The trouble started on the outbound day of a multi-day, multi-leg trip that took me well beyond the Mississippi River from the U.S. East Coast. Along the way, I’d picked up a passenger and we’d worked and played together for a few days, but now we were heading home.
The “trouble” was a rough-running magneto. It managed to get through pre-takeoff magneto checks, but was clearly running ragged. I’d had it looked at during an overnight, but there was nothing that facility could do except confirm there was a problem. Starting was fine, and so was most of its in-flight operation, but it was intermittent occasionally. It was the first thing on my maintenance agenda when I got back to the airplane’s base. But first I had to get there.
