More flying!

We got to the field about eight this morning, the club president, Dick had beat us by an hour and had a bunch of flights in already.  There was a great turn out, 17 members during the course of the day, 7 pop up sun shades, plus my table tent, 3 trailers and our motor home full of planes and I am not sure how many cars and pickups filled with planes and helicopters.

Vera was taking pictures of my planes again today, this is my Cobra on one of it's flights.  I also put in two 35 minute flights on the Slow Stick and two 30 minute flights on the glider below.

I also flew Pogo three times, the Bonaza twice, the Extra 300 twice, Turbo Bee once and the old P-51 once.  Yesterday on the new P-51B, I had one inner door servo break a gear, so I ordered metal geared servos to replace them.  We got home about seven, so it was a 12 hour day devoted to flying.  It sure went by fast, probably  because everyone was in such a good mood.  The only damage I saw today was one broken prop.

Dick took this picture while I was doing one of my 30 minute flights, it was a nice relaxing day!

Flying

We hit a couple of garage sales this morning before heading for Toledo to fly.  We followed one set of "Moving Sale" signs way back in the hills East of Castle Rock.  The driveway looked so steep that I put the Blaze into 4 wheel drive.  When we saw the place, Vera was ready to head home, but the guy came out so we felt obligated to stop.  After quick look around, Vera did not find anything she couldn't live without, so we headed home.  I took my fathers day present, a Pogo, a pylon racer out for it's test flight.  A few minor adjustments and it was flying great!  It is supposed to hit 115 Mph with a racing set up in it, I guess it is time for Vera to learn how to use the radar gun.

I also flew the Slow Stick today, you can see that part of the name comes from the fuselage, a square carbon fiber stick.  It was also the first time out to the field for my Cobra helicopter since I put the new servo paddles on.  They turned it into a different helicopter, it is much more stable now!  Boy was it sultry at the field, Toledo Tel showed a high of 88.8 degrees today.

Another project done!

Wednesday my order of special tape to finish the Slow Stick came in.  I worked on it and a couple of other projects.  I got the little Cobra helicopter flying pretty good and put a flight on it Wednesday night with mosquitos harassing me.

Today, I worked on the Slow Stick all day and got it all finished.  I went out this afternoon and test flew it.  I got Vera out there with the camera for the second flight.  Now I am ready for the Slow Stick races at the field.   I got a couple of flights on the Cobra also, and the mosquitos were after me again.  I even got the lawn mowed today while the Cobra's battery was charging, that rain has really made it grow!

Rain

I worked on the little helicopter that I busted the tail rotor on and got it all repaired today.  I even got in a test flight between showers.  Once as I was headed for the shop, I followed Vera over to the pond, the water lily looked so bright that I went right in and got the camera.

Luckily, I took the camera to the shop with me so I was able to take some pictures of the downpour we had.  I had the door to the shop open taking pictures and it blew rain three feet into the shop.  Vera made that great beef stew again today, I am looking forward to left overs tomorrow.

A new body!

Yep, a new body for my Trex 500, Fedex showed up this morning and delivered a UH-1 Huey by Heliartist.  I didn't waste much time getting it unpacked and admiring it.  I messed around with it and my planes until about three, then Vera and I headed to Longview for another birthday dinner for Vera.  We went to Freddy's Just for the Halibut and really enjoyed our meal.  Afterwards we located a new hobby shop I had heard about, it looks like they specialize in radio control cars.  We stopped at Safeway on the way home for some pop and darn near filled the cart.  Vera suggested trying Coby's Yogurt on the way home, we did and it was great!

Happy Birthday Vera!

I took Vera to breakfast at the 49er this morning since it was her birthday.  We both really enjoyed their hash browns and gravy!  After breakfast, I finished loading up for flying, Vera was going to a Timbers game with Bev in Portland, so I had the afternoon free.

Notice how I have the radios under the table, it rained lightly most of the day.

Just about everyone had their planes protected in one way or another, I had three of mine under the motor home.  I never took any pictures of planes flying because I did not want to point the camera upwards into the rain.  The nice thing was, it was warm, I never put on my coat all day.  It was after 5 before I headed home and I hit a real gully washer on Barnes Drive.  I had the wipers on high and turned on the headlights, I was sure glad it did not hit while I was at the flying field.  I down loaded my pictures, watched a little TV until Vera got home.  She had a great time, the Timbers won 3- 0!  We watched a few recordings on the DVR and called it a night.

Swap Meet

 These pictures of the swap meet at the Toledo High School were taken just before 10 when it opened to the public.  It got pretty crowed for a while, around noon things started slowing down and we had it all closed up about 1 PM.

