September

Ma Blog‎ > ‎2005‎ > ‎

Sep 30th	As the fork parts had come in for the KLX, I got them rebuilt and back on the bike. Woo woo.

Sep 29th	In the evening, I went over to Lincoln and I flew the plane for an hour, until it started to get dark. Again, I just did a full stop landing as there was a plane behind me on finals for an instrument approach. This time the plane waiting to pull onto the runway was going against traffic - we were using 15, and he was using 33. He started to roll pretty soon after I touched down, causing the ILS plane to go-around :o\| Ever heard a squirrel scream? I have - Chloe managed to trap one under the steps of the hot tub - I thought it was a bird at first. I shuttled her inside, then moved the steps to get the squirrel to make a run for it. He didn't even say "thanks". Oh well.

Sep 28th	Back to work. I need a vacation.

Sep 27th	Back to the airport to drop everybody off, so they're all on their way home now.

Sep 26th	Took la famile to San Francisco. We basically hung around at Fisherman's Wharf, and stopped at the vista point just over the Golden Gate bridge on the way home.

Sep 25th	We met a bunch of guys from the airfield for lunch, then had a day of rest.

Sep 24th	After clearing up after Otis, we spent the day rolling around on the roof (in 10mph wind gusts) setting up the wind speed / direction sensor for the weather station, and building a little shelf for the rain sensor to sit on - all done :o)

Sep 23rd	Dad had bought me a weather station, so we spent some time getting things sorted out for that. I stumbled on a compatible station on sale at Radio Shack, so now my little station will tell me the temperature in the house, garage and outside. We have the mast set up for the wind speed / direction sensor, we just need to borrow Jim's long ladder and bolt it to the house.

Sep 22nd	It's been fun, fun, fun - Dad and I had fixed a clogged sprinkler, and during this process, discovered a leak somewhere. So, we ended up digging until we found a leak on a piece of 3/4" pipe that it looks like I've fixed before. As I have nothing to fix 3/4" pipe, we had to make a trip to Lowes to get some parts. This turned into a family outing, and many plants were bought. We fixed the pipe, then planted a bunch of stuff to make the garden look "pretty" and take up even more of my time. Debbie dropped off her little dog, Otis, for me to look after him for a couple of evenings, so he spent his night peeing on Chloe's bed and the rug next to my bed. Bless.

Sep 21st	Dad and I went over to Lincoln and I flew the plane for a little while until the wind started to pick up a little. Lucky, really, as I have a tendency to do a touch and go on my first approach, but this time I just did a full stop landing. There was a plane behind me on finals, and there was a plane waiting to pull onto the runway - he did as soon as I touched down, and started to roll. This caused the plane on finals to do a go-around, so there were 2 planes very close together - if I'd been touching and going - that would have been 3 :o\| In the evening, we met Jason and Nicole to see Nicole's beadmaking live.

Sep 20th	Today was a flying day - I took the family to Freedom Field so they could all fly with Ray in the Coyote. A fine time was had by all.

Sep 18th	We went to Reno, to watch the air races, and ran around the south shore of Lake Tahoe on the way home. Can somebody please explain drivers' behavior in passing lanes? Basically, there'll be a line of traffic waiting to get past some moron (anybody slower than me is a moron. Anybody faster than me is a maniac) coasting down the hill at 40mph. As soon as you get to a passing lane, they speed up. Then, as soon as the chance to overtake them is past, they brake so that they're only doing 40mph again. Seriously, if you're that scared of narrower roads, take the bus. It'll even be quicker.

Sep 17th	We didn't really do much, but we did go next door to eat the fish that Dad caught :o)

Sep 16th	Dad got up early and went fishing with Jim. They caught 4 fish - trout and kokanee. The rest of us stayed around and fussed Chloe.

Sep 15th	We went to Wally-world, so we could get Dad a fishing license.

Sep 14th	We went to Folsom, and looked around the old town.

Sep 13th	The parental units arrived safely :o) Of course, when they arrived, Jim and Kathy were outside taking pictures of their 2 week old puppies, so we stopped off to coo over them. All the while Chloe was hammering her tail on the wall waiting for us to come in, so she opened it up again. Stupid animal...

Sep 11th	More tidying up in the house and garden. Triffic. In the evening, I went to Lincoln, fixed the trim tab and did a couple of circuits, as there was a guy in a Pitts type biplane to the West doing an impromptu airshow :o). The landings weren't too bad. I was debating whether or not to do another circuit when some guy showed up and landed downwind. When the winds are listed as calm, we're supposed to use runway 15, but as it was starting to get dark, people were coming in on 33. I decided that was the time to put the plane away.

