Two Men and a Toolbox

aA little update on the project. The wing is ready to come out, the wings have been emptied of 4000lbs of fuel, the entire guts of the wheel wells have been stripped out, a two truck loads of panels are off and the engines are coming apart. Hydraulic pumps are out, control systems cabling and pulleys for the wings are out, deice stuff unhooked, fuel lines disconnected, electrical unhooked, a large pile of hydraulic lines, over a dozen large panels, speed break lines, some fire extinguishing piping removed, turbine fan shrouds are off, fuel controls are out. We’ve been busy.

Where we started on Saturday.                  Where we are today.
We got a lift in today so we can start taking the horizontal stabilizer off so the fuselage can be moved down the road on the trailer. The plan is to pull the two engines completely off, then the tail, then lift the whole thing up with a series of jacks, drop the one piece wing and slide it out the side. Then we’ll truck the whole project 10 miles down the road to the bone yard.
 
We just started on the engines today. Everything coming off gets bagged and tagged, parts to be sold later.
Yes up until this afternoon, its just been me and one other guy working on it. We got a 3rd guy for half a day today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Something a bit different

Saturday I got offered a job, sort of. I’ve been looking for a way to get into the airplane mechanic industry but I have no experience. I did find a local company that does world wide business who agreed to give me a try. I interviewed on Friday lunch, later in the afternoon I got a call and they wanted me to start on Saturday at 8am, they would “take a look at me”.
My project, disassemble as much of this as plane as we need to in preparation to pull the one piece wing off of it.

The landing gear is already off of it, the owner is parting it out. So two of us got it to this point after day one (both sides done). Almost all the wiring is disconnected, the deicing mechanics, the sheet metal of course and the fuel tanks are emptied.  Monday I expect we’ll depressurize the hydraulic systems, there’s a crane nowhere in sight so that must be coming from the yard. We’ll have to raise the fuselage high enough to clear the wing, then the wing will have to slide out one side or the other. Should be an interesting week, lots to learn.

Windy Flying

A bit late getting this in, Friday went flying in the Cessna 150. It was a very challenging flight, 35kt wind at 3000ft, tons of turbulence under 1600ft which made any pattern work out of the question. We did stalls, which went just fine and dutch rolls, which I didn’t quite get the hang of. I want to practice the dutch rolls more another day. One the way to the practice area the GPS said our ground speed was 32knots, indicated airspeed was 80, on the way back we were doing 111knots with an indicated 80. We only got in .7, we were going to do some landings but I had to quit early due to the turbulence, it was just too much.

Turns, Turns and more Turns

Turns around a square, turns around a point, half turns here and half turn there, today I went flying and did turns.
It almost didn’t happen, it was about 45 degrees this morning when I went to preflight, first thing that happened was when I turned on the master, the flaps wouldn’t go down. Dad said don’t worry about it we’re not going to use them today anyway, all lights worked fine and so did everything else… almost. Preflight done, CLEAR, nothing. The starter would not even engage, almost brand new starter too. Back in the hanger it goes and we go back to the FBO and do some ground school work.
A couple hours later, the sun is up and its warming up, dad decided to go try the starter again, it cranked right over, still tied down in the hanger :|
So out it came and off we went. About 4 times around a pattern square, about 4 times around a point and about 4 S-Turns on a road later we head back. Dad’s satisfied I have a grasp of the concepts and can hold altitude within 50 feet on the maneuvers so we head back. I found my way back to the airport without help, shot 3 landings, not real pretty, but we can still use the airplane so they were ok.
Good things, maneuvers went well, my flares are about right, Need to Improve approaches, speed/accuracy on checklists (I’m a bit slow and forgot to dip the tanks). As a boost he said he was confident I could find my way home and get it on the ground in one piece if he passed out and I had to do it myself.  Winds were calm to 5 knots, a little bumpy in spots but not bad. The Cessna 150 logged 1.0 hours and 3 landings.
Next time, more slow flight and stalls, oh and something called Dutch Rolls, gonna have to google that one.

