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I was in Wichita all week last week, for some avionics ground testing. The long-awaited first flight of the Lear 85 occurred while we were there, but we didn’t see it as we were beavering away doing testing on an avionics test rig.

Saturday the weather was quite nice, and I found pretty smooth air at altitude, so I took advantage to do some cruise performance testing. I’ve had the impression that the aircraft was slightly faster with the new four pipe exhaust system, but hadn’t gathered any hard cruise performance data until this last flight. I need to crunch the data and convert it to standard weight, altitude and temperature so I can compare it to my previous results. But, I need to finish my taxes first, so the data crunching is on the back burner for now.

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After we decided to cancel the planned Sun ’n Fun trip, we decided we should do something that week, as we had both booked it off work. Terry had wanted to go to Las Vegas for years, so we decided to do that instead. We got some cheap tickets, and spent five nights there. The weather was very nice, and we had a good week, but it was great to get home late Friday night.

Today the weather was perfect, so I did a short flight. It was wonderful to see that the snow is melting, with many areas of bare ground. And I didn’t have to clear any snow from in front of the hangar! Hallelujah!

I kept an eye on the weather for the cancelled trip to SNF and back. The weather for the flight down on Monday would have worked out - clear skies, with a strong tailwind. It would have been pretty bumpy over the Appalachians, but we would have made great time. However, the weather for the trip home on Friday would have been a huge problem. There was a very strong low pressure area over New York state and southern Ontario, with solid cloud and cool temperatures. There would very likely have been icing in the cloud if we flew IFR. It might have been possible to get back VFR, under the cloud at 1000 ft, or lower, but scud-running like that runs a significant risk of an accident. Saturday wasn’t any better for the return, as there was still significant low cloud in the Ottawa area. Sunday was good on the north end of the trip, but there was a significant frontal system with thunderstorms to deal with on the southern half. It would have been necessary to come part way home on Saturday, and finish the trip on Sunday. Overall, I’m glad we cancelled.

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My new Odyssey PC–680 battery finally arrived a few days ago, and today’s weather forecast was the best for coming week, so I took the day off. I replaced the battery and cleaned all the connections in the power and ground paths between the battery and the starter. The starter cranked much better than it had previously, so I’m happy. I’m not sure yet whether the issue was really a soft battery, or too much resistance in the power or ground paths. I’ll cobble together a way to do a capacity test on the battery I removed, to see whether it is suffering from the same issues as many other RVers have complained about with the recent Odyssey batteries.

The heat shields I needed to protect the SCAT tube for the second heat muff also arrived, so I installed that guy too.

The hardest job of the day was dealing with the aftermath of the big snow storm we had on Saturday. The volunteer airport snow clearing crew has had a very hard winter. They normally do an excellent job, but this time they didn’t clear all the way to the end of the taxiway, so I had a lot of snow to clear before I could go flying. The short flight was a nice reward after all that hard work.

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We’ve decided to cancel our plans to fly to Sun ’n Fun this year. My work schedule has evolved, and now I must head on the road the week after SNF. This winter has really dragged on, and the weather many days would not be suitable to fly back home due to too much cloud. In the summer, I’m happy to fly IFR in the cloud, but that isn’t an option if the temperature at altitude is below freezing, as there is a risk of airframe icing. If I didn’t have the hard requirement to get home in time to head on the road again I’d be happy to take the risk of getting stuck somewhere for a few days waiting for the weather to improve. But, if I absolutely have to get home, I’d have to abandon the aircraft somewhere and find another way home.

We’ve decided to avoid these issues by cancelling the trip. We’ll save SNF for years when I have more flexibility on the return schedule.

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I had a very nice short flight Saturday afternoon. I had planned to fly on Sunday, as that day had the best forecast. But, the weather Saturday was much nicer than expected, and Sunday’s forecast looked to be degrading, do after lunch on Saturday I decided to grab the good weather, rather than trusting that the next day would be as nice.

It seemed like everyone else at Smiths Falls was flying too, so I headed down to Brockville to do a practice approach and some touch and goes. The weather was gorgeous there too, but no one was flying.

After landing, I took a couple of pictures to try out the new Sony SEL1018 ultra wide-angle zoom lens I had purchased earlier in the day. I’ve only taken a couple of dozen pictures with this lens so far, but I’m really liking it.

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We got several inches of fluffy snow on Saturday, so no flying yesterday. The snow stopped early this morning, so I headed out to the airport to clear the snow from in front of the hangar and go flying. The airfield snow clearing took longer than I had expected, so I didn’t get airborne until just before lunch.

The Flying Club’s big Sicard Snowmaster snow blower was busy most of the morning, clearing the runway and the edges of the taxiways.

By the time I got back from flying, the sun on the paved taxiways had melted most of the snow left by the snow plow.

Sun ’n Fun planning is proceeding apace. I’ve ordered my 2014 US Customs User Fee Decal, and have done some preliminary route planning. We plan to spend a day in Savannah, GA on the way down. Savannah was founded in 1733, and much of the old city has survived. Terry read “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, set in Savannah, and she has wanted to visit the city ever since.