This morning we only got to fly for half an hour before the clouds and mist socked us in and made it IFR. It wasn't supposed to be IFR originally or I wouldn't have woken up and gone out there. But we got up and got three takeoffs and landings in before the weather moved in. What was most entertaining was when I taxied back in and two of our highschool students showed up to start working at the hangar and were snickering at us coming in in the mist/clouds. They're like...hey...it's icky out here, what are you doing. lol Well it wasn't icky when we started and we just stayed in the pattern!
My next lesson at 10 canceled, then my 3 pm canceled so I moved the 10 am to the 3 pm, and we went. Then my 5 pm went in the 172, and my 7 pm canceled and rescheduled for tomorrow, which later conflicted with my 5 pm for tomorrow, who forgot to schedule me, just the plane, so now I have to try to get back in time to fly with him before he runs out of time tomorrow, after I bring a T-6 back from Huntington. Meanwhile, one 172 went down for maintenance so everyone got shuffled to the other, whose hobbs currently isn't working so everyone got a note to use their watches. The RG is in for an oil leak, the 172 has a broken air box, the other 172 has a broken hobbs, the one Champ has a bad tailwheel the other Champ has a bad radio/intercom, and the planes are all busy from 8 am to midnight tomorrow pretty much (except the Champ without electrical system which is only busy to 9 pm) so there's not a lot of time to take stuff down to fix the non-critical stuff. Got it? Good. That's how our days often go. ;)
I studied today on C-45 stuff and picked up a few important things. Still feel underprepared as it occurred to me today that I hadn't practiced a single engine landing, or a go-around recently, or that there are so many questions he could ask me that I couldn't answer. Then I figure I should be able to do those things (minus the questions), even if I do only have four flights in the airplane total. But still, wish I could take it up and practice by myself. I don't need anyone along, I'm comfortable in the plane that I'll be safe, but I want to practice before being observed and judged. ;) And I wish I could comprehend and retain the maintenance stuff as well as everyone around me does. They're like "oh yeah, the gear is held up by non-reversible characteristics of the worm drive reduction gearing which locks whenever a driving load is placed on the worm gear." That's a direct quote. What?! What the heck is ... any of that? You'd think I was making that up. Worm drive reduction gearing?? What?? I know that I put the little wheel in the down position and the big tires go down. If they don't go down, I know how to MAKE them go down. There's a clutch I press, and I can manually extend the gear as well. I know which circuit breaker to pull to be safe, I know which way to crank, know how to verify it's working, and can even land with or without the big wheels down if I have to. But what the HECK is a worm drive reduction gear and WHY do I need to know that?? Ugh. And that's just one thing. You can fly the plane without knowing this kind of stuff. Honest.
The weather moving in
Our last landing of the day for obvious reasons
My student Isabel cleaning the underside of the Cheyenne wings in a creative way. She got filthy doing it, too. She's a really hard worker.
No comments:
Post a Comment