The Big Five Zero !

#50
July 8th 2007
Chip and I. Blue Sky, clean take off and landing. There was a convergence at 50 feet that caused a wobble just before touchdown making the landing slightly exciting for both of us. A couple of mechanical issues; the C-176 is losing satalite lock. I’m not sure if the unit is just getting old or vibration from the buggy is messing it up. The little fortrex is working fine and I like having it for rate of climb and decent but I really want to have the big screen of the chartplotter. I’ve found a way to wire the muffler so that if it breaks again it won’t swing into the prop and I insulated the rubber with a nylon washer so that it won’t get as hot. I flew for 40 minutes and came in as soon as it started to get bumpy.

Flight 49 Flew with Chip and a chopper

#49
July 5th 2007
Good Flight. I’m still getting used to the new throttle and all the buttons (starter and Kill). This morning I hit the starter when I was trying to kill it. I hate the sound if metal on metal. Chip and I flew for at least an hour. We covered a lot of ground and I spent some quality time getting to know the new machine. At one point the Fox News Chopper was snooping around, I tried to wave him off but Chip just turned straight at him like he wanted to play chicken. That worked …the chopper pilot took his picture and bugged out. Sure enough the next day Chip was on TV.

48th Flight

#48
July 4th 2007

I can’t believe it’s been a month! I was a little nervous but there was a light breeze and I figured that if I started my turn right away I would be able to clear the wires. It didn’t take much the torque helped me to turn and my climb was about the same as with the Snap 100. I fooled around for a bit with the foot steering and went for awhile with the trimmers out. 40 minutes into the flight the rubber mount that attaches to the exhaust broke. I was forced to shut it down and come in dead stick…No worries..
I spent the afternoon repairing the prop and replacing the exhaust mount. I was good to go.