Flying our Cardinal south for its new plumage - Long report

We are as much of flying fools as you and Mary ;-) In the last 4
months, we have made 3 long cross-country trips totaling close to
7000nm. The hassle I referred to was all the transportation logistics
booking commercial flights, getting ground transportations etc.. and
certainly not the flying by ourselves part.

I know -- I was just spoofin' ya...

:-)

It only costs you $1000 to reskin? Is this the whole aileron?

This was to re-skin the outboard half of the right aileron, back in
'98. That price included the inside rib that was bent, labor, and
repainting to match. At the time I thought it was outrageous, but I
was new to the ownership game. Now it doesn't sound so bad! :-)


When it comes to certified aircraft
parts, it feels like skyway robbery sometimes!

"Sometimes"?! I was quoted $1300 for the stall indicator switch out in
the wing of my old Warrior. Upon inspection, we found this to be a $3
buck Radio Shack switch. Despite this, I ended buying a "servicable"
(meaning "used & about to break") switch for "only" $350.

Parts prices are absurd. We desperately need an on-line parts house --
someone that stocks aircraft parts -- that can sell them to us
directly. Wentworth does this well for used parts -- I wish someone
would come along and open up a "Best Buy" for airplane parts.

I had stayed at few H.I.E and they were all decent. The H.I.E near
Little Rock airport looked much newer and nicer than the Days Inn which
was definitely worth the extra $5 ($60 vs. $55).

If you found one for $60, it's probably okay. Around here (and
nationally) Holiday Inn Express' are $99 per night, for which you get
the privilege of a tiny room, an awful bed, a shower that has less
pressure than a dime-store squirt gun, and stale bakery in the lobby.

At our place, $99 gets you a hot tub, a 450 sq ft, 1-bedroom suite,
full kitchen, commercial water pressure showers, and a
delivered-to-your-suite breakfast.

Like the old IBM football commercials used to say: "You make the
call..."

I telll you, the
filthy chairs they had in the Days Inn room definitely belonged to the
pigsty. Not sure whether the fact that they had to house some
semi-permanent guests had something to do with it. If I was the
manager, I'd haul them to the dump.

Dirty is unforgiveable. Old is not necessarily bad. We've got some
pretty old chairs in our Wright Brothers Suite, for example. :-)

And it really depends on the nature of the "semi-permanent guests."
(We call them "corporate guests", BTW.) We have nine suites set aside
solely for use by long-term guests, which (in our case) means traveling
nurses, visiting professors, families hunting for homes, etc. These
are some of the best guests you'll find -- they regard our place as
"home."

If, on the other hand, you were dealing with transients in a
flop-house, you were in "lodging hell"...

While traveling, we just want a clean room, a comfortable bed and a
working shower. Extra things like coffee pot, hairdryer, newspaper,
breakfast etc. are nice but not essential. It can be annoying if there
are too much nonessential stuffs in place of essential items. Our most
awful experience was a swanky hotel in Quito in our Galapagos diving
trip. The hotel had spacious lobby filled with art works, huge vases
of fresh roses everywhere. Our immense room was also tastefully
decorated with art works and fresh cut flowers. Plush bath ropes and
slippers were provided. At night, waiter brought expensive chocolates
and roses to put on pillows. We just got back from a week of diving
and therefore were quite mindful of high altitude effect. Quito was at
10,000'. Hydration was essential. After having a bout with Montezuma
revenge at the beginning of the trip from eating an unpeeled peach in
another swanky hotel in Guayaquil, I would not even want to brush my
teeth with tap water. The only water availabe was some tiny Evian
bottles at $3.50 each. That was the most stupid thing that a hotel
manager could possibly do. We told our tour organizer/tour guide never
to book any guests at the hotel.

Yeah, that's pretty dumb -- but it's hard to tell how some guests will
react to different things. This weekend is a perfect case in point:

As I write this we've got some incredibly testy folks in our Reno Air
Race Suite -- our top of the line smoking-permitted honeymoon suite --
for the weekend. We're 100% booked, have been sold out since last
March (this is a home football weekend here), and these folks have just
been bitching about everything since they got here.

The ventilation in the room is "inadequate" (they're smokers!), the
chocolate cake donut they ordered with breakfast "only had chocolate on
top -- the cake part wasn't chocolate", the parking lot was too full to
park near their room, etc. It just went on and on, while we just stood
there and smiled. I don't know if they were angling for a refund, or
what, but it was almost comical.

Alternatively, we've got another couple in our oldest, dingiest suite
this weekend. It's not an aviation theme suite, the carpet is shot,
the appliances are original with the building (1980!), and the previous
guests had cats in there. It was all we had left (we always book it
last), we cleaned it thoroughly, and....

....the guests LOVE it. They've been raving about it since they got
here (it's huge, at 2-stories and 1300 sq rt.), they love having two
bathrooms, etc. They've booked it for EVERY HOME GAME NEXT YEAR, at a
cost of well over $2600.

Bottom line: You just can't tell. The folks we think are going to be
great often aren't. The folks who look like trouble often are the best
guests. Much of it seems to depend on the mood they're in when they
arrive.

About the paint shop choice. I had done as much research as I could
checking out the shop reputation and customers' feedback. Just cross
our fingers that no surprises will come up.

I've heard so many "paint the plane" horror stories that I'm just
dreading the job. Luckily, our paint still has a few more years in it!

Good luck!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"