Skip to main content

Nothing about airplanes is cheap

I spoke with the shop today. The good news is that my engine mount is back and they're in the process of reassembling it.

The bad news is that they found a crack in my nose wheel and it requires replacement. This is just the rim, not the entire assembly. Still, it's not cheap.

A new one from Cessna/Textron is $3000. They found a source for an equivalent made by Cleveland for $2500, with a three month lead time. Finally, they found a serviceable used wheel for $900. They wanted to know which option I wanted to go with, and I went with option number 3.

I don't know how long it will take to get here, but they're still in the process of re-attaching the engine and mount, and complete the annual inspection, so hopefully it will arrive before all of that work is done and there won't be any additional delay. Nevertheless, I'm becoming doubtful it will be done before the end of the month. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My engine is so pretty

I went out to the shop today to take a few pictures of my engine and plane before the engine is remounted. The baffling and some other stuff has already been attached to the engine. The engine mount is not back yet. Since the nose gear is attached to the engine mount, the plane is currently sitting on the main gear, and a couple of supports just behind the firewall, and under the tail. Here are a few of the photos I took. The engine looks lovely, to me at any rate, especially since I know those are new cylinders.

She flies again!

It's been a long and sometimes difficult road to get to this point but today I flew Ariel for the first time since last March. It is difficult to describe the emotions I felt after I stopped in front of the hangar and shut her down after the flight. I about broke down crying. I've waited for this for so long, and had to deal with so many frustrating setbacks that it sometimes felt like I'd never fly her again. Following the instructions from Preston, I flew her for half an hour at 3000' feet over the airport in case something went wrong. I ran the engine at 75% power (maybe a bit more, but that's okay) for as much of the flight as I could. The engine started right up, and I thought it sounded better than it had before. It seemed smoother, somehow. When I took off, I had one notch of flaps in, and she flew off the runway on her own without me having to pull back on the yoke. It was as if she was eager to get back into the sky. The flight was completely uneventful, as...

The family that flies together...

The weather wasn't great today, but it was nice enough to go for a local flight, and my wife went with me for the first time since 2004, shortly after I got my private pilot license. It was a bit windy, but there was little crosswind so we had no problem taking off from Harvey's relatively short runway. As we climbed, it became rather bumpy, with the wind changing direction several times. It was a bit better when we got to 3000' MSL, but still not very smooth. I kept the flight short. I headed southeast for a ways, then turned north, then came around the north side of the airport to the west, and finally headed back in to land on runway 15. Despite it being a bit windy and gusty, I made a landing that I'm very proud of, touching down smoothly and slowing in plenty of time to exit at the taxiway, instead of having to go to the end of the runway. Overall, Ariel performed beautifully. I love that plane more every time I fly it. The flight was only about 25 minutes, but I w...