What promised to be an eventful journey.... proved out to be just exactly that! I started planning a month in advance, and found myself making last-minute changes up until the moment of departure. Things went differently than planned from that moment on.
Two days before departure I decided to give N146YS a thorough preflight and discovered two exhaust risers with slight gas-leaks, so I overnight freighted a set of three new ones from Knisely Welding (Loomis, Ca., 916/652-5891) for my right bank of cyls, (1,3, & 6). I installed them with new spiral-wound gaskets. Their units were an accurate fit, and they were made of high-grade stainless with 1/4" thick flanges, which should stand up against warping better than the originals.
I'd had a slightly rough left mag the prior week (only in cruise, not on runups), and a maintenance shop in Waco suggested that my 350-hour sparkplugs were time for a change, so I also installed a new set of Champion REM40E's, all around.
I installed a radio noise condenser onto my voltage regulator, as recommended by another friend, who has extensive radio/electrical knowledge. I didn't have a radio-reception problem, and no audible noise, but I was told that my Loran would have better reception in rain with a condenser installed. (I've flown my KLN88 in rain before, and never lost a navigable signal, but I decided to go ahead and fix it even if it WASN'T broke!) He recommended installing it on the field terminal of the regulator, which somehow conflicted in my mind, but I became convinced and did it as recommended. (Hey, why solicit expert advice if you're not going to listen, right?)
Cleo and Louise Bickford flew up to Jamie's and my place and spent Thu. night here at the ranch, and we all blasted off mid-morn on Friday for a couple of days in Ruidoso with an early planned fuel stop at Llano, only 20 minutes away, and a later one at SkyWest Airport near Midland. On the way to Llano I checked my mags in-flight and discovered my RIGHT one was slightly rough! I began to question my memory as to which one previously ran rough, and when we stopped in Llano I made a phone call to my favorite mechanic to discover him traveling between airports. We then planned on hopping over to Burnet to intercept him and to get him to look at my mag, when on the next takeoff both my mags ran fine! I decided that when I'd washed down my engine after my exhaust/sparkplug maintenance that I'd gotten water into the mags and they'd subsequently dried out on the short hop to Llano, ...so we just turned west and headed on towards the Midland fuel stop.
Cleo, meanwhile, was suffering from unreliable radio transmissions, so with his handheld as a backup, we turned it into a flight-of-two with me handling the ATC communications as we flew through various airspace. A few minutes later Jamie startled me with "Hey, what's that chemical smell?". I realized the sudden odor was sulphurous, and looked at the voltmeter, which was pegged out at 16+! I pulled the generator circuit breaker, and when we landed an hour later at SkyWest, while Jamie prepared a picnic lunch she'd packed for us all, I pulled the upper cowl and checked the battery. It was fine, so I washed it down, and removed the radio noise condenser previously mentioned and threw it into the trash. I reasoned it had shorted out and provided a straight line-to-ground for the generator field, which had put the gen into full-tilt!
We ate lunch (it was great!) and, having fueled up, cranked and taxied for takeoff. My gen was working correctly, so I took off, and Cleo followed. A nasty crosswind gave Cleo a moment of excitement as it blasted through a set of hangars and challenged him in their wake, but it all worked out and we were off for Ruidoso! With me talking to Midland Approach, and Cleo squawking standby, we got around their Class C and pointed towards Roswell. I then noticed my voltmeter pegged again at 16+, so I pulled the gen breaker (again!) and flew on to Ruidoso on battery power alone.
When we landed at Ruidoso I reset my circuit breaker and the generator was totally dead. After some trouble shooting, grounding the gen field directly to the engine and still no generator, I decided my generator was fried, but it was already past 6PM and too late to do anything on a Friday evening. So we parked the airplanes under the shade-hangars and decided to make the best of it and enjoy Ruidoso!
Saturday was spent touring the area, driving up into Cloudcroft, and seeing the local sights. What a beautiful area. Even in the hottest, driest month of the year for that area, it was wonderfully pleasant, with evening mountain rain-showers to cool the air, and great restaurants to select fine wine and good pasta. Off to bed, for an early start.
