Continued...
Tightened down the drain and wiped away the plumbers putty that squeezed out.
I put some paper towels under the exposed drain pipe and filled the tub with water. I let that sit overnight to check my effort for leaks.
The next morning the paper towels were dry.
Yesterday I went out to the LBG and cut a 19" x 19" square out of a piece of 5mm thick plywood. That fits perfectly over the hole in the bathroom cabinet.
I'm trying to figure out the best way to have "fasten" this plywood to the cabinet but still be able to remove the plywood should I want to access the bathtub plumbing.
Perhaps some sort of
3M Command product.
It was so nice to be out in the shop for a bit, I had to spend a little more time there.
I had quite a few old tractor parts that I had acquired a year ago that needed some love. These parts had sat in cardboard boxes on the floor of a wet workshop. I spent some time at the Blasting Cabinet cleaning up some of them.
It was good to be able to spend a little time out there again.
So what else have I been doing that's keeping me from QST?
Well there was the 5-day backpack in Glacier National Park the first week of September. What a fantastic place!
Then there's the pursuit of the airplane partnership. We'd probably have wrapped that up by now except for a glitch caused by me.
I was an airline pilot for 34 years and a Naval Aviator for 5 years. My certificate (pilot license) is for an Air Transport Pilot (ATP) which is the highest level pilot license granted by the FAA.
So when I'd go talk to people about General Aviation and I'd ask what would the process be for getting checked out in a Cessna or a Cirrus or whatever ...the response would be, "We'd take you up in the airplane until you were comfortable landing and then off you'd go."
What they didn't know - and I didn't relize was a BIG DEAL - was that I didn't have an Airplane Single Engine Land "class rating" on my pilot license.
Despite all my lofty accomplishments in multiengine airplanes, I was not licensed to fly a single engine airplane.
This brought the partnership discussion to a screeching halt as I worked out what I needed to do to get qualified to fly in a single engine airplane.
The intial research was not enouraging... it was going to require more effort and money than I was willing to invest in this endeavour. I didn't enjoy getting tested and checked out to fly a new airplane when there was a profit motive involved. I certainly wasn't up to paying for that experience.
As I settled into a funk thinking about how I had wasted my time and the fellow's time that I was discussing the partnership with, I realized the obvious solution to the problem.
I DID have a license for multiengine airplanes.
I turned to my wife and said, "Here's the solution to the lack of a single engine rating. I just need to find a partnership with somebody who has a light twin and then I could flush money down the toilet twice as fast as I would with a single engine airplane partnership."
...and then I laughed ...but my wife didn't.
Anyway, it turns out since I:
1. Was a Naval Aviator and...
2. I had flown a single engine airplane in the training command.
That experience in the military would allow me to be granted a Commercial Airplane Single Engine Land class rating. That is if I could locate my Official Training Jacket (NATOPS Jacket) and Logbook.
Turns out those things were in the attic and eventually I found them. Then it only took about a week and a half to gain access to the COVID shut-down FAA people I needed to bless me.
I now have a license to fly a single engine airplane and the partnership will probably be finalized by the end of October.
THE LONE BEECH GARAGE OPEN HOUSE will take place on Saturday, November 6th from 4 pm to 8 pm. Beer, wine & hor d'oeuvres will be provided for as long as they hold out. HA!
I am expecting a few GJ'ers, neighbors & a huge bunch of freeloading pilots to attend.
Scott
Who knew Lawrenceville had an INTERNATIONAL airport 
