On arriving at the hangar, there was a small issue with the Archer that I quickly picked up on during the preflight:
Yep, the initial preflight showed that it was clear the Archer was not going to be flying today.
Of course, I knew this before going to the airport, and the aircraft has already been scheduled as out of service.
As Flying Club Secretary, the first of the month is when I need to go to the hangars and collect and record the flying times for the prior month and do some other duties to keep the club flying along.
We're doing the overhaul/replacement of the engine, as the replacement engine finally arrived from Lycoming after a wait time of over two years from date of initial order.
Yep, Covid delays have continued and really set back engine delivery dates, and painfully doubled the prices of engines as well.
So, the old engine has been removed from the air frame,and is currently still attached to the hoist.
But, the new engine sure looks all nice and shiny:
The install will take awhile, and we also need to replace the intake manifold as we've found a crack in it when the engine was removed, so that's a nice extra unexpected expense that needs to be done.
Putting it all back together by the book will also take some time, and no shortcuts will be taken. Then the plane will get fully checked out and after that go back into service with the club after everything is back in tip-top shape.
Looking forward to getting this easy-handling and reliable bird back in the air.
