A Hopeful Phoenix

We’re almost there folks. The engine has been rehung on the airplane and all the hoses and wires are connected. It has been over a month since I last flew the Decathlon and tomorrow could find me back in the air…with some style to boot.

Brian Shippee is one of the A&P’s over at PT Aero. He promised to have the D up by the airshow and it looks like its going to happen. The morning began with the engine and the airplane still separated. By the end of the day very little remained to be done. Prop, oil, fuel, electricity, it was all there. Watching someone work on an airplane is like watching an artist paint a portrait. I see chunks of metal and wires. He sees a solution. Of course at the very end of the day there was a mad scramble to find 8 of the right size spark plugs. We joined forces. We found 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 REM40E spahk plugs.

Oh, and here is the whole reason this mess happened in the first place. Guilty as charged, the camshaft has some rather eroded lobes and it just wasn’t a good idea to have this spindly looking thing up in the engine.


So the big day is tomorrow. The only thing really left to do is fire it up and see what happens. If all goes well I will ferry the airplane down to Quonset Point for the 20th annual Rhode Island National Guard Airshow. I’m not flying in the airshow of course, the D is just going to be on display at the Horizon Aviation tent. Still, taxing in between Thunderbirds, F-18’s and Sean D. Tucker is one hell of a good way to spend a Friday.