Over (Almost) Before it Began

Wow, didn't realize it's been almost a month since my last update. That calls for a little catch up.

First and foremost, I completed my last day as an IT professional on the 15th. I spent my last week really trying to do a good job finishing up a project I was working on, so put in some long hours. After a week like that, I really thought it would be strange flip-flopping to a completely different line of work - I was wrong. I went to the airport the next day - Saturday - and it was like I had never written a single line of software code in my life. In fact, after a week, I'm not sure that I could write code. It's like it didn't happen. People have told me that means I made the right decision....I guess we'll see, huh?

My first week, last week, was up and down, literally and figuratively. My lessons were weathered out for almost three full days. I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, so after working Saturday and Sunday, and being weathered out on Monday, I had a weekend. The weather was a blessing in disguise, however...

As I was sitting in the FBO on Monday, one of our senior flight instructors comes in on his day off. On his off days, he sometimes flies a Cessna 402 for a small company. It so happens that he was supposed to fly it on this Monday, but a line of weather in the southeast was preventing him from doing so. As he was sitting next to me he asked "do you want to fly to Daytona Beach tomorrow?" Needless to say, I didn't have to think about it. So at 6:45 the next morning, we taxied out to the runway to head for DAB to pick up 5 passengers that had enjoyed the Daytona 500 a few days before. As we flipped on the fuel pumps for takeoff, the right engine shut off. This should have been a sign. We restarted, flipped on the fuel pumps, and again, the engine shut down. Jim flips open his cell phone and calls the other pilot to ask if he's ever experienced this phenomenon. Of course, he hadn't, and as they were talking on the phone, Jim leans the mixture, flips on the fuel pump, and, naturally, the engine keeps running. Now that we had confirmed to the other pilot that we were imagining things, we took the runway and climbed into the lightening morning sky.

3.5 hours later, we touched down in Daytona Beach. Now, any of you that are familiar with the pursuit of aviation careers will know that time spent flying a multi-engine aircraft reigns supreme. So it should come as no surprise that when Jim mentioned finding opportunities to fly this airplane on my off days, and possibly getting trained and insurance approved to fly it single pilot, I was chomping at the bit. Fast forward to the ground at DAB. We loaded up our 5 passengers, and climb slowly into the warm Florida air. With the wind at our backs, we shaved 30 minutes off the return flight. Aside from some attention-getting moderate turbulence on the way back, we landed after 6.5 hours of golden multi time.

Two days later, Jim comes in and apologizes for putting me at risk. Huh? That's what I said...apparently, the plane went in for maintenance the day following our trip, and a 5-6 inch crack was discovered in the engine block on the top just behind the gearbox, hence the title of this post. As quickly as it began, my flying days in this good 'ol 402 are over. Hmmm....maybe they'd be interested in a King Air?

The pursuit of the dream continues...