Biology gets in the way

I received notification yesterday (Friday) that the second wheel from BAS had been delivered. A short time after that, I got a call from Alex at the shop. He said the wheel had arrived and, as far as he could tell, it looks just fine. Hopefully there's nothing that will prevent this one from being installed.

However, just when that will happen is up in the air. Both Travis, the mechanic that's been working on my plane, and Preston the shop manager, were out sick yesterday. They probably have the same thing I came down with Thursday evening. It feels like a relatively severe head cold. Yesterday I felt like crap the whole day. I did attend a meeting for work but then climbed into bed and slept for several hours. I had a fever, too, but it feels like it abated in the night and I feel a bit better today. If Preston and Travis are feeling the same way, I expect them to stay home and get better. I wouldn't fly in my current condition, and I wouldn't want someone to work on my plane in that condition either.

So we're probably looking at next weekend. I'll be out there Saturday morning because I'm scheduled to have my bi-annual flight review. I was hoping to do it in my plane, but I'm going ahead and renting one of the 172s. After that, I'll head over to the shop and see how they're doing. Hopefully it will be done and ready to go. If so, I might just take it up and fly it around for a bit to start the break-in process.

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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...

A Man and His Airplane

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