Not much going on right now

I've put about ten hours on the plane since I got it back from the shop last December. The weather has been generally poor so flying regularly hasn't been possible. For now, I'm focusing on putting time on the engine to continue breaking it in and get to the first oil change. Oil consumption has already dropped to normal, or near normal levels so it looks like break-in is going well so far.

And that's pretty much it for now. I am looking forward to more regular VFR conditions as we move into spring and summer. I'm also looking forward to flying to other places for fly-ins and other get-togethers since I missed most of them last year.

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Approaching the annual

I know I haven't been posting much, but that's mainly because nothing much of note has been happening. I've been flying, but not really going anywhere in particular. The engine continues to run very well, and the plane is still solid. I was hoping to do more "destination" flying this year but, for whatever reason(s), it didn't really happen. Next year, hopefully.... On the horizon, though, is the annual inspection. It's already scheduled for mid-December, since the last annual is good to the end of that month. I've also arranged for it to be an owner-assisted annual. I'm told that every airplane owner should do this at least once and I can certainly understand why that is the case, even before I do it. I will be learning about my airplane in a way that nothing else will match and, incidentally, save some money at the same time. I'm looking forward to it. Leading up to the annual, I have been compiling a list of squawks that I want to take care ...

More of the same

I've been with my current employer for some time. One consequence is that I earn a significant amount of PTO every year. I have to make sure I use it because I can carry only so much over to the next year. So I occasionally do what I did this week, which is to take one or two days off and just do other stuff. Of course, "other stuff" includes flying if the weather's nice. Yesterday the weather was lovely, so I headed out to the airport to exercise the plane. I didn't have any particular timetable or destination. I took my time with the preflight inspection and with putting gas in the tanks. Once I took off I made a trip around the pattern, then made an acceptable landing. The wind was a bit squirrely on the approach but I'm getting better at dealing with it. I took off again and headed north. I flew inland from the cost a ways, then decided, what the heck, I'll head out to the San Juan Islands again. I ended up flying a course similar to the one I followed...

Predicting the weather is hard

At least, it's hard for this region of the country. I like to say that predicting the weather for the Puget Sound region is far more an art than it is a science. Early last week, the weather forecast was for pretty much crappy weather for the foreseeable future. However, because of the chaotic nature of the atmosphere around here, especially at this time of year, the forecast is always subject to change. As it turns out, the weather was actually nice enough last Friday afternoon (December 17) that I was able to go up for about an hour and a half. One of the reasons I went up was because I had filled the tanks after the previous flight, and I wanted to burn off some fuel in case I was able to take my father flying while we visiting from Arizona. As I'm sure I've mentioned, the weight and balance of my plane is such that I'd be over maximum weight if I had a passenger in the front seat, the required ballast in the baggage compartment to stay within the forward CG limit, a...

A Man and His Airplane

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