It was quiet . . .

Things were pretty slow this weekend, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. I had planned on heading up north to be with Laurie and check out Venetian night, but it was not to be. Nine Seven Charlie is still suffering from some bizarre electrical ailment that even a generous check to Mike the Mechanic could not fix. Thinking all was just dandy after cutting said check, I launched from Monticello into sunlit, puffy-cloud filled skies Saturday morning. Climbing through 4,500 the alternator field breaker popped taking the alternator off-line.

I would like to print what came out of my mouth, but I've decided early on that I would try to refrain from profanity in my blog. Instead I will tell you that the quality of the profanity was first rate by even the most discriminating standards. Anyway, I reset the breaker and set about trying to isolate the cause by shutting down all unnecessary electrical accessories and turning them back on one by one. But even with just the bare minimum on, the breaker still popped. Well, it was a nice day to fly anyway, even if I never did get out of sight of Monticello. I returned to the field, landed and waited for Mike the Mechanic to return. He was apparently involved in Bement's Sesquicentennial some way. I can't help but think of Waiting for Guffman when I think of a Bement Sesquicentennial. Please rent the movie if you haven't seen it. Anyone who's ever lived in a tiny town like Monticello (or Mansfield) or participated in community theatre will find it nothing short of brilliant.

Back to Nine Seven Charlie's travails (or "Niner" Seven Charlie as we real pilots like to say). Eventually MTM returned and was just as annoyed as I was that we still had a problem. Thinking perhaps the battery was still too low and had been placing an unusually high load on the alternator, he took it out and charged it overnight. This necessitated staying in Monticello overnight. Now what does one do for fun in a Midwestern town of 4,800 on a Saturday night? Why go to your good friend Rob Csiki's and eat bacon cheeseburgers and play video games with the Csiklettes (his sons, for the uninitiated). It was a blast. After pounding burgers, fries and Coca Cola we indulged in an XBox frag fest, then topped the evening off with a DQ nightcap. Let me just say one thing--Csiklettes on sugar are AWESOME.

So Sunday I head back out to the airport about noon to see if charging the battery solved the problem. This time MTM joined me on the test flight so he could witness the weird electronic gremlins should they manifest themselves again. To make a long story short, they did and I had to leave the plane in Monticello for yet another few days. I'm really not too bummed because, well, I HAVE an airplane. How cool is that? Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this and I'll be able to fly without having to worry about the alternator pooping out in the middle of a night flight. If it does though, my mother got me this cool flashlight headband (you know like miners wear) so I can still see the instruments if the lights go out (luck-eee). Maybe I'll put it on and post a picture.

Back to work.