I spent the whole day at the hangar today, finishing off the annual inspection. I found and fixed a few minor snags, but that is why you do these inspections. It took longer than expected, but I expected that. :)

After I finished, the weather was perfect - very light winds - so I went for a short flight. Only 17 minutes, as it was getting late. I went a few miles south, and did some slow flying, stalls, and some manoeuvring. I can’t legally do aerobatics yet, but I did a few manoeuvres that don’t yet have a name. Then I rejoined the traffic pattern for two touch and goes and a full stop. The landings weren’t perfect - I had a bit of a skip on each of them, but they were far from the worst landings I’ve done in the aircraft. It had been almost exactly six months since the last flight (13 March 2009), but the feet still remembered how to manage a tail dragger.

I’ll head back to the hangar tomorrow, and pull the cowlings to make a prop governor adjustment. I had found the prop governor nuts were not properly torqued during the inspection, and I retorqued them. I had hoped that the inadequately torqued nuts might have allowed an internal leak at the gasket that could explain why the max rpm decreases as the oil temperature comes up, but the problem was still there on this flight. I’m going to try adjusting the stop on the governor a bit, to see if that is really the cause of the problem.

It is great to have the aircraft flying again. Let the good times roll.

Terry is at a dental school reunion for the weekend, then she will be visiting family for the rest of the week. I will attempt to make as much progress as possible why she is away, as she won’t be competing for my time.