Sunday morning, I discovered someone had become curious about my custom tie-down ropes (which are my own design, similar to a Chinese finger-puzzle) and had left my right one loose and improperly secured. Obviously they had experimented with them and didn't quite figure them out. While being refueled, I charged my aircraft battery from the car's system, and after paying, Jamie and I lifted off first with Cleo and Louise following. (My KLN88 did virtually all the navigating on this trip with Cleo following, because the other airplane's radios weren't working correctly.) Three hours later we were "standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona" buying more fuel and having a GREAT lunch in the airport restaurant. You wouldn't have expected such good food and great service in such a desolate place, but it was truly fine! Cleo had a grilled chicken Caesar salad that looked like it came from Pagi House in Austin! I had the obligatory cheeseburger and Jamie had Enchilada's Verde that were scrumptious! I recommend the airport cafe at Winslow!
It was while refueling at Winslow that I discovered a minor "ding" in my right wing leading edge that I realized was caused by the loosened tie-down at SRR. The TRW's that came thru there had rocked my airplane against the shade-hangar's upright posts, due to the tie-down not being sufficiently tight. Gee thanks, whoever you are. (We'll see how Avemco deals with this, and I'll let you all know.)
Anyway, after eating, it was off to Las Vegas on the final leg. There were dust devils everywhere and the density altitude was 9600 feet! Full of fuel, 120 pounds of "absolutely necessary stuff" in the back and we blasted off into ground effect and rising terrain. (This 7655 cruise prop has got to go.) Making a slight turn away from houses, two miles later we finally gained about 800 feet! We flew over Meteor Crater and photographed the other plane and headed on towards Flagstaff. Forty-five minutes after takeoff we'd finally reached 10,500 (having started at around 5K!) The density altitude there was 14K, and my oil temp was running on 235 degrees F. It never cooled off below 230 after that. My oil pressure was at 55 and my CHT was 350-F, so I just sat there uncomfortable-like, watching battery voltage hover around 11.8 and wondering how difficult it would be to get things fixed in Las Vegas.
Thermals were really a challenge. One moment, while trying to hold 10,500 I'd find myself diving at 120 IAS and still climbing 1200 fpm, not stopping until we saw 11,200', and the next I'd be at 75 IAS with full power, and still sinking thru 9500 and going down at 1000 fpm! It'd take 30 minutes to get the altitude back. I'll tell you, the Great American Desert is a challenge in June for a heavily loaded, standard 170!
Two and a half hours later found us descending into VGT, and as I turned final and was cleared to land, VGT tower advised me that my radio was becoming "scratchy and hard to read". (I didn't have the courage to tell him it was I and not the radio! ) My battery was finally giving out, and showing only 11 volts. (Helpful Hint: If ever you need to do this, pull the breaker/fuse on your T&B/Stall warn if in VFR conditions. No strobes/lights, and no TXDR or unessential equipment, if you can help it.)
We were hot, tired, and glad to be at the destination. All I wanted was a cold Beck's beer and a shower!
Now, I want everyone to know that the North Las Vegas airport personnel are at least as good as the best anywhere! They met each plane, helped tie us down, and gave us all rides to the lobby in air-conditioned vans. They took our registration info, and loaded our luggage and gave us all cold bottled water, while they drove us to the hotel. What a nice, cheerful group. I later found out that they were all Clark County employees, and the FBO was county-owned. It was the best service I've ever experienced in 35 years of corporate and private flying. Bar none! I don't ever want to hear anyone blindly attack gov't employees again.
Cool shower and 3-Beck's later, I could even put up with Buddy McGown at the bar!