This is some of the stuff I took to sell.  Most of the engines went right away, and by the end of the day it was all gone.  After the swap meet, I stopped by the club's landlord's house to tell her about repairs we were doing to the barn, then I went over to the flying field to visit with the flyers that were there.   Jeff (he is in the background of my stuff) and Tina had invited club members to their house for a BBQ after the swap meet, so I headed there from the field.  I had a good time there, had lots of good food and got beat at pool.  When I got home, Vera and I got caught up on the day, then I started getting things ready for flying on Sunday.

Bean Soup

We were both tired this morning, so we skipped walking.  I was following the tracking on some helicopter parts and it said "Out for delivery" so we headed down town to the Post Office.  Out for delivery meant the mail carrier had them, but we have no mail box, so they will show up sometime today.  The trip wasn't wasted, I picked up bananas and some ice cream.  Vera made a rhubarb compote today and it tastes great, I needed the ice cream to put it on.  I think I got the gear door fixed today, I put a carbon fiber strip across it to stiffen it up.  Vera made a bean soup for dinner and did it taste good!  I went back for seconds!  I went out this evening and worked on the planes some more, I intended to take a picture of the gear doors, but left the camera out there when I came in, so I will finish this tomorrow and publish it.

Well it took a few days, but I finally got back to finish this post.  The gear doors probably took as much time to finish at the rest of the plane.

Flying at LCRC

We walked this morning, when Vera went to bible study, I headed for Toledo to fly.  The picture is of our friend Leonard (in the brown jacket), Don and his wife Vicky who are looking for an area to settle in now that they retired.  I test flew the T-28 for him, it is a nice flying airplane, a little bigger than the normal foamy.  I flew the P-51 again today, I am still having issues with one gear door blowing open at speed.  The wind came up about two and it started raining, so Leonard and I packed up and headed home.  I spent the evening working on a couple of new projects, one is my fathers day present from Vera, I have high hopes that it will be fast!

I should know better than wait 3 days to do this!

OK, I know we walked, because I took some pictures with my cell phone and sent them to myself.  It was a nice morning for a walk, the first day we have not worn our coats.

When we started our walk, there was just Peggy, Vera and I.  At the Middle School we met Pastor Vonda (in the Cardinal,s World Series shirt) with her granddaughter Haley and her dog Daisy.  We visited with them a minute, then we all walked back to the church.  It is sad that Vonda is going to the Kelso Methodist church, I really liked her.  Well if I think of anything else important we did Tuesday, I will add it later.

Boise Bee

We walked this morning, it was warm enough that we had our jackets off before we were half way.  When we finished I stopped by the Post Office expecting to get my tail rotor blades, they were there, along with the graphics for the P-51.  I spent the afternoon putting them on and making new links for the inner gear doors that were opening at full throttle.  This evening, I took it out to the driveway and shot some pictures for here and the forums.  It sure looks a lot better now.  When I finished it, I started pulling the radios and motors out of several planes that I plan on selling at the club swap meet this weekend.  I was about three quarters done with the second one, when I decided to come in, see how my pictures turned out and do the blog.

Fathers Day Flying!

Audrey, Tina and Vera are visiting at the flying field today.  It is great being married to someone who supports your hobby.  I had a great day of flying, I like the new P-51 more every time I fly it.  I even hit the runway all three times when I dropped the bombs from it.  That is a good thing, because the grass in the surrounding area is tall enough that I would probably never find them if I missed the runway.  I parked (crashed) my little helicopter out there today and it did not show up real well, but we found it.

I sure enjoy flying at Toledo, Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens are in front of us, and this is how it looked behind us as we were leaving today.

John Patrik's Birthday!

We were up early this morning and headed to Arlington for John Patrik and his dad's birthday party.  We were pretty early, and stopped in Everett to do a couple of things.  When we left, we managed to get lost and ended up out in the sticks somewhere and we were 15 minutes late for the party after calling for directions.  We had a good time, the cake was awesome, as was lunch.

John Patrik enjoyed the cake also, but needed a wash job when he finished.  He had a bottle and settled in for a short nap right after the cake.

Dianne sent up this little car, he sat on it for the longest time pushing buttons, moving levers and watching the lights flash.  It looked to me like this maybe his new favorite toy.  We checked out John and Jackie's trailer, saw all the new animals and I took some pictures of the view there which is great!

JP was my main subject today, I ended up taking 97 pictures, most of them were of our little cutie!

We headed for home about 3:30 and managed to not get lost on the way home.  It was a nice day, but as always, it felt good to get home.

