Overnight to distant cities

Occasionally I get to fly the jet. Well, more than occasionally since that's my job, but it does tend to get in the way of the Cub project ...

Cris-crossing the country, north to south, east to west, and vice-versa is a pretty good way to make a living but I really like the overseas stuff better. For awhile, about 80% of my flying was international; Europe, South America, Asia ... it was all good but some was better than others. The end of May we were off to Lisbon for a few days - now that was something new for me ... I'd never been there. It's a beautiful city, dating way, way back and I loved the narrow, cobblestone or quarried block streets ... I took a few side trips while we were there - Cascais, the old city, a castle or two. Pretty amazing stuff.

Now back in the U.S. of A. and many channels of cable TV ...

I guess no matter where you live, there's no place like home.

It occurred to me that I haven't written about my travails with the new prop. I ordered a new wood prop from a Sensenich dealer in Ft Lauderdale and when it came, the diameter of the hub bore (the hole in the middle of the middle of the prop) was too small. Try as we might, it wasn't going to fit. So I called the dealer and Sensenich, thinking I was doing something wrong (but no, too small is just too small - nothing in question there) and hoping they'd help me out. The warranty had run out calendar-wise and I was prepared to do heated battle.

They could not have been nicer - both the dealer and Sensenich. To make a long story even longer, I sent the prop back to the factory in Plant City FL, the dealer sent me a replacement prop, and Sensenich sent my old prop to the dealer after fixing the problem. Now to install it ... but after another trip and a few days off to regenerate.

One small step at a time, but it's getting close

I thought we were going to hear the throaty roar of the Continental last week, but noooooo. A few problems cropped up while we were installing the exhaust system. A little rework here and there to get clearances for the muffler and tailpipe and that was the week's work assignment. Then I went out to the airport today.

Bob took a look at the magneto leads and said we'd better get cracking on those connections before we even think about mounting the prop ... reason being that without a ground, the mags are HOT! Move the prop, catch the impulse coupling, and you've got a running engine (or at least that's what's supposed to happen). So I rang out the wires and marked them, then had a problem with the switch, so I disassembled it, cleaned the contacts, and put it all back together - works fine now. Seems like there's something else always waiting in the wings (oh Lord, I hope not in the wings) ...

So this weekend, with any luck at all, we'll finally have sweet 85hp music in our ears after 9 long months. Honestly it didn't have to take that long ... I just wasn't in any hurry what with winter coming on and all ..