So it's been three weeks since I brought 4TV home, and I've had the opportunity to fly her exactly zero times. My love hate relationship with general aviation is just hate at the moment, and it's starting to wear on me.
As a reminder, I had my A&P look at a dent in the propeller when I returned home with the plane. It was decided that the dent was large enought that it could cause an imbalance issue that could eventually result in the engine dismounting itself, which is of course no bueno. So the A&P removed the prop and sent it off to the engine/prop shop in Burlington, NC to have them evaluate and possibly fix it. Since that time I've been waiting to hear confirmation that they can actually fix it, let alone however long it takes to fix it. I chatted with my A&P last week who told me the shop had told hiim it would be about 2-3 weeks. I wish that had been communicated to me initially, as it would have helped me set expectations. He indicated that he would call this week if he hadn't heard anything. Naturally the weather these past three weeks has been absolutely beautiful.
If I'm antsy, it's for a few reasons. First, my personality is such that I don't like being stagnant, particularly when it's outside my control. I had planned to be well into transitioning to right seat familiarization by now so I could get to working on wrapping up my CFI training. That's a standstill.
There's also the fact that I'm waiting to hear on the propeller to plan where I go with upgrades and maintenance moving forward with the airplane. One of the discussions I had with my mechanic last week was to potentially move the annual up to November. It's not technically due till end of April (so work done in May), but the mechanic has no annuals scheduled in November, and there's still enough unknowns about this airplane that I like the peace of mind of just knocking it out sooner so that I can conflidentally fly my kids in it. The annual price will be $1,200, and I know I'm going to need about $2K in work to have a doubler installed where the seat attachment has resulted in a crack. So to be safe, I'm assuming at least $5K. I'm willing to take this on, but not if I have to buy a new propeller - at which point I would hold off until May so as to not be overwhelmed with costs this early.
There's also the question of what upgrades I want to to do and when. Getting an ADSB-Out solution is a priority, and with the expenses I've incurred thus far, I might op to just buy a used uAvionix Tailbeacon just to get the functionality. There are the windows - of which the side windows are worse than the back one (the windshield is in great condition). It's possibe that I can do the windows myself, something I'd like to explore, but not an airworthiness item at the moment. There's carpet, which I would like to have done during the annual, and I've even found a sample that seems to go well, but I'll also likely need cowl panesl for both sides near the pilot and pax's feet for the carpet to attach to. That's not even to delve into avioncis upgrades I'd like to make, and upgrades to the dash/eyebrow which is currently in horrible shape.
I was hoping that by the time I finished this blog entry that I'd have an answer, but none yet. The frustration continues.
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