Thursday, January 3, 2008

Trip home








What made the whole trip memorable was not the beach, the company, the mountains, or even the marginal VFR weather, all though they did make it interesting. It was the hydraulic leak in the landing gear system that really got my attention. We were just entering Washington when the circuit breaker tripped. Normally this is brought on by the flight instructor to simulate an emergency. In this case, it really was a problem. The hydraulic fluid that makes the landing gear go down was leaking and the pump was having to work too hard to keep the system pressurized. I left the pump off for the remainder of the flight and fortunately, there was enough fluid in the system for one more gear extension allowing us to make a safe landing back at Felts. It was an exciting way to end a long trip home.

LA





In the middle of December I had the unique opportunity to fly down to LA with three instructors to look at an airplane Moody was interested in buying. We spent a whole day taking the plane apart and inspecting all the nooks and crannys. Once we were satisfied and the money was transfered, we saddled up and flew the plane home. It was a marvelous experience not only to trade the snow in Spokane for few hours on the beach but to do that kind of an inspection and get exposed to flying in very new environments. As always I brought along the camera so I could share the views with you.