First Young Eagle flights and some unplanned maintenance

Just over a week ago, our airport had it's first annual open house type
event. I'd been looking forward to it for about a month when a fuel leak
seemed like it might keep me from flying some Young Eagles that day.

The day before the event, I'd taken the plane in for a couple minor
maintenance items only to fly home, jump out of the plane, and find fuel
dripping from the gas coalator. I'm thinking, rats, if I can't get this
fixed, I can't fly in the morning. I make a few phone calls, one of
which is to my mechanic and get some troubleshooting advice. The next
morning, I'm able to get dirty removing the lower cowling so that I can
tighten the nut that holds the gas coalator together then re-safety wire
it. Shazam, problem solved. The funny thing is that when we tested for
leaks at the shop, everything was fine.

A quick test flight once around the pattern, land, check for leaks one
more time and it's time to fly some Young Eagles. Good thing I brought a
clean T-shirt, I needed it.

When I pulled up to where they were staging the Young Eagles flights
from, I can't believe the line of kids waiting. I fill out a form since
I'm a first time Young Eagles pilot and within minutes, I have my first
three kids and face my first major challenge: shortening up the two rear
seatbelts. The rear seat passengers are the smallest folks to have
graced the rear seats. It's a good thing since the Arrow doesn't have a
ton of rear seat leg room, especially given that I fly with the seat
pretty far back. After about 5 minutes of futzing with the belt
adjustment, the two guys in the rear seat are ready, I climb in and the
kid in the right seat climbs in. We do a short passenger brief, I get a
few questions and it's time to go.

Normally, the airport is non-towered but today, they're operating a
tower frequency as well as a ground frequency. It's a good and necessary
thing as they're conducting some warbird flybys, Young Eagle flights
with probably 10 planes participating, and many other flights in/out of
the airport. I am happy to report that not once did I begin a radio
transmission with "Lincoln traffic, ...".

The first flight went fine, even with the little guy sitting behind
ignoring the fact that I really meant what I said about needing it quiet
at certain times. If it hadn't been for the pilot isolate feature of my
intercom, I'd have pulled his mic. jack as he was quite content to make
all sorts of noises over the intercom. Oh well, he was having fun...

I land and wind up repeating this process three more times before the
event comes to a close. In one day, I go from 0 to 12 Young Eagles.
Reflecting on the experience, it was awesome. Hearing things like "This
is so cool" from a 15 yr. old on her first small airplane flight,
"Everybody looks like little ants" from one of my younger passengers,
"This is awesome" several times from other kids was great. Answering
questions about becoming a pilot, owning an airplane, where I fly, etc.
was also a lot of fun.

By the end of the day, I was pretty much wiped out. So much, in fact,
that the plane didn't get the normal post-flight bug wipe down. That
turned out to be the perfect excuse to come out to the airport the
following day and introduce the new dog to the hangar. Not a bad trade
really. He seemed to enjoy himself.

The unofficial count I heard was that we flew 205 kids that day. Not bad
considering the original target was 100 kids. I feel privileged that I
could use the gifts and talents God has given me to bless 12 of those
kids with a free airplane ride.

If anyone has a chance to participate in a Young Eagles event, I'd
strongly encourage you to do so. It is a great opportunity to share our
passion for flying with kids that will, hopefully, get inspired to learn
how to fly. Whatever it costs in terms of airplane and fuel expenses is
worth the smiles you'll get in return.

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane

"To become a Jedi knight, you must master a single force. To become
a private pilot you must strive to master four of them"
- Rod Machado

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