Saturday April 6 I went up for some instrument approaches under the hood. The weather was too nice to log approaches in actual.
One thing I remember from my instrument training is the inconvenience and danger of flying practice approaches into busy VFR airports. So we flew down to Salem. Salem has a control tower, good ATC radar coverage, and hardly anyone flies there. Perfect for hood work.
"Sky King" Ron was my safety pilot. Ron is starting his instrument training. I let him fly some of the non-approach segments.
I shot two back course and an ADF into Salem, then the VOR approach back into Hillsboro. The indicators work backards when flying the back course. I hadn't done a back course since my check ride and it showed.
I let Ron use my ultra comfortable noise cancelling Lightspeed headphones. I wore his "vanilla" cans. Four approaches and one and a half hours later my appreciation of the Lightspeed's comfort and fatigue reduction was rudely affirmed.
A $1500 Cessna repair kit is on order, with AOG (Aircraft On Ground) rush priority. With many employees laid off, Cessna did not expect to ship the kit until the middle of the next month. Some 30 hours will be needed to apply the fix.
The right fuel tank was leaking again.
The good news is there were no significant problems with the engine this year.
Some 93 "gigs" were found this year. One of the cheapest to correct was an incorrect fuse found in the clock circuit, which will be replaced with the correct 1 amp size.
By the 29th the repair kit had arrived
and was partly installed.
The fuel tank bladder came back with no leaks found.
Romeo should be ready in a week or two.
Illumination has been installed on the aritficial hroizon
and directional gyro.
The air speed indicator (next to the DG)
was sent to Flightcraft
because it read 10 mph standing still.
Below: DG and AI illuminated by the newly installed NuLites. The red lens dome light is also active. The "green" shadow along the top of the AI indicates the portion that was previously unlit.
Photo data:
The dome light and instrument light rheostats were adjusted
to make the shadow easy to photograph.
ISO 400 F2.8 1/2 sec 39mm macro hand held with
Olympus Image Stabilized 2100 Ultra Zoom.
Not bad for a 1/2 second hand held shot, thanks to the image stabilization.
Worn flap track brackets
with a new one for contrast.
With Romeo in the shop, I've had to drive
to the Flying M Ranch to enjoy the fellowship
of the usual suspects.
Between Banks and Forest Grove I noticed a Cessna flying in circles.
I must be have been close to the tree where Jason had me
practice turns
around a point.
And there it was - a large majestic tree in the middle of the valley.
Can't miss it.
Friday May 10 Romeo was finished.
I hopped over to the Ranch for a meal.
Saturday I started washing the wings to remove some greasy grime
left over from
the pyrotechnic demonstration (simulated napalm attack)
at last summer's Hillsboro Airshow.
The weather was nice for the Mother's Day dinner, and a small air force showed up at the Ranch by the time I got there. I had a perfect landing - no bounce. I could have easily stopped before the driveway if there had there been a reason to. I parked in the next available spot, as close to the road as I dared.
The plane next to and slightly ahead
of mine is a Cessna 150 "Texas Taildragger" conversion.
Chocoloate covered strawberries and salmon.
All your Omega-3 and endorphin requirements in one swell meal.
As I was finishing dinner I got word my airplane had been hit.
I walked towards my airplane, expecting to find damage to the tail feathers from someone backing their car into it. My plane was parked close to the driveway.
But the hit came from the other direction.
A moderate tailwind had come up. Some of the planes were coming in hot. I've been told a Skylane from Aurora botched a go around that afternoon and clipped some treetops. The Stearman above had an interesting approach but landed safely.
When I was starting to land
at Flying M
I canceled some landings
because of similar tailwinds.
The tailwind was far from the worst I've landed with at the Ranch.
Poor Romeo was hit by an Aeronca Champ piloted by a 17,000 hour Air Transport Pilot. It was his first landing at the Ranch.
He was alarmed by the trees off the end of the runway getting bigger. He got on the brakes. He wasn't used to heel brakes on twitchy taildraggers. Either the brakes weren't properly adjusted or he wasn't adjusted to the brakes. He lost control and swerved into my airplane. Not enough of those 17,000 hours were in taildraggers with touchy heel brakes. It's a whole world of different from landing a modern bizjet on a 6000 foot runway.
I tweeked the photo to show the Champ's tracks.
The runway is at the right of the picture.
By that time most of the other planes had left including the Texas Taildragger parked next to me. In its place was Lenhardt's rental 7EC Aeronca Champ. It took a major hit to the right wing spar several feet in from the wing tip.
The Champ left the Ranch on a trailer. The Champ was flying again long before Premeir got around to my engine. The repaired Champ reportedly had yet another ground loop, this one in Canada.
Romeo's right wing was creased
inboard of the area shown in this picture.
(That damage was hard to photograph.)
One of the prop blades was bent back 6 to 8 inches
by the impact.
Before long Mr. Lenhardt showed up in his Bonanza. As the innocent party in this affair I asked him to take me back to HIO (a rather short flight) as I had no other transportation. He refused, and I had to wait another two hours for a ride. Chocolate covered strawberrirs helped a little bit.
Below: Takeoff in one of Lenhardt's beaters.
Monday Dirk and I drove out to the Ranch
with tools and a prop.
Here Dirk "mikes" the engine's prop flange
before installing a loaner prop.
Dirk used a rubber mallet to "recontour" the leading edge.
The flight back to Hillsboro was uneventful.
Below:
Looks like a "project"...
As of June 3rd, it looked like another six weeks
before November 2469 Romeo is flying again.
That's a total of two months out of service,
including much of the year's best flying weather.
Now these cars are parked too close to the runway!
Fortunately N4712E didn't show up so no cars were hit that day.