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Yesterday I was introducing a pilot-wannabe (John) to my Taylorcraft. Our plan was to go on a short introductory flight, land at Hammond, LA (a hard-surface municipal airport near here) introduce John to an instructor there then fly home to our grass strip.
So as he was following me throught the preflight, I was telling him aloud what I was doing and thinking. When I was on the right side of the engine compartment, checking the oil, I was saying something like, "I check the spark plug wire connections to make sure they're tight. I tug on the magneto to make sure it doesn't mooo..." And as the right magneto rotated about 5 degrees, I said "We're grounded." He said "What?"
I explained the situation while wiggling the mag left and right. He was fascinated. Since we had tight schedules, we didn't have time to retime the mag.
So we didn't fly. But he told me several times how intrigued he was by what happened. It did seem like a good learning experience for him.
We drove to Hammond to meet the instructor. While we were there a georgeous Cessna 195 landed to refuel on his way to Sun-N-Fun. I talked to the owner for a bit. They were from Houston (Hooks Airport, I think he said). The ship was shiny aluminum. He said that his wife shined it for this trip. It took about a week to shine. Sick. But amazingly beautiful.
I'm not going to Sun-n-Fun this year. But my hangarmate is in N36060, a bright yellow 1941 BC. Andre' is his name.
So as he was following me throught the preflight, I was telling him aloud what I was doing and thinking. When I was on the right side of the engine compartment, checking the oil, I was saying something like, "I check the spark plug wire connections to make sure they're tight. I tug on the magneto to make sure it doesn't mooo..." And as the right magneto rotated about 5 degrees, I said "We're grounded." He said "What?"
I explained the situation while wiggling the mag left and right. He was fascinated. Since we had tight schedules, we didn't have time to retime the mag.
So we didn't fly. But he told me several times how intrigued he was by what happened. It did seem like a good learning experience for him.
We drove to Hammond to meet the instructor. While we were there a georgeous Cessna 195 landed to refuel on his way to Sun-N-Fun. I talked to the owner for a bit. They were from Houston (Hooks Airport, I think he said). The ship was shiny aluminum. He said that his wife shined it for this trip. It took about a week to shine. Sick. But amazingly beautiful.
I'm not going to Sun-n-Fun this year. But my hangarmate is in N36060, a bright yellow 1941 BC. Andre' is his name.
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