Arrival and Celebration

The seller of our Tiger flew it with his wife from Maine down to Gaithersburg, Maryland yesterday. (Total time from startup to shut down was 3.3 hours.) I met him at the airport and we had lunch while we exchanged paperwork. Then there came the point when he handed me the keys. My grin stretched from ear to ear, and so did his, although I knew he was sad to see it go.

I drove the seller and his wife to Baltimore so they could explore the Inner Harbor before flying home to Maine, then returned to the airport. There's so much to learn! I explored the airplane from nose to tail, then drove to Home Depot to get some matching blue and white nylon tiedown ropes. I sat in the cockpit, turned on the master switch, and played with the radios. I had read all the manuals, but reading and doing are two different things, so I played until I began to worry about running down the battery. It was a beautiful evening, so I pulled out the Pilot's Operating Handbook and began reading while sitting in the plane.

Then Jodie arrived with our friend Amy, who is also learning to fly. I climbed out of the plane and ran over to meet them.

I delighted in showing Jodie every little nice thing about the plane, of which there are many.

Jodie and Amy crawled all over the plane.

Then a pilot-friend, Charlie, came by to see it. Charlie owns a Tiger and has over a thousand hours of experience flying Tigers. Under the terms of my insurance, I can't fly the plane until I get a checkout from an instructor that has experience in Tigers. Unfortunately, Charlie is not an instructor. BUT, my insurance will cover a pilot who has more than 300 hours total and more than 25 hours in Tigers. So I asked Charlie if he'd take us for a ride around the pattern, and he was more than willing.

So we all piled in.....

Charlie took us "around the patch" twice while I used the radio and generally fiddled with the avionics. The sunset was gorgeous and the air was silky smooth. Charlie has a deft touch with Tiger controls and gave us two good landings.

Charlie left, but Jodie, Amy, and I stayed at the plane and continued talking about it. Then Rich, my friend and former flight instructor, came by with his dad and dawg. Rich's dad has tons of experience as a pilot, so both he and Rich admired the plane for a while.

It was getting late. The Tiger's back seats fold down, and there are rumors of people sleeping in the back. I decided to see if there was any possibility of realism in that rumor.....

I concluded that although it would not be comfortable, it would be possible to spend the night sleeping in the back of the Tiger. Not being willing to actually put this conclusion to the test, we went home, happy as a lark.....