Well, that did not go as planned!

I watered the flowers this morning, I wonder if that is why it rained?  Vera went to bible study today,  I worked on a new plane, then decided I wanted some different tape for putting it together.  When Vera came home, my new speed control for the Mini Titan had came.  After lunch (cake again!), I asked if she wanted to go down to Bredfield's to get some tape.  They did not have what I was looking for, so it was off to Micheal's, then Ace, and finally Home Depot.  I gave up after that, Vera had been looking at yarn and wanted to go to La Favorite's in Kelso, on the way I spotted the Dollar Store and had to try there.  No luck, but I got a sack of glues.  OK, we were close by, so I tried Jo Ann's, nothing there either!  Vera did not have any luck finding yarn in Kelso, so we finally headed home and I ordered some tape online.  Then I went out and put the speed control in, when I went out to test it, I had the gyro in upside down, it spun around and broke a tail rotor blade, so it was back online to order some new ones.  No picture again today, I should have taken one when I went over to Dianne's, the twins were painting and it was fun to watch.

I found this picture taken with my first digital camera on June 12th 1999.

Pilots are tough to paint

No walk today, I woke up with my good knee hurting, the funny thing is, about 5 minutes after I get up it quits hurting but I was tired also.  I looked at the title of yesterday's blog and realized I did not put anything in there about getting a couple of flights with the helicopter out in the driveway, I'll bet that confused a few people!  We made a mail run this morning, Vera had a couple of things to pick up at the store afterwards.  We came out with the ingredients for a stew in addition to what she wanted.  That stew turned out so good, we had it for lunch and dinner.  When I finished lunch, I went out and finished painting the pilot for the Mustang, it turned out pretty good, but I can see a few places to touch up in the close up picture.

  I am in the process of ordering some graphics for the Mustang, but everything else is done except getting the red spinner repaired.  Next time I take it out, I will have to try out the bomb release.  Vera made me a Fathers Day cake today, you can not imagine how good it tastes, boy was I happy when she said that she had the ingredients to make another one.

Just helicopter flying today!

Stafford put a picture on the club forum of me giving 12 year old Carter lessons on Sunday, I liked it, so I borrowed it.  We walked this morning, no mail today, not even an ad!  I started painting the Mustang's pilot after downloading and printing the suggested colors for a WWII USAAF fighter pilot.  I had a nice call from Jackie, her weekend of watching 4 kids was coming to an end and I think she was ready for a break.  I called Bev and she took her first solo trip to the store today since breaking her leg.

This afternoon, Vera got the camera and took some pictures of our carnations, they are looking really nice.

We have sure enjoyed the water lilies Mik, Michelle and James got Vera last year, they are interesting to watch open each morning and then close up in the afternoon.

While I was writing this, I went out and took a picture of our solar lights around the small pond.  I hope they show up OK.

It Flies

I got the first two flights on the P-51B today, I like the way it flies and it looks good in the air with the gear doors all closed.  Not that anyone noticed, but the doors and operating radiator door sure showed up for me.

I also got two of the best flights ever on Mario, I even landed on the runway both times.  It is a hand full to fly, so I am going to hang it up as a fond memory of Bill before I damage it.

We took the long way home along the Cowlitz River.  We stopped at the site of the old Olequa bridge, we spent a few minutes watching the river and taking pictures.  This is one of the piers on the West bank.

Denny

Today was Uncle Denny's funeral, we got down there a little early, so we drove out by the old Jarvi home. It looks different now, but still the same in some ways.

There was a nice graveside service for Denny that brought back lots of good memories.  It was nice getting to see family and friends that we had lost touch with.  Barry, Mik, Michelle and James were there also.

After the service, most of the people went over to Arnold Cork's to visit and have pizza.  This is Arnold feeding a deer in their back yard.  We really enjoyed the afternoon listening to the stories and catching up a little of what people had been doing.

