Flight Line
We put the "O" in AOT

Tuesday, Apr. 03, 2007 :: whaaaa? ::

wow I can't believe this is still here! I've got a bit to tell, but it'll have to wait until after work.

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Saturday, Jun. 03, 2006 :: another quest ::

where does the time go?... when you find yourself addicted to video games. Wow, can't believe I've left this part of my adiction go. There used to be days when I would sign onto diaryland 3/4 times a day to check up on people. I'd be looking for new things to update my page with and new designs to try out. Not so much anymore. I guess I was happy with the way things were here and then a new expansion to my MMOPG came out at the end of April and I've lost time ever since...

Work is going well. The temperatures are high and our boss bought the hangar 3 oscillating fans and a big 3 ft diameter floor fan. Which really doesnt do too much because 110 degree air is still hot no matter how much you move it. Yesterday after work, I signed on to my game for an hour and then went to bed (at 6pm). I didn't eat dinner nor wake with an hunger pangs. I really had to force myself to eat at lunch. The heat just kills your appetite. Though right now I wish I had the other half of sandwich I mistakenly left in the refreidge at work friday.

B and I are holding our first Vampire role play game tonight. There should hopefully be 4 maybe 5 of us. We're on the process of tidying up the house and we need to buy some snacks for munching.
Anyhow, I hope all are well... I will be back.

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Saturday, May. 13, 2006 :: here I am... ::

It's still slow at work. I finished the items on the arrow I was working on. We played musical planes and moved 4 planes around to get the other arrow of the hangar. We are waiting on a repair kit for a wing AD (manditory inspections/repairs). Piper hadn't really made a plan on how to fix the problem. That and it needs a new door. We also still have the super cub and husky pup that have yet to be repaired since their chance meeting with the ground. With the past few days hitting 100 F, we are asking for means of cooling the hangar during the day. B is busy hooking up the surround sound in the livingroom. B's bro got a new crotch rocket yesterday. He stopped by to show us, and our next door neighbor heard it came came out to look. He's a nice guy. He loves airplanes and my bf's car, lol. Got some new stuff for the aquarium and it looks like I might be adopting some fish from B's brother too.

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Thursday, May. 04, 2006 :: WORK WORK WORK ::

ah, almost friday! It's been such a slow week. A few odds and ends that we can do. Mat was lucky, he had a vacuum pump to install when he got to work... me I watched until the boss got in and said that one of the pilots said he broke the exhaust in one of the great lakes... ok, broke is an understatement. The number three exhaust stack had a crack nearly all the way around the welding and also had a chunk missing. So I got to replace that. Couldn't milk hat job too long though because they were taking it up to fly again soon. A few of us spent some time discussing a problem with the fuel sensing units on an archer. Then an oil change came in, yay! I ended up slicing my fingers open on a couple zip ties... yes something as simple as a zip tie can draw blood. Then I had to replace a broken switch in that plane... that had been sitting in the sun. So the leather seats were searing hot. I switched switches while baked inside the plane =P For the last 30 minutes, I helped Dwane with a cessna from tail winds. 48Y has had many squaks lately about hard starting and acting funny. Dwane looked at it last week and Mat looked at it today. He couldn't find any problems... Then an instructor and student came to go on a flight. I guess they cover some emergency tactics and stuff. Anyhow when they came back I guess the engine died on them and when it started back up it was a very labored sound. Now we had just taken it up for a maintenance run up and took it through some heavy throtle demands and we found no problems. So they brought it back again and it sounded horrible. Mat went back to work and inspected the intakes and carburetor. After about an hour he went in the cockpit for some reason and his eyes just caught the primer plunger... it wasn't locked in it's collar. Push it in and low and behold... it runs just fine. SO pilots out there... puch in the damn primer!!

