Cub Progress 11-07-08

We spent the day trying to take off the windscreen, then trying to take off the fuel tank and finally settling for taking off the instrument panel.

11-06-08 Washing the Fairchild

They are almost through paving the taxiway. I pulled the Fairchild out and rinsed it off five times to try and get most of the concrete dust off the airframe. Most of it was located on the top of the airplane.

Where are you? The ELT Police

I took the Cubs ELT out Sunday, checked that it was off and put it in a box on the floor. The battery expired in 1996 and I figured it wasn't good anymore.

About 12:40 am Monday morning there was a knock on our door. The local constabulary had sent one of their finest along with a Sky Nazi (CAP) Captain and his high school age underling. "Did I have an ELT or portable safety transmitter? Darn.

I went into the garage and pulled it out of the box. The switch was on. I turned it off, pulled it out of the mounting bracket and borrowing the officer's Swiss Army Knife, unscrewed the back and removed the battery. They couldn't find Steve Fossett in over a year, but they find me in 9 1/2 hours. He said they're not supposed to work when you flight into a mountain. I said, "then why even have them?"

I did find out some interesting data on them from him. 95% of all ELT transmissions are false/unintended, only 17% of crashed aircraft set off their own ELT's and best of all, this happened to a friend of mine 2 weeks ago.

The Cub goes to Creve Coeur.

We took the Cub out to Creve Coeur this morning. The move went very smoothly and she's now sitting in Glenn's hangar waiting to be brought back to life. She won't have to wait very long.

The Great Dustbowl of Creve Coeur.

This taxiway project has gone from bad to worse. They cut the grooves/expansion joints in the concrete last week. This morning, I go out to the airport to find them blowing the dust out with industrial-strength leaf blowers. It looked like a small brushfire moving down the taxiway. The planes parked downwind, in the shadeport, got the worst of it. The were covered in abrasive concrete dust.

The hangar doors would not completely close because they hadn't cut the pin holes for the door pins yet. This is my hangar, the right side of the horizontal stabilizer, located a good 20 feet from the door.

The towel has been in place the entire time.
This is the before shot.
After removing the towel.

I'm not touching it until Glenn takes a look at it.

Cub Progress 11-1-08

We pulled the fuselage out into the abundant sunshine Saturday and hosed it off where we had previously removed the fabric. Under the good light we could see they had primed the fuselage, so there remains hope that there is no corrosion.

After the wash job, we took the propeller, the magnetos and the exhaust system off the engine. My friend Tim was right, this engine is just like a big lawnmower engine. We're hoping to take her out to the airport on Monday.

Almost ready to solo.

We were out in the garage one night this week and Lindsay pointed to the plane and said "airplane." I asked her if she wanted to sit in it, something she had previously not wanted to do. She nodded her shy nod and smiled, so I picked her up and set her in the back seat. I then asked her if she wanted to sit in the front seat and she said yes. I hoisted her to the front and she grabbed the stick with her left hand. I said "No honey, like this," and put her hand on the throttle and right hand on the stick.

Then she said, "Take pictures daddy." So I did.