Dublin, Georgia Day Trip · · PAGE 336. 

July 3, 2010: Fred and Angela stayed on the front porch of the FBO as I departed Dublin with a vigorous rocking of the wings to wave goodbye to them.  My route north took me past their log home where I promised to take my own photos and share them via email and this web page with the reduced resolution photos below.  This photo is looking west at the lake that is north of their home.  The log house is near the tree line and the road at the left of the photo.  Fred commented about how green it is around here when we flew in this area earlier today.

This view is looking south toward the log house from the lake.

This view is looking east where the log house in hidden from view by the trees.

The green roof reveals the location of the log house and detached garage.   The setback of the house from the road and the rise in the terrain between the house and road provide the seclusion seen from the front porch on the previous page.

As I turned north toward home, US 441 is seen here as it winds its way toward Milledgeville, Georgia.  I have featured that town and its nearby power plant and airport in these pages in the past on my trips to and from Florida.  This section of the highway was recently converted to four lanes including a new bypass around Dublin which I saw when we went to lunch in town.

This large industrial processing plant was just west of US 441 as I passed by the area near McIntyre, Georgia.

I was gradually climbing back up to the cool and smooth air at 8,500 MSL for the ride home.  This broken and scattered cloud layer was below my route most of the way back home.  I cranked up my video camera to get some footage near the Lawrenceville Airport as passed by the Atlanta Class B air space listening to the approach controllers working airplanes in and out the area airports.

I was back at home before 4 PM and put the airplane away after moving Wendell's Aeronca Champ out of the way.  Wendell came out to assist me in getting my airplane parked in its usual place.  I would begin my annual conditional inspection this afternoon with an oil change and filter replacement.  The total flying time today was 3.4 hours today, bringing the total Hobbs time on the airplane 297.2 hours.

It is now less than three weeks before my trip to Texas continuing to Oshkosh with my oldest son and pilot for his first AirVenture experience.  I just hope the weather is favorable for the journey.  If all goes well, I may get a chance to meet some of you in homebuilt camping at KOSH on July 24th, 25th, or 26th, 2010.  I hope to see you there.

July 4, 2010:  This Sunday is the American Independence Day this year.  I spent it in the hangar doing my conditional inspection routine.  All the linkages to the flight control surfaces are still connected with no surprises.  I did find a missing 1/4x20 screw from the baffle on the number 4 cylinder head.  I would suppose I did not get it locked down when I was checking the serial numbers of my ECI cylinders a few months ago.  I put in a new bolt to do the job with a suitable lock washer.  I went around the engine checking all the screws and bolts holding on the baffles and the screws in the valve covers.   No surprises with any of the bolts on the filtered air box or the linkages to the carburetor.

I also checked the compression on all four cylinders at top-dead-center to confirm no compression leakage.  My cylinders fell into the group on the Airworthiness Directive that do not need to be rebuilt, just testing the compression every 50 hours until TBO at 2000 hours.

As darkness fell, I was closing the hangar when I realized Wendell was setting up a mini-fireworks display for his daughters and their kids on the ramp in front of the hangar.  I stayed to help out a bit and saw some of the neighbors about half a mile away were putting on good fireworks show.

July 5, 2010: This Monday was a bank, postal, and my company holiday.  I went back out to the airport to button up the cowl after cleaning it while it is off the airplane and easy to reach all the bug spots.  I want to keep the paint job clean before the big trip to Oshkosh.  I have been making a list of stuff to pack in the airplane in the days before the trip begins.  Now if only the weather will cooperate as the end of July journey grows closer.

July 11, 2010 update to the Dublin, Georgia flight from July 3rd seen above.  I finally downloaded my GPS ground track from that day and created the map seen here.  One thing about my old analog autopilot, it flies consistently 1/2-mile to the right of the GPS course line.  The separation between the southbound and northbound ground track is clearly visible below.