Condition Inspection started
Today we got our act together in the late morning and headed to the airport to begin our first annual condition inspection. The Airworthiness Certificate for N4822C is dated 6/30/07, today is 6/29/08. It is high time to get going with one of the most important parts of aircraft ownership. This is where we try to ensure, as much as possible, that safety will be maintained.
We quickly got all of the inspection panels off. Tanya began attacking the removal of all of the cabin floors, covers, and panels. While she was doing basic dis-assembly, I started at the tail with detailed inspection and lubrication. I worked my way forward, then from each wing tip inboard. Tanya is really a trooper and her involvement in the construction process is really paying off here. She knows exactly what she is looking at, how it should look, and when things look funny. She did “the crawl” back into the tail for inspections and rod end bearing lubrication. I used my new aircraft jacks to keep the tail from hitting the floor while she was back there. Really, she doesn’t weigh much at all, but leverage has its way of taking over :). Of course, it is the beginning of July in central Texas. This means that it is 101 degrees outside. I had to turn on the master to drop the flaps this afternoon, and noticed that the OAT on the EIS read 101, and the oil temp, just sitting there in the hangar, was 99 degrees. It was hot. I had all of the fans running but eventually it just takes it out of you.
We completed everything from the tail forward to the roll bar. All inspected and ready for reassembly. Next time we’ll continue inspecting forward of the roll bar and take a look at the wing roots. The basic airframe inspections go pretty quick. I suspect some other things such as wheels and brakes and firewall forward will be slower going. However, it is amazing how much ground we can cover when both of us are fully engaged in the task at hand. So far so good. No issues found.
