Then of course the clocks changed - great I thought - lovely, still evening circuits after work! No - the plane was due a 50 hour check AND a 500 hour magneto check. Then it turned out the magnetos needed two new distributor disks (as if I knew what one of those was!) and of course they had to be ordered. Bottom line was nearly two weeks of ideal evening weather and no plane. So I booked with an instructor for this Saturday, hoping to do my crosswind circuits and hoping the plane would be ready.
It turned out that it needed final checks and the repaired spat and engine cowling put back on, I was hoping it would be a mornings work and OK for a lesson at 13:00. I turned up to lend whatever help I could, givem my complete lack of knowledge about anything to do with mechanics and engines.
Manuel was working away and Lyndon was refitting the spat. I was handing Manuel screws and bits like a nurse in an operating theatre.
'Washer?'
'Washer'
'Crinkly washer?'
Crinkly washer'
'Coffee?'
'OK, I'll go!'
Meanwhile, Lyndon was attaching the now repaired spat (damaged in a disagreement with a rut on a grass runway - not me I hasten to add).
"How many bloody screws hold this thing on???!!!"
It wasn't looking good for midday and when the instructor appeared he too decided it was no go and took another student up. I could still try for solo circuits later. About 14:00 it was all back together except the cowling as Manuel took it outside for a test run of the engine.
"I'm sure there was something else I meant to do!"
That worked fine, so back in the hangar for the fiddly process of fitting the cowling with thin wire rods through an array of piano hinges. This was not intuitive stuff.
That complete, Lyndon left and we broke for lunch at the Aviator prior to a test flight. I thought I would salvage something of the day so offered to act as 'self-loading ballast' for the flight.
After lunch we went up, the the ATIS warning of shower, hail, strong winds and plagues of locusts and the black death (OK, maybe not locusts and black death!). It was the classic unstable atmosphere, chunky cumulus with clear bits. Off we went and climbed to about FL90, playing in and around the tops of all but the higher cumulus - needleass to say, I couldn't reach my camera! It was a very enjoyable flight and Manuel was having a good play with some nice steep turns - this plane cries out to be rated as aerobatic (as is now possible in the UK on an aircraft by aircraft basis).
The plane was fine, but the winds were outside the limits I am under, so I decided to try for circuits with the instructor during the week next week in the evenings.
I wandered back into the flying club and grabbed on the new charts and paid my annual subs. I was aware that I was a lot later than my wife expected so headed home thinking she might be starting to get concerned. I arrived back to find he stretched out on the sofa reading her latest book as she registered my appearance with a casual glance up and a 'how was you day' as she looked back at the book before I could reply.
Hmmmm.... maybe not too concerned!
....Oh yes - still waiting for the Canadian licence - two and a half months and counting.
