Saturday Flying

While I loaded the last few things this morning Vera made sandwiches for lunch, boy were they good!  The first thing we did was unload the club's stuff into the barn, one of the other club members came over and helped, so we were done in just a few minutes.  Then I got my stuff set up and had a great day of flying.  We had a good turn out, it was nice to see everyone again after a couple of weeks of not flying at Toledo.  One thing the threshing bee does is pack the runway down, our runway is where the vendors set up their booths so there is lots of foot traffic.  We put in a long day and it was around 7 before we got home.  I have a club meeting at Goble with the Longview club tomorrow, so I had to charge batteries again and get my secretaries stuff together.  I ended up with about an hour to sit and watch TV before I started nodding off and we went to bed.

Well, I put that off until the last minute!

No walk on Thursday, it was kind of wet.  I spent the day working on the F-4 and had the wiring in good shape by the end of the day.

Friday

We have not seen much of the bunny's all summer, now it seems like we are seeing them everyday.  We walked this morning, then I started on the Lewis county clubs mower and barbecue.  I have had them home for two or three weeks, now the field is ready to use again, so I need to get on the stick.  I had ordered a new stainless steel burner for the barbecue as the old one was rusting out.  I got it installed and made a modification so that the burner is fastened down.  The barbecue gets rolled across some bumpy ground and the old burner had moved once and we had fire everywhere.  When I finished that, I started on the mower, changing oil, sharpening the blades and loading it and most of the other club stuff on the trailer.  I was also charging my batteries for flying Saturday.  Just before bedtime, I remembered I had no picture for the blog, so I went out and took one of the trailer.

Bill paying time!

I decided to pay bills this morning, the first one I tried did not go well!  I entered my account number and password, it came back with "Error incorrect user name or password"!  After a couple of tries, I called the Dept of Public Works and explained my problem.  The lady checked my account and found it was locked out, so she was going to do it over the phone when she discovered all the accounts were locked!  I tried again this evening and still no go!  The rest of the bills went OK, and I got the desk cleared off, well, the right side, the left side can wait until another day.

When Vera got home from bible study, she had my new receiver, it was a day early!  I had two club newsletters to get out today, so I spent most of the afternoon doing them.  It is sure a lot easier than when we had to type them, copy them, fold them, address them, put stamps on and take them to the post office.  Now I just email then out to the groups in my contact list.  While I was working on that, Vera did some picture taking of her flowers, the bumble bees are really liking her cosmos.I got in some helicopter flying this evening.  Vera noticed, came out with the camera and took a bunch of pictures.I took the new receiver out to the shop and got it bound to the transmitter.  Then I installed it in the F-4 and did a quick check of the controls.  It must be my lucky day as they all went the right way!

This is another of Vera's pictures from today, I think it is my favorite.

Old school

We had another nice walk this morning, then made a stop at the grocery store for a few things.  We went over to the 4 Corners Farm store for some local honey, then back to the grocery store for the oats we forgot.  Vera fixed ham sandwiches for lunch while I cut up the water melon into bite sized pieces.  It sure was a tasty lunch, in fact we had the same thing for dinner and it tasted just as good!  I was looking for something different to do today, so I got out one of my old helicopters, put a new receiver into it and started trimming it out.  Since it doesn't have the modern gyros in it, it is a little harder to fly.  After a couple of sessions, I had it trimmed out pretty well and did a little forward flight.  This evening, I installed the landing gear onto the strengthened area of the new plane.  I spent the rest of the evening reading and watching TV.

Jeep Fun

We had a great walk today, we took a detour on the way back and looked at the parsonage remodeling project, the guys are doing a great job.  Then we went to the post office and the credit union before going back to the car via Front Street so we could check out the progress of that project.  Not long after we got home, Rielee, Ava and Harper drove the Jeep over for a visit.  They played with the magnets for a few minutes and then headed out to drive some more.  I followed along with the camera and had a great time watching, taking pictures and video.
Ava and Harper in the Jeep
I worked on a couple of projects today, I did some reinforcement on one new plane and then started sanding the struts.  I got one done and the dust was bothering me, so I quit on it.  I got another project out, I had seen on the RC Groups forum that there was issues with the landing gear.  I studied it for a few minutes and made up a couple of plywood plates to support the area.  The hardest part of that job was getting the nozzle of the glue bottle unplugged, I had to soak it in hot water before I could get it to move and then pick out the softened glue.  When I finally got that all glued up, I started getting some planes ready for the club tailgate swap meet next month.  I ended up picking out three that I seldom fly.

