just another day in the life of a superhero sockpuppet :-)

there was frontal activity about today.
one front had passed over us last night and another was due tonight.
all about were showers of rain and fluffy overcast.
a lovely ducks day really.

my old mate Ant had arranged to come for a fly this afternoon, if he
could make it.

when I arrived at the hangar the club was about to hold a meeting for
members in the clubhouse.
I entertained the idea of attending for a minute or two, after all
there were rain showers passing through, but all around me at the
present moment were white fluffy clouds interspersed with blue sky.

the blueness of the sky set against a backdrop of the most magnificent
cloud formations was irresistable.
stuff the boring old meeting I was going flying.

after giving the engine a check over and doing the obligatory fuel
decant I pulled the Tailwind out of the hangar, over the lip of the
door tracks and down the bitumen to rest against the permanently
pegged chain I use as a chock.

a walkaround check showed that nothing had changed from the week
before when I discovered the altimeter needle doing slow aerobarics
behind the glass. tuesday night had seen a new altimeter put in place
in the panel and today was test flight day.

the digital camera was placed in readiness and strap in, "Stand clear
of the Propeller!" and all was put in motion.
Revs, Oil, Gyro, electrics and radio, and a few seconds later I
squidged open the throttle to get a roll going over the chock chain.
make a taxying radio call and taxi past the boring old meeting down to
the end of the runway.
all systems checked out normal, which was most gratifying since the
previous year had been spent with some persistent problems that
eventually responded to some well thought out owner maintenance.

a quartering gusting crosswind was bearing across the runway as we
entered for the get go. a goodly handful of throttle pressed firmly to
the wall was rewarded with a spritely acceleration forward, 20 knots
coming up and lift the tail with a dab of right rudder and the stick
into wind and we accelerated to freeway speeds, rotate and up, correct
for drift and up and away.
establish the climbout and look back to all the attendees in what must
be the most boring of meetings with everyone rabbitting on about new
hangar allocations and keeping the hords of clueless joining the club.

back to the business at hand, the next squall was sweeping across with
it's grey curtain of rain hanging below it like a bride's veil. turn
in tight on crosswind and even tighter onto down wind and fly close in
to the strip to avoid the mist. off out over the clubhouse and over to
the coast. The nearby bays were enjoying a blast of sunlight that cast
the seas in the most exquisite emerald green fringed all about by rain
squalls. orbiting in the bright sunlight revealed that a line of rain
was bearing down on the airfield and was thick enough to take some
time to pass.

back to the strip we went for a tight in circuit with mist all about.
just as I was checking the wind socks the sun burst out over the grass
runway which lit up in the most amazing leprecaune green. To hell with
the crosswind, we'll land back on the leprecauns. throttle off and
wheel around through the legs of a tight circuit, extend in over the
trees reaching for the gap before the threshold with just 60 knots
onboard, over the top with feet to spare and throttle off and nose
down to flare into the first third of the runway, correct for the
gusts and hold full aft stick and on with just a few bumps over the
undulating grass.

an uneventful taxi back saw the tailwind back in the hangar just as
the shower wet the hangar roof.

one of the little girlies on the airstrip came over to shelter in the
hangar. she got so irritated at one of the prancing noddies in the
meeting that she walked out and decided to go bird watching. she is a
lovely curvaceous five foot nothing and as I peered down at her
standing beside me I was wont to admit that I also enjoyed
birdwatching and made my hands into a pair of binoculars over my eyes
and gazed down at her face and regions below with a smile on my face.
she told me I was a such a burk :-) :-) :-) she's lovely.

as the rainshower passed we exchanged pleasantries gazing out over the
runways. the scene was framed in a triple rainbow which appeared to
start a third of the way into one end of the runway and end a third of
the way in from the other end of the runway. quite a beautiful sight
which I can never ever do justice to with a camera.
as the rain eased off she departed for her hangar. I decided to Mr
Sheen the windows and remove some of the native australian bugs that I
involve in my flying whenever they are about.

with the sun streaming down outside I walked out to the taxiway and
peered upwards and around. above was magnificent blue framed in fluffy
white clouds.

The engine was still warm and with 3 pumps of the throttle the
Tailwind started on the second blade. ROGER again and a squidge of
throttle over the chock chain, the wind had changed and was nearly
straight down the grass runway. I taxied down to the leeward threshold
and across the piano keys to backtrack the grass runway.
way way way down at the far end I checked the maggies and gave a
squirt of throttle to turn back into wind.After a departing call on
the radio to the black hole that such things go to when no one is
receiving I made the balls to the wall again with a sprightly lift off
of the tail. not much happened in the wet grass until mid runway when
things became flyable and a gentle rotation saw air under the wheels.
a rain shower was tight by the runway so the circuit legs were kept
tight. I thought I could make it down the rellies place for a steep
turn over the top but the rain showers would be well and truely doing
their thing by the time I was over the top so we stayed close to the
airstrip in the hole in the weather hughie was providing.
I managed to get back on the deck as the next rain shower passed over
the airfield perimeter fence. The Tailwind was back in the hangar just
before the shower hit the roof.

I felt like ducking down to the clubhouse for a coffee but the damned
meeting was still in progress so I contented myself with Pledging the
bugs off the prop and leading edge.

Another visitor walked past the hangar and called in for a chat and we
caught up on each other's progress for the next 15 minutes. A glance
toward the clubhouse showed that the boring meeting was breaking up so
my visitor excused himself to return to some building with one of the
meeting attendees. I adjourned for a coffee and to give the bored
secretary and committee some cheek at missing good flying weather.

On the walk back from the hangar I thought, as you do, that the hole
in the weather was even bigger this time. Bugger it time for another
flight. My mate Ant still hadnt shown up. oh well the ferengie real
estate agents and their third law of acquisition I thought. such a
pity. The Tailwind came out of the hangar for a third time to sit
happily against the chock chain. If Ant is going to miss all this
flying I'll give him the irrits by doing steep turns over his house to
get him really wishing he had come down. I had to loiter over Safety
Bay while a shower passed through but after that in the clear air I
did my steep turns over his house.
Ant knows damn well who's doing those turns when he hears them :-) he
tells me each time.
I meandered, if that is the word when you are doing 120 knots, over
toward the navy base and on into Cockburn Sound but the way past
Fremantle was blocked by showers so I turned back to see a wall of
rain bearing down on the airfield.
Back in for a tight approach onto the bitumen and off at the second
last taxiway to again pull the Tailwind back into the hangar some
moments before the rain hit the hangar roof.
By good timing and some tight circuits I managed to keep the Tailwind
dry all day.

I wondered if I'd do it again tomorrow, hmmmmm, I think I'll do some
more woodwork for my Auster restoration tomorrow 'cause it's going to
be raining.
After another coffee in the clubhouse I closed up the hangar and
headed home for the night.

....just another uneventful day in the life of a superhero :-)

( Maxie you twonk, you really do have so much to be jealous of :-) )

Stealth Pilot