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Well now, the crappy weather around here for the past coupla + weeks
has made things pretty scarce down here as far as flying goes. I
hadn't been up in a couple of weeks or more and it was making me
cranky. Well, we got a little window of opportunity yesterday when
the ceilings got all the way up to 2000' and the overcast really made
things smooth.

For the past year or so some of you know I have posted that a little
teenie weenie oil leak on my HKS has been driving me nuts. The
engine has been performing just fine the whole time and in my opinion
it is a wonderful engine, however that little itty bitty teenie
weenie leak had become one of those annoying things in my life. It
appeared to be coming out the bolt holes through the threads, but
nothing done would fix the problem, so finally the time was taken to
do a looksee inside. It appears when whoever put the gasket sealant
on the gear reduction housing the sealant did not cover the area
between the bolt holes and the oil pockets, thus the oil seeped
through to the holes and out the threads. For those of you out there
with an HKS that have a little teenie weenie annoying leak, this may
be the issue if you see it around the bolts that latch the housing
together.

Yesterday, I got to get up in the air and do the paces - easy running
to make sure all of the pieces worked now that it was put together
and later running the engine hard to make sure we put a little
pressure on the engine.

Of course I couldn't just go up and down. Now that is just too
simple. A friend of mine was up and he twisted my arm to go over to
a nearby airport to do some gossiping, I'm sorry, we pilots don't
gossip - we tell sea stories, or uhh, uhh pilot stories - yeah that's
the ticket. This added a little fun and adventure to this flight.
The air was pretty smooth, and this was around 1:00 pm which down
and/or over here in N FL / S GA is pretty remarkable. The temps were
actually very nice and on the slightly cool side, high 50's low
60's. For our friends north of the border, I know, I know - that's
hot, but down here that's cool. Overall it wasn't much of a flight,
but it was fun getting up in the air again, and most importantly I
had a dry engine and nothing on my tail (oil wise) when I got back.

For Ron's sake, I won't tell you my numbers, but dude, they were
good. Also the weather is suppose to imporove late next week -
hooray.

Jim C

We in 'The Great Northwest' envy you (and
not even just in the winter). Always fun to
read about your trips in this wonderful plane.
Thanks for sharing them with us.

BTW, I haven't received a Thunder Gull
newsletter in an awfully long time. I 'think'
I paid my subscription, but can't remember for sure.
Have you guys been getting anything in the past several months?

In an effort to save hangar space, I have been thinking
about trading my J-Model for an Avid or Kitfox. The
main reason is because of the nice wing folding capability
of them both. I can also take my bride on a ride once in a
while. So, if anyone hears of anyone on the west coast who
may be interested in talking to me about it, please let me
know. I can provide them with data & pictures via e-mail.

Thanks again for teasing us all,

Ron Carroll
Independence, Oregon
Ron.Carroll@a...