When Mary and I got home from Vero beach on Friday we pushed 3 Tango Charlie into the hangar and went to pick up our zoo. literally, together we had to push the plane back in the hangar since my tug was dead.
Saturday morning I returned to the hangar to clean up the exterior of 3 Tango Charlie, clean the hangar(it was a mess), and test the tug batteries along with the charging system. My 24 volt charger was on but not charging and I needed to see if there was any life left in the batteries. I disconnected both batteries and charged them individually with a 12 volt charger. I made a quick run back to the hangar Saturday evening to check on the first battery and it was fully charged, I swapped the cables to the second battery and would check in the morning.
Sunday I headed over to the airport after breakfast to dive back into the tug problems. When I arrived I was happy to walk into a clean hangar. The floor was free of dust bunnies, the red carpets at the steps were clean and my collection of boxes dating back to last annual were gone. I broke out my trusty meter and checked the battery status, battery two was dead, only showing 6 volts. I took the battery with me to NAPPA and purchased a new battery, leaving them my exchange, and returned to install the new unit. I also had the new fuse for the 24 volt charger, so we could test that again.
Once the fuse was installed and the new battery connected I tested the system. Both batteries are holding 12.5 volts each and with the charger on I think the meter read 26 volt charge. Everything is working!
Ah, the retired life. Monday morning I had breakfast and then went to the hangar to finally clean the interior of 3 Tango Charlie. I haven't vacuumed or cleaned since last annual (May). I climbed aboard and cleaned all the windows, cleaned and treated the leather, and cleaned the glare shield that was growing quite the bumper crop of dust. I lugged my mini wet vac (2.5 gal), great little unit for crawling around the inside of the plane, into the baggage compartment. What a sight to see that must have been. I cleaned all the carpets, even those hard to reach areas deep under the seats.
3 tango Charlie is clean and ready for her next mission. I'm beat, crawling around is hard on my knees and metal parts.
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