Flight Time–Valkaria

Today I flew the Cherokee back home from Merritt Island. Susan drove me to the airport. Sebastian Communications completed the install of the audio panel, and I was the one flying it home.

Once in the plane, I turned on the master switch to see what was different. I tuned the traffic frequency on one radio and the weather on the other. I could hear the traffic, but not the weather. I entered the weather frequency on the other radio and heard it fine. I thought, "Great, the newly installed audio panel doesn't work." I pressed the Test button on the non-working radio, and I could hear static, so the audio panel was indeed working, but the radio was not. I texted my partners to let them know the situation. I also texted Grady to let him know I was on my way. He hadn't seen the plane yet, and I wanted to give him an overview of what he was getting himself into.

Back on the ground in Valkaria, I asked Grady if he wanted to go for a flight. I knew that was a silly question because there was no doubt in my mind that he most certainly did. I stopped at the hangar to pick him up, then we flew around the local area, down towards Vero Beach, then up the shoreline. Then we came back to the airport, topped off the tanks, and put the plane back in the hangar.

My partner Anthony arrived shortly afterwards to look into the radio situation. He replaced the bad radio with another, and the other one worked. Then he replaced that one with yet another, and it worked too, although the volume control inserted noise into the signal. Finally, he inserted the original radio, and it worked fine now! Apparently, it wasn't seated well during the upgrade.

This has most likely been my final flight in the Cherokee. If so, I will look back on some great flights, with various troubles and failures thrown in. Thanks for the hours and the memories, N7207W.

The flight tracks are below.

 

Flight Time: 1.7 hours
Total Time: 739 hours