German Chocolate cake with ice cream, YUM!

Vera pruned the roses and they started blooming again, the ones on this bush smell so good!  Vera was off to church this morning and I headed out to change the airline I had hooked up wrong.  The good news was the system held air pressure all night.  I got in a flight on the little helicopter since it was nice out.  I got the hatch the speed control mounts on all sealed up, so I decided to run the motor on 12 cells and see if the hatch stayed on.  3000 watts is lots of power and kind of scary when you are trying to hold it down.  The hatch did not leak, so I started running the wiring and setting up the transmitter.

When I had it all together, I took it out on the driveway for a photo session, this is the picture I liked best.

This is the one Vera liked the best.  I flew the little helicopter again after the rain quit.  I think that I got in four flights on it today.  When I came in this evening, Vera said "Don't forget your German chocolate cake, it would be good with ice cream!", I got it out and it was delicious with ice cream!

The F-4 retracts are working, kind of!

I worked on the F-4 all day, once when I went in Vera had made cocoa mounds, those and potato chips turned into my lunch.  About noon I took a break and we went for a walk, maybe I walked off one of those cocoa mounds.  I got the F-4's canopy hold downs all installed and working.  Then I started on the retracts, I got the retract control valve mounted and everything hooked up.  I pumped the system up and cycled it about 10 times and it worked great.  Just as I headed in for the night, I noticed the main gear was down and the nose gear was retracted.  It looks like I have to switch a couple of air lines tomorrow.  I got a few flights in with the little helicopter today, it is sure fun.  This was another day without a picture, so I went looking and found this one from August 1999 of the kids building a fort or something behind the Dolan's garage.  That is a big hammer James has, I am not sure what Macee and Emmy are doing and Ainsley looks pretty busy in the box.

Thinking Alike!

I ran out of cereal this morning, so about 11:30 we headed to town.  Boy are we thinking alike, I was out in the shop making a battery mount for the F-4 and started getting hungry, I thought that since we had to go to Fred Meyer for my favorite cereal, it would be nice to have their panini for lunch.  I went in the house and before I could mention it, Vera said "since we are going to Fred Meyer, we could have a panini!".  Boy was I surprised, and yes, the panini was great!  When we finished shopping there, we stopped at Harbor Freight, before I made it to the store, I ran into Doug Walden who used to live down the road a ways.  We had a nice visit catching up with how we were and what we had been doing.  From there, we went to the Kelso Safeway and did some more shopping.  On the way home, I stopped to pick up the mail, I knew my new mouse was there, along with a new plane that I couldn't pass up, it was marked down from $99 to $40, it should be a cute one.

Here is the new mouse, it sits more upright, so you don't have to twist your arm to use it.  I am using it as I write this and it is not taking long to get used to it.

This afternoon, I finished up the battery mount for the front battery in the F-4.  It took a few tries, but it finally fit.  I got slowed down by the bandsaw, the blade came off, so I put it back on and adjusted the tracking.  I was on the last cut when it broke, so I had to do the whole thing over again with the new blade.

I started on the mount for the nose gear steering servo after I finished the battery mount.  I got the servo mounted in the piece and mounted it to the nose gear mounting plate before calling it a night.  I also stuck the retract air tank in to make sure it would clear everything.  Not too many jobs left and it will be ready for a test flight.

It is Here!

Boy did I sleep last night, it was almost nine before I got up.  One of the first things I did was check the tracking on Vera's new Kindle and it was at the post office.  Her old one ran out of memory for the number of books she has downloaded.  Since it was 66 degrees out, we headed out for our walk and to pick up the mail.  After we got home, Vera started learning how to use the Kindle.

I headed out to the shop, but I noticed Ava, Harper, Jillian and Rielee playing at the fort, so I wandered over there to watch and talk with Dianne.  The girls got the water hose into the sandbox and when it got to be Harper's turn, the stiff hose slipped in her hand and it sprayed Jillian right in the face.  When she swung it away, she got Rielee.  I cracked up laughing, but the girls were not happy!

I also had a package at the post office today, my third battery for the F-4 showed up.  I put a Deans plug on it and started it charging while I planned out the mounts in the wing.  It was going good until I started looking for those black straps, I need them before I could glue the mounts down.  I hunted for them and my plastics cutter for a couple of hours, I knew that I had put them in a drawer just last week!  I finally decided to take a break at dinner time, hoping it would go better later.  After I ate and took a short break, I went back out and found the straps in the second drawer I tried.  I had to shorten the straps for this application, while I was doing that, there was my plastics cutter right in front of me!  I must have looked right at it a dozen times.  Things went good after that and after finishing the wing battery mounts I got started on the first step of making the battery mount for the battery in the nose before heading in for the night.

