Saturday, March 19, 2011

I put my pants back on.

The initial oil change was a bit late and  I'm glad I got it done. The plane just seems to fly better with clean oil. Harry was very good, pointing out aspects of the Rotax, recommending improvements like an oil filter with a larger diameter, etc. I enjoyed watching him work. The oil sample should be back shortly and will serve as a good baseline for future analysis. I will definitely need to take the Rotax Owners maintenance course this year. After a good run-up I took her up for about a half-hour just to insure everything was buttoned up correctly.

I was away for two weeks on business trip and will confess I thought a lot about 4PS, so I was anxious to get airborne when I got home. I decided to celebrate St Patrick's day with a little local tour down to N47. My preflight took a little longer since I've incorporated some of the items Harry said I should look at, but still pretty simple compared to many other aircraft I've flown. No water in the sumps after two weeks of very wet weather. She burped after ~120 props. The rest of the ground operations were all normal. (I flashed my landing light at two golf carts to let them pass in front of me before I crossed over the cart path to the runway.)

It was just great to get airborne. Just a little choppy in the air before a weak cold front, the temperatures are starting to be spring-like. It really registered when she called out a high cylinder head temperature on the top of climb. Obviously time to "de-winterize". About an hour total, 2 landings at N47, 3 back home. Basic airwork was sloppy, and headwork was weak. It doesn't take long to get rusty.

Yesterday I went out and put the wheel pants back on and took the intake baffles off. It must be Spring....finally. (I couldn't go flying because we had an appointment with the tax accountant...another sure sign of Spring.)

2 comments:

  1. Wx is looking better and the time change allows some extra time to fly after work. Had the Sundowner out Sunday, took a nice Susquehanna river tour.

    I hope we can catch up on a breakfast run, would love to see your plane.

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