Today was the payoff. We test flew the Swift and it performed perfectly. It turned out to be a much longer day than I expected. I spent the morning putting all the fairings and panels back on the airplane (LOTS of screws required). Bloke showed up and decided we might check the wheel alignment. We did and it was not as desired. Of course I had been flying it like that since the beginning. It turned out that adjusting it wasn't very hard so we got that squared away. At this point I was hungry so we headed out to lunch. Upon return to the hangar I was expecting to roll out and go. Bloke decided that the chains on the tailwheel needed adjustment. So we did that. Finally in late afternoon we did the test flights and found that everything was in perfect working order.
This has been a potload of work, but all well worth it. Here I am relaxing with nice glass of single malt scotch holding the FMC placard (Fully Mission Capable). For the first time in years all four of the airplanes in the hangar are FMC. That makes for difficult decisions like, "Let's see, which airplane should I fly today." Life is good!
Congratulations!! I am so happy for you! She's a great flying machine and it will be fun to see her in the sky! Glad you and Bloke took the time to celebrate - much deserved for both of you! The hangar just didn't seem quite right when she was down!
I really want to do some more aerial photography. We use the Cessna for that. Now that all the major maintenance work is complete there will be more time for flying.
You and Bloke are to be commended for getting the Swift back in good working order. But of course, the whole point of doing so is to make it possible to take aerial photos and post them on PBase. So...the work is not quite complete. :-)
