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Improvising in a pinch

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Posted

I had a pretty big trip planned for this weekend. I showed up Friday night after work at around 6 to fly 105NM North of here. I knew it was going to take me an hour and half give or take so I had to be airborn no later than 7pm to not get caught in the dark. Well when I showed up my TW was flat as a pancake. I quickly yarded it apart and found a split in the seam adjacent to an existing patch. I tried to patch it again and of course it didn't work. By now I'm running outta time and I was out of patches so I ran over to Lowes right by the airport to get another patch kit. Well right next to the slime and patch kits was the lawn mower wheel section. I got to eyeballing a 6" front tire and decided to grab one for 8 bucks. Guess what a lawn mower wheel uses the exact same axle as a Matco TW! I threw that sucker on and hauled ass for my destination. I ran my poor 582 at 6000rpm for an hour. I landed with about 10 minutes of twilight left on my lawn mower wheel!! Luckily I was headed to a fellow Avid drivers house and he let me borrow his wheel for the rest of the weekend.

I spent the night with him....he flies a CH601 HD Zodiac as well as an Avid and a Tri-pacer. We flew formation over to another EAA chapter and then I jumped in with him for a 100 mile jaunt to Cloverdale to the annual Zenith West Coast factory fly-in. Those new 750's are a lot more roomier than the 701's. Still ugly though. We only stayed for an hour and then jammed back up to the EAA chapter for tri-tip. I was invited up there as a guest speaker to give a presentation on my Idaho Backcountry trip from last year. After that I hit a Private strip outside of Chico to visit some long lost cousins and then I cruised home. I logged 3.8 in the Avid and another 2.5 in the Zodiac. Not a bad weekend!! Here are some pics.

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Guys house in a Private airpark...How cool would this be?

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The Zodiac

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Cruising in the Zodiac...pretty nice ride with a 912

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CH750

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CH701

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Posted

Hey whatever works go for it,I was at Ace Hardware the other day and I was actually looking at the big selection of tires and wheels.I may just buy one to throw in the plane when Im going somwhere very far.Right now I just have the solid Matco wheel but would like to upgrade later.Mainly I just want to get flying for now,Im going on a weeks vacation to see my son in Wyoming but when I get back its balls to the walls.Ive already been in contact with my DAR out of Spokane and it looks like the 1st of June.Im going back for a couple refresher courses from the guy that did my tailwheel training and after that theres no excuses.Nice pics you got there Joey,Im looking foward to doing some flying with you.Randy

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