For those of you that suffer from SAD – Seasonally Affected Disorder – I can relate. I don’t know if that is what I have, but I generally hate the month of February every year. I find myself going to work in the dark; driving home in the dark; going to bed early; and not doing much, if any, exercise. I eat too much bad food, drink too much beer, and generally slough around waiting for it to get warm.
Winter continues to hold on this week, but its grip on my ankles is weakening. I’ll keep walking ahead until winter’s grip loosens.
It’s getting better. We had a 75 degree day this past week, and I rode the motorcycle to the airport to go flying. Love those kind of days. While I’m in the funk of winter, I can’t bring myself to do much project work, and certainly don’t want to work outside. Now that I’m coming out of my funk though, I have a ton of work to get to.
Projects I’m spending time on:
- Studying for the next jet. This on is state of the art and new, versus the Jurassic Jets I’ve been flying. I have allot of work to do before I head to Texas and start training.
- Reading ‘Grant’, about the life of General Grant during the civil war. It is a large novel that is incredibly well written and an easy read. I see lots of parallels in the politicians and newspapers of the time. Neither has changed much in all that time.
- N833DF maintenance and improvements
- AutoPilot work scheduled for March 26th
- Paint repairs to restore the paint after the restoration process – April 22nd
- Replace Left engine mixture cable and AD Refresh at next maint (25 more hours)
- Engine evaluations – keep running; overhaul; replace
- Reading Mike Busch’s Engine book. He is a noted expert on GA engines and I’m educating myself on how to evaluate my engines.
- Collecting and reading articles from Aviation Consumer Magazine on refreshing your engine(s)
- Gathering information and quotes on overhauls from noted vendors
- Meeting with the next A&P to discuss a path forward (engine monitors, oil analysis, monitoring methods, etc)
- Exercise: I just took my first walk of the season, bundled up in 40 degree wind. I really need to get back on track, and walking routinely will get me ready to get my bicycle out again.
- Developing a path forward: I have begun to consider where I’d like to be in a few years. The last few weeks of work has been less than fun, and I’m wondering where Bev and I will be in 5 years. Contract pilot? Retired traveler in my new airplane with fresh engines?
- Instrument Training: I haven’t been flying my PA30 in IMC or even at night since I got it back. My plan is to get everything fixed first: autopilot; paint; and to at least get one more inspection on the engines. After that I’ll start flying instrument procedures and get my process down. Then I’ll start traveling.
I’ll update this blog in the middle of all this; particularly after the autopilot comes back on line.
Fly Safe!!
Frank