Paul Tomblin wrote:
When you pick up your plane after an annual, is there any special things
you do? I'm picking up the club's Lance after its annual today, and
flying it back from Batavia NY to Rochester NY (about a 25 minute flight).
Do you do any special pre-flight or flight check? I was planning to climb
up over the airport to about 4,000 feet so that I'll have some glide
cushion if something goes wrong.

I decowl it and do a really, really super preflight check. Everything
under the cowl area should be gone over as if your life dependend on
it. Most of the major issues I've had in flight have been right after
annual. Also, its not unusual for the battery to be dead after annual.
Most shops are thoughtful enough to charge the battery before you
arrive but sometimes they forget. I certainly would not make this an
IFR or night flight.
Also, triple check the logs that the annual was signed off. Twice I
picked up a plane after annual only to notice the IA forgot to log the
annual (making my flight illegal).

-Robert