Movie and a story (or three) night

Farewell to the Sun n' Fun Air Ops Shack

 It was old, it was tired. It leaked when it rained, baked us during the show, froze us in the morning, and we often wondered if it would fall apart just being moved from storage to the flightline. And the more beat up it got the more we loved it, like a great old pair of favorite sneakers your companion kept trying to sneak into the trashcan when you weren't looking. 

But for many years, The Shack was the home of our Air Ops crew at the Sun n' Fun Fly-in & Air Show, and you never knew who you'd run into inside. Here's a movie and a story of some of the good and bad times we went through. 

 As Jimmy once said: You had to be there.

Behind the Rope Line. A Day in the Life at Sun n' Fun Air Ops. 

I Wish I Was Doing That. A pilot/writer at the end of the Shuttle program.

Long story, but I ended up covering the final two Shuttle missions as a full-on journalist, and by being a polite pain in the arse I ended up in the group standing near the VASI for the final landing of the program. I was told to stay out of the way of the real journalists, which I was happy to do, I just could not believe I was there. Thank you, NASA PAO and the NASA Security team for allowing me on the bus. 

I was sweating bullets because my video camera would not focus, luckily it kicked in right at the last second. I kept looking up at the sky expecting to see the nav lights of Atlantis until I realized Duh... it doesn't have any. Kind of a bummer but understandable that NASA took the first landing opportunity in the pre-dawn, they just wanted to get it on the ground and over with, but it also robbed everyone of seeing that magnificent sight one final time.

If you listen closely you can hear the commentary and rush of air as Atlantis goes through the pre-flare, flare, and landing. 

 

 Yes, I sound a little... exuberant in the video. Do you blame me? 

 

I'm no Gordon Baxter, but it is fun to scratch the old writer's itch and get something out. Even better when it's published:  University of Rotax. One builder's lessons to learn before maintaining a Rotax 914.

Cool down

 First, many thanks to Bob Grantham and Derrick Aubuchon for their blogs, they've helped immensley.

Second, when it comes to the radiator DO NOT follow the LSX/LSA manuals. As usual, what I did is proprietary to Jim Ratte, so support your local SeaRey Specialist and throw some money for tech support Jim's way ya cheap bastards!

Occam's Razor. aka, learn from my mistakes.

 

I was having a bit of trouble getting the wires to stay in the rectifier plug last night, the connectors kept getting pushed out when I tried to insert the plug. I carefully opened the connectors up with a small screw driver, but didn't want to go too far and have too loose a connection. Good time to walk away for the night. 

 

I called Jim this morning and expressed my hate of fast-on/never-off connectors.

Jim: Did you put them in the correct way? Which side is the round part on?

Me: Yes, with the round side to the left.

Jim: Wrong. Look inside and you'll see the ridge the little tab hooks into.Turn them around call me back.

Got back to my hangar this afternoon, pulled them all out, (ok, they pretty much fell out), looked inside the connector with my borescope. Shit.

 

Reinstalled them, and *click*. Perfect fit, and the plug went in on the first try.

 

sigh.... 

 

Me: You were right. 

Jim: Ask me how I know.

 

This is how they should look. Flat part left, round part right. 

 

 Better to find out now than force something and have it fail later because it was improperly installed.