Wednesday

Big surprise, I mopped the shops bathroom floor and swept up the building room floor this morning, it has been quite a while since I did both.  When Vera got home from bible study she made up meat loaf sandwiches for lunch, Yum!  She had stopped at the post office and I got the new Model Aviation, that slowed me down for awhile.

I went out this afternoon to work on the F-4 retracts.  I took the retract valve and servo off the mount I had made, drilled some lightening holes in it and painted it.

While it was drying, I worked on a latch for the hatch over the fan unit and speed control.  I also had to install a locating pin on the rear of the hatch.

I ended up with a pretty good fit on the hatch.  After I am sure it flies good, I plan on repainting it, you can see lots of chips around the edge of the hatch.  We went down to BK for dinner and then cruised around town for a little while.

More F-4 wiring!

When it got up to 65 degrees, we went for our walk, then drove down to the get the mail and a couple of things Vera needed for a meat loaf.  I got the P-51B in to do some work on the gear doors, one is still opening up a little at high speed.  I ended up making up new linkage from spare helicopter parts, it looks much better now with ball links on both ends.  It is also easier to adjust, I can just screw the ball links in and out rather than having to bend the wire linkage.  When that was back in the motor home, I started redoing the F-4's battery wiring.  I rearranged it so I can have two batteries in the wing, and one between the air intakes.  It went great and I was done much sooner than I had planned.  Vera's meat loaf turned out great, as soon as I walked into the house and smelled it, I had to have some.

Monday

Well, I sure slept good last night after the big weekend.  I woke up with a sore shoulder, so the first thing I did after breakfast was put the heat pad on it.  When it had warmed up a little, we went for our walk on the river trail.  This afternoon, I got Turbo Bee out, it had been acting funny at high speeds for James on Sunday.  I had noticed one wing wiggled a little last week, it turns out the alignment pin was broken loose.  I repaired that and changed out the rudder servo for one that was a little stronger with metal gears.  I had a nice phone conversation with Jackie today and we got all caught up with what has been happening.  I watched Monday night football until half time and decided there was just too much talking and not enough action, so I watched Mythbusters blowing up stuff and a couple of other shows until bedtime.  I had gotten some cinnamon bread at the store today, Vera melted chocolate chips, honey and peanut butter together to make a spread for me to put on it.  It tasted so good that I cleaned up the whole bowl.

I couldn't find a picture for today, so here is one I got at the Lockheed Martin website of the F-35B making a night takeoff, I thought it looked really cool!

We headed out for the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers picnic at seven this morning, we got there about eight and two people had beat us.  The picture above was at ten and the tables were starting to fill up.

This is what it looked like at noon when we were eating.  The parking got pretty crowed and some ended up in the tall grass.

James and Michelle came down after lunch.  Vera took this picture of him relaxing between flights.  James gave Turbo Bee a real work out, he got in four flights before it got too warm for them and they headed home.  Vera and I ended up being the last ones there, it was kind of nice just sitting and talking for a few minutes.

Garage Sale

The family garage sale was today, I got there about eight and they were already doing business.  I stayed around for a couple of hours and helped a little.  I went home, got Vera, we went for a walk and picked up the mail.  I did some charging of batteries for the club picnic Sunday and loaded my model of the Voodoo P-51 racer.  I went back down to the garage sale and happened to be there when a guy came back wanting to buy the cycle, that made my day!  I spent the rest of the evening making sure I had everything for tomorrow.

Getting ready!

We walked this morning and then went to a few garage sales.  We did not find anything of interest, but we had fun looking around.  I worked on the F-4 and got some batteries out of the motor home to check the current draw and center of gravity.  I ran it up with eight batteries hooked up and it blew the hatch off even though I was holding it down, I managed to get a better grip and found out I was only running it at 800 watts.  Where I had planned on putting the batteries made it seriously nose heavy, so I had to come up with a new arrangement.  I also had to order one new battery to go along with the two I already have, so I will be running the fan on twelve cells (50 volts).  I also got some things ready for tomorrow's family garage sale at Cathy and Bob's.

I decided to get rid of the little motorcycle, I got it at the garage sale several years ago because it was too small for the kids now.  David helped me haul it down there with his pickup.

I even found time to get in some helicopter flying this afternoon, it was really calm out.

A rainy day!

It was raining and dark out this morning, so I talked us out of going walking.  I spent most of the day in the shop working on the F-4.  We did make a mail run and I picked up some silicone to seal around the speed control.

