Tired of Waiting

As you might guess, my wife and I are getting tired of waiting for our airplane to come out of annual. All the big pieces Bill was waiting on arrived in the middle of last week, but the airplane is not ready yet because of one part foul up after another.

First, the shop ordered the wrong engine mounts. Their parts book, which was published in 1977, one year after our Cheetah was manufactured, lists a part number for “all AA5” which is really only good for engine mounts for a Tiger. I had taken the day off last Thursday to see if there was anything I could do to speed things along and found out about the engine mount problem as soon as I arrived. Bill said he would have to figure out the real part number and order new mounts and that would take a couple of days. But, a few moments later, after I’d had some time to think about it, I asked if they had contacted Fletchair up near Hobby to see if they might have the correct mounts; and if they did, I would go get them. It turned out they did, so I spent most of the afternoon driving up to Hobby, getting the parts, and driving them back. I had thought by doing that I might get the airplane back up by the end of this weekend. WRONG! I left Bill alone on Friday and when I called him on Saturday, he told me that they were short a bolt that is part of the engine mount assemblies; they had only three of four; and he couldn’t get one before Monday morning. So, this weekend was automatically shot.

I was more okay with that at first than I am now. Why would they be short a bolt? Obviously, four bolts came out when they removed the engine; so they must have lost one. Having been a mechanic, I realize those things happen; but if it had been my shop I’d have been busting my tail to get the extra bolt and not inconvenience the customer. I just didn’t get the feeling that was happening.

Unless we have another surprise, I would think the odds are good of us finally getting the airplane back by next weekend. In any case, I told my wife I was going to tell Bill we weren’t going to return the airplane to him for our annual next year unless he gives us a loaner. The airplane will have been down for almost eight weeks by the time we get it back; that’s a bit long in my mind for an annual that doesn’t involve an engine teardown.

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.

Eating Our Lunch

When we bought our airplane, we paid for a pre-sale inspection that we had hoped would uncover any big airworthiness issues. It did find several, though none of the big stuff that’s hitting us now during our first annual. It is true that if the pre-sale hadn’t caught what it did, we’d be paying two thousand more. The previous owner, Eugenio, was quite upset with what Bill found; the airplane had been through an annual only three months previously. We all know now that the quality of that annual was not very good at all.

We’ve had a few more surprises, and each one seems to cost us eight hundred to a thousand dollars. Along with having to replace the windscreen (not totally unexpected), we are having to replace the nose strut (due to corrosion) and have the engine mount repaired (rubbing into the tubing by a mismounted carb heat cable). We’re probably in the four to five thousand dollar range, twice what we were hoping for. While we probably can generate the cash to cover it, it’s causing us to re-evaluate whether owning an airplane is something we can afford to do. Adding to that scenario is a fair amount of financial insecurity; I work for the shuttle program and my job might disappear at any time and my wife’s up for tenure at her university and could not be granted it.

The airplane has been down for a month now. The new windscreen is here and a new nose strut is on the way. I haven’t heard anything about the motor mount, but my mechanic was supposed to check last week. I’ll check tomorrow to see what progress has been made. I hope to have the airplane back in the air by the middle of the month.

My plan is to make the first flight or two after the annual “test flights”. That means I won’t be allowing any passengers and will take the airplane through its paces, performing stalls and steep turns in the air and every type of landing and takeoff I know. Once I’m satisfied that everything is working the way it’s supposed to, I’ll let the wife and dog in the airplane. Hopefully, Connie will start on her license soon after. I’d also like to get my IFR currency back, and I’ll feel the airplane is ready for IFR after all this.