I played some World of Warcraft, getting my hunter up to level 68. I'm not playing so much, as I have other things to do, so I'll probably stop playing again for the summer after this card runs out.

After looking at the mount I'd made for the GPS, it wasn't going to work (I couldn't get the locking thumbwheel to work). I drilled a few holes in the old tach mount until that looked like it could be pressed into service, and we headed to the airfield and dinked around with mounting it to the Flightstar. It's perhaps a little flimsy, but it's OK when you're flying. Taxiing, however, it bounced around a lot. The guys were all there, so when Vic in his Kolb managed to get Jack's Drifter out of the way, we all started leaving one at a time. I taxied up after Sid in his Quicksilver, but he had us go first. We flew over to see the Roseville Cosmos sculpture, then over by the SPCA and the house before heading back North. We were headed back to Athens, to see if the guys were over there when we saw the guys coming towards us, led by Ken in the finally registered Rans. We also saw Vince in his Rans, at an uncharacteristic 700' - we didn't think it was him at first :o) We fleetingly saw Mike in his Coyote, then headed back to Lincoln before the mad rush began. Everything was going fine on the approach, but we hit the wake of the Cherokee infront of us, so we went around. The actual landing wasn't too bad, but the guys had seen the go-around thinking we'd actually landed - we were at about 5' :o) We put everything away, then headed home to watch Zombieland, which was very funny.

I received a parcel including Lift from Deepah, so at least I've managed to have a few cups of tea to calm my nerves :o)

As I was finishing up, Vince flew over the house in his new to him Rans S-12, which he bought to fix up and sell on. It's fixed up, so it's for sale now.

We went out to try and find a new battery and failed - it's a YTX-7, rather than the much more common YTX-10, so nobody has them. When we got home, I ordered one.

On the way back from dinner we decided to stop in and look at the new Jeep Wrangler as the old one was such a disappointment. Vic drove it, and it's actually a lot better with the new V6 engine. Of course, it's still awful on fuel economy, but it's got us thinking that it'd work for going up hills when she's hang gliding.

I started the day an hour or so later by getting a World of Warcraft game card... I've not done much yet, as I need to decide what I want to do with my hunter.

I went out to cut the grass, and got waylaid by Fred - we ended up having lunch and chatting until I realised that I hadn't achieved anything, so I went and cut the grass. Woo hoo.

I decided to go to the airfield and play with the Flightstar, riding the DRZ over. Despite the fact that the battery was on the charger, it won't start. The digital dash pulls power all the time, so if you don't ride it, it kills the battery stone dead. New battery time :o(

I fiddled around in the garage with the mount I'm hoping will hold the GPS in the Flightstar, I've drilled a lot of holes, now I just need to get it all finished up and hope it fits :o)

In the afternoon, I went to the airfield tinkered for a while then took the Flightstar out for a while. I flew over the house, and Vic was in the garden, so she waved at me :o). I flew over Freedom Field and Lucky ran out to see me, then I headed back to Lincoln via Athens Road, where I watched a powered paraglider playing for a while. When I got back, I helped goad Jack into flying his Drifter, as he'd been fast taxiing it for a while. That all went off uneventfully.

I started playing around with the YSR, and after bumping it down the driveway it ran just fine. Great. Then, having run it up and down the road, the ignition control unit went "pop" and started belching smoke. Bugger. And now it's leaking oil again. Double bugger.

After tidying up after Tilly for a while, I went back into the garage and bent up a GPS mount for the Flightstar, and dug around in my junk boxes and found another ignition control unit in my spare box. Looking at my wiring against the wiring diagram, I'd attached the brown positive wire to the other brown positive wires, where it should run to the unrectified black and red positive line from the engine. Obvious, really :o| So, the YSR's been upgraded to a simple bugger for the oil leak.

The next phase of my instrumented house, the TED-5000 arrived. After work, I shut down the house and installed the pickups in the circuit breaker panel. It's bloody tight in there. After I zipped that all up, I installed the gateway and hooked it up to the router, then configured it all via a web browser. Nothing. Nada. It says that we're using no power (which would be great, but I don't think that's correct). Still, there are things I can check, when it's light out.

Just as well.

I went off to the airfield (in the Subaru, of course) and tinkered around with the guys until I pulled the Flightstar out and took it for a flight. Ken took off right after me, but I lost him with no idea where he was going. I headed over to the house and did a orbit there before heading back to the airfield - nobody came out and waved at me. Or shot at me, so it's all good. As I got back to Lincoln, it was busy, what with parachutists, pilots practicing ILS and GPS approaches, and Ken in the circuit infront of me. We landed and put the planes away as it was getting dark. He asked me if there was anything I was aiming to do to the plane, and I said that I'd been thinking about getting a GPS. He pulled out a GPS III Pilot that he'd recently bought, so we agreed the purchase of that on the spot :o)

It wasn't a bad day at all, so I went out and cut the grass, then took a look at the van. I've decided that the problem's nothing to do with the alarm / fuel pump circuit, so it's back to basics. I pulled a spark plug, and it was wet, so it's been getting fuel. Vic turned the engine over, and there's no spark. I decided that the problem could be the battery, as the engine's lugging, rather than spinning over, despite being on the trickle charger almost constantly. A test showed it dropping to 10v when trying to start, so I took the battery out and went to the FLAPS (Friendly Local Auto Parts Store) to have them test it. It seemed OK, but was quite low, so they said to leave it with them to charge up (they know me in there). Later, they called to say it was now fully charged, and looks fine. I tried the engine again, and no spark, so I called it a day and decided to think about it. I've decided the coil could well be the problem, as it looks to be the original VW one.

In the evening I spent some time looking at the van, as it won't start. I thought that maybe it's the alarm system's fuel pump cut out, but I took the dash out and removed that connection, and it's definitely not the alarm. I've pulled the ignition switch out, and it looks OK. I haven't touched anything else since it was last working, so I'll have to do some basic troubleshooting over the weekend to try and figure out where the problem lies. I have a feeling that it's related to the fuel system, as it's behaving just as it does when the alarm's cut out the fuel pump.

I also took a look at the YSR flasher relay - it says it wants 6.4v, and it's definitely below that at the moment, so I'm telling myself it'll start to work when everything gets hooked up.

I got the electrickery bill, and we're having to pay for electrickery again. Stupid rain.