10 hour oil change

So we hit another major milestone today, we finally reached 10 hours of flight time.  This meant that we could do the first oil change to check the filter for any signs of metal.  A critical point in time as it would give us our first glimpse inside of the engine after the return to flight.

I am beyond thrilled to report that not only was there no metal issues found but we also showed no signs of excess blow-through or carbon buildups.

If the weather holds this weekend we have been cleared to take her on a small trip to the next airport over. (KAFP)

Quick Flight Today

Today's flight was pretty routine, getting more hours in outside the pattern.  Today we climbed up to 3500 feet to the base of the clouds and out to the practice area.  It was a little too bumpy to work on manuevers but still a nice little flight.

It was also the first flight with the wheel pants, new tires and new beacon.

Any time spent in the air is good time.

This little light of mine....

Well I'm sad to report that the Grimes Rotating Beacon, high atop the tail, that has watched over the little Cherokee's flights since 1972 has finally passed on to the great beyond.

We have repaired and cleaned the old beacon several times but finally it reached a point where it was no longer repairable.  Time for an upgrade!

We have replaced the old mechanical beacon with a new self contained halogen light.  This new unit (with adapter plate) mounted directly into the spot of the old beacon and required no re-wire or changing out of the electronics.

Also, being that we no longer have to drive a mechanical motor AND a lamp the power draw on the battery is now less, which is always a bonus.

They do make more energy efficient strobe or LED systems that I could have installed but (for now) they were cost prohibitive, so I opted to go for the basic halogen lamp system. 

Still an upgrade over the original system.

New Tires and Pants On

With Tinker Belle supervising the work, the little Cherokee got her a set of 3 brand new 600-6 GoodYear Tires.  We were waiting on new tires before we put the wheel pants back on, this should add about 100 knots to the cruise speed :)

It does feel good to finally get to see the plane "whole" again.

Unfortunately, we were unable to take her on a flight due to very gusty winds and low ceilings.  But hopefully soon we will get to take her for another spin.

Another milestone...

The First Wing View from the Cherokee

This weekend saw two major milestones for the little Cherokee.  First was a flight lasting 1.2 hrs which is to date the longest single flight of the Cherokee, second and most excitedly today we were able to leave the pattern for the first time.

The Cherokee was able to perform all of the 'standard' manuevers for the first time.  Slow flight, stalls, and steep turns.

Next up will be a short XC to a nearby airport!

Also, and most importantly I was able to use the plane to achieve one of the goals I had set which was to share the joy of aviation by giving someone their very first airplane ride.  Being able to share the joy and fun of general aviation with others has always been one of my goals.  

Late evening over the practice area

New goodies..

Hope everyone had a great holiday.  The weather was terrible here with 76 degrees and storms on Christmas Day.  That meant no flying but I was able to score some cool new things for the plane.  

A new RAM yoke mount for my iPad.  Can't wait to try this out on all those cross countries. 

Anew Pitot cover (with flag) my old one was all dry and rotted off.  

A handy checkmate reference card for operations.  Much easier than having to dig through the flip book. 

A sweet window decal for my car :)

And my favorite...a toy model of my plane for my desk at work :) 

Social media

Happy Holidays to everyone...

Nice early Christmas gift this week as Piper Aircraft gave us a quick shout out on their Facebook and Twitter.

Hopefully by the summer we will be ready to make the trip to Florida.  I'd really like to fly the Cherokee back to the Piper Factory.  

Another beautiful day....

Snuck in one more day of flying before the weather and Christmas vacation rolls in.

Another hour in the pattern and another hour of hassle free flight on the little Cherokee. 

Short Field take off and some cross wind practice....

Couple videos from today, just working on some cross wind landings and seeing how she does on a short field takeoff.

Another weekend...

Weekend before Christmas and snuck in a quick hour in the pattern.  Nice little breezy wind to see how the Cherokee does in a cross-wind.

Plane did great again and handled very well.  Did a short field take off to see how that would go and it went very well, jumps right off the runway.  

Also the smoothest landing yet.

More Time...

Got a little bit more time in the air yesterday and she's still doing just fine. 

Right now we're just trying to put as much time on her flying around the airport as possible.  Once we reach 10 hours or so we will do another oil change to check the filter.  If all looks well we will then start to slowly branch out a little farther from the airport until we are comfortable taking it to a nearby airfield.

My First Flight

A beautiful 71 degree December? day was the perfect day to fly the little Cherokee.  I finally got a chance to fly the little plane that I rescued almost 10 months ago.  After years of seeing it sit unused I finally decided to try and rescue it along with my friend Cody. 

We were able to test fly it last week for the first time in 10 years and now this week I was able to personally take her around the patch for a quick spin.

If you had told me a year ago that I would be celebrating my next birthday by flying my own aircraft I would have called you crazy.....

And Cody who helped me fix the little plane and always believed it could be airworthy again, was able to go around the patch as well with a CFI.  His first time flying a low wing non-LSA aircraft!

Time to upgrade that sport license to a private!

More first flight pictures

One of our reddit followers from Raleigh drove down to see the little Cherokee fly and took some great pictures.

Check out the whole album here.

http://imgur.com/gallery/UI8pz