I'm bored, and nobody's online here or myspace....

I gave my notice at Coastal, awhile back actually. My last day is Feb 10th. I've got shortimers, BAD!!!

I can't wait to get back to the Sunshine State!

Otherwise, nothing exciting to report from Alaska. Cold, dark, dreary and boring as ever.

Have a good night folks

Leilani

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This is an entry I made in my journal almost two years ago. I was still new at the whole mechanicing thing. And to date this is still one of the scariest things to happen. Dropping 1500' in a matter of seconds is something you usually don't expect to happen while out on a maintenance run!

So today we went out on a maintenance flight on one of the AStars. We had just changed out the tail rotor control cable the night before. The pilot had taken it out for a test run before us shop grunts had shown up. At 2000' and 60% power, he lost right pedal.

Nate made a few adjustments and by the time we got there, they were ready for another test run. The entire maintenance crew hopped in the aircraft and we took off for Spalding Meadows, or Area 51 as the pilot called it.
First step, get to zero airspeed. In a hover, the pilot slowly pulled collective until were were climbing at a rate of 1000' feet per minute. At 80% power, we lost right pedal again. Now what happened, I wasn't expecting... Once the pedal reached the stop point, we spun around counter clockwise and dropped altitude. It happened so fast, my stomach stayed at 5000' and didn't catch up until we got back on the ground at Coastal.
We went up two more times after making adjustments, and each time, the stopping point was less and less intense. It was still fun, albeit, scary, just like a free falling roller coaster ride.

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