Breakfast with Chip

sshekels

sshekels

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
210
Location
Orono, MN
Display Name
Display name:
Scott Shekels
It was all his idea (really!).

Lance, Eric and I had the fun of meeting Chip this morning (O GOD EARLY for us night owls) for breakfast while he was in town picking up a new toy.

After a wonderful breakfast, we chauffeured Chip to Lake Elmo International where he departed in his new Citabria. For a few moments it did not look good, as the engine refused to start. Fortunately, after some expert mechanical detective work, Chip managed to start her and was off!

Even though it was 38 (!!) here, what a GREAT day to fly a new toy!

Congrats!

Scott
 
sshekels said:
It was all his idea (really!).

Lance, Eric and I had the fun of meeting Chip this morning (O GOD EARLY for us night owls) for breakfast while he was in town picking up a new toy.

After a wonderful breakfast, we chauffeured Chip to Lake Elmo International where he departed in his new Citabria. For a few moments it did not look good, as the engine refused to start. Fortunately, after some expert mechanical detective work, Chip managed to start her and was off!

Even though it was 38 (!!) here, what a GREAT day to fly a new toy!

Congrats!

Scott
Click to expand...

What a handsome bunch of guys! :)

Not a bad looking Citabria, either. Chip didn't offer you guys rides? I suppose he just wanted to go home? ;) (I bet he had a good tailwind.)
 
Jeez, no he did not! Hmm, it DID seem like the whole time he was trying to not jinx himself to the weather Gods...

Of course, there is the other side: We wanted to see if it could fly with the "test pilot" first! LOL
 
ohhh....gorgeous! (the airplane. What guys? I don't see any guys...)

:p
 
It was great to meet Chip and Scott, fun to put a face and a handshake with the names! Last time I saw Lance was about 2 years ago when he flew us down to Albert Lea in his wonderful Baron. Always nice to spend time with him. Chip has the life, "hummmm which plane should I fly today?, Extra, Bonanza, Citabria?".

I hope Chip had a safe and quick flight back to Arkansas, should have been perfect winds out of the North. I was envious! How cool is it to fly up on Northworst, get into a plane that you have not flown yet and just go! I would feel like Scott Crossfield or something......I get excited just buying a new car!

Scott, anytime you want to meet for breakfast in Brainerd or Princeton, or a P-cake fly in, let me know....Of course Lance in invited anytime.

Eric
________
LovelyWendie99
 
Last edited:
Damn, I should have posted the thong picture! LOL
 
How about ID'ing the guyz left to right or something so we know who is who!
Good looking plane......
 
Scott ("Wrong Way Shekels"), Chip ("The proud new owner"), Lance and Eric.
 
It was a good time. Chip didn't give any rides but he did buy us all breakfast. I don't blame him about the rides, he was about to start on a 5 hour trip. We did learn that the engine starts much better with the mags on.
 
lancefisher said:
We did learn that the engine starts much better with the mags on.
Click to expand...

Those darn Citabrias are like that; tempermental beasts. :p
 
lancefisher said:
We did learn that the engine starts much better with the mags on.
Click to expand...

OK ass. Shows what you know about Citabrias. I was simply making sure the mags worked correctly and that the airplane wouldn't start with the mags off. It was part of my very thorough pre-flight ritual. (Who ever came up with the design where the mag switches are behind your head????)

I can't tell everyone else on the board what a great experience it is to meet these guys. If breakfast can be judged by how hard one laughs, it was a great meal. Thanks to Scott and Lance for picking me up at the hotel and making the pilgrimage to the airport. And thanks to Eric for meeting us for breakfast. I enjoyed visiting with you guys and sincerely hope to hoist a few with you at Gatson's.

The trip home was a good one once I got above the turbulence. It took 8,500' to get there. I saw good ground speeds on the way home and made it in good time (with only one stop). I swear I was going backwards when I landed for fuel. The winds were fierce. I'll post some additional boring stuff about the trip in another thread.

I have a short list of items to fix on the airplane, but over all I think I'll really enjoy flying it. I see why Diana is so fond of her Citabria :)

Chip
 
lancefisher said:
It was a good time. Chip didn't give any rides but he did buy us all breakfast. I don't blame him about the rides, he was about to start on a 5 hour trip. We did learn that the engine starts much better with the mags on.
Click to expand...

Oh my gosh! On the last leg of my Tuscon to Atlanta flight we had stopped in Little Rock for fuel.

I knew I had a hot start in my future. I hate hot starts.

Even when I do them right, there is coughing and backfiring (and the engine runs rough as well :) ).

So, I go about the hot start and I just can't get either engine to catch. I pull out my book that has hot start instructions. I'm doing it right. I start experimenting...NOTHING and I mean NOTHING. Both engines are dead. The lineguys are snickering...the pax are wondering if we are going to get home.

