It just so happened that my good friend Roger Tonry had both his BFR and annual inspection for his Grumman Tiger due at the end of July. Since I’m a flight instructor and have done some owner assisted annual inspections before myself, I decided I would help him out with both. Roger has owned his Tiger for well over a decade, so I knew this would be fun, easy and educational for both of us.
Roger’s Tiger is parked in a hangar at Whiteman Airport (WHP), which is about 25 miles from Santa Monica Airport (SMO). Since the freeways are often not moving, Roger flew over to meet me at the Typhoon restaurant at Santa Monica Airport one afternoon where we did the required hour of ground over lunch. For the most part, Roger knew his stuff. But there were some things that I managed to add to his mental aviation library. After some Goi Cuon (rice paper wrapped shrimp and vegetables) and Thai Iced Tea, we took off from Santa Monica and did some maneuvers over the Malibu shoreline while admiring a beautiful wooden tall ship that was anchored off shore. We then did a few precision, no power landings to finish off what was, as expected, an easy BFR.
