Month: June 2018

No Drama. I almost didn’t go because the first thing I saw on the weather app was storms boiling up over the Harbor. After walking the dog and sniffing the air I decided to drive out to the field and take a shot. At Placida it was very light wind and the clouds were starting to develop.

Launch was clean but the air was ratty all the way up to 800 feet. I bounced around for a few minutes and landed. Not an epic flight but I’m glad I went. It looks to be stormy the rest of the day.

The mirror needs to be remounted with a nylon nut.

Is in the books.

I hadn’t flown since Hurricane Irma, almost 9 months ago. There were a few good reasons. I damaged my wing which took 3 months to get repaired and I bought the Hunter which took a lot of my energy. But … for some reason, I just didn’t have the burn to fly. Don’t know why. My last several flights had been fantastic. I cracked off several in the two weeks leading up to the big #1000. I was joking that the 1k milestone was going to be a non event after so many epic flights.

Well the boat is essentially done and if I was ever going to get back to it, now was the time. A few things needed to be done. I fabricated a new gas tank, replaced the battery, installed a primer bulb and put air in the tires. Not much.

This morning I arrived at 6. There was a light breeze from the East. I set up and flew for 30 minutes and landed on spot. No drama but a few glitches.

1. My “click” glasses were hanging by a thread when I discovered them about to fall off my shoulder.

2. The mic. had come loose from the helmet and needs to be reseated.

3. AND…. THIS IS A BIGGY. When the wing came back from the rigger they failed to run the brake line through the pulley on the risers. I didn’t notice it until landing. Wow! If I hadn’t parked the brake in their magnets, it could have flown and I would have had to land using the D’s or worse…. it could have gone into the prop and wrapped up the wing sending me back to earth like a lead brick.

My bad. There hadn’t been enough wind this morning to kite the wing, it probably would have revealed the hazard. But… shame on me for not doing a proper inspection.

On to 1k