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As in the previous post, I drove down to South Carolina to look at the plane and go flying with the seller on Sunday November 4th. I liked what I saw, so we arranged to have the plane inspected later the following week.
So on Tuesday evening November 6, I drove most of the way down to Rome, Georgia. I drove the rest of the way on Wednesday morning. The seller flew the plane there later that morning. I had my machanic do initial look-see during the middle of the day. He didn't spot anything immediate, so I gave seller a deposit, we signed the contract, and then I drove the seller to Augusta Geogia and met his wife to drop him off. I then drove most of the way back to Rome. I didn't make it all the way, but I pushed through (this is late Wednesday night now) so that I was north of Atlanta.
I was glad I had. Thursday morning, Driving north from Atlanta, the
traffic going into Atlana was pretty fierce; I was glad I was going
the other way:
Along that same strech of highway, here's a single shot I got of a
Smart Car entering onto the interstate in front of me. The way it
moved down the highway and outdistanced me made me much more confident
about the Smart's abilities as an interstate car. This was the
closest I ever got to it.
Thursday morning, I spent time in the shop taking inspectional panels
off of the plane. This is the first time I've helped with the prep
work for an annual--a first in my young life:
Inspection panels off on the left wing to expose the aileron controls:
I have lots of photos of the various bits of (now my) airplane. I'll
parcel them out among other posts. Here's one more, though. I find
it terribly amusing that the Lycoming engine/propeller combination
means that the drive pulley for the generator belt is behind the
propellor. That means that to put on a new belt, you have to take the
propellor off the crankshaft.
The engine is to the left here, the propellor and spinner to the
right. As in all Lycoming engines, the starter ring gear is here at
the front of the engine. The generator pulley is near the bottom of
the photo.