Been a bit quiet .. but busy

Its been a while since I posted as it’s been so busy at work and life’s in general ..

My mounting commitments, offering ‘that different raffle prize’ has kept me busy trying to plan various hops around the island in PA28s butlast week I did my first 2 separate sessions in the Sherwood .. all for good causes.

The first was a lady who just loved the sheer volume of fresh air and turn rates … and it taught me that I need to  have a good aircraft exit sequence for when we land. We had flown along the South of the island for around 20 mins and headed back in to land. Squeezed in ahead of a landing FlyBe Embraer jet I was asked to keep the speed up .. interesting challenge in a slow biplane …

Challenge dutifully accepted we did a lovely curving fast approach and a slightly springy arrival .. but all great fun in the setting sun.

On shutdown and exit all was going well with the standard Sherwood exit manoeuvre when I advised on the supporting your body weight as you ease ‘up and out’ at which point there was a slight involuntary move of the head forwards .. dead centre of the small wrap around front screen … CRACK … split about 8” down the middle ;((

I messaged Paul at TLAC before the engine was even cool and it’s in the post ! Handy anyway as I had cleaned the front screen with some non standard liquid months before and the edge had crazed … so good to replace .. should only take about 40mins .. need tweezers to hold the minute nylons whilst tightening the small stainless Allen bolts.

I had another flight planned for two days later so made up a small alloy support flange and two clecos had it firmly in place am not looking to dissimilar to a Spitfire rear view mirror mount !