September Mud Bowl

We just puttered around the house today until it was time for Vera's dental appointment.  After we were done there, I made a stop at Harbor Freight for a couple of things.  I ran into Jerry from the CVRCF radio control club in HF and had a nice visit with him.  We were headed from there to Jack in the Box when we noticed the engine temperature was way high!  I shut it off at one traffic light and almost did not get it started again!  We pulled into a station and I bought some anti-freeze to fill the overflow tank with and we waited for it to cool down.  While we were there I noticed the radiator was cool but the motor was hot, it looked like a stuck thermostat to me.  When it cooled a little, we started for an auto parts store, on the way it opened up so I headed home.  It ran way cooler than normal all the way home, so now the thermostat was stuck open.  We swapped rigs and ran down to get a new thermostat, pick up the mail and get a present for James' party tonight.  I decided not to change it today, so we got the cameras and stuff loaded into the van and headed for the game James was playing in this afternoon at Mark Morris.  We wanted to get there early and get a good parking spot to watch the game from if it rained.

They were playing Prairie today, and things got kind of muddy as the game went on.  James played quarterback the whole game and did a good job.

They won the game and were one happy bunch of kids afterwards.  It only rained for about 5 minutes just before half time, so I was able to take lots of pictures and video.

Being quarterback, James did not get quite as muddy as the other kids, this is his clean side!

After the game we went to Papa Pete's to celebrate James' 16th birthday.  Funny thing, I just counted and if I got it right, there were 16 family and friends there for James!

It is good weather for building.

Boy did it rain today, we ended up with 2.4 inches in the rain gauge.  I was in the shop working on my new project when Vera braved the rain to show me the pictures she had taken of two deer.  They were snacking on the roses again.

I kept the camera in the shop so I could take some picture of the new Corsair, so I was able to take this picture of one of our heavier rain storms.

This is my latest project, a Hanger 9 50 sized Corsair, it is really a nice kit.

I am adding electric retracts to it, so I had to do some cutting of the sheeting for the wheel.  I got it close before going in for dinner.  After dinner, I started watching the Huskies game, it was a fun game to watch and I never did make it back out to the shop.

Happy Birthday James!

We started our day off with a garage sale the Karnofski's were having, we found a couple of small things and headed home so I could head down to have a birthday lunch with James.  We ended up at the Pancake House and the place was packed, we waited about 10 minutes for a table.  James had their chicken fried steak and I had their waffle supreme.  We had a nice visit and hope we can make this a yearly affair.  I made a quick stop at Home Depot after dropping James off at school and then stopped at Safeway on the way out of town.  I-5 was terrible to drive on this morning and on the way home, it was raining like crazy and spray everywhere.  I ordered a few more pieces for the flooring job this afternoon and then went out to work on the F-4.  One main gear wheel was loose and turning to the side.  I ground a new flat on the shaft and then started putting new bearings in the wheels.  I was sure there was some J-B Weld on the shelf where I store the glues, but I never could locate it, so I quit for the night.  Once I get this done, I am going to watch a little TV.

A great day of Flying!

The forecast for today was great, so we headed to the LCRC field early.  There was still lots of dew on the grass and only Vera and I were there, so I got the Slow Stick out, walked out in the field and made some passes between Vera and myself.  It is probably the ugliest airplane I own, but a blast to fly, I don't think the radar gun goes low enough to record it's slow flight.   I shot a bunch of landings and ended up flying it 25 minutes.  There were just five of us out there today, kind of surprising considering how nice it was.

I was taking pictures of the clouds and decided to shoot a panorama of the flying field.  I went into the scene mode and found a setting where you push the shutter button, hold it and swing the camera 180 degrees.  It turned out pretty good, a lot easier than taking a bunch of pictures and having to stitch them together.

Just before we headed home, I set a couple of models in front of the sign and took a picture that I put on Facebook.  It turned out so good, I decided to use it here.