This picture is from 2002, we went to Brady to fly with our friends Leonard and Audrey while the Toledo field was closed for the threshing bee.

Tuesday and Wednesday

This picture is from August 2003 when Barry came down for pizza, lots different from the motor home.  Tuesday morning we went to breakfast at the 49er with Barry, that is a nice way to start the day!  Afterwards, we took him on a short tour of town showing him some of the changes.  Barry had plans to visit several people, so we walked later in the day.  We had invited Mik, Michelle and James up for pizza and a visit with Barry.  We watched the Seahawks game while we eat.

Wednesday Vera had bible study and I visited with Barry as he got ready to head home.  Then I did some wiring on the F-4 and mounted the speed control.  It took a little figuring to mount the bullet connectors sideways so the wiring would not interfere with the hatch.  Soldering that 10 gauge wire sure takes lots of heat, I had to use my 250 watt soldering gun.

No AC

I went out and put the hose on the Blazer air conditioner first thing today.  Then, we walked, got the mail and went over to D&J's to see about getting the air conditioner charged.  They found a leak in the compressor and we were looking at $750 to $1000 on a 22 year old car for useing one or two months of the year, so I decided not to fix it.

Barry had called this morning and left a message he was coming down for a couple of days.  When I got back from seeing what was wrong with the Blazer, he was all set up.  He was getting ready to head down for Papa Pete's for lunch, so he helped me by driving it back.

After we got home, we went over and watched Steve, Dianne, Auna, Ava and Harper swim, Harper had just done a push off the wall.  It was nice and relaxing sitting in the sun watching them.

Bob and Steve stopped by and tried to talk Barry into going on a ride with them, but Barry felt his scooter was too slow to keep up with them.

Later Ava and Harper brought over cupcakes for us.  They made sure we each got the cupcake that was specially decorated for us.  Barry and I spent the evening watching the NASCAR Watkins Glen race, as always, the last 10 laps were the best.

Weekend

Not much to report for the weekend!  I got the hatch made for Turbo Bee, maybe now I wouldn't be flying around with the battery hanging out by the wires, it doesn't fly very well that way!  I made up a pattern out of styrofoam and laid up a fiberglass cover for the duct work in the F-4.  The speed control will mount on it with the cooling fins down in the air coming out of the fan.  I started to hook the wiring up to it, but none of the wire I had looked heavy enough, so I got some on order that should be here Wednesday.  I made a few helicopter flights out in the driveway over the weekend.

Sunday Vera and I took a bunch of flower pictures, this dahlia is one of Vera's favorites.

Blazer Day

I went down first thing this morning and got the part for the Blazer's windshield wiper controls.  I worked on it until the guy showed up to measure the house for flooring.  After he was done, I made good headway and had the steering wheel back on by noon.  I needed one fitting for the oil pressure sender, so we made a run to Bredfield's, on the way home we stopped at a garage sale at the bottom of the hill and before you know it we had hit most of them between there and Toutle.  A couple in the Silver Lake area were kind of weird so we did not end up with much.  After we got home, I finished up the oil pressure gauge and put everything back together.  Ava and Harper brought Vera some flowers while she was sitting on the porch, they made a nice bouquet on the counter.  When I got done I asked Vera if she wanted to go for a test drive and eat dinner somewhere, she was agreeable, so we ended up in Toledo at Betty's again.  On the way there, the oil pressure gauge worked great, the wipers don't run when you use the turn signals and the cruise control works, something it has never done!  If you have ever worked on the wiring in a tilt steering wheel you will understand why it was never fixed.  All the wiring runs in a little channel and it is impossible to get the wire with a plug on the end down through it.  I cut the plug off the turn signal harness and soldered it back on after I pulled them through with the old wires.

This picture is of Harper swimming at the Going Away party last night, she was so relaxed, she noticed me taking the picture and gave me a big smile.

Party

I don't know what I was thinking this morning, but I drove right by where we normally park to walk, so we got the mail first today and the new oil pressure gauge showed up.  Then we went back and did our walk.  My plan today was to pull the steering wheel on the Blazer and fix the turn signal arm, of course the bolts in the steering wheel puller would not fit the hole in the steering wheel so it was off to Bredfield's.  While we were in town, I checked on the air conditioner hoses and they were there.  Let me tell you, opening up a tilt wheel in no fun!  I finally got it opened up and right away a piece fell onto the floor.  After much messing around, I decided not to change the turn signal plate and the job sped up a little, but I had a heck of a time figuring out where that piece that fell out went.  After I got things installed and most of the way together except for the steering wheel, I checked things out and discovered I needed the windshield washer interrupter assembly also.  NAPA will have one tomorrow morning, so I was done for the day.  Dianne called and reminded me about the going away fire pit party for Macee and Emmy, so I headed over there.  Vera had already fed me dinner, but I taste tested all the desserts.  I had a great time visiting with everyone and watching the kids swim.

