December Activity

A weak cold front

 Fog. The mornings have been obscured with fog and low clouds. Sometimes its due to a weak cold front, but more often due warm moist air blowing over the cooler land (Advection). Lately this has kept me grounded for most of the day. Morning temperature starts in the mid 60s and gets up to the low 80s by mid afternoon.

I've been troubled with a low oil pressure problem. This seems to have been going on for some time now. I'm convinced it is a false indication. No other symptoms exist. I recently had the Honeywell sender unit replaced but had the problem again on the way home. I'll focus on wiring and a loose connection next.

Post flight complete

The BRS parachute needs to be repacked. Dave had a very good conversation with Patrick and decided the best way to do this was to remove the instrument panels and the rocket and slide the chute out from under the glare shield. Unfortunately the schematic for Sally did not match the configuration we found in the airplane. Since we didn't want to tamper with the rocket we decided to delay the removal until we got better documentation.

A bracket for the nose gear pant broke. I ordered a new one from US Sport Aircraft and had Dave replace it. He'll take the broken one over to the welder so that I'll have a backup when the next one breaks. Reinstalling the pant was a challenge. Lining up all of the screw was difficult. At least I didn't have to do it laying on a frozen floor.

Sally was DIRTY. The covered tiedown keeps the harmful UV off the plane, but dew and rain seeps from the cover to leave black spots on all upper surfaces. Waxall and few clean rags and a lot of effort cleans her up in about an hour. The bonus is a clean airplane, uncovered with fuel in the tanks. Add the late afternoon sun dissipating the fog and we have a recipe for an enjoyable hour bouncing in the pattern.