We went to the Welcome Party!, and had a great time meeting people we could associate with names, and a good meal later, the bed really felt great. The next morning we took care of our Convention registration and went on the Lake Mead boat tour. It was supposed to include a tour of Boulder Dam (aka Hoover Dam. Note: This was a bone of contention between political factions for years. Prior to becoming President, Hoover was an engineer who played a part in the planning of the Dam. It was to be called Boulder Dam, but Hoover supporters in congress wanted to call it Hoover Dam since the man became President. Rumor has it that FDR refused to call it that, but later Harry Truman called on congress to officially name it Hoover Dam. A local resident was quoted as saying it should be called "Hoogivsa Dam!" : ). A last minute scheduling change involving a dinner party for Dam employees prevented the Dam tour from being available, so a tour of a Dam museum and a chocolate factory was substituted. It was OK, but I have to admit disappointment in not being able to tour the actual Dam.
Tuesday, Jamie and I went on the Death Valley bus tour, and I must say that was one highlight of the week. We really enjoyed it and the lunch at Furnace creek and the historically informative tour. (I threatened to change environmental predictions by filling the rain gauge at the unattended, automatic meteological station from my water-bottle, (heh-heh) but Dale Medendorp was seen to be focusing his camera on the attempt. Sorry folks,... I thought I might end all this talk about global-warming, but,....Dale is to blame. (just kidding).
While on this Death Valley tour a shattering event occurred. I realized I needed to coordinate my generator change. I had ordered an exchange generator (Aerotech, Louisville, Ky, 800/634-0190, $182-exchange, excellent workmanship, friendly, fast, service) to be shipped into a local mx shop (which will remain nameless until I see how they finally deal with the issue), and I needed to talk to them about the repair/replacement. Here I was in the loneliest, most desolate spot on the entire planet, 100 miles from nowhere, 280 feet below sea-level and nothing but alkali and rocks as far as you can see and I needed to make a phone call! So, guess what?
Yep. I whipped out my cell phone and had a FULL signal!! Ahh, yes. Death Valley Days are apparently over! I made my call, the shop said they'd take care of it as soon as the generator arrived, which should be before noon. I should be ready to fly by later today, Tuesday.
I should wash the mechanic's mouth out with Twenty Mule Team Borax for false promises. Wednesday was airport day and in the morning Buddy McGown and I took off on the treasure hunt. It consisted of a 20 minute flight to Jean, NV, to hunt for a medallion using clues. The medallion would be traded for an award at the Awards Dinner on Friday. It's a really good thing that I participated in this treasure hunt. Otherwise I'd have likely waited until Sunday morning to fly N146YS back out over the desert on my way home, ...and I wouldn't have known that I would be blowing oil out the belly at the rate of 6 quarts per hour! That's right!
After only 20 minutes, Buddy and I landed at Jean, and the entire belly and tail wheel were raining fresh oil. The were only5 qts still in the airplane. It was pouring out of the generator area, despite the mx shop assuring me they'd run it and there were no leaks. We got the airplane back to VGT, and the shop examined it and stated that they had "sliced the old gasket" across, below the tach-drive-housing (TDH) and sliced the new gasket identically so as to match up, and then installed the generator. (This gasket is shaped like a large, four-inch circle with a 2-inch triangle on top. The triangle portion resides between the tach-drive housing and the accessory case, and the round portion resides between the generator and the accessory case, immediately below the tach-drive housing. The shop apparently didn’t want to bother removing the tach-drive housing, so they left it in place, simply cutting the existing gasket across, below that housing, and replacing only the circle-shaped generator portion.)
They said that they'd accidentally gotten the two gaskets created by their process slightly overlapping, and that was the cause of the leak, because there wasn't a close enough match-up of the gaskets. I told them there was an oil-return path at that area and that I considered it a "tactical error" to slice that gasket. I told them I didn't think it possible to cut the gasket and not have a leak. They assured me they'd done it many times before (on other engine models apparently), and since they were a Certified Repair Station, I left them to their methods. One of my concerns, besides the actual repair, was that Wednesday was "airport day" for the convention, and that I wanted my airplane on the flight line to be in the judging events. They assured me that they would be able to make the correction quickly and they'd have my airplane cleaned up and on the flight line by early afternoon.