Sep 10th	I got some tidying up done in the house, then met a bunch o' guys from the airfield for lunch. I dropped off the tubes and rim strips at Jeff's, so he'll get the tyres mounted before he goes to Barcelona, and hopefully I can get the KLX back together as soon as I get the forks rebuilt. After feeding Chloe, I went and did a couple of circuits in the plane. My first landing wasn't too bad, but it seemed like the trim tab was loose, so my second landing was less great, as I was busy thinking about that. I found that the outer cable end had popped out of it's holder on the tail, so I'll be zip tying and safety wiring that. The silly thing is that I already looked at and fixed that at the front, but it didn't occur to me to look at it at the rear. Oh well... another 15 minutes' work. On a slightly different note, I think I saw the other hangar resident who I've never met leaving as I arrived. I didn't figure out that it was probably him until I saw his (and my) plane had been moved.

Sep 9th	Since I worked on Monday, I took the day off. I went to Freedom Field to do a cross-country training lesson in the Coyote. I called up for a weather update, and they said that they didn't recommend a flight to Petaluma, our intended destination. Well, we set off for there anyway, and as we got closer to the mountains we could see that there was no way we'd make it. So, Plan B that I wasn't aware of was to fly to Willow Glen. Ah, no plan drawn on the map, but by following the right roads and railway tracks, we found it. The interesting thing was that we couldn't figure out which way to land, and there were 2 other planes who'd said they'd follow us in :o) We eventually saw the "T", but no windsock, and landed appropriately and had lunch. The flight home was less eventful, but more bumpy. Still, that's the 2 hour navigation training crossed off my list of things to do :o)

Sep 8th	Drove down to San Jose (yes, I know the way, thanks for asking) for a work meeting, then picked up some innertubes for the KLX and some picture frames at IKEA on the way back. For reference, you base the innertube sizes on the rim sizes, so my 4.25" rear rim with a 150 section tyre gets a 4.25" tube, and the 3.5" front rim with a 120 section tyre gets a 3.5" tube. Easy really - going with the tyre would have seen me end up with 6" and 4.25" tubes. This seems to be a question that not a lot of people can answer, but they'll quite merrily call you a moron for not knowing the answer yourself.

Sep 7th	I ran around like an idiot after work, then collected 5 gallons of gas for the plane and did a single circuit before I decided it was too dark to carry on flying. I went to fill the plane up, and poured a load of gas down the wing, as it only needed 3 gallons. I need to time my next flight better, but that would suggest that it's used under 3 gallons per hour, as since it was last almost full, I've taxied around, Ray did a hop and a circuit, I flew 45 minutes, then I did a single circuit (10 - 15 minutes engine run time). Cool :o)

Sep 6th	Straight after work, I met Ray over at Lincoln, and soloed in my plane. I find that it potters around quite happily between 4,000 and 5,200rpms at around 40 - 50mph. When it came time to land, there was a gusty crosswind from the right, so I went to land pointing slightly into that, expecting the plane to jerk left as it touched down. Nope, the wind picked up and blew the tail, so I went right. "Screw this" I thought, and put the power on and settled everything down. Then I realised that I'd have to pull back to climb, so I did the rest of the circuit with some long grass hanging from the undercarriage. The next landing was better :o) After all the work, I don't think it needs the trim kit, as the controls are so light. I then went over to Jeff's, where we relaced the rear wheel for the KLX properly, and trued it up. Now I just need to rebuild the forks and find some inner tubes, and that's back in one piece :o)

Sep 5th	This was Labo(u)r Day here in the US, when Septics celebrate the accomplishments of the unions by taking the day off. In the usual style, I got to work, but at least it was quiet.

Sep 4th	I met Jason and Nicole for breakfast (well, more like brunch), then Jason and I went for a motorcycle ride up to Auburn, over the bridge they threw the Corvette off in "XXX", then through Cool and Folsom and home again. It was pretty cool - I need to get out more, as I'm very rusty on the bike. I then went and picked up Chloe from Debbie's, and had a quiet night in eating chocolate.

Sep 3rd	Went over to Freedom Field and did a few bits and pieces on Mike's S-14. When he was getting ready to go for a flight, I went home and crashed out. I'm very tired for some reason.

Sep 2nd	Mike showed up, and we went over and did the soldering for the push to talk button on the plane, so that's now flyable again.

Sep 1st	I got up expecting to need a shovel to clear out the dead mosquitoes in my garden, seeing as they were doing the big thing about spraying for them during the night. Alas, I didn't see a single corpse. Maybe the spraying is just to stop people worrying about West Nile virus. Cynic, moi? I went to Lincoln and finished fitting the pitch trim kit to the plane.