After we were done, I had to head for Richmond. There was a slight problem with my rental car. Most small fields don’t have rental car offices on site. When flying into a small field on Sunday, the rental car company has to deliver the car the day before (they usually close on Saturday around noon) and leave the keys with the airport. But I had a funny feeling. I called the Hanover Country Municipal Airport after lunch and there was no car. Since it was after noon, the rental car office was closed.  But the people at Heart of Virginia Aviation said I could use their courtesy car until Enterprise got a car out. Usually, the courtesy car is the old fire chiefs car… 10 years old with about 400,000 miles on it. Collapsed front seat, no suspension, etc. But not at Hanover County. After parking the plane, the line guys brought out their “courtesy car”.

Nice!

In the middle of all this I had to teach a Nexus 7000 class in New Jersey at the end of April. Ann was in New York at the same time. When she was done with her business on the 28th, so she caught a train to New Jersey. After the class was over on April 29 we drove down to Wilmington, DE to attend my neice’s graduation. She was receiving her MBA that she obtained in 18 months on her own while working two jobs. Beat that!!!

Kris.

Kris and her proud papa.

The following Saturday, I drove Ann to Philly to catch a flight home. Then I took Kris to lunch and then we went for a sightseeing flight over Delaware and New Jersey.

Kris at the controls.

She’s got a real good touch on the controls. Most people over-control but she seems to have a knack for it.

Here’s an interesting tidbit. What does Malcolm do when he’s not building airplanes?

He builds scale WWII tanks (insert original Flight of the Phoenix movie reference here).

Here’s one of his masterpieces.

See the tow cables on the side of the tank? The little helmet on the side of the turret? Oh yeah… and the treads; they actually move.

The back of the tank.

How about that little tiny bucket? It’s hand made… Out of metal. I’ll bet it actually holds water.

Back of the turret.

Check out those canteens. And this tank is about SIX INCHES LONG. Many of the parts on this tank are fabricated from scratch in Malcolm’s model building facility. He uses pictures of actual tanks, maintenance manuals, construction drawings (the original 70 year old documents), etc. when building these tanks. The detail is almost scary. Most of the times when he shows me what he’s working on, I can barely see it. He makes bolt heads that are only a couple thousands of an inch across.

We had a great time at Sun-n-Fun on Wednesday. The weather was perfect. Saw Tom Lawson of Firewall Forward who supplied the engine. I picked up some supplies and talked to a few vendors. Wednesday night we had dinner with Richard and Sheri. On Thursday we had some plans to hang out in Tampa. Turns out that was perfect timing. Lakeland, FL got hit by a tornado that destroyed numerous aircraft. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries (to people).

Now here’s a little backstory. About 20 years ago, I used to have an occasional business lunch with a customer. One of the restaurants (Sea Sea Riders) we would go to had this dessert called a “Kitchen Sink”. One day after lunch I decided to order dessert. When it was brought out, my customer asked if she could have a bite. I said sure and she asked for an extra spoon. After that, whenever we had lunch at this restaurant, we would always order a “Kitchen Sink with two spoons”. Well, I ended up marrying that customer.

Now last year after Sun-n-Fun, we went by the restaurant. It had changed little but they had stopped serving the Kitchen Sink years earlier. But there was a storm going on they had lost power. The chef was walking in and out of the kitchen dealing with some storm induced crisis and at one point we started talking to him. Turns out he had just started at the restaurant a couple weeks earlier but he used to work there about 20 years ago. And the “Kitchen Sink” was his creation.

So a couple months before this year’s trip I contacted the restaurant and asked if they could bring back the dessert for me… Just this once. The owner of the restaurant couldn’t have been more accomodating.

So the plan was put into motion. On Thursday, we went to the old lunch restaurant (BTW, Jimmy Buffett wrote a song about our lunches). After lunch, they brought out dessert.

And we had to include the chef that started all this in motion.

While I was playing in Florida, Malcolm was plugging away with surfacing stuff. Getting the windows just right, fixing the damage from the unexpected nose gear retraction. Other stuff like that. Malcolm doesn’t like the way that the factory does the window installation so he spent a lot of time trying to make them “good enough”.

We (Ann and I) are heading to Sun-n-Fun in Florida for a couple days.

Woo-Hoo!

