Still Alive

The IFR Pilot's still alive, fans. Work has interfered with the ability to think, eat, fly, and blog. But, we managed to get through the last couple of weeks and it should be back to normal, including the return of the almost-famous "Accident of the Week"^tm.

Although flying and blogging have been absent, that hasn't stopped 78S from needing a bit of TLC.
It really was too good to be true -- to have gotten through the annual with only one tire and a some sparkplugs.

First, there were the alternator repairs, discussed earlier. Of course, the bracket that our faithful A&P welded broke, and he's had to secure a new one. That's $80. (Sidenote: We've ordered a parts list for the 172 so that in the future, we can try and track some of these parts down ourselves.)

Second, the nose wheel tire and tube had to be replaced. That was $145. That was accompanied by the need to overhaul the front strut. We'll see how much that one costs.

And, proving that bad things do come in threes...

Third, the starter -- which was just replaced with a brand new one in September at a cost of $419, plus labor -- has completely konked out, after barely 200 hours on it, nearly stranding MS in Philadelphia during an Angel Flight. Well, we're not taking that one lying down. MS wrote a nice, nasty demand for our money back. No doubt Lamar is going to merely overhaul it or replace it, but if we can get our money back and replace it with a Sky-Tec starter, that's the preferred option

Hopefully, once this spate of repairs is accomplished, 78S will be purring along nicely.

We just passed 1000 hours on the engine. That's half-way to TBO. Yikes, we better start saving our quarters. And Benjamins!