Starter Fix

I bagged a day of work today since the wx finally cooperated and I could get 679er to Cecil County, 58M for a check up. I started hearing a pinging noise when I shut down and after inspection found the starter was still engaged, this is not a good thing. It felt great to preflight and climb in 679er. For those of you that do not fly it's hard to understand I'm sure. If you remember what it was like turning 16 and taking the family car , by yourself, with no real destination in mind then you sort of get it.

I called my friend John and asked him if he could pick me up IF 679er needed to remain at 58M. If it got the ok to continue flying we were going to go punch holes in the sky until 1pm or so. No such luck, 679er needs some work and will be spending the weekend away from home. John drove down to 58M from Bear, Delaware and we hung out at the fence watching planes come and go, enjoying the fantastic wx. There was a young man that flew in with his instructor looking at an aircraft to purchase. John and I wished him luck and decided to head north.

It was good to spend time with John, we've known each other since, I'm thinking, somewhere around 5th grade. Whew, that's many moons ago for this almost 51 year old. We got a laugh out of gas prices then (under $2) and then sticker shock looking at today's prices $4.10.....UGggghhh. We made a stop at Arners and had lunch, talked about flying, summer vacations and getting caught up. I hope John follows his dream to fly, it's burned in him longer then me. For now he can share my flight time and he gets some straight and level with some VOR tracking when we can. He'll be smooth on the radio, no doubt, with all his years in Ham radio and the ground school portion should be straight forward with all the reading and flight time together.

679er should be ready next week so maybe we can get some flying in and enjoy the view from the front seat. I'll be working on my flight review tomorrow. I have Wings certificates from the online courses for my ground portion and I'll need to check if I can do my flight time in the sim. Time to break out the FAR/AIM Article 61.56 Flight Review.