After lunch I went to check on it, and the mechanic and her boss had left for lunch and my airplane was out on the ramp, still dripping oil from the length of the belly. I located two other mechanics (one of whom didn't even work there) and they got spray bottles and rags and wiped my airplane down. (I taxied it to the flight line just in time to be in the judging.)
The next morning, Thursday, Buddy McGown and I decided to go test fly the airplane. Three touch and go's later, the firewall and belly was coated with oil. The shop looked at it again, and decided to redo their work, and they also stated that my left mag had oil in it and was a source of leaks. I authorized them to pull that mag, clean it out, reseal it, and re-install it. I cautioned them to time it properly, and they assured me they'd time it to the "other" mag. I instructed them that the "other" mag had it's own timing setting and to follow the Continental manual (which states the left mag should be set at 28 BTC and the right mag at 26 BTC.) They said they would use a protractor, and further assured me that it was the mag, not the generator/TDH that was the source of the oil. (I’m relatively certain they actually DID use a timing-protractor, because I subsequently found black electrical tape dangling through and exiting the No. 1 prop-blade opening of my spinner, due apparently to their dislodging it from it’s normal task as an interface between the spinner and prop hub.)
On Friday, they called me to say they'd completed the mag work, run the engine, and assured me there were "no leaks." I tried three times to get the shop owner's home phone number, just in case I discovered a problem on Saturday. It took several tries, but eventually he gave me his home phone number.
We went to the hotel, and had a great Awards Dinner with one of the better steaks I've ever eaten away from home. (When I find my notes, I'll post all the results, but I haven't finished unpacking yet.)
On Saturday morning, at 6 AM, I went to the airport and flew the airplane around the pattern twice, and discovered the lower half of the firewall coated with oil. I called the shop owner's home and got an answering machine, and left my cell phone number for him to call. By 10 AM I hadn't heard from him, so I called again and talked to his son who told me that "Dad is at the Temple." He didn't know when he would return. I left my number again with instructions for him to call me ASAP. After noon, I still hadn't heard from him, so I called again and got his wife, who was happy to the point of being "giddy" that she didn't know "a thing about the maintenance business...", didn't know how to contact her husband, and didn't know a single mechanic's name or phone number who worked for them. She did tell me her daughter was the company bookkeeper, who might help me.
I called the daughter and got another answering machine. By 2 o'clock I still hadn't heard from anyone, so I drove to the airport to search for another shop. I found another hangar that was open with maintenance and engine overhauls advertised on the header, and with two men working on a Piper inside. They told me they owned the business, was open normally on Saturdays, and would be happy to help me. I looked over their shop, and it had all the signs of a well-developed engine overhaul business, complete with bench testing equipment and machine tools, with several Continental engines in various stages of assembly. They also had a large parts room.
I talked to the owner, Larry, who informed me that it was he from whom the first shop had been obtaining gaskets for my airplane. I told him they'd cut every one and asked if he could install my generator and tach-drive housing properly with a complete gasket. He assured me that the first shop had taken his last gen/tach gasket but that he could hand-make a new gasket for me and would "do the job right". He said he'd do it right away and would only need a few hours. He washed the engine down and determined the leak was indeed from below the tach drive housing.
I had promised Jamie and other friends a dinner and entertainment on the Las Vegas Strip, and feeling I had finally found a competent shop, I left it in his hands. Later that night, around 5 PM, I received a phone call from the first shop owner, telling me he was returning my call.
I explained that I'd given up on him getting back to me, and as I had to depart early the next morning (Sunday), that I'd given the job to another shop, and told him the name of the shop. He said he would call them to see what they found. A few minutes later he called me back and confirmed they'd found the leak at the tach-drive housing and said he'd instructed them to go ahead and fix it, and to bill him directly. He said, "I guess you're pretty mad at me." I told him I was disappointed in his shop's work, especially after I'd instructed him to quit cutting that gasket and to remove the tach-drive housing and replace the gasket in it's entirety. I told him I felt that done properly, the job was a two-hour job, that I could have performed myself, and that I thought the 5-hours he'd charged me was excessive. I told him I also thought the 4.5 hours he'd charged to remove, reseal, and reinstall the left mag was also excessive, that I felt that was also about a two-hour job.
