What a mess. Started two weeks ago….

Loaded the plane for the trip to Mayfield, Kentucky to deliver supplies that were asked for by locals at Mayfield….Another pilot had collected stuff from local businesses and we were gonna fly ’em down.

Now, the stuff was heavy…Extension cords, Generator oil, power strips, trash bags….and (empty) gas cans.

So we loaded the plane Monday morning, using a scale to weigh the items and paying careful attention to weight and balance…the plane had enough fuel to get there and an hour reserve and no more…leaving as much as possible for cargo (a 340 will carry 1812 lbs, ….fuel cargo and passengers. Filled the plane, got to gross weight, threw in an additional gas can and one each extension cord for luck, and taxiied to the end of the runway.

Now, this was the coldest day I had ever taxiied the plane at….and the taxiways were still somewhat slippery. Got to the end of the taxiway, started the “Before Takeoff” checklist. The plane kept sliding on the ice,, even with the parking brake set…  so I throttled the engines back to the absolute minimum setting….started running the checklist and then the left engine died….I assumed it was just a combination of the cold and the throttle setting, so I restarted it.

And the left tachometer was dead……

So we taxiied back to the hangar, and called it a day and put the plane away.

(The next day we drove the stuff down and delivered it) The mechanic couldn’t look at the plane until Thursday anyway, so I had to wait.

He switched inputs on the tach to see if it was the instrument or the engine, and while doing the runup to check that, we suddenly had no indicated oil pressure on the left engine…shut it down quickly…..but we knew that the tach was working, it wasn’t getting a signal from the engine. Pulling the tach generator, it was obvious that it was hard to turn…. the shaft was nearly frozen in place. So we ordered the tach generator and the plane had to wait until he could get it into the heated shop for more investigation….the worry was that since the tach drive is a part of the oil pump drive, and it was obviously locked up, it may have sheared something in that geartrain.

In the heated shop, the next week, the plane moved oil when cranked, and once the tach generator arrived, since we could find nothing wrong, we took the plane out and ran it….no issues. a separate gauge placed on the engine showed 60 lbs of oil pressure

Being a very experienced mechanic, Mike deduced that there was condensation in the oil line from the engine to the pressure gauge….he pulled that line and cranked the engine and pumped about a quart of oil (and some water) out of the pressure line. Ice had apparently blocked the line and frozen…..so no indicated oil pressure. This plane had always lived in the south, and the 9 degree (F) temperature that day was likely the coldest ground temp it had ever encountered for any period of time (the hangar is unheated). Over the years, condensation had built up in the tiny line that led to the oil pressure gauge. (It is a 40 year old airplane, after all).

So, over the weekend, since it was a nice VFR day, I took the plane out and flew for an hour at 4500 feet over the airport….(Just in case) and made sure that the engine was gonna run right, and keep running…no hiccups with the oil pressure or the tach at any power settings. I wanted to be close to the airport if I needed to shut down one engine (the 340 flies very nicely on one engine, but still) and I preferred a VFR day if that was gonna happen, as while I CAN fly single engine approaches in IFR, I’d prefer not to if I can avoid it. (You either know what I mean, or you don’t).

So, all told, now the pane is ready in all respects for long distance flight again….

Ah, the pleasures of 40 year old planes. I don’t even wanna see the bill.

Sadly, most people, and especially those he tried to help, cannot “Judge based on the content of character” rather than “Color of skin”.

But that’s been the truth for a long time, why should today change? It’s easier to blame someone else rather than yourself.

That causes female Liberals to get meaner, and bitchier as they get older?

We have several examples of that in the blogworld. Some even used to be on my bloglist, but I had to take them off because they got too bad.

I see it in acquaintances  as well….older liberal women just get meaner and crabbier and such as they get older.

The effect is much less in non-liberal aged women.

I simply don’t know the mechanism not how it is related to liberalism, but it appears to be linked.

Aaron of the Shekel, that is.

He is doing ok, no serious pain, but “moving about takes some planning”.

updates as they come.

Update noonish: Yeah, now he’s starting to hurt a bit, but he is tolerating it.

I mean, he all but dismisses the Rape charge, and chooses not to put the kid in jail.

An Illinois judge has reversed his own decision to convict a teen accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in May, saying 148 days in custody in county jail was ‘plenty of punishment.’

‘By law, the court is supposed to sentence this young man to the Department of Corrections. This court will not do that. That is not just,’ Judge Adrian said on January 3.

I think that thorough examination of the finances of the Judge, his close family, and the parents of the perpetrator are justified…..

And despite the fact that the Media went overboard of their “One year anniversary of the insurrection”  a week later there is …..nothing. They have effectively forgotten. Which tells us all we need to know.

Somehow, to the DNC types, proving you have the right to vote is “Voter Suppression”.

You need an ID to drive

To cash a check

To fly on an airline

To enter the country

To open a bank account.

**You Need an ID to get “Vaccinated” for Covid** (yet somehow that isn’t “racist” or a burden….)

But it is a burden to show an ID to vote……A Burden to get an ID (even though they are free in most states), A burden to actually show up to vote in person

Why it is almost as if there were some other reason they oppose that….

Odd how that works, innit? Kinda inconsistent, though….. Push the “vaccine” (where you need to show an ID to get it) but not to vote. You need to show up in person for lots of things, like to start a bank account, or register for most benefits, but not to vote…… that should be done via an unverifiable mail in ballot….

Thing is, fully half of the US citizenry think that those lies and inconsistencies are ok, as long as they get the result they want.  I find that saddening.

Seems he is an RCMP officer who refused the Jab and is now on “Unpaid Leave”….

and his departure letter is epic:

Truths there. Lots of truths. And I will buy him a beer (or latte) if I ever meet him.

You haven’t heard, Phil is having issues with his blog. It appears that he pissed some Leftists off and they have gone and done a DDOS type of attack on him and his blog.

For now you can find him here:

https://bustednuckles.blogspot.com/?m=1

How many of the folks who are waiting in long lines for PCR tests for Covid actually have symptoms or a reason to believe that they might actually, you know, NEED a test?

I passed 4 different places that were offering tests today, and each had over a hundred cars waiting….I would estimate that the wait time was in excess of two hours….

Those folks weren’t in line for testing 2 weeks ago, in fact, the county nearly shut down the test sites because there weren’t any customers….

These folk do realize that taking a test does not prevent the disease, right? And that getting a negative test today don’t mean that they won’t get it tomorrow, right?

ETA: I did not care enough to check to see how many of these folks waiting were wearing a mask while alone in their car…..