We drove up to Oshkosh on Tuesday morning. The plan was to spend all day Tuesday and Wednesday, hit the Velocity Cookout Wednesday night and head home on Thursday morning. As is usually the case, I spent most of the time talking with vendors and checking out the latest products. I did attend a very interesting seminar on electronic circuit breakers from Vertical Power. Then we checked into our hotel and had dinner in a local Fond Du Lac restaurant.

Wednesday the rain started. We hung out in the hotel until about 10am waiting for the weather to clear. Ann was feeling a bit under the weather so I struck out on my own with my poncho and backpack. The flymart was almost deserted so I made good time picking up tools and other supplies. Then I hit the vendor hangars and got some spark plugs and oil filters (for the Cessna). Then I talked with Carlos and Grand Rapids (I’m using their displays) and Marc at Vertical Power. I checked out a couple other vendors and then headed back to the hotel to see if Ann was feeling up to the cookout.

She was feeling better, so around 5pm, we headed back to Osh.

We were able to sneak our car into the camping area (because who’s going IN at 5pm?) which was a good thing because it was a mess!

The turnout this year was huge. BTW, all of these pictures are from Brett Ferrell. He maintains an unofficial Velocity (www.velocityxl.com) website and his wife, Elizabeth took bunches of pictures.

Me (right) and Scott Baker (in green). Scott used to manage Velocity. Now he’s doing builder assist work (like Malcolm).

Andy Millin. The cookout is his baby. He cooks the brats and burgers every year.

Albert (in brown on the left), Ann and me.

Albert’s wife Bree and Ann helping out.

There’s this… thing. A pose, really, called “Eagle One” where you stand with your hands on your hips and look off into the sky. I don’t know who started it. This is my first attempt.

Me (left) and Ken Baker. I think this is after Ken won the “most brats eaten” award for the 8th year in a row.

Ken used to work at Velocity with his father (Scott) but now he’s working at Mecca. That’s what I call Scaled Composites. The company Burt Rutan started that’s currently building (amoung other things) Spaceship Two for Virgin Glactic.

We stayed until it started getting dark and then we left. The party goes on much later, but Ann still wasn’t 100%. Getting out was exciting. We almost got bogged down a couple of times trying to get out. Once we got back to the hotel, we looked at each other and said “let’s go”. So we packed up and drove home that night. On the way home, Just north of Milwaukee, I drove through the worst rain storm I have ever seen. Most cars were stopped on the side of the road. A couple simple stopped where they were. With a diesel engine under the hood and Rainx on the windshield, we just kept on going (albeit at a reduced speed). Got home around midnight and slept in our own bed.

The current ride is down for maintenance.

I’m really pretty anal about maintenance on the Cessna. My philosophy is that if something breaks after taking off into IFR conditions, it’s bad thing. So proper maintenance is a must. The only maintenance I ever defer is non-critical items. Interior trim, for example.

I change the oil and filter between 30 and 35 hours. Many people run 50 hours. And some don’t change the filter at every oil change. Not only do I change the oil and filter but I take an oil sample and send it off for analysis. And I cut the filter open and inspect the filter for metal.

A couple months ago I hit the 500 hour mark since the engine was completely overhauled. The magnetos require and inspection and rebuild at 500 hours. So the mags came off when I was changing the oil and filter. I also took the opportunity to replace all 12 sparkplugs.

At the next oil change, ferrous metal was found in the filter. The oil analysis report also showed “slightly elevated iron” in the sample. Lynn, my A&P (Airframe and Powerplant mechanic) said the amount of metal wasn’t enough to ground the plane but it did warrant watching. I sent the metal to a lab and then ran a number tests on it and the report was that it was consistent with the crankshaft.  Lynn feels it’s almost a certainty that it’s the camshaft.

So my plan was to fly a shorter cycle and change the oil at about 15 to 20 hours and see what happens.

It was a VERY stressful 15-20 hours. Every time the engine made the slightest noise, I was looking for a place to land. And engines make a LOT of noise.

After my last trip down to Greenville, I changed the oil (19 hours since the last change). A lot more metal in the filter this time. The oil sample shows the iron dropping back down to the “normal” range.

I sent the filter out to Firewall Forward have the metal analyzed under their scanning electron microscope and they said it most likely came from the camshaft.

While a catastrophic failure was unlikely and I could keep flying, the metal being produced would be damaging other parts of the engine. So I made the call to ground the plane.

