Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Reunion of Sorts

Mary and I decided that I needed to get out of the house this morning. I'm getting anxious to hear from my doctor next Monday on my possible 'partial' weight bearing status so I'm sure I'm driving Mary crazy! I made a call to John, a friend since grade school and my first call for the right seat when it's open. John visited the house earlier this week to do some computer work; adding a read write drive since mine took a dirt nap and he got both our laptops back online so we could print on the one printer hooked to the desk top computer here in the office/temporary cockpit (Thank God for MSFS).
The plan today was to pop the top cowl and remove the oil cooler winter plate. I crutched around hugging 679er, peeking in her fuel tanks, performing a visual pre-flight and looking under the cover into the cockpit like a first time love struck teen. I think I slobbered on the side of the plane. John soon arrived and we opened the cowl. I balanced on one leg with a crutch under each arm while helping lift and John took full control making sure the cowl was clear of the prop and placed safely on the ground. After that it was five minutes to remove the two screws and nuts and re-secure them on the plate as it was tucked away in our storage box in the baggage compartment. It will be easier to find this winter if it's intact in the same location every year.
I looked around for bird nests, there were none and no oil leaks on our girl. We buttoned 679er up locked the baggage door, secured the cover and I said my goodbyes. We gave John a quick lift out to his car and then we headed home. John had to make a stop in Wilmington for a part for his home air conditioner and we went to look at a sprinkler installation.
A short stay at the airport today but I did get to see one Cessna Citation X arrive and one Dassault Falcon 2000 depart on runway one. Its been seven weeks since I last flew, I miss it. One note I should add is that the club added a fourth pilot. The new guy is multi, commercial and instrument rated and a new flight instructor. He is getting time in type this week and has 679er scheduled for a trip to Ocracoke June 5th. It's good to have her flying and I hope the new guy works out. Maybe I'll get to meet him when I get back in the left seat.

No comments: