With the wet weather prevailing and Maypole closed due to a very wet runway it’s a great time to do some maintenance. With 24.4 hours on the hobbs I thought I’d do the initial 25 hour oil and filter change and a general inspection of the engine.
After this the next thing to do before she flies again is to carry out SB-912-073 which is to replace the carburettor needle circlips. I’ll do that in a couple of days after researching the method.
I had restricted myself from taking passengers until I had 15 flights in MLSY. This was to ensure that I had fully tested the reliability of the aircraft and got used to its flight characteristics.
So I looking forward at the weather I saw a window of opportunity to take Karen on her first flight. The weather was good with blue skies and a 8-10 kts of SSW winds quite perfect for runway 20. After preparing the aircraft I walked the grass runway to check its suitability for use. It was slightly soft but ok to use.
Once Karen was seated and strapped in I briefed her on the emergency procedures and we headed for the runway. Even with the slightly soft runway and ‘two up’ MLSY leapt into the air and we headed for a trip round the coast.
We flew at 1200′ most of the time and it lasted around an hour. I said to Karen not to worry about taking pictures or videos as I had the GoPro running however once I had landed I found that I had forgotten to start it – doh!
On approach I noticed that the wind had veered to become a crosswind. The landing proved challenging as the runway conditions further down were much softer. With the top section of the runway coned off I had to flare much higher and ended up running into the soft section and decided to go round. The second approach was better and I landed shorter but still had to taxi through the softer ground so caused some rutting that we walked out.
Maypole was closed two days later after further rain made the runway unusable.
Had a call from Karen tonight from The Handsome Sam to come round for a pint (or two). On ordering my an ‘Old Hector’ Karen delivered it in this! My very own glass with a picture of G-MLSY engraved on it. Not only that but I have my own hook in the pub to hang it on!
What a lucky man I am to have such a wonderful Fiancée.
Since my first solo flight in G-MLSY on the 22nd November I’ve managed to log around 9 hours in 15 flights. The weather has been kind and quite dry. All of them have been used to familiarise myself with the aircraft and understand the flight characteristics and systems. It’s a delight to fly, reasonably fast and very responsive.
One of the things I needed to do was tune the autopilot. So where shall I go? I thought a little message to Karen would be very appropriate after all the support and encouragement she’s given me during the build so I programmed this up on SkyDemon and sent it to the SkyView.
Once I had taken off I engaged the autopilot and let it do the rest. I adjusted a few autopilot settings during the flight but it worked faultlessly. It’s a very impressive set up.
G-MLSY 