Original Posted By: airlion
Subject: Pietenpol-List: Re: Last flight of the year. I'm enjoying reading about people's last flights of 2011 and first of 2012. Like Jack Phillips, I got in a nice late-afternoon flight on Friday, but I had to work for it. The hangar where the Piet stays is one of those Port-a-port hangars, with side doors that bifold on rollers horizontally, anda single center door that pushes up and latches, and is counterbalanced with big springs and cables. Last week, I went down to the strip and the springs on one side has snapped. That center door is way heavy. Friday, I didn't have anyone to help me so I tried pushing the door up as far as I could and bracing it with a 4 foot piece of steel pipe. Then I pushed it up farther by walking a longer 2X4 up wedged between the asphalt floor and the door. Finally, I got it up and latched but using a still longer 2X4. Replacement springs are ordered - Ben Gay has been applied! Friday was warm - high 50s but breezy. Flying north with the wind was a lot of fun but it was slow coming back south. Still it was a great way to end the year, and after landing I realized that it was a year to the day that we'd trucked the wings down to Twin Rivers and attached them to the fuselage, and made it into a real airplane. Happy New Year, Good People!Matt PaxtonNX629ML________________________________________________________________________________Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2012 10:38:00 -0800 (PST)