I was way past the warranty on the overhaul from 5 years ago (2 year warranty) so I had to pick a shop to do the teardown, figure out where the metal is coming from and fix it. I could send it back to Penn Yan which is who did the previous overhaul but since it only made it a quarter of the way to 2,000 hour TBO, I wasn’t happy with them at this point. So on the recommendation of Lynn, I’m going to give Poplar Grove Airmotive a shot. They’re only about 30 miles away and they’ll pick it up and deliver it for free (which usually costs about $300 each way). And since they’re close by, I can drop by and check on the progress.

The biggest downside is that this is a horrific, unexpected expense. Initial estimates are $7,500 for the low side and lots, lots more if it turns out to be the crankshaft. And that doesn’t include the cost of removing and reinstalling the engine.

This morning we pulled the airplane over the Lynn’s shop and removed the engine. We had it out by about noon. Poplar Grove will pick it tomorrow. They say it’ll take about 3 weeks. I’m hoping for a (good) prognosis next week.

Removed engine

What is now a glider.

The thing that really sucks is that with regular maintenance and normal use, this engine should be able to have gone 2,000 hours.

So 18 months ago when Ann saw a move south was imminent, we had to figure out what to do with the airplane. The chances of finding a house with a shop big enough for the plane was not very likely. So the plan was to ship it to Malcolm. I could make the short (40 minute) flight from NW Atlanta to work on it while I was trying to find a place for the plane. Or if we never found a place for it, I could always commute..

But the move didn’t happen. And shipping it all the way back up here was too much money. And there was a possibility that we would be moving at some point soon. So we waited. And I flew down to Greenville as often as possible. Logistics were a pain. I drove the explorer down and left it at the airport so I would have transportation when I was there. Whenever I had a class to teach that was anywhere near (400 miles is “near”, right?) Greenville, I would spend a couple days working on the plane with Malcolm. It took me a while but I eventually found a nice place to stay and got into a groove of heading down to South Carolina.

At this point, there doesn’t look like there’s any chance of move so we made the call to bring the plane back home.

The big day is scheduled to be February 25th. I’ll fly down (commercial) on the 22nd and finish up a couple tasks and then start prepping the plane for the trip back north.

I really can’t say enough good things about Malcolm. His glass work (fiberglass, that is) is just spectacular. And his eye on finish work is beyond reproach. After looking at other planes at Oshkosh and Sun-n-Fun, my plane (in primer) looks WAY better than quite a few finished (and painted) airplanes. The guy is a freaking artist. If the plane hadn’t spent the last 18 months down there, I probably wouldn’t be nearly as far along as I am now. By my estimation, 1 hour of “Malcolm time” is the equivalent of 8 hours (or more) of my time.

It’ll be nice to walk out to the shop whenever I want but without a doubt, things won’t move at the same pace as when me and Malcolm are working together.

I flew down (commercial) on Wednesday into GSP. Thursday morning I took a cab to GYH (Donaldson Airport) and picked up the Explorer.

Me and Malcolm spent the next three days finishing up some tasks and then I loaded up all the little stuff (boxes, parts, etc.) into the Explorer. Travis arrived on Sunday morning and we started loading the plane on his trailer. This is a relatively new rig that lets him carry the plane with the engine attached. Earlier versions required removing the engine.

First we had to bolt on a mounting bracket.

Then the front of the plane is lifted onto the trailer.

Next, the back of the plane is raised up with jacks (and in this case, Malcolm’s chain hoist). Once the back of the plane is high enough, Travis backs the trailer up until the plane is in position.

Then a receiver mount is placed under the bracket and the plane is lowered. The landing gear is then retracted.

Under the back of the plane you can see the orange hydraulic jack that will tilt the plane over to it’s transport position.

One of Malcolm’s business neighbors is in the industrial surplus business. He gave me a roll of this green plastic material. We think it’s used for protecting cars during transport. So I put it anywhere I thought the plane might get beat up or if I wanted to seal something. I wasn’t sure it would stay on, but I figured that it wouldn’t hurt.

Finally, we loaded up the wings.

Travis pulled out as soon as the plane was loaded.

I hung around for a few minutes and then it was time for me to hit the road.

I left about 3pm on Sunday. I ended driving all the way home. I got in a little after 1am.

Travis showed up around 9am the next morning. We were in get it done mode and it was just us so there aren’t any pictures of the unloading.

But here’s the last picture from the shop cam before it left 18 months ago.

And there’s the first picture from the shop cam after the return.

It’s kind of hard to tell, but it’s a HUGE difference.