R & R

There will be none of that this week! Each day is packed full already. Yesterday saw our Skyhawk 172 "airworthy" again. The plane was grounded for what we call an annual inspection, a very in depth look over, and in the whole airplane. This was the first major inspection done on this airplane since we acquired it last summer. And unfortunately, we found a lot of things wrong with it. It has been sitting in a hangar for almost two months, unable to fly due to repairs and replacements that needed to be done. Working part time at Hillsboro really limited the amount of time I could spend on our 172, and being down over the holidays didn't help much either. But yesterday we completed all the necessary paperwork, and the plane is "airworthy" (flyable) again. Today the weather was good enough to ferry the aircraft back to Pearson from where it's been sitting for a while, and once again, I got the privilege of putting it back up into the air where it belongs! I couldn't help but take an extra 45 minutes to re-familiarize myself with the little quirks about how it handles in the air, and get the feel for flying it again. Airplanes are a lot like cars in that each one drives a little different, and each one has its own set of quirks. This 172 is like a Honda Civic, very common, easy to drive, light and sporty. Our 206 is like a big truck, heavy, bulky, lots of horses under the...uh cowling, built Cessna tough. It is good that our 172 is up flying again, because our 206 is now down for the same inspection the 172 just got out of. The only difference is that the 206 annual inspection will be done in Creswell down in central Oregon. So, I will spend much of the week down there attending to its needs, and brushing up on my 206 maintenance skills (which I will need for my evaluation in April).
Joy will be working every day this week, as well as studying and doing homework for the Bible classes she's taking right now. And we're in the middle of sending out our winter newsletter! So needless to say, this week probably won't be much of a break for us at all. We're young though!