Pains and Gains

I apologise to my loyal readers (you know who you are!) for not posting in almost a month. I would like to say I have been very busy but it was more out of lazyness..... Time to catch you up. Oct 5th was my last flight, it was my first solo straight from the chalks and with it came some excitement, apprehension and genuine fear. Everything was going well except I was coming in on 07 and always coming in too high or too hot. It got so bad infact that I floated halfway down the runway. Once I actually didnt realise how far I floated and tried to put her down. It was then I realised I had to make the decision weather I was going to mash on the power or on the break....A few seconds later I realised I didnt have distance to hit the power and I was hoping to God I had enough distance to stop. I layed into the breaks as hard as I could and pulled back hoping to put even more weight on the tires.....after much heavy breathing and cursing I got it stopped with a little bit of runway to spair (just enough to turn around on). One thing I noticed that day is that my left oleo kept compressing as indicated by the ball moving to the left and the earth sloping to the right. Another thing I noticed was my breaking was garbage on the left one. I figured that the mush on my left oleo was fine (it did it before and I just assumed it was sticking) but I knew something was wrong with the breaks. I checked the resovoir to see my fluid quantity, there was half so it was enough. I checked the breaklines thinking there might be a leak and the left line was soaked in fluid. I called my mechanic over to have a look and he said it was hydraulic fluid from the oleo. That is how I found the first major snag on my aircraft. This was not a "first" I was looking forward to. The next day I went out to taxi UBC over to the mechanics hanger and the oleo blead out over night, it was fully compressed! She limped over hesitantly and entered the Drs Office. To make a long story short, UBC is better, I am poorer, and I am still on the bloody ground because of the friggin October weather. But on the bright side some neat stuff happened in the mean time. I am in the process of making an engine heating system that attaches to one of my camping stoves and blows hot air in to the cowl, I got an Ipod and I build a robot. I will post pics of him soon. I dont think there is anything else I can remember, but if I can I will let you know. Cheers and Beers, Niss