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Saturday, Apr. 29, 2006 :: spring cleaning in April ::

I suppose having the fam come to visit is a good thing. You get a little more motivated to do the cleaning around the house... all 1700 sq ft of it. Not that our house was messy, but it made us move a few items that have been sitting downstairs since we've moved in into the closets upstairs. Maybe this time I'll get around to taking some pics of the place. Work is going well. The few maintenance items I found on the great lakes are getting taken care of. Hopefully it wont be such an oily mess when it comes back in again. The boss was a little weary when he saw I took off all the flex hoses to be replaced. He thinks I would put them back on right... grr. I've disassembled turbine engines for goodness sakes! Well, when he finishes a flight and there isn't an oily puddle underneath the plane when he ties it down... he can thank me then!

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Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2006 :: cotton-candy pink cars ::

biiig sigh. Gas prices in the valley are now floating around $2.99/gal. It's ridiculous. There is no reason. Avgas is just as bad. The school has had to raise gas prices every time the tanker comes to fill us up because their prices have gone up as well. Tomorrow the owner is going to have a familiarization "class" on the great lakes. There are some big plans in store for our little school. They plan to install GPS systems in some of the planes. We're also going to completely clean out the hangar and set up areas for sheet metal. welding, fabric repairs, and painting. Which realistically, most all FBO's have, but we're a small school and we're not 100% maintenance. We are a training facility. John, the owner, said we're going to look into hiring another fresh outta school A&P so we can have 6 on floor mechanics. Right now, I'm working on one of the great lakes in for a 100-hour inspection. This will be interesting. It has an inverted fuel and oil system from when it is (shocking) inverted. John plans to have us all do fabric repairs/recovering. Saturday another tail dragger went down. I guess they couldnt get off the ground and didnt think to pull back the power when they were running out of runway. The person ended up ripping off the right landing gear, which lead to a prop strike, and then since there was no gear in came crashing down on the right wing. The plane was on lease back, so the owner was in today to take pictures of the damage. John, decided we're going to repair it in-house.F-U-N.


oh yeah, I saw a cotton candy colored car driving home from work today.

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Sunday, Apr. 23, 2006 :: whats a week ::

where does the time go? I get homr after work at 510ish. I change out of my work clothes grab a little snack and run upstairs to play a video game. B get home about an hour later. We watch tv and I'm spent already because Ive been up since 530 and my mind and body are winding down into sleep mode. Supposedly the other contract job I've been holding out for is at scotsdale airport. That would cut my commutes to a third of the distance. Which is good considering gas is now $2.99/gallon. I remember the first time I filled up my car after getting my licence, it was $1.14 and that was only 9 years ago. That summer it went down to 74 cents. Two people whom I consider to me my close friends in diaryland are having troublesome times whether it be feeling unappreciated or unloved. I hope they realize that I here hoping the best for them every second of the day. I really do appreciate being one of the ones they talk to and open their lifes up to me. I know they are great people and I hope things brighten up for them...


more pics of the kittens
Deimos
Quiana

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Sunday, Apr. 16, 2006 :: the pitter patter of little... paws ::

so, we have internet in the house now. We stopped at Fry's Electronics yesterday and got a wireless router to hook up the other two computers. On the way back home we randomly decided to stop by PetSmart. We were only planning to look at the kittens they had up for adoption. hehe, well they just happened to get a three-month-old three kitten litter in that morning. Vaccinated and fixed already. There was a orange tabby, a black tabby, and a torti. There was also a fourth kitten in there named Pouncer, but another lady had already expressed interest in. So we went in and held the black and torti kittens. Since they were in the same litter we figured they would make a good duo for our new home. Yesterday they were a little timid around us, but by that evening they were sleeping on us. Right now they have found a cozy spot on the top stair outside the master bedroom. Yes, of course I have pictures! Couch Potatoes
Cozy Spot
Demos
Demos again
No Cameras!
Peek-A-Boo

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Friday, Apr. 14, 2006 :: Oh, oh, oh. I'm here ::

AAHH! *stretches* It's good to be back online. The internet at the house won't be on until tomorrow, but I stopped by the rent's place after work to pick up a few items (clothes, books, and the cable modem). Plus I figured it better because the whole town seems to head north friday after work and clog the freeways. So I hope to have that cleared by the time I head home.
50mph winds today are making for low visiblity as well and unsafe roads. My commute to work is around an hour and 10 minutes and about 60 miles. It's been fun to buy stuff for the house... but it is definitely burning a hole in the back pocket =) The kitchen is pretty much done we just need a table, but it's not a high priority. The livingroom furniture was delivered early Saturday and it took about 10 minutes for them to unload it all and move it in. The refridge came Sunday and our first trip to the grocery store cost about $200. I have some pics I will try to post tomorrow =)
The temps are on the rise. Yesterday it was 96. Maybe I'll start the daily high post =)

