| August 31st |
We wore
Tilly
out, then sat and watched
Defiance,
another movie that Vince had lent us. This is a cheerful little ditty about Russian Jews
hiding from the Nazis in WWII. Not enough space battles :o) |
|
|
| August 30th |
After trying to wear
Tilly
out, we sat and watched
Amelia,
another movie that Vince had lent us. It's a shame they focussed on the love story rather
than the flying, but overall it was entertaining, if maybe not so accurate :o) |
|
|
| August 29th |
We lazed around most of the day, then I went out to look at the
DRZ,
to find that the dark thing I could see in the tank was actually something lying in it. I
spent a while with a piece of wire on the end of a long thin bar and hooked it out - it's
the bottom of the cap gasket. A little investigation later and I found that they tear and
drop off. Bugger. That's something I'll have to replace, then keep an eye on.
As the day wore on, I headed over to
the airfield
and pulled the
Flightstar
out for a bunch of circuits. It was busier than I'm used to seeing it, but everybody
seemed to get along OK. I packed everything away just as it was getting dark. |
|
|
| August 28th |
We started the day off lazily enough, then went and met Vince and
Larry for lunch. We took the
van,
then headed up to Auburn to go to a motorcycle shop closing down sale, only it was already
completely closed :o( So, we headed home again.
Later on I took the
DRZ
out to see if it was running better with the airbox and carb work - yes, it's a lot
snappier off the throttle :o)
In the evening, we watched
The Mutant Chronicles,
something Vince had lent us. The cinematography was good, but the story... not so much.
I always like to know why things are happening, rather just that they happened. |
|
|
| August 27th |
We barbecued, and Vince came over for dinner and to play with
Tilly. |
|
|
| August 26nd |
After a long day at work, we decided to go out for dinner, and
Vince joined us. |
|
|
| August 25th |
Now Fred's walking better, we all went out to dinner. |
|
|
| August 24th |
We watched
Clash of the Titans.
It wasn't as bad as
the old one. |
|
|
| August 22nd |
I, for one, was pretty tired after yesterday, so I lazed around for
a while, then looked at the oil leak on Vic's bike. I think I've got that fixed, and
when we went to meet Jen and Gwen for lunch, I picked up some oil so I could change it
when we got home, which I did. |
|
|
| August 21st |
I got up pretty early and played with
Tilly,
then got up on the roof and washed the
solar panels.
We then got in the
van
and headed to San Rafael to see John and Jim - John's in town and crashing with Jim.
It was nice to see everybody, and swim in their saline pool. We had a barbecue in the
early evening, then sat around talking for a while before driving home again. |
|
|
| August 20th |
We barbecued, and Vince came over to partake. Just as we were
starting to eat, Tom called to say he'd taken off from Freedom Field without the
radiator cap screwed on, and was in a field about 4 miles away. So Vince went to get
his trailer and pick him up. |
|
|
| August 18th |
The jet kit came in for the
DRZ,
so I went to install that. I started off getting the needle in just fine, but needed
to take the carb out to get the float bowl off. We ended up having to hammer the
screws out - they're incredibly tight and made of cheese. Luckily the kit comes with
replacement allen screws. The bike started OK, but ran a bit fast until I got the
throttle cable adjusted correctly. |
|
|
| August 17th |
After a hard day at work, we watched
Furry Vengeance,
a bit of a kids' movie, but with a lot of people we recognise from TV. |
|
|
| August 16th |
After work we had talked about going to
the airfield,
but I was too tired, so we watched
The Crazies,
a pretty good sort of horror movie. |
|
|
| August 15th |
I tinkered around with the awning and got it bolted to the
van.
The uprights are hugely too long with all the posts in, but I realised that I could
probably make up a mount to go in the jacking points on the van, which would make things
a bit tidier. On the list... I'm not going to do that today.
Once again I wasted most of the afternoon, then played with
Tilly
to tire her out, so we could go to
the airfield.
I was preflighting the
Flightstar
when a friend of Ken's stopped by and chatted for a while - we finally got away and went
for a flight. We ended up watching the powered parachutes from Athens tootle around at
10' and 20 mph. When we got back, we chatted to Jack for a while before heading
home. |
|
|
| August 14th |
I tinkered around with the awning that Dad sent over for the
van,
now I know what it looks like. The instructions aren't good (1. Put up awning. 2. Attach
it to the van) so I couldn't figure out how to attach it to the van. Still, I know how it
goes together. I emailed Dad for help, and he sent back what looks like the answer, but
I'd packed it all away by then.
