It has been a good week. I’ve been doing several sessions a day of stretching the Achilles tendon, and then walking around supporting most of the right leg weight with crutches. I’m up to about 50 lb of weight on the leg now, and the ankle is feeling better than it was a few days ago.

Terry is still working through weaning herself off the back brace. The first few days, whenever the back brace was off she would feel extremely fragile, with it taking a lot of effort to ensure the back remained completely vertical. But yesterday and today, the muscles in her torso are obviously becoming much stronger, so that they are happy to support the back for up to three hours at a time. She starts physiotherapy tomorrow.

Today I got out to the Smiths Falls airport, to partake in the annual fly-in breakfast. Barry, an aviation enthusiast who lives close by, offered to drive me there and back. It was great to get back to the airport, talk with other club members, and to check on the aircraft. Thanks Barry!

I used the opportunity to dry out the desiccant plugs in the cylinders. I had planned to dry out my spare desiccant plugs at home yesterday, but I discovered that I had forgotten to bring them back from the hangar. Alfio, a local RV-9A builder, suggested that a halogen lamp could be used to dry the plugs out. I made some little tin foil “bowls”, and the halogen lamp dried out the plugs in about 45 minutes.