Brief Description: 3 more hours of fun and surprises
I'm surprised how tired I was after flying for 2 hours, but the sun was shining so I better be flying. I pulled up to the pump to get more fuel and topped her off. I then went inside to wash up and when I came out it was obvious that fuel was venting all over the airplane. Grr. This is why so many people extend the vent lines to dump overboard BELOW the aircraft. Not a BAD thing, but will get annoying. The plan will be to fill the tanks RIGHT before takeoff to reduce this issue. As I was inspecting where the fuel was draining I also noticed a really oily sticky substance coming out the bottom of the cowl along the cowl/fuse transition. It made me nervous as I couldn't identify the source so I taxied back to the hangar, pulled off the cowling and saw that it was coming from a bit of oil that had leaked down in between the wing/ strake instersection when I got sloppy last week. I am REALLY glad that it wasn't a surprise fuel leak. But this wasn't the end of my issues. I put her back together for another flight, taxied out and noticed a really gusty crosswind on takeoff. kinda scared me. It led me to think, "what a great time to practice crosswind landing approaches." So I set up on final and started getting the feel of crabbing this bird and then went around, BUT when I went to retract the nose gear....nothing...no LED light, nothing. The gear was stuck down. A better of the 2 problems but one that kept me flying around at 90kts until the pattern cleared up. I came in to land and JUST before touchdown the winds died. I settled in nice and straight, then a gust picked up my right wing. I reacted and lowered the right wing then hurried to plant the nose wheel and keep it down while braking. Not fun, especially with the gear issue. Next few days will be spent figuring this one out and I REALLY hope it's a simple fix.
