?), which got me wondering about things.
I measured the brake discs and they were both at or slightly below Cleveland's minimum thickness, so I ordered up some new ones.
I don't remember the exact numbers, but new dimension is about .040" thicker than minimum.
Hopefully that thicker disc will prevent any more leaks at that RH caliper.

I dunno what was wrong with your brake, but you might keep my experience in mind if / when it happens again.

Thanks Asa and Hotrod. My brakes are leaking a little too. With the Bushwheels it's a close fit between tire and caliper. I think brand new linings could make for a problem and too thin equal leak.