At 11:30 the FedEx van pulled up. Whoo hoo! I sent a text to Steve and told him I was on the way to the hangar. Thanks to Sandy at GRT for getting the replacement out to me ASAP.
We got right at it. If it wasn't for having to pull the engine, replacing this sensor should take all of 15 or 20 minutes. As the engine hung on the hoist, it took us four tries and 30 minutes to just get the damn thing safety wired.
Steve Clarke, the A&P student was a big help. I just had to show him what I needed done and he ran with it. Steve it taking his summer Powerplant Inspections class, so he was on loan for the afternoon.
After chatting a bit it turns out that Steve is the son of Rich Clarke, a fellow jumper in my skydiving club back in East Troy, WI in the late '70s and early '80s. Us aviators are in a small world, aren't we?
After I wired it into the Dynon connector, I turned the D180 on. The oil temp read 102 degrees, which just happened to be the ambient temperature in the hangar.
By 3:45 we were able to shove it out the hangar and run it. Everything seemed to check out okay. Wasn't that all fun?
I put the plane back and will do another inspection tomorrow, then a test flight, then it's time to start counting pairs of underwear for the big trip.
I hope to rendezvous with Dave Adams somewhere over southern Illinois for the trip to Dayton.
And that my friends, is how I keep plodding along.
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