Yard Work

We walked all five days this week, usually something is going on that we miss a day here and there.  After we got home, Vera said I had visitors, it was Steve on his mower pulling the pigeon wagon with Dianne, Ava and Harper in it.  The girls hopped off and ran to our door and started knocking, when I opened it they gave me a couple of small loafs of banana bread.  Then they asked where Vera was and headed off to find her.  Pretty soon they had a Nerf football out throwing it around, when Vera took Dianne out to see the flowers on the back deck, they were out there in a flash.  I think Ava wanted a daisy, she was really excited by them.  Vera cut them each a rose that really smelled good, they were all over the decks and when it was time to go, they wanted to stay.  I got my little Cobra out and decided to change the receiver to a new one.  That involved pulling half the body off, I am amazed that I did not lose any of the little screws that hold the two halves together, they are about 3/16 of an inch long and about 1/16 or smaller in diameter and they take the smallest screwdriver I have.  After we had lunch on the deck, I decided to weed eat and then mow.  Of course, the battery for the weed eater was dead, so I started mowing while it charged.  After a couple of passes, I remembered some limbs I wanted to lop off that get in my way.  By the time I was done with that, I had enough stuff cut that I had to get the Quad out and haul it away on the trailer. While I was out at the compost pile, I hooked onto a tree that had fallen last winter and cleared the trail it was blocking.  The battery was charged when I finished that, so I got to weed eat before mowing like I had planned.  The mowing went good, and I ran over the trails also, just a few branches to pick up now and they will be in great shape.  After dinner, I went out to work on the Cobra some more, and Michelle showed up with some things she had for me.  We had a nice visit before and after unloading, she headed home early to rest as she has a cold or allergies.   I got the body back on the Cobra, but still have to program the radio which is a new one, so I will have to study the manual this evening.  No pictures taken today, so here is one from 10 years ago.

It was taken at Gabe and Des's wedding, Happy Anniversary!

Vonda's New Bike

We were just starting our walk when Pastor Vonda rode up on her new bike.  It was nice to see her, she had not walked for a couple of days because she had things going on.  After a short visit in the middle of the intersection, we followed her home and waited while she got Daisy (her dog) for the walk.

When we got home, we walked over to take some pictures of the roses and I took this picture of our California Lilac, it is really doing well.  I finished up the motor of the P-51 today, I had to change the mounting system for the spinner after installing the new motor shaft.  When I ran it up, it vibrated like crazy, it turns out I got the hole in the back plate a little off center.  Luckily, I had another spinner that would work, but I had to make a bushing to fit the prop shaft.  It took an hour or so of lath work to get it made, but now it runs up to full throttle with no vibration.  It was sure a nice day, we had both lunch and dinner on the deck today.

Steak

When I got up this morning, it looked so nice out the kitchen window that I got the camera and took several pictures.

I was able to pick up my new 9 channel receiver for the P-51B after our walk this morning.  While Vera was at bible study, I got it installed and checked out.  Now everything works, I have ailerons, elevator, throttle, rudder, retracts, flaps, operating radiator door and bomb or drop tank release.  I know that is only 8, but the ailerons take 2 channels so I can adjust differential into them.  Later, I checked the tracking and the new motor shaft was at the post office, so we picked it up and I got it installed this afternoon.  Monday morning after our walk we stopped at the grocery store for a few things and ended up with a steak for dinner.  Of course I forgot about picking up Bev, so we saved it for Tuesday night, but that did not happen, so I barbecued it tonight and we ate out on the deck.  It tasted great with the fruit salad Vera made.

Flying!

We went flying today after our walk.  I sure do appreciate the Table Tent on days like this.  It wasn't long before I changed into my shorts.  I gave a couple of lessons today, test flew a member's new plane and got in quite a bit of flying with my planes.  Just as I was getting ready to leave, I saw this Chinook helicopter making an approach to the Toledo airport.  I ran (well maybe walked fast) to the motor home, grabbed the camera and got some good pictures.  They had mowed the grass along the runway this morning and the Chinook was really stirring up the clippings, they were coming down at our field as I got into the motor home to leave.

Monday Monday!

We walked this morning and it was just Vera and I.  We had a nice call from Jackie, she was excited because John Patrik got a truck out of the toy box and was rolling it.

I puttered in the shop and on the computer until it was time to go pick up Bev.  I drove her to Vancouver for the soccer team she coaches, end of season party.  She zips right along on that three wheeled thing, I almost had to run to keep up going into the pizza parlor.  Boy, can a bunch of 10 and 11 year old girls make a lot of noise.  I had a good time watching and taking pictures.

Another Busy Day!

Today, I had a noon club meeting at the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers field in Goble.  I got down there about 9:00, Mike was there already, so I did not have to open the gate.  I only got the two planes and one helicopter out to fly today as it was blowing pretty good and I wanted to leave early.

This is Mike's P-51 making a 108 mph pass on the radar gun.  Eight people showed up for the meeting and it was over at 12:30, I flew a couple of more flights before heading home.

This afternoon, we went down to Tierney's graduation party.  This is a picture of her holding the newest cousin in our family.  We had a good time visiting with everyone.

This is Michelle at Tierney's party, today was also Michelle's birthday, they stopped by after the party  and we gave her a birthday present.  Later, we settled in for an evening of college sevens rugby on TV.