TonyK

Climb in through the pilots door and pitch the chocks in the lap the dead weight sitting in the right seat. Then look over at them sneer and tell them to shut up and deal or they get out. Or put them in the baggage door walk around and say yes dear I'll try and make a smoother departure this time.

Wow that really is a mess.

It was a very strange day indeed. I got up early and headed out to the airport with a full day of plans. I was heading down from KRUT to KAVP to buy a C172 that I have been looking at for my youngest son to get his license in. I had a second pilot lined up to fly it back to Rutland and we were set to go. Pulled the Mooney out of the hanger and fired it up. It hit on the first roll and we taxied out to the run up area. Mag check really rough on the left. Lean to burn it off. and the left clears off. Check right........plane drops dead on the right mag. Look across the airport and my mechanic just happens to be working on a Saturday. We taxi over and have him take a look. Pull the cowl run it up for him and he pronounces the right mag dead. Taxi the Mooney back over to the hanger and put it away with the days plans now in tatters. I call my wife to explain why I'm not in in the air on my way to PA and all is good there. Being the fully invested airplane wife she insists that it was better it died in Rutland than in PA. I agree and tell her that I need to call the guy with the C172 and let him know that I can't get there and we will have to work something out. He queries my intent to purchase the airplane and I explain that I was indeed very serious. Upon hearing that he let's me know that he is in Montpelier, VT doing a dog rescue trip and asks where Rutland is from where he is. He has to fly directly over me to get home to PA. Yeah we are back in business!. I call my second pilot and turn him around. We get picked up in style and get a ride in a very pretty M20E down to PA. We start going through the C172 and a guy come pulling up in a golf cart. It turns out to be a old friend of mine from when I lived in Florida who I haven't seen in 16 years. Suddenly it's old home day at KAVP. We trade updated information and get back to the business at hand doing the paperwork. All signed over and we are ready to to go. The seller comes up and asks where the check is ???? we proceed to start tearing through all of our assorted paperwork looking for the check. The check had blown out of the airplane was blowing across the ramp. Check found, crisis averted, we launch. I'm not sure how many of you have time in a 1965 C172 with the O-300 in it but it is not knows as being a speed demon even with a tailwind. When you put 16kts directly on the nose the groundspeed really suffers. 2.something back to Rutland while watching a very nice sunset in smooth air all tied down and put away. Tomorrow I'll go clear out the airplane stuff from the back seat and cargo area but I hadn't eaten anything since dinner last night and was a bit hungry. All is well that ends well. My F will get to start it's annual a week early and I guess I'm getting the mags overhauled. I need a drink.

Perhaps they looked at the manufacturing issues Cessna had with the Skycatcher in China and decided that they did not want to go down that road. Or they looked at the financials of bringing a untested unknown aircraft into a already saturated market space and could not make the risk reward equation work. Or they said we already have one high end aircraft not selling why do we need two? It is all pure speculation on my part.

Alan, I'm curious how much scrap aluminum you end up with from a typical airframe?

It's so nice and shiny.

Well that is an unfortunate turn of events. Glad everyone came out unharmed. Sorry about the airplane.

It must have blown out the coupler instantly. I was expecting it to be completely shelled out inside as well.

For the curious. I set the vanes at the retracted and extended limits. I don't know what the limits are supposed to be but it doesn't look like there was much more holding them in on the elliptical portion of the rotation. I will have to get my micrometer out but the vanes do look uneven. Also notice the uneven carbon line around the shaft. Either way it was toast.

I went through the logs and I can't find any entries for replacement but it could have been done in 2008 during overhaul so maybe 900hrs or perhaps never. Vane pieces and dust out both the intake and exhaust but I did get it to eventually roll through with some shaking and torque on the shaft.

And his attitude turned quickly to #$%^ it!

On my way home from Nantucket last weekend the AI tipped over about half way home. I went out this morning to pull the pump and knew it as soon as I looked at it. Coupler bits were a dead give away. I don't think this is going to buff out.

A bic lighter is always in my pack. Storm matches and a blast match in there as well but that is last on the list for getting a fire going. Also look for some magnesium ribbon on amazon. Coil up some of it and put it in with your cotton balls. it makes starting damp wood very easy. Oh and a flask of Jameson. No survival value but it gives me something to do while i wait for rescue.

My 89B is so old and out of date it believes the earth is still flat.

I was reading an article the other day on a astrophysics site about a very strong coronal mass ejection CME that interfered with HF radio frequencies for over an hour. This got me thinking about our reliance on GPS and other forms of orbital navigation technology. Given that a solar flare can knock out GPS, electric grids and interfere with radio transmissions should we brief ourselves on possible CME events that may interfere with our navigation as a normal part of our flight planning? Is it just the geek in me who thinks about these things?

Egret with a 152. Caught it with the wing strut. No damage. What a mess to remove its bifurcated corpse on landing and clean the side of the airplane.

+1 vote for hanger elves.

Did a down and back to Nantucket today. It was our first time visiting. The island was manic with the end of the holiday weekend which also is the last official day of the season. There had to have been a billion dollars in private aircraft on the field today. No kidding a billion. We wandered around town and had some lunch. Visited the whaling museum and were in awe of all of the people waiting for the ferry back to the mainland. I chuckled at them for having to travel in such a steerage class manner. My karma was immediately paid back on the trip home when my vacuum pumped dropped dead. (note to self only positive thoughts from now on). IMG_7869.MP4.mov

My opinion is that there is value in teaching the E6B early on in primary pilot training. I would think it would give the opportunity to make the computations real to the student on things like wind drift, W/B etc. However the flip side to that is that new technology makes it impractical for real world use. Why would I spin the wiz wheel and put it on paper when I can touch a button and have all of my calculations updated in real time against the most current information? Useful....Yes. Dead tech....Yes. After all you very rarely see a slide rule these days.

https://wildlife.faa.gov/strikenew.aspx Here you go Joe.

2 Our Fathers, 2 Hail Mary's and a trip around the pattern for you. Go in peace.

I went over to Brunswick, ME for an airshow. My youngest and I left Rutland in the early AM and went up to pick up my oldest in Burlington then we set off for Maine. 1:28 for the flight and a great view of Mt. Washington on the way over in smooth cool air. I don't get as much time as I would like with either of them but having the two of them together is rare and something I cherish deeply.

Got to meet a fellow Mooneyspace member at the airshow today and snapped a pic of him taxing out after the show. It was a great day.

Mine has a placard for 25 gallons which is contradictory to the paperwork. I haven't tried to run it dry to confirm.

My com 2 auto-resets to 121.5 so it usually stays on unless I am doing something that might require 3 or 4 com channels in short order. I have never heard a peep out of it and hope to keep it that way.