Well the airlines have mechanics that inspect the aircraft after each landing. The log book must be signed off for every leg. I was only refering to the general aviation small plane requirements of every 100 hours or 12 months, because like our boats, the small privately owned aircraft sit a lot more than they fly. This would be for a small Cessna type, privately owned and not used for comercial service. The regs. are quite different for comercial ops, and even more restrictive for International ops.

It is interesting to think about the distractions of talking and rigging- and of having 2 people do it because you may assume one person did something they didn't. The first time I put up my mast I thought it was set but then realized someone forgot to put a ring ding on one of the shroud pins!

And that is why we always have at least two pilots up front. A single pilot could fly the airplane easily, but we use two, how come? Because hopefully, what one missed, the other will catch. And of course we have a checklist to back up the humans. When you have humans involved, you will always have human errors. Ask Bob about his A cat bolts pulling out...

It would probably be a good idea to ask one of your fellow racers to "Come here and take a look at my boat, see what I missed." after you are done rigging. That's a good time to look, talk and drink, while getting a second opinion on how your boat is set up.

Safety wire on anything that isn't assembled/disassembled during setup/takedown.


I sat through an eight hour delay a couple of weeks ago in Honolulu. What started out as a mechanical in one of the engines mushroomed into a multibox avionics failure.

One woman was ranting about "I fly every week and this is total BS." she was fun to watch. Another was when the drunks came back from the bar and started asking funny questions of a senior gate agent that thought they were serious.

I felt sorry for the guy who had come to Hawaii for a quick vacation with his wife and had to be back on the East Coast for deployment to Iraq. Hopefully he made it and wasn't declared AWOL.

In the end we got a cardboard airport restaurant meal and a $200 voucher.

I think you meant youtube not utube.Try this linky.
Turbulence

I try to take apart as little as possible, I leave the rigging and snuffer attached.
The only thing I take off are rudders, boom and some small bits.

When alone I can be off the trailer and on the water in an hour (faster than most doublehanders).

Yes Bobcat, that's the video I was refering to! Captain Morningwood...brilliant.

"I seem to have a crick in my neck." <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The man with a plan.... Flight plan, that is...