by James Bond

Coming out from Seattle was a non-event. However the adventure started when Sue and I tried to depart KCWI Sunday afternoon around 12:30. Seems that "Perkie Girl" wasn't acting too perky - she just wouldn't start. After several people had a look and tried some troubleshooting to no avail a call went out to find an A&P on a Sunday! Well lo and behold one was found - about 40 minutes away. He arrived around 2pm and determined the left mag wasn't magging ... some more calls were made to try to locate either a used mag or parts. A seaplane based operator on the Mississippi down in Moline had some parts so Sue and I bundled our stuff into Bob Bennett's van (the A&P guy) and back down to Moline we went intending to call Sue's mom in Galesburg to come and get us. After sorting around with Bob's friend we came up with a new mag coil (old one was burnt out) - reassemble the mag, piled in the van and all of us headed back up to Clinton. The mag still wouldn't fire although now we were getting juice out of the coil. It took three more hours to figger out timing. The mag was installed and "Perkie" fired right up. We got back to Galesburg around 9pm that evening. A big handshake to Bob Bennett for coming out on a Sunday to work on our plane.

Heading back home finally we got as far as Iowa City where the ceiling closed down on us. We almost flew into IMC but a quick turn-around brought us to KIOW airport where we sat for almost five hours waiting for a break. A nice couple who just returned from Oshkosh landed, heard of our plight and offered us their home, a dinner out and a tour of the town. Unfortunately a break in the storm track gave us an opening and we shot through it and made it to Algona (KAXA) for an over-nighter. We were loaned the official city car to get to town and a motel. Next day it was on to KHON, KEFC, KSHR and into Bozeman. We got there around 2-ish and just on a whim decided to stay overnight there as well. Come to find out that if we would have pushed on to Missoula we would have been in IFR or rather the field went IFR due to the smoke from the Washington fires. We just found that out the next day. Anyway, we made if home from there with no problems. If you want to read comments about the FBO's on our trip, go to AirNav.com and read the airport comments for: COE, MSO, BZN, HON, AXA, CWI and GBG.

James Bond
Snohomish, WA