We decided to move the annual inspection for Atlas -- our '74 Cherokee
Pathfinder -- into February, since there has been little use for an airplane
this winter. As a result of the weather and the annual (bless me Father,
for I have sinned...) it had been 20 days since our last flight.

I've always done "owner-assisted" annuals, and this year was no different.
After ten of them, on two different Cherokees, my A&P barely needs to tell
me what to do, but there are always surprises.

This year we found an exhaust shroud (on the carb heat side) that had rivet
and screw holes wowed out (vibration) and needed sheet metal work that was
beyond my capabilities. And, in an incredible coincidence, the right main
gas tank gauge that had stopped working immediately after some avionics work
(the classic "maintenance-induced failure") last fall turned out to be the
float having fallen off the sending-unit arm, rather than a gauge problem.
Who'd a thunk?

This meant draining the tank (full, of course) into 5-gallon cans, removing
8 jillion screws, disconnecting the fuel hose (dislocate wrist, cut
forearms), disconnecting the grounding wire (dislocate wrist, curse inventor
of flat-blade screw drivers), removing the tank, fishing the float out of
the tank, removing the sending unit, blah, blah, blah. Reinstalling it was
great, too, since the very last screw would not thread into anything, and I
had to start all over...

New tires were deemed necessary, ordered -- and never came. According to my
A&P, this was the first time that Desser had ever screwed up an order --
they simply didn't ship the stupid things, for reasons unknown. After a few
confusing phone calls, they promised them by the end of the week, but I
didn't want to wait any longer, so I simply rotated the tires to the side
that wasn't in contact with the runway. (Because of landing gear dihedral
on a Cherokee, the inner 1/3 or the tires wears first. Most flight schools
rotate them so that they can extend the life of their tires.)

Checking the logs, I was surprised to see that we had almost 400 hours on
this set of main tires -- two years worth. My A&P always orders "Monster
Retreads" for us, which have 40% more rubber than regular tires -- and I'm
really sold on them now. I suspect we'll get another 100 hours on them now,
and I'll just store the new tires when they arrive.

I did install the new "Leak Guard" inner tubes, which (supposedly) leak far
less than standard tubes. Any improvement here will help, as the old ones
required servicing weekly, which -- with our wheel pants -- was quite the
pain.

Speaking of wheel pants, our "Fancy Pants" are the biggest pain in the butt
there is. Each wheel pant takes about an hour to install, with practice,
and they ALWAYS require repairs. Wowed out holes, busted screw backing
plates, stripped screw heads -- they always need repair of some sort, and
this annual was no exception.

I'd take 'em off permanently, but the previous owner (the guy who put all
the speed mods on Atlas) told me that they provided the biggest speed
increase -- so I suffer with them. Besides, Atlas looks positively naked
without them.

The traditional "Annual-Induced Repair" happened again, as always. The tail
cone on our Pathfinder is 34 years old, and brittle as an old host. I got
it off okay, but -- after inspecting/lubricating everything inside -- one of
the plastic edges broke off during reinstallation, which gave my A&P a good
laugh. The inside of that thing looks like a Frankenstein monster of
aluminum strips, JB Weld, and fiberglass patches. So, he added another
aluminum strip, and went to reinstall it himself...

....only to break off ANOTHER piece of plastic in the attempt. This gave ME
a great laugh, until I realized that I had to pay him to fix it... He just
smiled. (Before you say it, I'd replace the damned part with new, but the
paint job on it is so complex that painting it would cost more than the part
itself.)

A new brake rotor (we replaced the other one last year), new brake linings,
new air filter, a change of oil and filter, magnetos timed, compressions
checked, wing spar checked for corrosion, control cables checked for
tension, all moving parts lubed and checked for clearance, pour four cans of
gas back into the tank -- and the bird was done. $1800, plus 30 hours of my
time later, Atlas was once again FAA-approved.

And today was the test flight. First, we had to chip two feet of ice out
from in front of the maintenance hangar (two major snow/ice storms in one
week). The temperature was just 6 degrees above zero, and the runways were
solid ice-covered -- but the skies were crystal clear blue, with light (if
frigid) winds. After almost three weeks, we NEEDED to fly.

So, after an incredibly thorough preflight inspection (indoors, of course,
and by Mary, to give it a new set of eyes), we trundled out. The newly
lubed landing scissors and aired-up struts took the staccato bumps of the
ice ruts in stride as we slipped and slud out to the runway, looking for a
dry spot to do our run-up. Not finding one, I did the old "on-the-fly"
run-up, and rolled onto the runway.

For the first time, ever, the snow was so deep, and the piles of snow so
high, that we had to stop at runway and taxiway intersections to peek around
before proceeding, simply because we couldn't see the other runways!
Remarkable winter, we're having here.

Prop and mixture full forward, advancing the power smoothly, with one eye on
the JPI analyzer, Mary called out our usual checks. "6 good bars" (on the
analyzer) -- "Oil pressure good" -- "Manifold pressure good" -- "RPMs
good" -- "Airspeed alive" -- and we were airborne and climbing out at 1500
feet per minute.

Once around the pattern, a gingerly landing on the ice-covered runway, and
we rolled back to our A&P's hangar to de-cowl and check for leaks. None
found, and we repeated the whole process, for a pretty little flight to
nearby Muscatine for a great lunch at "The Button Factory" -- an old
Mississippi River button factory that has been converted into a first-class
restaurant.

What a great feeling, climbing out into those clear skies. It had been a
long 20 days (with too few flights before that, all winter), and the world
was a fairy-land of deep snow and blinding white ice stretching to all
horizons. It made even coming back to our snowed-in hangar a pleasure.

Atlas is good for another year, and we'll be seeing y'all in the skies...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"