Woohoo!! The time is finally upon us again.
It has been a crazy last couple of weeks and it has kinda' snuck up on us.
A week and a half ago we put a contract on a house at the airpark where our airplane lives. A couple of years ago we got the opportunity to move 22C to the airpark that was only a 9min. drive. Wow, that was a major improvement over the 35+min drive to the airplane. Now I awake to being informed that Tanya has "slipped out the back jack", to go do dawn patrol by the unmistakable sound of a -9 whistling by on climb out. The trick is to roll out of bed just in time to see her in the overhead upon return from the back porch with a cup of coffee. So 22C has been living the life for the last couple of years while we tried to secure another house. I'm done with the shoulder to shoulder neighbors. So a house opportunity popped and we made a mad dash to raid the piggy bank that we had been reserving just for such an opportunity. Then the slew of high speed inspections and paperwork can take your breath away. I'm still in shock that I'm going to have to walk away from my perfect shop space, but I keep telling myself that there will be opportunities on the other side to recreate it. Ouch, I can't believe I'm walking away from my shop space! Of course now we have to prep to list the current house. Oh boy. There is an upstairs bedroom packed with shelves of aircraft parts, completed airplane wings in another upstairs space, and 2500 pound machinery to move...
At the same time, 22C developed some very bad habits of low voltage, high voltage, stable voltage, unstable voltage, pop the field breaker... Grrrrr. With OSH just a couple of weeks away! So, back in April, while on the last couple of legs of a grand adventure to the West Indies, we landed in an unprecedented rain event on Great Exuma. Very long story short, we got water in the B&C voltage regulator, and everything else that you can imagine. Needless to say, it didn't like that and we were stuck for the night while I dried out the inside of the regulator with a hair dryer on it all night. Reinstalled the next day and it worked like a charm and got us home. Two and a half months later, the "gremlins" present. Ok, not all that surprising, so the alternator and VR went overnight to B&C. The alternator got a full overhaul (it has 1600hrs), the VR was fully tested and blessed with the pair being run on the bench for 5-6hrs. Overnighted back and no change in the failure rate. By now, we're within a week of the hopeful launch across the country with the despair of missing OSH for the first time setting in. Overnighted two NEW voltage regulators and pulled a NEW B&C alternator intended for the -8 project off of the existing parts shelf
. (We've done this kind of thing a number of times. Pulling parts of the non-flying airplane to put on the flying one.) Tanya became an expert removing and installing alternators and voltage regulators while I flew my desk trying to make a buck. Low and behold, NEW equipment works perfectly! In the process, the airframe wiring got a long and painful complete examination. I even got to tinker with a very expensive four wire DMM to fully and properly evaluate grounds. So, we've been flying the **** out of the airplane all this week trying to regain some sense of confidence. Two flights per day.
I declare 22C, once again, good to go with a recent spit-shine. Tanya just got back from topping off the tanks. Hey, lookie there, she even cleaned it's belly! Snacks have been packed. Clothes are going in the back pack. Items are being sequentially checked off of the "Master Oshkosh List". The stand mixer is out on the counter. Ooh, you know that can mean only one thing. I'll surely be doing quality control on many dozens of chocolate chip cookies before long. We drop off the dog at 9am and will launch shortly thereafter on the easy one stop (RCM) run northbound across these beautiful United States. We'll see ya' on the field tomorrow (SAT) late afternoon ready to swap stories until we fall over sometime around 11pm.
Hey Jeff, pick me out that primo spot will ya'? The one without a whole bunch of hubbub, no noisy airplanes, and right under a nice shade tree please.
It has been a crazy last couple of weeks and it has kinda' snuck up on us.
A week and a half ago we put a contract on a house at the airpark where our airplane lives. A couple of years ago we got the opportunity to move 22C to the airpark that was only a 9min. drive. Wow, that was a major improvement over the 35+min drive to the airplane. Now I awake to being informed that Tanya has "slipped out the back jack", to go do dawn patrol by the unmistakable sound of a -9 whistling by on climb out. The trick is to roll out of bed just in time to see her in the overhead upon return from the back porch with a cup of coffee. So 22C has been living the life for the last couple of years while we tried to secure another house. I'm done with the shoulder to shoulder neighbors. So a house opportunity popped and we made a mad dash to raid the piggy bank that we had been reserving just for such an opportunity. Then the slew of high speed inspections and paperwork can take your breath away. I'm still in shock that I'm going to have to walk away from my perfect shop space, but I keep telling myself that there will be opportunities on the other side to recreate it. Ouch, I can't believe I'm walking away from my shop space! Of course now we have to prep to list the current house. Oh boy. There is an upstairs bedroom packed with shelves of aircraft parts, completed airplane wings in another upstairs space, and 2500 pound machinery to move...
At the same time, 22C developed some very bad habits of low voltage, high voltage, stable voltage, unstable voltage, pop the field breaker... Grrrrr. With OSH just a couple of weeks away! So, back in April, while on the last couple of legs of a grand adventure to the West Indies, we landed in an unprecedented rain event on Great Exuma. Very long story short, we got water in the B&C voltage regulator, and everything else that you can imagine. Needless to say, it didn't like that and we were stuck for the night while I dried out the inside of the regulator with a hair dryer on it all night. Reinstalled the next day and it worked like a charm and got us home. Two and a half months later, the "gremlins" present. Ok, not all that surprising, so the alternator and VR went overnight to B&C. The alternator got a full overhaul (it has 1600hrs), the VR was fully tested and blessed with the pair being run on the bench for 5-6hrs. Overnighted back and no change in the failure rate. By now, we're within a week of the hopeful launch across the country with the despair of missing OSH for the first time setting in. Overnighted two NEW voltage regulators and pulled a NEW B&C alternator intended for the -8 project off of the existing parts shelf
. (We've done this kind of thing a number of times. Pulling parts of the non-flying airplane to put on the flying one.) Tanya became an expert removing and installing alternators and voltage regulators while I flew my desk trying to make a buck. Low and behold, NEW equipment works perfectly! In the process, the airframe wiring got a long and painful complete examination. I even got to tinker with a very expensive four wire DMM to fully and properly evaluate grounds. So, we've been flying the **** out of the airplane all this week trying to regain some sense of confidence. Two flights per day.I declare 22C, once again, good to go with a recent spit-shine. Tanya just got back from topping off the tanks. Hey, lookie there, she even cleaned it's belly! Snacks have been packed. Clothes are going in the back pack. Items are being sequentially checked off of the "Master Oshkosh List". The stand mixer is out on the counter. Ooh, you know that can mean only one thing. I'll surely be doing quality control on many dozens of chocolate chip cookies before long. We drop off the dog at 9am and will launch shortly thereafter on the easy one stop (RCM) run northbound across these beautiful United States. We'll see ya' on the field tomorrow (SAT) late afternoon ready to swap stories until we fall over sometime around 11pm.
Hey Jeff, pick me out that primo spot will ya'? The one without a whole bunch of hubbub, no noisy airplanes, and right under a nice shade tree please
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