Thursday, December 30, 2010

3 Delta Fox

I made a stop by the airport to meet up with Mike who flew 08Romeo today.  The Reiff heater seemed to cause some oily substance, a water dampened oil stain of sorts coming from the breather tube exiting at the bottom of the firewall.  The oil level never moved  so I think it was caused by heating the oil pan all night.  I will call Roger at Cecil Aero to confirm.
The Office
Overnight temps were below 32 degrees and when Mike climbed in today to start the CHT's were 105 degrees and the oil temp in the yellow, all very good signs. Frank (AirDorrin)was at KILG helping Mike button up and they were planning to give his Twin Comanche N833DF a quick check flight.  Frank had auto pilot work and some landing gear work done at Penn Avionics.  I was invited to tag along for the ride to Salisbury and back so of course like a little kid said yes no matter if I was riding in, on or strapped under the beautiful twin.
I wanted to see these two in action, both very good instructors and two guys who really stress the crew resource management (CRM) duties. They did not disappoint, it was like flying along jump seat with a major airline.  I picked up some excellent tips and procedures that I want to incorporate into my flying. Thanks for the ride Frank! I now understand first hand all the good things Jeff and Mike have told me about your flying.  Oh yeah, I should mention that any more than a ride or two on a rare occasion in a clean very well equipped twin engine would really make me consider the multi engine rating, let's not even talk about the speed factor!

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