Aviation BS and Photo Thread

Not to mention the aircraft

 

Any idea how long it's gonna take to repaint the whole fleet?

 

I don't have a clue

 

I'd imagine they will just do the repaint when the C/D check comes up since they will have to take them apart anyway.

 

The repaint schedule is every 7 years, so should take about that long from the time we started (Sept 2014).

And I think it's super cool that every mechanic has their own box and the range in sizes pretty crazy. Granted, the number of tools increases over the years, so the size of the boxes tends to grow with them.

 

I had a 177B model for many years, still wish I had that plane, was IMHO the most underrated plane to ever come out of Wichita. Fuel burn of a 172 with the room of a 210 and handled like a dream. People pay big money to get laid back "speed shields" on their airplanes, ours came that way from the factory with no wing strut to bang your head on. Now I fly soulless aluminum tubes turning kerosene into momentum.

 

I love the Cardinal! Handles far better than a 172. I really like not having to move the seat back to get in and out. It could be a little faster, but I guess that's what the RG model is for. We might get one of those Fancy Pants fairings for the front strut. Those are supposed to pick up 5-10 knots or so...That is if we decide to keep it, it's been a real maintenance pig lately. I think the pre-buy was performed by a chimp

 

Never worried about speed too much in the day, we had a tube with a pair of GE CJ610 heaters on it to go fast till it became too noisy (but in her defense she flew like a fighter jet) then we got a longer one with Garrett TFE731's which we still have to this day. Push the sticks and it goes, push them further it goes faster, push them to the stops and it gets really thirsty.

The Cardinal just flew good and didn't cost a fortune to feed it. I would imagine that all of them are starting to eat more than their share trying to keep up with the maintenance due to the age of the fleet. Likely finding a low-time one would reveal hangar neglect with corrosion issues. Out of every aircraft in my log the only two I miss are the Cardinal and the 421B we had. Those were sexy airplanes with heart and soul. There kerosene burners we have now are heartless/soulless aluminum tubes that aren't "fun" to fly.

 

You talking about Lears? Always wanted to fly one. I rode in a 31 once and that was neat.

Thankfully our Cardinal is a 1977 year model, so most of the quirks had been worked out. It's still a 40 year old machine though, so things are always breaking. I think it's a great flight if nothing stops working during the trip

 

Yes, we had a 25 and still have a 35. Last I knew the 25 was still operating somewhere in Africa but then it disappeared from records so may have went down, parked, scrapped or who knows....... When we purchases the 35 we demo'd a Falcon 10 which was a real hot-rod but in the end we wound up with the 35.

 

Couple from my latest pairing...

Bunch of Q's lined up waiting to start their day.

Downwind on the arrival into Toronto this morning.

 

Couple nights ago coming out of San Diego.

 

Wow I'm jealous! I've seen one turbojet lear (25) in operation while I was working at Million Air over the summer. All others I see are parked It makes me really sad because I hear stories from my dad about flying the old Lears and I want to do it so bad

 

Aviation industry is going to need pilots and mechanics over next 10 years, income for pilots is brutal in the beginning. Cessna and Bombardier are downsizing. Embraer is building more small jets. Gulfstream cant keep up with large cabin demand. Airlines are making bank on low fuel costs.

West Star Aviation, #1 rated MRO

 

Hello

 

Terminal B ay MSY

 

I've got a soft spot for the Learjets with time in the 25, 35 and 60.

 

Instrument written today... wish me luck

 

Good luck!!!!!

 

You passing through BWI today? I'll wave hi if you are