A working Wednesday

I had great plans for making a new battery hatch for Turbo Bee today.  As Vera was going out the door this morning, she spotted the rabbit feeding by the Blazer and came back in to get some pictures of it.  We got a couple before the Fedex van scared it off and then Vera headed for bible study.  I was finishing up my emails, when she drove back in?  I thought she had forgotten something, she had, no class today as they were doing vacation bible school.  A little later on the way to the shop, I stopped to pull some weeds before they bloomed, pretty soon I had the string trimmer out, then it was the hedge trimmers, then the cordless chain saw and finally the power pruner.  Those all created enough mess that I was busy cleaning it up until it was time to leave for Vera's dental appointment.  We left a little early and made an appointment to have the house measured for new flooring.  After her appointment, we stopped at Freddie's Just for the Halibut and had dinner.  We had a few things to get at Safeway before heading home for the evening.

All Repaired!

My big job now is watering, with this hot weather the plants on the deck really get dry if I miss a day.  I finished up the repairs on the little Cobra helicopter today and even got in a test flight.  Boy, was I surprised when the blades were in track and it was flying great after just a couple of minor programming changes in the radio.  I had a nice talk with my friend Bob about the crow in his transmitter and him eating it.  This afternoon, I got the Piper PA-12 out of the motor home and changed speed controls.  I had a helicopter speed control in it and they start slow to prevent damage to the gears.  That doesn't work to well when it is in a plane and you are trying to shoot touch and goes.

This evening, we went to the El Tapatio in Rainier to help celebrate Mik's mother Margaret's birthday.  We had a good time visiting with everyone and finding out what they had been doing this summer.  The food was great and there was lots of it!  I think Vera came home with enough for both of us tomorrow.

A Nice Day!

After breakfast and emails, I decided to install the new lock in the tailgate of the Blazer.  It went great and I was probably all done in an hour.  It was in the sixties by then, so we headed down for our walk.  On the way back, we had an extra key made for the tailgate, got the mail and were headed for the grocery store for milk when we ran into Jeff P. who I worked with for around 30 years.  He is retired now also, we had a nice visit with him.  On the way home, I noticed the Blazer's temperature gauge had quit working!  Isn't that the way things go, fix one thing and another breaks!  I had gotten several things in the mail today, a new laptop battery, servo current meter and a new tail rotor gearbox for the Trex 500.  I installed the new battery and let the laptop charge, I gave the current meter a test and then started installing the new gearbox.  I had ordered a metal one because I believe there has been some static build up from the plastic one causing an occasional glitch in the radio.  It went great and when I finished the entire tail rotor system is grounded.  I took it out for a test flight this evening and it seemed much better, I was shooting approaches over the house when Vera heard me and took some pictures.  It was a good afternoon for working inside as it was 88 outside!

Off to Goble

I loaded up the Blazer last night for a trip to Goble for the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers meeting today.  This is Gary's Fokker Dr. 1 triplane, it looks very real in this picture.  It was blowing like crazy down there today, but I had taken 4 planes that handle the wind so I had a good time.  I got in a few flights before the meeting at noon and made a few more after the meeting so I used up most of the batteries I took.

 Vera is watching and visiting with our friend Dave as he flies.

When I was done flying, we went to St Helens for pizza at a friend's son's pizza parlor.  I don't think we had ever been down in this part of St Helens before, there are some nice old buildings there.  The pizza was good, and the sauce was excellent.  By the time we were done there it was getting pretty warm and we headed for home.  I unloaded the Blazer, had a rhubarb snack and promptly took a nap while watching the NHRA drags in Seattle on TV.

Flying LCRC

We headed up to Toledo again this morning to fly and get the rest of the club's mowing equipment.  I also got to test fly Steve's P-47 that we did the radio programming on yesterday.  Later in the day Steve put a flight on it also.  We flew most of the day, then loaded up the rest of the equipment and stopped at Betty's in Toledo for dinner.  They have about 25 flavors of milkshakes listed on the wall and they will mix any 3 together for you.  I had a peanut butter marshmallow mix and it tasted great!  When we got home, I charged up my batteries for flying tomorrow at Goble.