"Hope Floats"

Much has happened since my last post....

We've finally got the 206 flying again; it's good to jump back into a "truck" again. In fact, Joy took her first ride in a real live MAF 206 on Saturday, when I flew her out to the beach as part of our date night. The engine is running like a champ, and I'm becoming more and more familiar with the layout of the MAF cockpit and checklist arrangements. I was the first one to fly the aircraft since we re-installed the engine. It is a little nerve-racking when all those little moving parts haven't been time-tested yet...you find yourself eyeing those engine gauges a little more often than normal. I was involved in most of the work, and I feel 100% confident that it was done right. I'm finding more and more that the training I got from Moody was second to none. For the flight test, a Servant Wings instructor and I flew the airplane down to central Oregon to accomplish some maintenance at a shop there. My first 206 landing since June was what we in the pilot world call a "greaser." That basically equates to a landing as soft as a bed of pillows. And with the 15 knot crosswind we had, I'd say I got pretty lucky.
We also received an "official" MAF application. This marks the beginnings of our career in mission aviation. I also tentatively scheduled my T.E. (technical evaluation) for the last week of April through the first week of May. These two weeks will be split between intensive flight and maintenance evaluation, as well as pyschological exams and a host of interviews, etc.
That's it for now, sorry for the lack of pictures, we've had "technical difficulties" the past couple weeks. But more is to come.