It begins again

Today began way too early, 5am I was up, couldn’t sleep because at 8am I needed to be at the airport for my first flight lesson with my dad. That is just too early for me to function well. I pulled into the airport at 8am on the dot after making the hour drive in 45 minutes because I forgot some things and had to back track a few blocks.
About 30 minutes of basic review in the operations building then we headed out to the plane. Cessna 150 N63514 was ready and waiting to go.

After a thorough pre-flight I got us to the end of the runway and away we went. The first take off was pretty squirrely, it has been a while for me, but it was trimmed well and flew itself off just as it should. The second one I did at the end of the lesson went very well I thought, rock solid on the centerline all the way down the runway, room for improvement on the rotation speed, could have lifted off 4-5mph sooner, next time.

The lesson today consisted of how to get a weather briefing, preflight, startup, taxi, climbs, descents, slow flight, turns in slow flight, maintaining altitude/speed/heading without using instruments, some in-flight emergency scenarios, local area specific issues (Class B starts at 2400ft at the airport, we are right next to Kansas City International Airport), and some other things. I did all my own radio work, just a blip or two, but mostly right on. When I discontinued my lessons 20 years ago I had soloed, even finished a dual cross country, so its coming back to me. The first landing was a bit high but pretty close on speed, the second one was on speed and decent but I flared a bit late and 3 pointed the landing, all and all I was happy with my first two landings in 20 years. Its going to take some practice.
Next lesson will be as soon as the weather man says its going to be a nice day, looks now like it will be the end of the week. The wind this morning was calm to 4 knots, unrestricted visibility, and smooth as glass. We hit a couple bumps at 2800ft but very minor, a few more trips out and it will get even easier.
All said and done I got 1.1 hours and 2 landings in the logbook and bought 6 gallons of gas for the plane.

Never Quit

Of course the wind canceled our scheduled flying lesson on Tuesday as expected, so we rescheduled for next Monday. Guess what, Micki had to go out of town again, family issues she had to attend to. To date, 5 out of 6 scheduled flight lessons have been canceled due to something. These things are no ones fault, not predicted or foreseen, I know what Micki is dealing with and she has my thoughts with her.
Always have a back-up plan.. well one fell in my lap today. Long story short, I found a Cessna 150 to rent from a pair of owners at Noah’s Ark airport, at a fraction of the going rate and a huge bunch cheaper than the Piper Warrior I flew that first day. My dad taught both the owners how to fly in the past years and he’s agreed to attempt to get me to the solo point. Now I don’t know how this will work out, it may not, but he is  a CFII with 19,000+ hours, and if we can stand each other for about 10-12 hours, we might get through this. Once my proficiency has returned and is back up to where it needs to be, I can get signed off for a few airports around and go practice whenever I want.
I did get a check flight from the Cessna 150 owner today, he showed me the whole plane and how they maintained it. It is fully IFR rated and has a color moving map GPS which is awesome. The flight went well, I had a touch of the anxiety come in today, but I was with a pilot I didn’t know, in a plane I didn’t know and the winds were 8-15knots (9-17mph) directly across the only runway (above my personal comfort zone). We flew for about 30 minutes out west of KC, he made a real nice crosswind, no flap landing, all in all a good flight.
The weather looks good for maybe a Tuesday flight, after that it’s going to rain the rest of the week.

Progress… yes and no, mostly no, more importantly yes!

Your confused, let me explain. My next flight lesson was canceled due to high winds, we rescheduled for Friday. Friday’s flight got cancelled because Micki my instructor had to go out of town. Next scheduled flight is tomorrow at Gardner (K34), Tuesday morning again… forecast for 10am is 20 knots on the surface, 60 knots at 3000ft. Just a bit out of my comfort zone, we shall see what the daylight brings. Progress to date none, and not looking good.

