).Regarding 69P, she is a 1963 PA-24-250. Just to give a little introduction to this particular aircraft in my virtual hangar, some bad things (and some good things) happened to it in the last 20 years. The previous owner passed, and the aircraft went back to the bank when it was bought (and defaulted on) by its next owner -- and it sat for several years in the deep south bouncing from one broker to another. In that time the last aircraft broker it was held by actually went under, and the aircraft's registration was allowed to expire while it sat on the ground watching the clouds roll by.
While it spent many years outside unable to legally fly, it was a solid, mechanically sound aircraft and it did have the luck of having a cabin cover over it for most of the time. This kept the aircraft from going to the salvage breakers and at least kept the cockpit and much of the internal structure-work from experiencing significant corrosion, molding or other environmental effects.
Moreover it found the attention of a new owner with deep pockets and an A&P savvy enough to recognize that this particular aircraft in spite of its inactivity wasn't a time bomb, but in fact a proverbial diamond in the rough. The airframe was still remarkably corrosion and damage free. It had suffered a gear up in the early 1970's but the damage was documented and verified repaired in the correct way. The engine, while having less than 900 hours SMOH needed some work after so much inactivity. Hoses, plugs and fluids needed to be replaced but the core was surprisingly in good flying shape.
And so after the purchase, the aircraft was ferried to a shop for a complete strip-down, surface replacement as necessary, a repaint and additional STC's involving both aerodynamic enhancements and environmental improvements. The new owner, herself a nostalgia addict, opted to replace only the cockpit instrumentation needed (with the exception of an addition of a bluetooth-capable GPS receiver with autopilot integration) and retain the original 1963 factory paint scheme with new corrosion protection, paint, and top-seal.
Here she is at T78, Liberty Field, Liberty, TX prior to the trip:
And, naturally, we start the series out in Big Bend the next morning with a selfie stick pic:
Mexico is visible in the background; on the other side, Texas.
It's chilly at 11,500 MSL. But it's necessary to fly that high because a) it's early in the morning, b) we're flying high over the Rio Grande and flying critter avoidance is a must in order to provide an experience conducive to enjoyable flying, and c) aircraft propellers are noisy. The last thing we want is an enraged human on the ground with a cellphone taking our picture.
But that's not on the itinerary today. We're making a nice, quiet cruise spinning the engine at 2,200 RPM, eking out just under 13 gallons of fuel per hour. It makes for a respectable 127 knot indicated airspeed and a ground speed of 161 knots. If we are going to be making any noise, we won't be there for long . . .
. . . and we'll just continue to enjoy the view.
