This has been one those weeks where seemingly everything you touch turns to crud. I've had days like that before, but never a run like the last few days.

It started last Friday, when a planned C550 training flight, which was supposed to have several instrument approaches and touch and go landings, was fouled up by a landing gear indication problem. You really shouldn't do a bunch of touch and goes if one of the landing gear won't indicate down and locked. It was only a burnt out light bulb, so we got back home and on the ground without incident.

Saturday, I was spraying some fogging oil in the engine's cylinders to prevent corrosion. The aerosol can has one of those little red straws that goes in the spray nozzle. I had stuck the straw in one of the spark plug holes, and was spraying away when suddenly fogging oil started going all over the place. I released my finger, and saw that the straw was gone. Got a flashlight, and sure enough you could see it down in the cylinder. I tried fishing it out with a piece of safety wire, but no luck. It is now one more item on my To Do list. It'll be easier to get when I pull the bottom plugs and turn the prop over before the first engine start.

Sunday I had the incident with the inverted oil system tank - see below.

Tuesday I tried to install the prop oil governor line, but the fitting on the governor pad wasn't at the best angle. The oil line couldn't get the best shot at the fitting, but I tried anyway and managed to cross thread things. I removed the fitting, and sure enough, the threads were a bit messed up. I was able to recover Wednesday morning with a half hour's work using a triangular needle file to sort out the threads.

Wednesday I took a day off work so Terry and I could go skating on the Rideau Canal. We had a very nice lunch at the Canal Ritz, then went down on the canal to put on our skates. I've got a rather old pair of skates - old enough that I am no longer sure when I bought them, but it was at least 15 years ago. They have a plastic outer shell, with an inner boot. As I was putting them on a piece of plastic popped off the toe of the right skate. Then another piece broke off near one of the lace eyes. Then the skate split open where the outer side joins the sole. I knew that some plastics lose strength as they age, but I had never seen a demonstration like this. I tossed the skates in the nearest garbage can and walked along side the 40' wide part that the skaters were using as Terry had a nice skate. Oh well. It was a nice day for a walk.

Hopefully this string of bad luck has run its course.