One More Week

I talked to Bill today and we’re both hoping to have the Cheetah air-ready by the end of next week. If that holds, then hopefully Friday afternoon or Saturday I’ll be able to go get the airplane and take her out for a test flight. I’ve told Connie she can’t fly with me during the first flight or two; the airplane will have undergone major repair and I want to make sure it’s all right before allowing anyone else in the airplane with me. She doesn’t like that and by some twisted logic always feels like we need to take the risk together, but I disagree. I want all the performance I can get for those flights and don’t need to be worrying about anyone’s carcass but mine.

While the airplane is down, we’ve talked about putting strobes on it but have decided to wait on that because of the extra expense. We can get the strobes for just under $300 but it will cost another $300 to install them; and this annual is going to be expensive enough as it is. We’re hoping sometime during the next year we’ll be able to install them.

I’m hoping to go down to Bill’s hangar and take some pictures of the new nose strut and windscreen today (Saturday). I’ll post them on my website if I do. You can find a short write-up and photos concerning the annual at this link.

I was talking with a friend of mine who said, when I told him the airplane might be ready in a week, I could start renting the airplane from my mechanic. That about sums it up.

In the meantime, I’m hoping to start working on getting instrument current again. How am I going to do that with the Cheetah down, you ask! By using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, I answer. No, I can’t log any of that; but if it helps bring my scan and flying skills up to par, then it will pay off by cutting down on the real airplane time I have to use.