October 14, 2006 - Flat Tire/Fall Flight
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My local EAA Chapter 571 was having a fall picnic at a private field over
on the Eastern Shore. I headed out to the airport around 9AM.
About 2/3 of the way there -- it's a 40 minute drive -- I noticed the
highway seemed unusually rough. After awhile, it dawned on me that
it was my car -- a Miata -- that was the problem. I figured I'd put
some air in the tires when I got to Essex. But on the Back River
bridge, the Miata started shaking violently. I pulled off the
highway once I got across the bridge and sure enough, flat tire.
Next surprise -- there's no jack in the trunk. I called Lynnette and
she pulled up 40 minutes later with a jack. The Miata had a cheesey
little lug nut wrench and I could not budge any of the four lug nuts.
We drove to the auto parts store in Essex and bought a proper lug nut
wrench. It still took all the strength I had to get the nuts off.
The tire was destroyed -- four gaping holes on the inside side. I
put on the cheesey little spare tire and drove the Miata to a gas station.
The spare was practically flat itself. While putting more air in it,
I noticed that it was only good up to 50 mph. I decided the prudent
thing to do was to get it over with and get the tire replaced right now.
So we went to a nearby Goodyear store and an hour and a half later the
Miata was back in action. So, if you're still reading this, the bottom
line was that instead of enjoying the Chapter picnic, I spent four hours
messing with tires.
It was a nice day and I was determined to do some flying. I
finally got airborne around 3:30. Here I am heading across the bay. |
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This is my favorite "estate" which covers that entire little peninsula.
Must be nice. I'd have a little hangar on the water for my SeaRey.
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Looking East at Wye Island. |
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Approaching the private grass strip where they had the picnic.
Just to the right of the highway.
As you can see, there isn't much color in the trees yet.
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| I flew over the grass strip but of
course everyone was gone. |
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| I flew over to Ridgely Airport.
It was a little windy so it was good practice for me. I talked to
Darryl who was working on his Air Tractor. That piece of paper on my
rudder is for this Go Fly America
thing I'm participating in. The goal is for pilots to land at all
4700+ general aviation airports in the U.S. To get credit for landing
at an airport, you have to have a picture with that piece of paper in it. |
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| Back at Essex, I changed the oil in
the Citabria and worked on installing a tow hitch. |
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