Girls, Girls...

Captain Joerg is getting distracted here. Girls asking him to fly to France, Denmark...

Nonono... this weekend, Captain Joerg, we'll fly Lola to .. well, you´ll see! :-) . And if I promise now to all readers of this blog we'll get back with wonderfull pictures, then... it's clear where we start travelling to, no?

Your co-pilot-navigation-system-and-a-little-bit-pilot-student

So, France.

In the last days we asked our readers of where they want pictures from ... 38% decides for France. Unfortunatelly we missed the trip to Greetje in Avignon, but I am sure Annelies will come up with some extraodinary travel plans :-))

So, Greetje, do you join than? :-)

Pilot Timo

We´re taking off to our smallest crew member in Eisenach, who starts his very first school day today and invited us to a party. The weather wasn´t perfect, but flying from Kassel to Eisenach only takes us 20 minutes.

Lola´s engines really run smoothly now, and that becomes also Joerg´s "standard phrase" for the next two days ;-) - In other words, I have heard this a looooot!

But he is right, Lola flies smoothly to Eisenach, engines sounding like one, lands between helicopters dancing around in a competition and parachute jumpers hanging around in the airport sky without getting in troubles - what probably also has to do with Captain Joerg´s skills...

We´re welcomed warmly at the airport by papa and mama Lamprecht who inspect Lola -for the first time- in and out. Approved! But when they´ll fly along stays an unanswered question...

Aaah ... so good to fly again :-))

today, sunset, full moon and 10000 smiles :-)

Ground-to-air

A word on fuel pumps: Mechanical fuel pumps seem to be a source for many problems. I had a completely wrong one installed on my RH engine ... turning in the wrong direction. And if the mechanical fuel pump still works, the fail-open valve don´t go and so your boost pump is nice for making noise but useless when it comes to a half working mechanical fuel pump...

But it was quite an "opening" for Lola. Almost everything that was associated with "fuel" got replaced. Bladders, Pumps, Hoses ... it took Jan and the other folks from Piper quite a while but they did a magnificent job. Congrats, Lola fly´s beautiful now!! In fact I never had such smooth humm of the engines before ... sounds like one but performes like two :-)

Sister Ship

All the way from TF Green I recieved some nice pictures from Lola´s sister ship ... the N7998Y. It´s based on T.F Green airport in Providence, R.I. (PVD).

Thanks James!!

Lola is back!

I am not sure if Joerg's interaction here really worked, but Lola is back home! She got rid of her dirty fuel system and is waiting to flyyyyyyyyyyy again!

"I do not accept compensation"

He, honest now: When was the last time you heard these words? Especially when asking somebodys knowledge?
Your lawyer may ask for a 500 USD an hour , your tax-consultant maybe a little less. But surely just a handfull of people carry detailled knowledge and experience AND are willing to immediately share them with other people they have never seen or heard before. Unbelievable? Well, buy a Comanche and discover yourself. The ICS, the International Comanche Society, is full of those mentioned people. Good people. Old style people. They help where help is needed. They answer even when the questions is stupid. And they support even at their own costs.

"It's a group effort to keep as many of us flying as long as possible. " (Charlie Melot, 7-2007)

Drinking dirty fuel!!

After returning from our Italy-Trip we analyzed the new EDM Engine Monitor Data and found that occasionally Lola had some problems on two cylinders caused by dirt in the fuel system.

So, where do you start looking? The tanks of cause where the first thing to look after. 36 years of service is a lot for a rubber-tank and Lola has 4 of them (two more of Aluminium, but they are new and ok).

Well, the outcome was Sand, little sticky black rubber elements, even thumbbig stones ... shortly: A lot of things that doesn´t belong in a fuel system. So she get´s new fuel bladders (Thanks Ryan for your clear words!).

Further investigation also showed a little bit of Rust in the Fuelselectors (also Rust is a no-go ... especially in the fuel system.

So long Story short: Lola get´s a brand new Fuelsystem from A-Z. Hoses, Dividers, Nozzles were lately replaced, Injectors are new, Tanks and Fuelselectors now and hopefully she´ll be ready by next week for a testflight with fresh, clean AVGAS!!