The journey home

On Monday morning we arrived at Frederick airport early in hopes to get the ball rolling with classic 58. Our race plane needed an oil change after all the hard work the previous week. We had already made prior arrangements to have this done and it should be ready in 2-3 hours. While classic 58 was being attended to we had breakfast with our support crew and family before they left commercially later that day. When we arrived back at the airport we waited patiently for 58 to be finished. In the mean time weather had started building and was getting worse with every passing minute. We got calls from our support crew that the majors were delaying. So after a few more hours at the airport classic 58 was done with an oil change but we could not depart because of the weather situation. Day 1 departure would lead us right back to the hotel.

Day 2 was much more productive. We got another early start and planned to Louisville Kentucky. Where we found out that the local pronunciation sounds like louvel. After realizing that Mexican food in Kentucky wasn't the smartest move for lunch we jumped back into our trusty plane and headed west. We aimed for Springfield and realized that we could make it all the way to Tulsa Oklahoma. We were exhausted but felt like we made up for Monday's delay. We traveled over 900 miles in 1 day. We were happy that home was only a day away.

Day 3. Another early start. We filed IFR got a weather brief did our preflight and paid our fuel bill. We were set on leaving. Unfortunately 58 decided that the Bendix starter did not want to engage. The theory is too much humidity caused the pin to develop corrosion and therefore preventing the starter from engaging. Well as pilots we knew that we needed mechanical help. Kicking the tire wasn't going to fix this one. After many phone calls and airport security's involvement we were able to get 58 over to another FBO to be attended to. The waiting game started. We "hung out" at the FBO all day long. We had all our personal belongings in the plane so this turned out to be extremely boring. So boring that we took naps on the floor. After an entire day of waiting we find that 58 is all done with maintenance and had also received event #3 of our progressive maintenance. We were set on leaving. But that was not to be, our University is at the end of a fiscal year so word was that we were going to spend the night until we could pay the bill tomorrow. Day 3 finds us back at the same hotel in the same exact room as the night before. We are happy to have maintenance on our plane, although we are a bit low in spirits as we were set on being home tonight. It has been 2.5 weeks away we are ready to be home. We will try again tomorrow.