John & Anne Wiley

2010/05/19

Tired Old Birds

Filed under: Aviation,Random,Tripp — John @ 05:53

Tonight we feel a bit like tired old birds resting from some sort of migration. Slightly sleep deprived from all the fun we’ve been having with family and friends visiting from out of town, we also helped refresh a slightly tired old bird and then went to an aviation meeting tonight. In case you missed the reference, the slightly tired bird of course was Tripp as we pitched in a few hours on the annual inspection. Anne waxed and cleaned here and there, while I took things apart and put them back together under the watchful eye of several expert aviation mechanics. We’re resting up tonight to hopefully put in a longer day tomorrow doing more of the same. Today I was able to diagnose and fix a minor problem, and might have saved a few dollars – unless they end up charging us more for being in the way 🙂 – while also learning a lot more about how Tripp works. She’s such a simple and solid airplane, and seeing her opened up gave us even more respect for how solidly-built she is. We sure are tired though, having crawled inside small spaces and held ourselves in awkward stances doing this and that. Bet we’ll sleep well, and I wonder what our dreams will be like…

2 Comments

  1. Taking part in the annual is a blast. I love crawling around looking into places most pilots don’t get to see. There is no better way to really learn about our aircraft then being hands on.

    I will say with our low wing (Beech Sundowner) my metal hip gets a work out with all those inspection plates. Hope all goes well and Tripp is back flying soon.

    Comment by Gary — 2010/05/20 @ 09:42

    • Thanks for the Comment, Gary. 🙂 I don’t find it a “blast” per se but do enjoy getting to know our new family member so much better. Plus I’ve been able to go above and beyond with stuff like replacing the inevitably bent tail tiedown. Anne has greatly enjoyed Tripp being in the Accurate Aviation hangar the last few days, as she waxes more parts and today when she was using “body clay” to remove paint overspray from the top cowl and cleaning gunk out of the tail using the braille method with her more slender arms. So many little squawks we’ve been able to much more easily take care of with every tool imaginable close to hand and our highly expert and friendly lead A&Ps Glenn Fuller & Chris Jewell providing guidance, supervision and inspection. I also learn a lot from the other A&Ps who work for them, and it’s interesting to also see them handle the routine mx calls that come in during the day. Today there was a Lancair with some sort of intermittent charging problem, and I eavesdropped as Glenn & Chris talked about how to isolate and fix it. While learning so much and ending up with a spiffier Tripp, we’ll also save a few bucks. At least that’s what I was telling myself while removing and then replacing all the access plates. 🙂

      Comment by 4ja4u — 2010/05/22 @ 04:33


RSS feed for comments on this post.

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.