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!