I spent Friday and Saturday at Noah’s Ark (06MO) just hanging out. Worked on a Cessna 150 a tiny bit, watched mostly, did an oil change, had a broken carb heat cable (which the owner caught on a RUN UP, GOOD JOB!) and the mount on the air inlet box was broke so that had to be welded, and some other small stuff.
Saturday my dad’s A&P mechanic showed up to finish the install of a new air/oil separator system which took 3-4 hours... and afterwards, I went on a short check flight to make sure all was good!

The 1940 something Piper Pacer flew like a dream. I just rode in the right seat up to about 2000ft then my dad handed me the controls and I flew for 15 minutes or so, making a few turns and trying to maintain my altitude. He offered to let me land it, a good idea at the time, not so good at about 300 feet when he decided I was too fast and high, it was a rough and bouncy landing. He was embarrassed, I couldn’t stop smiling. My anxiety never showed up, I was not 100% relaxed like I could take a nap, but the heart rate and breathing stayed just a tinge above where they should be. As soon as we got back, I wanted to go again. Progress YES!

I am Afraid of That

Two Friday’s ago I did something that I hadn’t done in 9 years, and before that it had been 10 years prior, I got into an airplane with an instructor, took the controls and left mother earth for a little while.
On the surface this in and of itself is not so unusual or significant, happens every day all over the world, but I have a history with it, and it is a big deal, to me. On February 2, 1992 I took my first flight lesson in a Cessna 152 at a little airport way out west commonly known as Honolulu International (HNL), you might have heard of it. I had two things against me from the start, one was the cost, a Navy airman does not make enough money to fly very often, two I had a fear of flying. I had the notion that learning to fly would help me overcome this fear. My training progressed very slowly, I could only fly once or twice a month due to the cost. On December 1st, 1992 I had my first solo after accumulating 17.3 hours of instruction over 10 months. During the month of December I flew 7 different days. One of these days included a dual cross country which in Hawaii involves island hopping with flight following and tons of radio work. This was on the 9th we flew from Honolulu International (HNL) to Lanai (LNY) to Molokai (MKK) and back. As we were circling Molokai to slide into the pattern for landing at the airport, we got a surprise that would rack me for years. There are shear cliffs jutting up several hundred feet on the coast, as we came in they were on my left, the off shore trade winds were blowing into then straight up the cliff face. A gust of wind caught the left wing from below and pushed it straight up and then some. At almost pattern altitude there wasn’t much room for recovery, but my instructor grabbed the wheel and with both of us standing on the rudder and turning ailerons to level, it finally came back to level. I swear we were all but upside down at maybe 1500 feet. My instructor saved us, shaken and stirred I landed at Lanai for a few minutes then we headed home. I don’t recall much about the trip back to Oahu. My logbook says I got back in the plane 9 days later and did 1.8 hours of solo time practicing landings, I’m sure I figured getting back on the horse was the cure what ailed me. That was the last entry until 2003 when I had two intro flights with 2 different instructors, as I recall both were young and obnoxious, I didn’t return. Total logged time, 29.0 hours.
My flight  Friday was one of those things most people would equate to letting a snake bite you if you were deathly afraid of snakes or taking scuba lessons knowing you were afraid of water and couldn’t swim. I got back into an airplane. A well used but functional Piper Warrior N43181. The flight was as bad as I made it out to be, bumpy, choppy air, what was no more than light to moderate turbulence, to me was a knife in the gut every 30 seconds for 40 minutes in the air. After 15 minutes in the air I was still flying on the same heading as the runway, I hadn’t even tipped the wings. My eyes rarely left the gauges, I was so fixated on maintaining altitude and airspeed nothing else mattered. I finally got us turned 90 degrees to the left then after a few minutes another 90 degree turn to the left and I told Micki the instructor I’d had enough and we flew straight back to the airport. We made a beautiful grass strip landing any carrier pilot would be proud of, straight down, slam it on, hope it sticks… it did, we made it back. I still had my breakfast.
My kudos to Micki Shetterly CFII, I think we broke the ice. My next flight is Tuesday morning. Maybe it won’t take 17 flight hours and 10 months to solo this time.