He defended his billing saying they'd "done a lot more things while they were in there." I didn't mention that if he'd done "a lot" more that it was unauthorized,….and undocumented...and un-logged. I just remained silent. I told him I DID appreciate his doing the "honorable" thing and telling the other shop to bill him directly. As if an afterthought, he mentioned that when I got home I might want to have my other mag also resealed,...he thought maybe it might be leaking oil also. He didn't think it'd be a problem though.
I didn't respond other than to say "OK". We ended the conversation politely. (I can't imagine a reputable shop, working on one oily mag, noticing the other possibly also leaking, making 4.5 hours labor plus parts each in the deal, not immediately calling the customer to obtain authorization make the other repair also. I'm amazed he'd sign off the airplane as airworthy, knowing I'm about to place myself and my loved ones in this airplane and head out over the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, and the desert.)
Later, the second shop owner, Larry, called me and stated they'd competed the work, run up the engine thoroughly, and found no leaks. "How do you plan to pay us for it?"
I told him that the first shop had informed me they'd talked to his shop and assured me they'd pay his charges. Larry said, "He must have talked to my son. Ok, then." He then told me he'd found my tach-drive cable knurled-nut (which holds the cable to the drive housing) cracked into "several pieces", but that he'd managed to use a clamp to hold it together. "It will be OK, and will get you home all-right. You won't have any trouble, but you should replace it when you get home." He said they'd placed the airplane out on the ramp and tied it down. I thanked him, and we said "goodbye".
Sunday, 6 AM, I flew the airplane, found only a drop of oil on the firewall, couldn't see anything obviously wrong, and went back to the hotel to gather my wife and friends for the journey back home.
We fueled up at VGT (the last 80 Octane I've seen since 1976! But it cost 30-cents more per gallon than 100LL), and headed out, southeast-bound. Nearing Winslow, Az 2-hours later we could barely see the airport due to the intense smoke from the Show Low, Az fires. The wind was from the south, and fire-bombers were using the airport. Three old Navy P2's, one P3 Orion, and one DC-4 were loading up with red-retardant and journeying down south to unload them on the fires. We landed in the smoke and fueled up. The cafe was closed, so we prepared to depart. As Jamie got into N146YS she asked, "What's this?"
Down in the shady-darkness of the floorboards, on the co-pilot's rudder-pedal scuff-plates, was about 4 or 5 tablespoons of OIL! It was dripping from behind the instrument panel.
I immediately expected to find the 1/8" copper oil-pressure line ruptured that leads oil pressure to the gauge, but when I wiped up the oil (at least it missed the carpet!) and crawled under the panel, I found the oil coming from the upper-end of the tach-drive cable! Oil was coming into the cockpit thru the speedometer-type cable that drives the tach. This could only mean that the tach-drive housing seal had either not been replaced, or was damaged or missing. I called Larry. I asked him if perhaps he'd forgotten to replace that seal? He stated that he'd not replaced it, that the old one "looked fine" so he'd reused it. (!) I told him that now I was stranded in Winslow, no mechanics, no parts, and an oil leak on Sunday. Thank you. (I'm not sure he caught the sarcasm in my voice.)
We spent an unplanned night in a bad cheap motel in Winslow. (Note: If ever in Winslow, avoid the "Days Inn". And unless you like the sensation of having your tongue ripped out with pliers, you do NOT want any of the local red-sauce on your enchiladas. The green sauce however, is good.)
The hotel swimming pool has water warmer than the 104-degree atmosphere, and you may NOT drink anything including water, near the pool, even if it's in a styrofoam cup. (Lots of other hotel rules that make life easier for the hotel. Forget the customer.) The local supermarket (Barfa's?) at least had some cold Beck's. I survived. Barely.
