No flying this week but I did spend some time out at the hangar. Most of the time I was cleaning up the ‘debris’ from the Races – taking out the trash and putting everything back where it normally resides. I push the Swift back in a corner and put a table and chairs in the middle, set up a serving table and get the BBQ ready to use during Race week.

I also did a little work on the Swift. I had been using a replacement top hatch (above the seats) since I bought the plane and decided to put the original one back on.  Swifts were made on an assembly line, but they are not all identical. There was a lot of individual fitting of parts in the final assembly, so each airplane is an individual example of the type. You can’t really tell by looking at two planes next to each other, but if you try to swap parts from one to the other you Find that they don’t quite fit together as closely as if they were on their original airplane. Such is the case with my top hatch.  It just doesn’t quite fit and with the speeds that this plane flies the resulting wind noise is more than I want to endure for long periods, even with a good headset.

I did a preliminary fit a couple of days ago and can already see the difference. It will just take a day or so of work to finish the change –  moving the hinges back to the original hatch and adding a small handle to open it from the exterior and a lock to keep it secure. There’s always something to do…

Here are some articles that you may have missed this week:

Unlimited Class Racer Strega in the 2012 Races

The Latest AOPA Live episode
This, obviously is from the AOPA website. The latest episode of their video magazine AOPA Live includes a couple of segments about the recently completed 2012 Reno Air Races. There is some good in-cockpit footage of one of the Sport Class racers going around the course. I should mention that the actual name of the even this year was “The TravelNevada.com National Championship Air Races by Breitling”. The Reno Air Racing Association had to get considerable financial help to pay the insurance premium required for this year’s event, hence the sponsorship names.

Alaska Living Legend of Aviation: Rod Judy
This is from the Alaska Dispatch. In the words of the editor:

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Living Legends of Aviation project celebrates pioneers in the field of Alaska aviation who are still with us today. We’ve already taken a look at the lives of a few amazing men: Al Wright, Harold Esmailka and Bill Stedman. Today, we go along for the ride with Rod Judy.

Alaska Living Legend of Aviation: Bill Stedman
Alaska Living Legend of Aviation: Glen Alsworth
Here a couple more from the Alaska Dispatch, a second installment of their series that appeared this week. It’s nice to see aviation personalities being recognized for their contributions before they pass away.