Finding Peace

It was 9am and 80 degrees, after a rough day yesterday, an unhappy client that I could not appease and couldn’t get out of my mind. Failures are not taken lightly. You can’t please everybody all the time, although it’s in my nature to try, unreal expectations will breed dissatisfaction every time. I needed to go for a scooter ride, do a little reflecting and get things back in perspective.
The lake three miles from my home is a perfect destination. Twenty acres, professionally manicured grounds maintained by the county, pristinely manicured walking paths, clean shaded park benches, summer flowers in full bloom, peaceful and quiet. Quiet is relative… crickets, locusts, birds, an airplane, a lawn mower, a tractor, roofers at work a long way off, not a breath of wind. When its quiet on the prairie sound travels.
As I sit here and listen to nature’s song, the sounds get louder and louder and louder as my mind becomes at peace with the world around me.


A little ride goes a long way.

Morning Rush

The cars fly by like ants on a mission, the sun trying to rise behind a peripheral pillow of clouds. Destinations intent on securing a piece of the dream; shelter, sustenance and the opportunity to choose a box or a jar in the end. The journey is lost, the focus has become the prize. Society says “you must conform” or else you’re not like us. Since time began there was someone who wanted to make rules for others to follow, who put them in charge, who put you in charge? I think I’ll be in charge for a while, take a left at the next light.

A Business Trip

Today I needed to find the location of a building I’m doing a bid on tomorrow morning up in Lenexa. A perfect excuse to take the scooter for a ride. Avoiding the interstate, my route took me by Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, where one of my favorite stops is, Barnes & Nobel. I made the 15 mile or so journey up to the business park I was looking for, then made my way back to the mall. I have a Nook Color and do a bit of reading, at B&N you can read any e-book they have for free (on your Nook) as long as you are in range of the store’s Wi-Fi.  Every once in a while I’ll spend a few hours there reading a new best seller and sucking on a Mocha Frappachino. I could have spent a few more hours there, but honestly, it was so cold in there it ran me out.
One of the great trials of going to the mall is always the parking, well I must say the Piaggio Fly 150 solved that issue, we found a perfect spot. It sat there for over 3 hours, unmolested by the mall cops and passersby. I filled up the tank for the second time, I was on about 1/8th of a tank and it cost exactly $4.50 to fill it up with premium grade. I wrote the mileage down so next time I fill it I can see how its doing.
I did see two scooters today, a light blue Vespa just 1/2 mile from home and a mustard color Honda Metropolitan for sale at a local car dealer. Was a great day to work on my sun burn.

The Little Fly 150 that Could

After a full day’s work and a huge dinner, a nice ride in the suburbs was in order. The temps are down to the low 80’s, quite a difference from the 100’s we’ve had for the last 2 weeks. It was such a perfect evening for a putt around. A guy driving an original model A convertible waved at me, I saw a huge baby blue 60’s convertible Cadillac, and another scooter, could have been a Genuine Buddy, didn’t get a real close look. Even stopped to watch a couple of hot air balloons for a few minutes. Ah the easy life.

Buzzed around the little airport we have here in town, no better place to snap a couple photos of the Fly 150 than at the airport.

Back in the Wind – sort of

I bought a scooter last weekend, its not the same as the two Harley’s I sold several years ago but its good to feel the breeze in my face again. I’d forgotten how calm and totally relaxed two wheels makes me feel. I’ve put close to 100,000 miles on two wheels through my lifetime, today was like going home.  Its a little scooter, an Italian made Piaggio Fly 150, has all the same engine and transmission as it famous cousin the Vespa. It doesn’t have the heavy loud thump thump of the massive V-twin I’m used to, instead it has a quiet buzz to it. An automatic transmission is something different, just twist and shout. It won’t do 100+ like some of my Harley’s did, but I got it up to 65mph going downhill. I’m not convinced the speedometer is accurate.

