Yesterday (5th of July) was a "red letter day" as Gretchen used to say. It started with a drive to Tacoma Narrows Airport to meet Jelica (my new flight instructor) for a couple of hours of training. We spent the first hour getting to know each other and doing lots of ground aeronautical discussion. Then we loaded up and did an hour of flying in a Cessna 152. The plane had seen better days but it flew just great, or at least as good as my rusty skills would allow. After a short set of simple maneuvers, a couple of touch and go's and one landing to a full stop I was feeling pretty good about flying again. I won't say its like riding a bicycle because my landings were all a little short on power at the approach but I will fix that quickly enough. I was very surprised to see that the last log entry in my log book was from 1995. Wow, its been 18 years since I last flew? That can't be correct. I will have to see what Jim put in his log book as to a date because there is no way Mariah was only 4 years old when we made that trip. No pictures to show of this part of the day.
Moving on, after getting home I spent several hours in the hangar putting the rear baffle into the right fuel tank. I had one small setback in that I was one rivet short to finish the extended range fuel bung flange. Hopefully somebody around here will have one otherwise I will be ordering one.
One thing I forgot to mention about yesterday (the 4th of July) was that Mariah helped me rivet the fuel tank skins to the ribs. She did a great job and it was SOOO much easier with her help. I have to say I am very proud of both her and Travis and who they are becoming as they grow up!
Today is destined to become another "red letter day". I was invited to go RV flying with Jeff, Harry and one other RVer today. I guess the plan is to go to Friday Harbor for some lunch. Its a beautiful morning for flying!
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| fuel sender and fuel pickup line for right tank |
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| wing skin getting deburred while I was waiting for it pro-seal to set up. |
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| end ribs installed and cleco'd. |
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| Bottom of fully riveted right fuel tank. All thats left is to install the access plate and one missing rivet seen in the picture below. |
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| Missing rivet at 5 o'clock. |
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| Top side of finished fuel tank. |
