Finally got out to the flying field today, although it didn't quite go as planned. First, I've been having problems with my Irvine 53 as of late. It started several months ago, when I suddenly dead-sticked. Up until then the Irvine has been a gem. I though I had it figured out a few weeks back, but now it's back. It's as if it's not drawing fuel when advancing the throttle. It just dies. Every now and then it will run at full throttle and then when I throttle back, it will die. Today I noticed that fule was leaking from the head. Upon inspecting, the bolts were somwhat loose. The more experienced guys at the field thought that this had caused crud and dirt to creep in and cause the problems. Tightening the bolts didn't help. Right now I'm "cooking" the engine in antifreeze to clean it up and will assemble it again tomorrow. No flying the SE today.

So, I brought out my trainer, Arrow 9 and fired it up. Had my two boys with me and one of their friends. They all took turns on the buddy box and they all had a blast. I had forgotten myself how much fun it was to fly the trainer. We did about 7-8 flights before calling it quits. While cleaning it up and taking the wing off, I discovered that the fule compartment was flooded with fuel [:@]

Got back and took the tank out. Turns out that the fuel tubing had broken right where it leaves the brass coupler. Now, I'm trying to clean out the fule compartment as best as I can. Since this was an ARF, it was never fuel proofed.[&o]

All in all though, even with my problems, it was fun flying with the boys and to see their friend in awe when trying to fly himself.

-tychoc