So I get to the airport today all set and ready to go.
Conditions could not be better - sunny, warmish, winds calm, cloud layer up at 9,000 feet, it does not get any better than this. I'm pretty psyched and ready to have a great time and learn lots.
So I pre-flight 73455 - and immediately I can tell there is a problem. The right tire is flatter than flat. So flat that it makes a dead parrot look lively. That kind of flat. Other than that, the plane is in great shape, but that's a no-go for flying.
So Sean finds an air canister and refills the tire but it is still leaking air. All the other planes were booked so I was SOL for flying today, but I still got to do something aviation related.
Sean had me taxi it solo to the FBO for repairs, which was kinda fun as the FBO is across and over the airport from the Flight School.
First I had to wrestle to get the plane to start, and it took a lot of tries to get the engine to go and keep going, but I got it done.
Then I got permission to taxi - From Delta, all the way down runway 18, to Bravo taxiway and from there to the FBO. It felt pretty funny to be taxiing along a runway. Got to the FBO and parked the plane.
Sean had driven over to the FBO and we sat a chatted while waiting to see if they could get the plane fixed in time for my lesson.
Unfortunately they could not, but we had a good talk about aviation and my further and future development as a student pilot. Not a waste of time by any means and it was very enjoyable and I learned some things, which is always good.
They got it finally fixed - the tube in the tire had a perforation and had to be replaced, so I got to taxi it back to the flight school and that was that for today.
Still, it is technically .4 of pilot in command time and an interesting look at navigating around an airport on the ground.
Hopefully the good weather will stick and a flyable plane will be around for the next hop.
4 comments:
Hey, wanna take my jeep to the garage for me next time I'm up that way?
Since there's no wings on your jeep, the answer would be no.
Aw, come on...I probably won't even charge you as much as they did to run that errand. They should have given you a credit for that. My AP shop would have charged $40 for that ground ferry.
And to be fair, it may lack wings but you've been in my jeep when I've made it fly.
There was no charge to me for the ferry operation. I figured I was there anyways and it was something different to do and learn about so I might as well help out.
As to the jeep, it is true that you have indeed managed to get that Jeep rated for airborne operations on a few occasions.
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