28 Aug

It’s hard to believe it has been five days since I have written. I guess that is a good thing- it means time is going by fast. Brian went up to Balad Saturday to pick up our replacement aircraft. Once they got there they found out it was coming due on its 3 year weigh. It has been a struggle to get the weigh coordinated in addition to the test flight and as a result Brian is still up there. So it has just been J.R. and I doing the test flights back here. A couple of days ago we had a maintenance day which means we don’t get assigned any mission. Each unit gets one a month – I think it is a great idea, it really helped us out. The last couple of days I have been flying 172 that just got out of phase. We made great progress the first day then after the flight we found a retaining ring that had slipped off the forward transmission adapter. It wasn’t to big a deal but everyone is still a little spooked after 171. It set us back for two days because the forward transmission had to be pulled and new parts shipped in. I finished the test flight today and it is one of the smoothest aircraft I have ever flown. At the end of the day it was the first time since we have been here that all the aircraft are up (of course we only have seven but it is still a good feeling). We finally got our TV connection hooked up in our rooms today (rough life huh?  It’s nice because they show a whole lot of sports (right now I am watching the US Open). I tried to plug it into the TV adapter my computer and only managed to shock myself and blow the circuit breaker in the room. At least it didn’t fry my computer but I need to figure out how to get around it.
Clear H 128(yes that is miserable to work in) L 78