I found a surprise when I stepped into the cockpit this morning.  The 3/8” thick tempered glass in the cockpit door had shattered.  The glass hadn’t fallen out of the door, but it had gone all pebbly.  Like a stack of rocks waiting to fall.  It was fine when I left it last night, but this morning there it was.  Add "new cockpit door" to the project list.

 

I think of all the times we’ve slammed that door.  The biggest surprise about it breaking is that it broke on its own.  I didn’t see any sign of impact.  There wasn’t any large temperature change, or even any wind.  The only thing I can think of that might have set it off is vibration from one of the nightly trains.

 

At least I had the opportunity to knock it out in such a way as to try and minimize the mess.  If you’ve never had the opportunity to clean up tempered glass, you’re missing out.  That door made about 60 pounds of little glass rocks, and I got to pick up every one.  I spent the first 2 hours of my day doing that.

 

Despite the rough start, I managed to get both engines completely disconnected and drained of oil, ready to be lifted out.  Tomorrow I’ll work on the deck patches, and we should be in good shape for Monday.