Kevin Barbee of Durham, North Carolina, made his first solo flight on the morning of his sixteenth birthday. “Everything just seemed to click. It all seemed second nature to me when I was in the plane."

Soloing on your sixteenth birthday—the earliest day allowed under the federal aviation regulations—is uncommon, but not rare. Rare is when your mother solos the same day. “It’s awesome that my mom soloed the same morning,” said Kevin, who has put off driving because it’s more fun to fly.

Vickie Barbee said she attended ground school with Kevin because she had to drive him to the airport. “I was doing the homework and the reading,” and because Kevin is home-schooled, they did the lessons together. She took an introductory flight and found that she really enjoyed flying.

Kevin was happy that his mom began flight training. “Before then, I was the only person in our family to be interested in aviation. When mom got interested in it, I had somebody to help me.”

Leaking strut seal

Are bigger problems lurking?

Airplanes weep fluids like maple trees weep sap. Oil, brake, and hydraulic fluid, fuel stains, trapped rainwater—fluids dribble, drip, and sweat from cracks, vents, and pores you never knew existed. Sometimes it’s inevitable, sometimes it’s an indication of a small problem that could get bigger.

One place to look for leaking fluid where there should be none is on the exposed, shiny sections of oleo landing gear struts. These struts serve as shock absorbers, soaking up the impact of the landing gear contacting the runway surface.

A hidden O-ring at the top of the strut prevents damping oil inside the strut housing from leaking out of the housing. The O-ring also blocks dirt and other debris from entering the housing.

Eventually, gritty debris can get the better of the strut, or the O-ring, and compromise the seal. The result is telltale black grime at the top of the exposed strut. You’ve got a leaky strut.

If the strut seal has just recently started leaking, clean the grime with a solvent and check the strut after each landing. Sometimes a big change in ambient temperature can allow some strut fluid to leak past the seal, which returns to normal when the temperature stabilizes.

If the O-ring continues to leak, however, it’s time to ask the shop to check things out. Hopefully the problem is the O-ring and not a pitted or corroded strut.