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Sunday, Apr. 09, 2006 :: still moving ::

ah dont you just love moving furniture in the desert when it's 88 degrees? Ya, it's not all that much fun. Good news is we have our livingroom furniture, refridge, bed and tv all set up. I'm bringing over the dressers and nightstand in just a few... along with all my other crap I've collected the last 4 years at school... hehehe. Ya for taking monday off ahead of time =) We need to go to the "do it yourself store" and get lawn equipment (rake, hoses, maybe some plants and planters?) well, we have a big house with not a lot to put in it.
Well, back to packing the trailer.

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Saturday, Apr. 08, 2006 :: music for your head ::

ok, so I have a few seconds to write something... As most of you may know, I just graduated from college this past December. I didn't participate in the marching band my last semester because I could not fit it into my schedule and I wanted more time to study for my A&P tests. Anyhow, at the end of the semester the assistant directors, Bill "coach" Kisinger retired. So they actually added "coach" to the end of the long band cheer. Well, today I wanted to see what the band was up to so I stopped by the band page. What did my wondering eyes see, THE director of bands is retiring at the end of this semester! WOW. What a time to be in the band. See, it just wasn't the same without me, lol. Dave "doc" Leppla has been the director since 1989 and has only been the 4th director of bands in its 115 year history. Now that's job security, lol.

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Thursday, Apr. 06, 2006 :: moving ::

so I got my letter from the UK on saturday and today I got my letter from switzerland. Hm, very busy time to try to respond. Though the house won't have internet all weekend, so I should be able to find sometime *snicker. So yes, with no internet this will be my last post for some days. I still have to buy some tie downs for the washer and dryer tomorrow. I think I'll try walmart instead of driving all the way to pepboys. I think I'll have two more boxes to pack tonight and I should be ready for the move.
Oh, I see we have a bears 2006 schedule printed. They will we playing here in Arizona on Oct 16 at 830. The stadium is only 2 miles from the house we're moving into =)
Today went slow... tomorrow will be even slower.

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Wednesday, Apr. 05, 2006 :: what am I doing today? ::

bah, where to start... I worked the whole engine over on my own today. Including timing mags and compression checks. One cylinder came in low on the compression check 52/80. According to Piper you must have 60/80 minimum. The cylinder had shown low compression the last time it came in, so they decided to stake the valves. Now this sounds nothing like what it really is... To stake the valve on a cylinder you take a heavy mallet like 15 pounds and take your anger out in a heavy swing and hit the rocker arms that in turn hit the valves. I would love to see the look on a pilots face with a mechanic smashing the side of an engine that they fly, lol. Before that happened, I took out all the ignition leads and spark plugs out of the cylinders. I was trying to unstick a spark plug and when it let go my knuckle had a one on one with one of the cylinder cooling fins. My knuckle lost. So I wore a bandaid all today to keep that from getting infected.
I found out another sad bit of information from one of the guys at work. This guy is living in a motorhome away from his family in order to have this job. I just found out today that his 20 year old son is mentally challenged, but he wasn't born that way. He was an excellent swimmer and was actually trying to go to the olympics 3 or so years ago. He was 17 and was t-boned in an accident. He was in a coma for 5 weeks, and when he came out he wasn't the same kid. He mentioned at lunch the that character forest gump actually reminded him a lot of his son, sigh.
Tonight, I have to stop the procrastination! I only have 2 nights to get the main amount of my stuff packed. Friday I have to pick up the washer and dryer after work. B said he bought a fridge online at sears and it will be delivered sunday. So that means we have the livingroom furniture and refridge delivered on sunday along with renting the trailer to move our bigger things... good thing we took off monday because sunday is gonna be a long day! Hm, I still need to buy myself a computer desk... oh the list of things grow. Gotta get going.

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