I’ve had a number of flights in the last few weeks that I really enjoyed. While I have been waiting for Cheyenne training, I’m getting out there and practicing in my own twin. Just after Thanksgiving, my granddaughter, Maggie, told me that she’d like a ride in our airplane. Never one to turn down an opportunity to encourage young people, particularly my own grandchildren (I have 17!), we scheduled that flight just a few days later.
January, 2019 flight over winter terrain
I’m thrilled Maggie showed an interest and very happy she enjoyed spending some time with me. It’s nice when your people know what energizes you.
In the last few months I’ve been having to motivate myself to get my airplane moving. The flights I’ve taken were mostly to get maintenance work done, and I always seemed to get a call for a maintenance opening on bad weather days. That led to holds in rain and fog, and instrument approaches to minimums too. I’ll take it – it’s great recurrent experience.
Less than optimal results: My avionics shop did some work for me, and I believe caused a problem by pulling too hard on my right fuel flow data wire in the tight space behind the panel. I paid them to fix it on a subsequent visit, and they found a clear issue with a connector pulled apart. They fixed that, but the issue re-surfaced. What this could mean is that they either did a poor job of fixing it, they pulled so hard that there is another break, or they had nothing to do with it and it is just an amazing coincidence.
Since this is not the first time this shop fixes one thing and another thing breaks thereafter, I’m thinking I’ll look for a different shop to solve this particular issue. Since I need an Aspen ProMax battery replacement (4 years since) anyway, I decided to let my trusted mechanic get this done for me, and test the fuel flow connection end-to-end.
More flying than expected: For various reasons, I’ve found myself flying more these past few weeks. My buddy Dan needs Mooney maintenance up in Lancaster, Maggie wanted to fly, I’ve needed fuel and proficiency flying, and this weekend I’ll need to pick up an instructor for my Cheyenne training. It’s a good thing, so I’m very glad Phill-Air (Paul Phillips) has done such a good job in keeping my ride reliable.
Cheyenne Training: I’ve finally gotten a plan going to get my training done for this new job I’ve walked into. I’ll be flying to pick up the instructor, and then spending the weekend learning the new machine while working out of another airport. I was surprised to find out I’d be flying it back solo on Monday, but I’m very happy to be doing that. It is counter to the initial discussions I’ve had with the company, but insurance is cool with it, and I’ll only do it if the instructor and I both feel I am flying effectively. I don’t foresee any issues with this approach.
I’m looking forward to a real workout. An IPC, a Flight Review, and a Training Certificate in the Cheyenne.
More to come….
Fly Safely – Frank