Snaggletooth
Line Up and Wait
Once again the weather stopped us from doing my XC Flights. An approaching Cold Front made the wind horrible out today. So instead we went up and did some Instrument work. But it was one of those days that everything went wrong and it seamed we may never get in the air.
As soon as we walked in the Hangar my CFI said "Ok, somethings wrong with this Airplane. Let me know if you find it." So I contenued on with Preflighting the plane. I got to the tail and saw that the tail of the plane was way higher than normal. I knew that the problem must be in the Nose Gear. So I quickly walked to the nose and found the Nose Strut deflated. So we took the plane down to the A&P to get it refilled with Nitrogen.
Once that was done we went I finished the last thing on my Preflight Checklist (Straining the fuel), and of course the strainer is not in the plane. So we had to walk down to the 172 and get a Fuel Strainer.
Ok, Finally! Looks as if we are going flying..... Not. The Freqency Swap button on the Radio stuck and we could not get it to change the Freq, nor swap it. Then my CFI pressed a few other buttons and they to stuck. So after fiddling with it for a while we taxied back to the Hanger. After I shut it down we got everything sorted out. Still not sure what what the heck went wrong with it.
So we finally took off and I put on the Hood (Foggles) and wow.... it's so odd to be "Flying Blind." So I climbed up to 4,000ft. It was fun to try and keep as close to my Heading and Altitude as I could, and I did a good job of doing so. We did some VOR Nav Work while I was "Under the Hood" and at one point on the return trip I heard "Uhh Oh.... We're in the drop zone." I knew we were about 17nm North of KLBX over the local Sky Diving Place. My CFI said he could see the Drop Plane in a dive indicating we had sky divers in the air above us. About that time I felt the plane roll right and my CFI said "Opps. There's one!" As it turns out two Sky Divers were a few thousand feet to our left. Later he looked and could see all the sky divers right were we just were. Then a little bit later my CFI called out a Bald Eagle, which really rare in this area. Once back in the traffic pattern I took off the hood and made a ugly, but smooth landing in one heck of a crosswind.
Weather permiting, we'll do my XC next week. 24.4 Hours logged.
As soon as we walked in the Hangar my CFI said "Ok, somethings wrong with this Airplane. Let me know if you find it." So I contenued on with Preflighting the plane. I got to the tail and saw that the tail of the plane was way higher than normal. I knew that the problem must be in the Nose Gear. So I quickly walked to the nose and found the Nose Strut deflated. So we took the plane down to the A&P to get it refilled with Nitrogen.
Once that was done we went I finished the last thing on my Preflight Checklist (Straining the fuel), and of course the strainer is not in the plane. So we had to walk down to the 172 and get a Fuel Strainer.
Ok, Finally! Looks as if we are going flying..... Not. The Freqency Swap button on the Radio stuck and we could not get it to change the Freq, nor swap it. Then my CFI pressed a few other buttons and they to stuck. So after fiddling with it for a while we taxied back to the Hanger. After I shut it down we got everything sorted out. Still not sure what what the heck went wrong with it.
So we finally took off and I put on the Hood (Foggles) and wow.... it's so odd to be "Flying Blind." So I climbed up to 4,000ft. It was fun to try and keep as close to my Heading and Altitude as I could, and I did a good job of doing so. We did some VOR Nav Work while I was "Under the Hood" and at one point on the return trip I heard "Uhh Oh.... We're in the drop zone." I knew we were about 17nm North of KLBX over the local Sky Diving Place. My CFI said he could see the Drop Plane in a dive indicating we had sky divers in the air above us. About that time I felt the plane roll right and my CFI said "Opps. There's one!" As it turns out two Sky Divers were a few thousand feet to our left. Later he looked and could see all the sky divers right were we just were. Then a little bit later my CFI called out a Bald Eagle, which really rare in this area. Once back in the traffic pattern I took off the hood and made a ugly, but smooth landing in one heck of a crosswind.
Weather permiting, we'll do my XC next week. 24.4 Hours logged.
