It's been too damned cold here to change my oil, so we took the plane over
to our A&P's heated hangar this morning to have it done. He offered to let
us do the work inside, if all we wanted was to borrow his heated hangar -- a
kind offer that Mary wanted NOTHING to do with!

So, we left him to his business, while we attended to ours.

Thirty minutes later, my desk staff called me to let me know that our
mechanic had called, and needed to speak with us immediately. There was no
other message.

My heart sank. With trembling fingers I dialed the phone, all the while
pondering the options. What could it be? On this bleak and dreary February
day, the ONLY thing that sprang to mind was that he had discovered our
engine was making metal -- after all, what else do you check while changing
the oil? Worse, our A&P had found metal in the filter of this very plane
at our pre-buy -- thus saving us $5000 -- so there was a historic precedent
to be reckoned with.

As he answered the phone I steeled myself for the inevitable answer.
Stomach churning, I wondered: Could our new, 150-hour old engine be trash
already?

His voice was somber -- my heart sank further. Slowly, and apologetically,
he explained to me that one of the latches had broken off our cowling while
he was reinstalling it. The latch had been bent back and forth one too many
times, and had snapped off while latching.

Weak-kneed, I almost giggled as I told him to go ahead and order a couple of
them from Piper -- at $70 apiece. A $140 bill never sounded so good!

What a screwy world airplane ownership is, no?

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"