Sneaky snake stows away on a small plane

No...it's not a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark or a Samuel L. Jackson movie.

SanDeigo.com.net features an Associated Press story report about a pilot finding a rat snake in the cockpit of his small plane shortly after takeoff.

The pilot was a physician flying a one-seat plane across Mississippi, who preformed aerial "aerobatics" to get the snake to slither away till he could land.

Source: Planenews Aviation

Replacing a small plane alternator

A pilot in Northern California writes about his experience doing field repairs on his plane on his personal blog.

The story on Jack's Flying Blog details how he detected a low voltage indication on his engine. After landing, he discovered his alternator needed replacing.

Lucky for the pilot, he had friends in the area who could do the maintenance on his plane and installed a new alternator.