Next morning, we arrived at the Winslow airport with 2 miles in smoke. Our clothes smelled of smoke. It was like everyone within two miles was burning leaves in their yards. The FAA had set up a temporary tower on 122.8 to assist the fire bombers. I had my airplane in the hangar, and using an old inner tube and some safety wire, I removed my tach-drive cable from the housing and wrapped the TDH with the inner tube and wrap-tied it in place with the safety wire. I tie-wrapped the drive cable safely to the side. Cleo informed me his generator had quit. (!)
I called Cutter Aviation in ABQ and determined they had the tach-drive seal, and tach/gen gaskets in stock. They also had magneto oil-seals and gaskets. As soon as the wind shifted and we had 3 miles, we lifted off 5 mins apart for ABQ. Although officially VFR, it was really flight by instruments. No horizon most of the way. You could only see the ground down below. The tops were above the capability of the 170's in the desert heat. Two hours later we landed in 5 miles of smoke at ABQ,...in reverse order than that which we'd departed. The lead airplane had gotten disoriented in the smoke when it's DG took a vacation. Cleo had radioed me with his handheld needing the frequency of the public broadcast station in ABQ. I had a hard time flying on the gauges and looking it up on the sectional, but Jamie held the chart while I located the info. Cleo was using the old-airline-captain's trick of using the ADF for a combination DG and heading bug. It got him back on course. (Old dogs can use old tricks successfully it seems.) Anyway, that explains how I took off 5 mins behind him, and landed 10 minutes in front of him. I'll bet that was a tense situation in the smoke. Cleo gives credit to Louise, for being a great instrument stick. When he got disoriented, he simply assigned her the task of flying until he recovered.... That's what you call true Cockpit Resource Management!
A respite in ABQ at the restaurant, and collecting our needed parts, we headed back out for Ruidoso. It was another ground-hugging takeoff and ABQ controllers weren't particularly impressive, I didn't think. They don't respond to radio calls in a timely fashion, they don't think small airplanes deserve their turn, and they held us on the takeoff position until our oil temps were over 200-degrees before they released us. Within 10 minutes of takeoff my oil temp was on the redline (maybe even a skosh over) at 240-degrees! Lowering the nose only caused a loss of altitude and I was struggling to get out of 7500! Cleo was experiencing similar conditions.
Finally, at 8500', we were able to turn the mountainous corner and proceed towards Corona VOR, make the turn south around the White Sands missile Restricted area, and head in to Ruidoso. After an hour and a half, we were there. My dear friend Jeff Clark had loaned us his Condo and car, and his Explorer was waiting for us at SRR. Man! It felt like home!
A nice meal, a nice cool drink, a shower, and some zzzzzzzzzz's.
Next day, Tuesday, was spent scouting around Lincoln, NM, Capitan, and the local area. Bought an antique or two, some gifts, and then another great restaurant, and then off to bed. If you've never been to Ruidoso, let me strongly recommend it! It will truly re-charge your batteries. Thank you Jeff and Sharon!
Wednesday morning, we lifted off Ruidoso and headed for our Central Texas ranch strip. We had planned a fuel stop near San Angelo, and Cleo and Louise intended to continue on to their home at Dry Creek (NW Houston). But while circumnavigating Midland, Cleo radioed that his window latch had broken and his window had flown open. I asked my KLN88 for the nearest airport and it showed Big Spring only 11 miles ahead, so we landed there, and safetied his window shut. Hungry, we found the local BBQ/Catfish parlor and filled up and finished it with homemade ice cream, compliments of the cafe. Did a little antique shopping and then back to the airport to view the Hangar 25 Museum at the old Webb AFB, which is now the municipal airport.
Taxiing back out through the prairie-dogs that populate the airport, we made another flat, high-density takeoff that was just further proof that the earth's surface is curved! Dodging thru the windmill generators and the radio towers toward home, we arrived at the ranch around 5 PM. Tired, hot and hungry.
