From the Logbook...Maintenance

Yesterday was a different sort of day, as we had to stop operations and perform maintenance on the aircraft. Our "fleet" here in Mexico is only 2 airplanes. One is currently un-airworthy due to a paperwork issue. The aircraft itself is totally safe, but legally it's yearly paperwork isn't is order, therefore we aren't permitted to fly it until everything is resolved. We have done everything on our side of things, we are just waiting for a third party service to get their act together so we can get our airplane in the air again.

Therefore, our other aircraft has been taking the brunt of all the flight operations, and it was due a 50 hour inspection, or a very thorough oil change. To do this, we flew ten minutes to our old base in Mitla where we have a hangar and maintenance facilities. We were there the better part of a day taking care of various tasks. I have to say it will be fun to be involved in maintenance more here than I was used to previously.

Some of the other things I was involved in yesterday have to do with the motorcycle pictured above. It belongs to our mechanic, and he offered to let me ride it. Yeah baby! Just in front of the hangar is our very own dirt strip, which I turned into a race track. The little Honda 250 got along pretty good. In fact, maybe a little to well. While honing my donut making skills at the end of the airstrip, I gassed it a little to much and out she went. The bike went flying away, and I was left sitting on my blessed assurance, laughing and without a drop of pride. When I picked up the bike, I realized I had broken the clutch handle, and bent a few things on the left side. Nothing a little $ and torque cannot fix, it just would have been better it it was my bike, not a friends.