Peter, you're not having fun anymore. Get her on the ground and figure out what's wrong.

Good Morning Bill,
Well I was hoping to be handing NBA over to you folks today but the day yesterday took an unplanned turn for me.

The morning departure went as planned. It was a pleasant flight until the Foothills near Canmore. Wind got to be a bit of an issue, out of the west about 30 knots, with lots of mechanical turbulence. Banff and Lake Louise had not too bad weather but as I proceeded toward the Crowsnest Pass the visibility started to deteriorate to less than my comfort level.

As I was getting ready to head into the pass about 7000 feet I sensed a bit of a roughness in the engine. I thought that maybe I had leaned it out too much. I increased the mixture and prop RPM but could only get about 24 inches of MAP. Not liking the low visibility and other issues I turned around and headed back to the East.

Things seemed OK for about another hour or so. I proceeded along the foothills toward Pincher Creek with all seeming well.  I climbed to over 10,000 feet and turned towards Cranbrook, BC.  

About 15 minutes into my westbound trek the engine began to run rough again and that is when I said to myself,  "Peter, you're not having fun anymore. Get her on the ground and figure out what's wrong."
It was a long half hour back to Springbank, Alberta.

The plane is at Springbank Aero all tied down and they will preheat when we go back for the aircraft. I have made arrangements for a mechanic to have a look at the aircraft on Tuesday. He said getting the engine happy may take a little longer because it is so close to Christmas.

I caught Air Canada to YVR  and Jazz to YCD.

The drive home took over 3 hours last night in a rather large SNOW STORM I thought I was back in Ontario starting to head west all over again.

That's yesterday's adventure

Pete

Brandon Sunrise

Foothills of Alberta

Turbulence and running rough

Time to go east. Running rough again.

The long grey flight to Springbank.

Long Final, finally.