My face is so sun burnt, but who cares.

Father’s Day

Father’s Day is nearing so I had lunch with my dad today then went to shop for a hat for him to wear.  I had to laugh, it was almost sad for me, an associate at Cabela’s thought we might be brothers. Mr. grey beard was enjoying the weekend; poking out about 3 days worth; my odd 3 on 3 off rotation allows the occasional scruffiness. I had grey hair at an early age, it runs in the family, I did the semi-dye thing for many years but finally decided to give the a ’natural look a chance about 6 months ago. After this experience I’m thinking I might reevaluate my decision. Dad on the other hand wears his white hair without a care in the world. He has always given me his opinion on whatever it was I was doing in life, jobs, family, business, finance or leisure; whether I wanted it or not. Looking back he’s been right 100% of the time, give or take 1%. He’s been very generous through the years and I have learned to heed his advice, its has served me well.

So, Happy Fathers Day Dad, and thanks for all you’ve done.

The End of the World as we know it

A person has been predicted today to be the end of the world, I predict tomorrow I’ll need to buy gas. I wonder which prediction is more likely to come to fruition? Have you finished your bucket list, that list of everything you want to do before you’re not able to do things any longer? I haven’t even finished writing mine. Bucket lists cost money, for the most part, and I’m not at a point where I can stop working to execute my bucket list. I could lower my expectations of acceptable standard of living, ask everyone from the government to the guy waiting for the bus to give me free stuff, but I choose not to, so my bucket list waits.
I have a sneaky suspicion that if some great controller is planning a catastrophic surprise for our little corner of humanity, its not going to make an appointment. See you tomorrow.

Pork Studies

Let’s talk about pork. With out a doubt the pig is one of the most enjoyed mammals on the planet; large litters delight the producers in the spring, piglets delight little children at the county fair, in the fall fat ones delight the butcher as he goes about his craft. There are so many parts of the pig to enjoy, bacon, ham, ribs, chops, loin roast, sausage, pickled feet even the head and ears are used as delicacies around the globe. We have contests to test our prowess in preparing this fine animal, we fry it, we bake it, we broil it, we microwave it, we cook it over an open fire, we even bury it in the ground wrapped in leaves. We smother its components with all kinds of enhancements in pursuit of the perfect flavor, saving its best to celebrate our most cherished holiday meals. Garbage in does not always mean garbage out.

Six Sentences

If your a writer, or a reader and enjoy short stories, I’d like to invite you to join me and a few others at Six Sentences, a blog spot for writers. We have an active forum with many new pieces published every day. The main site is at Six Sentences the forum can be found here 6S Social Network, my personal page with stories is here my 6S contributions. Its very laid back, they have published several books with members contributions in the last couple years. Members are from all walks of life and from around the world, the internet has truly shrunk the world. Come join the fun.

Introductions

Introductions are in order; Steve Gish is what I go by, been around this little blue planet of ours almost 50 years now, not quite, but a bit closer than I’d like. Life has been interesting to say the least, grew up on a small Kansas farm, spent a good number of years gallivanting around the world with the US Navy, hobbies and interests have changed with the seasons many times over. I don’t prescribe to a regulated religion, I don’t fit the mold of a known political affiliation and honestly, at this point in life, all I ever intend to do is whatever it takes to keep my sanity in check until I just don’t need it any longer. I still have a day job with stresses I’d care to release but the reality of it is I’m afraid I might out live my bank account, and I would rather not burden the general public for their hard earned money, so I keep at it. My current pursuit of reading and writing have prompted me to make recordings of my mental wanderings, which come and go without notice; hence this blogs subtitle “searching for something to do between thoughts”. Topical Noise will run the gamut of subject matter, the new sun bringing the next great debate. Feel free to pop in and stir the pot.

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