Welp, the boys of mild ridiculousness are back at it. We planned to meet promptly at 8ish with Seth taking the first training shift. I was to take time to review for ground-school, as there has been an unfortunate gap since my last training session.
Everything went according to plan.
Seth arrived a bit after 9am, where he and Stanley sat around and talked about nothing but the weather.
Slackers.
But really, it was pretty windy. I arrived right on time, per usual, and was able to watch them depart at exactly around 10:45am. As my previous instructor yoda would say: “well oiled machine we are.” My partner Amanda came along to keep us company today and keep us from buying more plane things, probably. Dawwww who are we kidding, she wanted to play with the kittens we have at the field.
Seth had some top landings, the best of which started before the runway because Seth always likes to be #First. But really, he was working on soft field takeoff and landing techniques, which was cool to watch.
They wrapped up and I hopped in with Stanley for some hood time. Here is the selection I had to choose from:
I went for the one that blocked out everything but the instruments, because I am used to ignoring the real world on the daily. For those who aren’t familiar, the hood is a tool to obstruct your view outside the plane so you are forced to fly based upon your instruments. I really enjoyed this activity, actually. It is definitely a challenge, but I’ve struggled somewhat with being able to glance down at gauges and quickly process what they are telling me. Spending this time sweeping instruments while in flight was very helpful.
After doing more climbs and descents than the best friend of someone going for their belay certification, we did a couple crosswind landings and then refueled. We were 18.5 gallons from full… aaaaand half our STC was just recouped right there. Love being able to run 87.
We had set aside the rest of the day to work on our plane. Obviously, this means stand around and talk with everyone at the airport. We got a lot of ‘work’ done… But really, it was great getting to spend time hearing about stories of the airport’s past and how it came to be. Did you know Raleigh East only exists because a train derailed and the operator needed a way to clear the debris? Neither did we until today. It is a neat story, we’ll have to tell it one day.
Also, we stumbled upon a beautiful Luscombe 8a that hadn’t run in 6ish years… When it was last parked it had just been completely overhauled; new paint, new interior, new engine, new wood prop… *drool*. Would love to see that thing up in the air.
We did finally get around to some work. There is an old shell from a Skyhawk laying around as a remnant of a forsaken trip a father and daughter took without checking their fuel before departure. They ended up having to set down in a field near the airport, and both walked away from the crash. Luckily for us they did leave behind a window latch which had a part we needed, and so we were able to fix our passenger window so that it no longer plays a modified version of jack-in-the-box with Stanley while in various phases of flight.
We also fixed a window spring, and with the help of a local A&P were able to knock out a couple other items.
As we were wrapping up for the evening, we did get a little love note from one of the owners saying we apparently set off their alarm system… oops. Guess it is time to go…
But we’ll be back harder than Schwarzenegger at a breakfast diner where all the wait staff is named Sarah Connor and the pancakes are infused with protein powder.
This blog post has now been terminated.
Whiskey Boys 