Sunday, September 10th, 2006

So its been a while since I last posted. I apologize. Turns out I haven’t had a lot of spare time that I want to spend typing away at my computer since school started. Its a lame excuse, but its the best one I've got.

My airplane works again! The engine was done being overhauled some time ago, and my dad worked his butt off to get it up and running (and attached to the airplane no less) for the last month or so. (Thanks again, Dad!) It purrs like a kitten, and makes plenty of power (for a 172, anyway) so I'm a pretty happy camper. It still dribbles oil. A few drops is all, but its enough to make a mess on the bottom of the cowling, and because of the shape of the bottom cowling, it tends to drip right on top of the front tire. It’s really hard to see where its coming from (and the engine is hot when I land) but I suspect its coming from the generator attachment. The engine has a 90 day warranty, but I hope it doesn't come to that. Its 90 days from when they finished with the overhaul, so I kind of need to decide if it needs to go back into the shop. (I really hope it doesn't though. If they do need to do some work on it, I really hope the engine doesn't need to come off again, cause that’s a real pain to do.)

So my dad flew out and picked me up from Pullman last weekend and flew me back out to Battle Ground. I was due for a flight review, which I did with Jean while I was back. I like her. She's like a grandma to me. I think its great that she still flies. I also was due for a medical, which I got taken care of the day before I flew back to Battle Ground. Anyway, the flight back was pretty uneventful. The visibility was pretty terrible for the whole trip. There are a lot of fires going on, including a big one in Dayton, which is where Devin Jeffers lives. He sent me some pictures of a helicopter picking up a bucketful of water from the lake next to his house for use for firebombing.

So the plan was for me to take my flight review, put a few hours on the 172 to be sure everything was working properly, then fly the 172 back out to Pullman. For once in the long sad history of my plans, it actually happened. No tremendous setbacks, though my plane was leaking inordinate amounts of oil for a while, but that seems to have stopped with the replacing of a cylinder gasket.

The morning before I left to head back to Pullman, I went for a flight in Dan Miller's RV-8. That is a beautiful airplane. Its so simple, but with 2 tandem seats, and a 200 HP engine, it hauls like nobodies business. The back seat has no rudder pedals, but Dan told me that it did really well without. He let me fly it for a while, and it was a blast. It is stick controlled, which was a little awkward for me, but it was really smooth to fly. There was no give in anything, so you move the stick a little in any direction, and the plane responds instantly. It was an interesting change compared to my 172. In the 172 everything happens pretty slowly, and it takes a fair amount of pressure to cause anything to happen. Anyway, it was a blast to fly with him. His panel is really clean, with just the instruments you need, as well as an autopilot and an engine monitor. The autopilot was pretty impressive. Its keyed into his stick, as well as the GPS, which made things pretty interesting. Basically it'll get the track you're heading from the GPS, and you can hit a button to make it hold that course for you. Or you can press a pause button to let you change course, then when you let up it'll track your new course. You can also press a button to start a standard rate turn in either direction. All very simple and straightforward. It made me happy. His engine monitor is also pretty cool. It'll tell you what each cylinder is doing, both head temp and exhaust temp, as well as fuel flow, and can blink a warning at you if any of the above go outside of programmed operating limits. Dan had it set up to warn him if he was heating up or cooling down the engine too rapidly. Real slick. I think I've decided I'm going to build one when I get settled into a house and have a job. I love the 172, but I certainly wouldn't mind moving a little faster. (Dan's cruising speed at I think 10 gal/hr is about 210 mph.)

In other news, school is going along well, for the most part. Some of my profs I like better than others, but that’s to be expected. Two years ago I took a class called Mechanics of Materials, and it was all about stress/strain curves, and Mohr's circle, and axial and torsional and bending stresses and such. Mostly I crammed really well for each test, and made a hell of an equation sheet for each one, and basically didn't learn much. I got the ideas immediately, but the equations didn't interest me very much. Anyway, now I'm taking a class that has so far been exactly the same thing. The worst part is, I'm still not learning it, because I still don't particularly care about it, and this time I'm annoyed that its all repeat. Irrational, I know, but there it is.

Today I went for a flight with Adam over the dam where he works, then out towards his house. He's from all of an hours drive away from Pullman on the other side of the Snake River. Curious thing though, the GPS still doesn't seem to work over Pullman. When my dad flew out to pick me up from Pullman, it went out and stayed out from about 20 miles east of Pullman, and when we left we picked it back up about that far away. When I flew back it went out in about the same place. If I didn't know better (which I don't) I'd guess that there was some problem with a satellite or something. Seems unlikely, but I have no better explanation. I should see if I can find some other people who use GPSs around here and see if they're having similar problems.

So after doing homework for the better part of 8 hours today, I'm pretty wiped out, and my bed is looking more and more comfortable with each passing moment, so I think its bed time.