I dinked around the house, and played with
Tilly
until she didn't want to chase the ball any more, then we went to
the airfield
and pulled the
Flightstar
out for a nip around the patch. Sid had taken off as we arrived, and we saw him while we
were out and about. He waited for us having landed, so I didn't have to pull his plane
back out to put mine away :o) I did put Todd's S-14 at the back, but things are very
tight, so I'll swap that back next time we got out. |
|
|
| August 13th |
Mark was driving past on his way home to San Jose, so we met for
lunch. He's married now, so we got to meet Yali (sp?). |
|
|
| August 12th |
Today was
Tilly's
birthday, so she got new toys, vegetables and whipped cream. Her favourites. We wore her
out playing in the garden, then watched
The Ghostwriter,
which was pretty good. Ewan McGregor's acting was almost as bad as in the Star Wars
prequels :o) |
|
|
| August 11th |
We met Vince for dinner. Seems the Hawaii move is off, but he might
still go there for a bit to be sure. |
|
|
| August 10th |
We watched
Kick-Ass,
which was excellent. There's a setup for a sequel at the end, so they can still totally
screw it up yet though. |
|
|
| August 9th |
Vic got home. No problems, she just missed
me and Tillamook
the piggies after a week away from home. She was tired, but glad to be home. That could
just be the long drive though. |
|
|
| August 8th |
I tidied up the house and garden, threw the ball until
Tilly
was too tired to bring it back, then headed to
the airfield.
I had intended to take the
Flightstar
out, but it was quite windy. I cleaned the plane up, and put some fuel in it, then
watched the big guys not landing so well. I gave up and headed home. |
|
|
| August 7th |
I tried working out the awning Dad had got me, but without
instructions, it's too hard. The elastic on the fibreglass poles has broken, so I don't
know how many of those there are - the 4 bits of elastic would suggest 2 poles, but I
could be wrong. Dad emailed me a picture of it, and it looks like I have too many pieces
of acrylic. Oh, and it'll be hard to make it work without the
van
to bolt it to. Oh well. I headed out into the garage and got the soft top cover fitted
to the
Jeep.
This is actually quite good, as suddenly you can use the back to store stuff again, as
the top's rolled up and out of the way.
In the late afternoon / early evening, I went to
the airfield
and reorganised the hangar to make it easier for Larry to get out, and for us to get out
without having to move his trike. After that, I pulled the
Flightstar
out. Sid showed up just as I was getting ready to leave, and we said "hi", and he asked
what I was doing driving Vic's Jeep. I did 3 touch and goes as there was a bit of a
crosswind, and it was gusty. The practice is always nice, especially when I don't have
a passenger to scare with the turn from base to finals :o) When Sid was taking off, I
tootled over to Athens and saw the parachute guys putting their stuff away. I got there
at around 22mph ground speed, but got back at around 64mph (I cruise around slowly,
especially when I'm on my own). There was nobody around, so I did a 45 degree downwind
join for a change (I usually go to the West and do an overhead join). Sid landed just as
I was chatting with Jack - he'd flown last night.
After putting everything away I headed home, then remembered I'd left the second headset
on one of the chairs in our "kitchen". Bugger. |
|
|
| August 2nd |
Vic took the
van
and headed to Santa Cruz for some time painting and getting away from
Tilly
and me. We have instructions on how to care for the pigs and fish.
I called Vince to see if Larry was going to be at
the airfield
- seems he got there last night. We actually saw him and Vince flying together, but when
the closer plane broke off towards Lincoln, and we could see it was a trike, we assumed
that Vince was going to play around before going home. Fine, I figured I'd just spend the
evening lazing around and catching up on stuff. |
|
|
| August 1st |
I got up on the roof and washed the
solar panels,
then decided to tinker with the new carb for the
DRZ.
I took the seat and side panels off to cut a 3x3 hole in the airbox (it lets it breathe
better). I then struggled and managed to get the stock carb off. I couldn't see any
way that I could get the new carb on - I put them side by side, and the engine side
adapter is about 1" - 1.5" too long on the new one. There's no way that'll ever fit.
As we had a
SPCA
volunteer dinner thing to go to, Vic helped me throw it all back together, and we headed
out. I then remembered as we drove away that I hadn't reconnected the throttle cable.
Oh well - if I stay with the stock carb, I'll be needing to reject it now anyway.
After the volunteer dinner, we went to
the airfield.
Larry's supposed to be moving into the hangar, so we were going to help him get settled.
Jack was there, and we chatted to him for a while, then Vince showed up and told us that
Larry wasn't coming up - he was stuck in traffic the last time Vince had spoken to him.
We watched Jack and Vince take off, then headed home. |
|