The Clunk

All season long, I have heard a clunking sound every thme I hit a bump. Checked
over everything several times and found nothing, battery secured with a strap,
oxygen bottle tightly secured in its cradle, push-rod guides tight against the
push-rods, no side play in the gear (retrasted)? I thought it might be the main
wheel bouncing in the wheel-well, so I glued in a piece of foam to the top of
the wheel-well, so that the retracted wheel would just touch it and prevent any
vertical movement. Still had the clunk. Normally, I would forget about it, but
this ship was "totaled" by the insurance company, about a year ago, and I had a
nagging feeling that I had missed something in the rebuilding process.

Last week I lost all electrical powar, didn't have my back-up battery in,
because it was just a "fun" flight. Wasn't much "fun" after everything stopped
working. Where am I, exactly? How far to that duster strip? How much altitude
do I need? DAMN, I'm going to be forced to do some of that "Piloting Stuff". No
audio. No vario, we need some altitude, right now or getting home isn't the
most emediate problem. Boy, I miss the audio, Can't keep looking inside or I'll
run into this other guy (in my thermal) Oh yeah, the B-40 has a back-up
internal battery (thanks Mike Borgelt) Getting home, just might work.

Lets see now, I'm about here, so how far to home? Should have put some of those
"old-fashioned" distance circles on this "old-fashioned" map. OK, at 1000 feet
per 15 statute miles, I will need, Hmmmm, 30 miles divided by 10 = 3 times 1500
feet = 4500 feet. No that doesn't sound right? Oh, yeah, that's 30 miles
divided by 15 = 2, times 1000 = 2000 feet + 500 for pattern. Now what's the
elevation? Let's see now, that's up one page on the GPS, Oh hell, it's now
working, remember

Anyway, I made it home and found the electrical problem and the "Clunk" at the
same time. The clunk was the battery plug, clunking at the end of its 6 inch
lead. All this clunking broke the wire at the solder connection to the battery.
I now have the plug epoxied to the battery and I'm clunk free at last, clunk
free at last, Thank God all mighty, I'm clunk free at last.
JJ Sinclair