5 minutes (and years of wear on my battery and starters) later and I'm thinking...why won't these things catch? They act like they aren't getting any spark..EXPLATIVE....
 
gibbons said:
The trip home was a good one once I got above the turbulence. It took 8,500' to get there. I saw good ground speeds on the way home and made it in good time (with only one stop). I swear I was going backwards when I landed for fuel. The winds were fierce. I'll post some additional boring stuff about the trip in another thread.
I see why Diana is so fond of her Citabria :)

Chip
Click to expand...

We never got above the turbulence trying to get home today. Tom was in charge of rpm and I did the rest from the back seat trying to get across AR and MO today. 0 G to 2 G bumps today! Yee hawwwwwwww!
 
gibbons said:
The trip home was a good one once I got above the turbulence. It took 8,500' to get there. I saw good ground speeds on the way home and made it in good time (with only one stop). I swear I was going backwards when I landed for fuel. The winds were fierce. I'll post some additional boring stuff about the trip in another thread.

I have a short list of items to fix on the airplane, but over all I think I'll really enjoy flying it. I see why Diana is so fond of her Citabria :)
Click to expand...
So tell us about the airplane, Chip ... I see you got the yellow one. Seemed like a good airplane on paper. Glad it all worked out. You're gonna love it soooo much that you'll just let me have your Extra cuz you won't be flying it anymore.
 
Ken Ibold said:
So tell us about the airplane, Chip ... I see you got the yellow one. Seemed like a good airplane on paper. Glad it all worked out. You're gonna love it soooo much that you'll just let me have your Extra cuz you won't be flying it anymore.
Click to expand...
Ken,

It's a 1968 7KCAB. The wings are only a couple of years old and have the spruce spar (I would have gone with metal if it had been my decision). The story is that the trailing edge of one wing was damaged by a fuel truck. There's no documentation on the incident so I'll go along with that.

I've adjusted the spades to try to lighten the ailerons a bit and think it's better now although it still corners like a school bus. :D I'm not happy with the amount of right rudder required in cruise and am working to get the rudder trim tab adjusted correctly. The most fun is being able to see the runway during landing. What a concept!!

I don't wheel land the Extra and very seldom wheel landed the Pitts, so I'm trying to learn how to do that again. I carry too much speed on the approach and will have to work to feel comfortable landing slow. But one of the reasons I bought it was to fly into shorter/more narrow strips than I'm willing to go into with the Extra, so I need to keep working on slowing it down.

I think it's going to be a good airplane and I'm going enjoy flying around burning less than 17 gph. If I fly it so much that I decide to give the Extra away you'll be my first call. Go wait by the phone :cheerio:
 
gibbons said:
I've adjusted the spades to try to lighten the ailerons a bit and think it's better now although it still corners like a school bus. :D I'm not happy with the amount of right rudder required in cruise and am working to get the rudder trim tab adjusted correctly. The most fun is being able to see the runway during landing. What a concept!!
Click to expand...
If the rudder tab makes if fly straight but in a slip, you may need to monkey with the wing rigging. That's pretty common on all Citabrias. It's not hard, but it's a fairly time consuming 2-person job.

gibbons said:
I don't wheel land the Extra and very seldom wheel landed the Pitts, so I'm trying to learn how to do that again.
Click to expand...
Why? The only time I wheel land my Citabria is when a CFI makes me do it on a BFR. I can, but there's no reason to if you don't want to. Or are you going to be giving tailwheel endorsements in this?
 
Ken Ibold said:
If the rudder tab makes if fly straight but in a slip, you may need to monkey with the wing rigging. That's pretty common on all Citabrias. It's not hard, but it's a fairly time consuming 2-person job.
Click to expand...

Are you volunteering to help? Come on up!

Ken Ibold said:
Why? The only time I wheel land my Citabria is when a CFI makes me do it on a BFR. I can, but there's no reason to if you don't want to. Or are you going to be giving tailwheel endorsements in this?
Click to expand...

Exactly - if I can ever get the CFI behind me. :)
 
Thats a good looking plane. I like the color!!
So how are you gonna decide which plane of yours to fly and when??ha
 
Ken Ibold said:
The only time I wheel land my Citabria is when a CFI makes me do it on a BFR. I can, but there's no reason to if you don't want to.
Click to expand...
But they're fun. Don't you think they're fun?
 
Toby said:
But they're fun. Don't you think they're fun?
Click to expand...
Hmmm, fun? Never thought about it much. I get more satisfaction out of kissing the ground at barely flying speed and a full stop in 400 feet than kissing the ground at approach speed and dancing my way down the runway.

And it's not even that the owner's perspective of conserving tires is coming into play. When I first got my tailwheel endorsement, I could wheel land at 100 knots but couldn't 3-point to save my life. Then I worked on perfecting my 3 points and now I just like them better. But I do like to taxi with the tailwheel in the air, conditions permitting. Kinda like riding a unicycle.
 
gibbons said:
Hey Rudy, I'm just trying to make sure you have plenty of wash/wax business :)
Click to expand...
Haha, ok sounds like a deal. One more plane isn't gonna hurt anything!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top