Whew. That was a LOOOOONG break from flying with my CFI. Went to work a lot, did a bunch of rather uninteresting IT things. Yadda yadda.
Got to fly with CFI today. Two flights, 2.5 hours. Had only flown a few hours in January and February. Besides work, other stuff kept me busy and the wind and weather kept messing with my CFI's schedule.
All SE Commercial add on prep today. Did all the maneuvers and a number of landings this time they were all in my airplane. The airplane I have over 300 hours in.
It's amazing what comfort level and that much time in a particular airframe do for you. Confidence was high, even maneuvers I haven't done much of.
Got done with the two flights and he said, "Flew well today. Time to schedule the checkride." He said he could tell I was very comfortable in the airplane. And he's right. 79M is nearly a home away from home for me, and y'all know I love the 182 platform.
We played a bit with the Robertson kit at altitude and adjusted the chandelles a but for it (higher pitch on entry or it's not going to be slow enough at the top compared to the other 182 my CFI flies, also a minor difference in maneuvering speed between the two, mine's 4 knots higher, interestingly).
Due to his schedule and mine, we're shooting for the week of April 4th. We'll have a day or two prior to the checkride to make sure it's all polished up and we'll do some ground work in the next couple of weeks to get the brain back in gear for the oral. If that checkride goes well, we'll have about three days to bang on the CFI add on, as long as I take that week off, and I can -- and then he's out of town for a weekend. It feels like it won't be long now. As long as we don't get derailed after those three days.
Meanwhile, other things have kept me busy in aviation related stuff, too. We knew from flight time and prior discussions that we might "lose" our third co-owner in the 182. (Technically I'm the third, he was tied for first or second.). We had "the meeting" a few weeks ago and settled on terms, and everything is very fair and all is good.
He would love to rejoin us in a few years if we still have the airplane then, and we discussed all the details -- payoff of equity, we decided he wants to stay a third owner on the hangar which is separate from the airplane LLC, and various other things.
Even worked out some terms for if he returns and if we've done some upgrades between now and then (GPS/ADS-B, interior, etc.)
So the second step was the remaining two of us deciding if we were continuing or not, since any major change is always a "gut check". We both said we want to continue to co-own the LLC for now. Decision one made.
Second question we both had, was that for various funny and spousal cash flow reasons the airplane always had a loan on it. Not upside down or anything, and low interest rate, but the remaining two of us didn't see any reason to retain the loan as a part of the LLC structure (we both loathe debt), so we decided to pay it off.
As of today, both of our checks have cleared into the LLC account and the airplane should be paid off mid-week, if all goes according to plan. Wheee.
It's a neat feeling. We had always kept the money around to pay our share of the loan off at any time in case of an emergency (co-owner ill, or whatever -- and again, we loathe debt so the money was there) so with it being just two of us now, the amount was a little higher but we could swing it. The interesting part is always that nifty feeling that you don't owe anybody any dang thing. I hate loans with a passion.
So... the airplane is truly "ours", well the LLC's anyway, and we'll have all new agreements and paperwork drawn up from our meeting(s) and phone calls by the end of the week. Yay!
And worse case, owning it outright means it's less complicated to sell it if we absolutely had to. It also uncomplicates bringing in a third co-owner of the LLC, etc.
Of course I'm celebrating outright owning a depreciating asset -- LOL -- welcome to aviation! Two drink minimum. Pay at the door.
So that's all fun news. We'd love to have our other co-owner back, but he's traveling heavily and he truly felt "unsafe" with the low number of hours he was flying the airplane. Like he said, "My heart says stay, my head says it doesn't make any sense."
As far as major maintenance goes, we've always run an engine fund and that's hourly -- and stays with the aircraft, so no big surprises or staring down any loaded gun barrels financially. Well, every airplane is a loaded gun barrel pointed at your wallet, but no more than usual! LOL. Got a while (crossing fingers) to go on the engine, we probably need to start seriously shooting a GPS and transponder upgrade, and one of these days we should rip out the lovely "goldenrod" interior.
You'd think with not being able to move the needle on this project for almost three months I'd be a lot more grumpy, but the airplane buyout and getting some bigger projects done at work, and the great flight on a lovely day today -- means it's just been a great day today. Today was good. Tomorrow, who knows. Just deal with today. Always easier that way.
Wife even had evening plans. Saw An American in Paris. Wow. What a cool production. Highly recommended. Amazing performances and impressive technical work in the sets and all of it. Very well done.
A friend who's a photographer was out shooting airplane photos today at the airport and also caught us doing landings. Sent me copies of the photos. Lovely work, Paul!
