Autumn

You can definitely see the Autumn has arrived. The weekend was just freezing cold, with gusty winds and rain showers. This didn't stop all the addicts from heading to the airfield though. The RAA club organized joy flights for everyone who wanted to give it try. They even advertised it in a local radio station. Very many people showed up and both Tecnam's were going up and down all over again. 30 minutes trial including Grampians flight for as low as $50.

Tecnam boarding completed

Watching others flying doesn't do any good to your mental health and the decision was made that Ziggy has to get some practice in this windy conditions. The winds were shifting all over the place with some blue holes, rain showers and low dark clouds switching from one into another with no warning. A good training day where every landing is different from the previous one.

I explained the gate remote programming process the other day. It takes quite a few guys to succeed. So if you have ever wondered how many pilots does it take to check the engine oil in the small Jabiru here it is:

single, double, triple and quadruple check to make sure nothing goes wrong

Yes, it takes 4 pilots to succeed. One to keep the lid open, second one to know which way the dip stick unscrewing goes, third one to check the level and a supervisor to make sure nobody was cheating. 

This reminds me of a situation years and years back in Minden, NV. I was helping out Tom in his glider maintenance shop. One of the customers wanted to also have the tires changed on his trailer. I drove down to the tire shop and picked up the new ones that were already on the rims. All there was left to do was to change the two wheels. Since Tom was pretty busy with some more serious stuff I offered to change the wheels. The trailer was parked outside the shop in front of his office window. Tom couldn't resist secretly supervising my work and I could see his his eyes hiding between the blinds in his office window. He never admitted it though ...

So I guess the same happened yesterday. It's weird enough to let a woman fly but it's probably even worse to let her mess around with the engine unattended ;-)

a bit of blue sky was rare

the Arrow seems to heavy to push it by hand

After a group of highly professional, skilled and experienced oil level checkers cleared the Jabiru for pattern work Ziggy was allowed to jump in and practice his landings. Despite the tricky conditions he did well and Peter said he's getting there. Reason enough for a beer. But before that a progress check on the new runway construction site had to be done.

electrical boxes for lights in the ground

All the electrical boxes for runway and taxiway lights have found their spots in the ground. A pretty deep grooves for all the cables are also ready and the next layer already covers part of the new runway.