A Rough Two Days...

We got through all our briefings on Monday and decided to have dinner with our friends from PA.  So the four Eastern PA teams went to an early dinner near our hotel.  I got a call before our dinners arrived that all the pilots needed to come out to the airport.  A microburst had hit the flight line and there were some planes that were pulled from their tie downs.  Here is a traditional microburst depiction.  It is one of the worst things a pilot can face. 

This is what we found when we got to the airport.

 

This is a good shot of how Classic Racer #7 got twisted 45 degrees. 

 

Off in the distance you can see the storm clouds.  

 

 

We didn't have any damage and those who thought they had a problem were checked out by the maintenance team and were cleared to fly.  

 

So we started the race this morning and all was going well until Ethel noted a warning light on the panel and one of the gauges went to zero and the attitude indicator stopped working.  Now these instruments are crucial during an IFR flight or a flight into bad weather or clouds but for fair weather flying they are not necessary.  We continued flying until we got to the first timing line but decided we needed to get maintenance to look at the plane.  We believed that the vacuum pump died. 

 

We were told by the head of maintenance that he wasn't sure he could get the part but would try and if they needed to order it then it would be in Wednesday morning around 10am.  These guys were great.  They got a vacuum pump from Albuquerque Int'l and installed it early Tuesday evening.  We got back to the airport to see them test the plane and run her up to make sure all was ok.    Here is a picture of Classic Racer #7 being tested without her cowl flap on.  

All we need to do is get to the airport Wednesday morning and have the log books signed off on around 8am.  We lucked out that Team 30, our friends Alison and Linda decided to stay overnight at
Albuquerque too so we hopped a ride in their rental car and they carted us to dinner and our hotel. 
Here is a picture of the four of us at dinner. 

 

We will have to take a close look at weather tomorrow but we really need to get to Waco, TX and would like to get further if possible.