To Jackson County for the Annual (August 21, 2008)

This evening Tropical Storm Fay was starting to swing our way, and since I was supposed to be dropping off Trixie with the mechanic in Jackson County Georgia for her annual inspection, I decided I'd better fly her on over late in the day.

Winds aloft were a solid 18-25 knots, but the crosswind landing was only about 14 knots- interesting but not dangerous.  I was expecting to do at least one go-around, but was able to have a fairly uneventful landing on runway 34.  Not bad.

You can see from the radar image on the left, almost 24 hours later, that the rain was sweeping in pretty hard- wind, low ceilings, too.  No way I'd have gotten Trixie to him until next week.

My son Jim dropped me off in Dahlonega, drove to Jackson, picked me up, then drove me home.  Sure nice having a chauffeur to do one's bidding!

Cockpit Improvement (August 1-11, 2008)

The photo on the right shows off Trixie's original (35-year-old) plastic instrument panel covers.  Underneath the beige plastic covers (click for a larger photo), you can see where it's cracked, split, and not even well attached to the instrument panel itself.  The instruments and the metal they are mounted to are extremely good- except for the old clock and the old Loran, Trixie has great instruments.

So we decided to take off the old beige covers and to buy replacement covers from Vantage Airplane Plastics in Oklahoma.  Those guys were great.  Tim answered all my questions, told me which part numbers I needed (I needed two panels, both left and right), and when I finally ordered what I needed, I got very detailed advice and instructions on what do to.  Very helpful.

The whole process, start to finish, took ten days, many visits to the airport and many detailed steps to make sure it was all done right.  But the end result was very pleasing- and it added to the value of the airplane.

The photo on the left shows my friend Ferrell Brown helping me to trim out the new left cockpit plastic, which is black instead of beige.  First we first took the existing panel covers off, which including having to unmount switches.  But once we had the old panels off, it was pretty easy to mark out where we needed to trim and to drill.  We learned to drill tiny pilot holes in the corners, to use a metal straight edge and a sharp utility knife.  We also used my table saw and a RotoZip for some of the trimming, as well as fine sandpaper.

After each trim we went back to the airport to check fit.  The biggest challenge to overcome was dealing with the control yokes-- the left side was easy, but the right side was a  major challenge.  Ferrell was, as always, tremendous.  He's an engineer by training, not a pilot, but his attention to detail, his patience and his smiling face sure made the project a whole bunch easier.  We would drill, cut, sand and test fit.  The first Saturday afternoon at the airport it was 93º, so it didn't take long to sweat. 

But we took it back to my basement again, and made the additional trim.  And we took it back to the airport.  And we made the small changes back in the basement.  Since these are FAA-certified units, Vantage Airplane Plastics makes these to order, so if you mess one of these up by over-trimming, you've got a problem on your hands.  Going slowly, carefully and deliberately is the key.

The top ELT mount (top center) was fine, just the wrong color.  We painted it black to match.  Easy!  Another "aha" moment came with the labels- I bought a Brother P-Touch labeler and made my own, saved $30, plus ended up with a nice labeler.  That was easy.

After completion, I turned the power back on and tested everything, including the autopilot (since I had to re-mount those switches), then I did a quick test flight without passengers.   GREAT project.