A Better Mood
Yellowbird was a few days on the ground sulking out her bad attitude indicator while I made arrangements to get her to the shop. Fortunate the wait was short and the following Friday afternoon allowed a quick trip to Turners Falls. My mechanic suspected that the shock mounts for the gyro panel might need replacing, so we started there. It wasn't an easy job, from the looks of it, but he managed to replace each of the four small rubber panel mounts without removing the panel itself. We then ran up the engine throughout the range where the vibration was occurring and had no problems. An hour and an hour's worth of labor, plus the cost of parts, and we were on our way home. She's been stable for the most part since then, although sometimes I see some vibration while cycling the prop during runup. My mechanic recommended getting the prop rebalanced, which has been on my nice-thing-to-do-someday list, so I'll move it up to the top of the list.
Faithful Instructor George and I went up the next week for an instrument lesson under simulated conditions. He put me through the standard routine of Pattern A, steep turns, and recovery from unusual attitudes. After about four recoveries, George pulled out the Post-it pad and failed the attitude and heading indicators and we did a few more recoveries. He was really having a good time getting me disoriented, and when I looked up to recover from another unusual attitude, I noticed that he had drawn a smiley face on the Post-it covering the attitude indicator. It was a fun lesson.
Faithful Instructor George and I went up the next week for an instrument lesson under simulated conditions. He put me through the standard routine of Pattern A, steep turns, and recovery from unusual attitudes. After about four recoveries, George pulled out the Post-it pad and failed the attitude and heading indicators and we did a few more recoveries. He was really having a good time getting me disoriented, and when I looked up to recover from another unusual attitude, I noticed that he had drawn a smiley face on the Post-it covering the attitude indicator. It was a fun lesson.