Cleo and I went into the local township (Marble Falls) and bought steaks, potatoes and salad stuff (and cold Beck's) and charcoaled steaks and watched the white-tailed deer off my back porch until the sun went down. We replaced his voltage regulator in my hangar, and the run up proved his generator was back online. Yeaa!
Scattered showers prevented their early departure, but they got off in the afternoon and had a safe trip home to Dry Creek.
By Friday, my tach drive cable had arrived from Aircraft Spruce, so my local mechanic and I pulled my generator and tach housing back off, cleaned up the surfaces, replaced the housing seal, tach/gen gasket, and tach cable, removed the right mag, cleaned and resealed it (not much in the way of oil in there though') and reinstalled it. (Note: The reason the tach/gen gasket shouldn't ever be cut or modified is that the tach drive spindle has an oil-return hole just beneath it which opens into the gasket. Even though that gasket is flat, it covers a small depression below that spindle that provides a return-path, a groove if-you-will, which lets that oil drain back down to the lower accessory case just above the generator contact area. The gasket MUST remain intact, or that drain-groove will send all that oil overboard. Also, anytime you remove a gar-loc type oil seal from its installed position, make certain you REPLACE it with a new seal. They're too inexpensive to take a chance with, and too much potential for trouble exists to skip properly replacing it. I strongly suspect that my tach-drive cable knurled nut was not simply found to be cracked. It was in 4 pieces when I saw it. I suspect that either the first shop tried to stop a leak at the tach housing by tightening this nut with pliers and cracked it, or more likely, the second shop, having re-installed the tach housing with it's old seal, and finding that it leaked, didn't want to go back through the trouble of disassembly again, hand-making a gasket again, etc, etc, and they tightened that nut in a vain attempt to stop oil from coming out the housing at the cable. I suspect they just didn't want to admit their error to me, but also didn't want it on their conscience that they'd broken the cable-nut and clamped it with hose clamps, so they mentioned it to me as if they'd "discovered" it.) Everything is just fine, now that my mechanic and myself did the job correctly.
Now I'm in my second day of disassembling my instrument panel, pulling all the Circuit breakers, controls, etc, to clean the oil out from behind the transparent placard overlays, wipe down all the backs of the instruments that got soaked with oil, and trying to bring my airplane back towards the quality-level I started out with. It's already cost me almost 14 hours additional work. The amount of wasted time on my convention vacation out at those "maintenance" shops, the frustration of the incompetence and improper techniques of those shops (WHERE did they ever get the approved data to cut a gasket that was designed and PMA'd to be manufactured just exactly like it was? Which manual instructed them it was OK to do that, or was OK to reassemble accessories, reusing failed parts?) It was all pretty aggravating.
But even so, the good friends I made, and the contacts Jamie and I enjoyed at the Int'l Cessna 170 Convention were not to be out-classed. If you're not a TIC170A member, you should join up with this class-act group. (Go to the home-page of this website to join.) If you've never made a convention, you'd better start planning to make the 35th in Wilmington. I expect it to be a fantastic event, and I'm NOT going to miss it!
What is left to the imagination is why you and Jamie were covered in oil in the cockpit 
To imagine a picture of your tie-down system for a 747 taildragger with the secrect service trying to learn how to tie/install it and keeping someone from untying it 
when no one is looking is entertaining 
You have my vote.
FUNKY RADIOS, NO MAPS AND CRAPPY GENERATORS TOO. U GUYS SOUN LAK THE KEYSTONE COPS WUZ IN YOUR SQUADRON!
How many keyboards do you go thru in a year George 
I bet Frank is thanking his lucky stars you guys didn't run over him while you were doing your circles out there in those failing B models. Running at redline, couldn't climb up to cooler air, airplanes falling apart, giving a lost pilot a hard time. JUST KIDDING GEORGE, very glad you and your airplane made it back. Sounds like you got all of the bad luck out of the way in one trip. I would never use any of this to give you a hard time over, just like you never teased me about my flaps or stuck valve.