After we got home and I was unloading the motor home, I heard a round engine airplane coming.  I hopped into the motor home and grabbed the camera, with the 42X zoom, I got a pretty good picture of this biplane.  It looks like a Stearman, but the landing gear is different, so I am not sure what it is.  After I put the motor home away, I settled in to watch Thursday night football.

Testing the Trex

I have been seeing a little wobble in my Trex when it is hovering, it comes and goes, I have tried lots of things to get it settled down.  This morning I got an ad from Heli Direct with some upgrade parts on sale.  I went out to the shop to see if there was slop in those parts, while I was checking it, I noticed that one part was assembled wrong.  After I fixed that, it is steady as a rock and I was able to undo some of the changes I had made.  Then for some reason, the tail rotor drive belt came loose.  I put it back on and flew one flight, but I did not like the way the belt was tracking, luckily, I had a new one.  After I installed it, the Trex is flying great.  Vera opened the door a little and took a couple of pictures of that last test flight without me knowing it, that was a pleasant surprise and I have a picture for my blog.  You can probably tell that I am really concentrating on the helicopter!   I also got the small pond cleaned up today, then I did some trimming on the blueberries, heather and California Lilac.  We were surprised this evening when Michelle and James showed up, one of their friends John had lost interest in his helicopter and gave it to me.  Michelle had picked it up tonight, so James got to do some driving practice when they brought it up.

Monday Tuesday

Monday it seemed like the day flew by and I didn't seem to get anything accomplished, then when I started remembering, I did get the flooring, underlayment and tools ordered for the dining room and living room.  I put the Champ back together and got one test flight on it before going in to watch Monday Night football.

When the sun came out Tuesday, I decided to clean the ponds.  I got the pond vacuum out and started in, I got the big pond and the filter all cleaned up when it started raining again.  I was pretty wet before I got everything put away.  I did a little planning on the F-4 before calling it a night and watching some TV with Vera.

Happy Birthday Emmy!

Most of today revolved around Emmy's birthday party.  Vera went to church this morning and I decided to print a card for Emmy.  I had not installed the card program since getting the new computer, so I got it out and started installing it.  It stopped installing and told me another program was using the installer.  After much messing around I found out a Windows update had locked up during installation.  It took quite a while to get that squared away.  I finally got Print Artist installed, then started printing a card, I wanted to put a picture of Emmy from a previous birthday in it, so I started looking through my 100,000 pictures.

This is the one I chose, it is from 1999 when Emmy and James had their birthday together.  I had a great time at the party, Emmy's grandma Mary had made a chocolate cake for her that was really good.  After I got home, I worked in the shop a little, then started watching the recording of the the Seahawks game.  When I finished it, I watched the Bengals-Steelers game and then headed for bed.

A great day for visiting!

We went up to see Marie this morning, she was in a great mood and we had a really nice visit until it was her lunch time.  Vera had taken her some senior pictures from her class's annual that she found online.  Marie's annual was lost when their parent's house burned, she was really tickled and they spent a long time going over everyone in the pictures.  While we were talking, she mentioned her old place which she had given to the Habitat for Humanity, so later, we stopped and took a picture.  The house has been torn down and the two lots have been cleaned up.  When they find a candidate for a new home, they will start on the construction.  When we left Marie's, we stopped by our friend Bob's and had a really nice time there.

From Bob's, we started looking for somewhere to have lunch, we ended up at the Berry Fields Cafe in the Centralia Antique Mall.  The food was great, it is my new favorite place to eat up there.  We picked up a couple of pops at a minute mart, then we took the Jackson Highway home and stopped by the flying field.

We got there just in time to see Gene fly his DGA-3, it almost looks real coming in for a touch and go.  Everyone at the field was in a great mood and we had a good time visiting until the rain started.  We hopped back in the car and went through some pretty heavy showers on the way home, but lucked out and got home during a break in the rain.  I downloaded pictures, got caught up with my blog and had a nice phone call from Bev.  The left overs from lunch sure made a tasty dinner!

Friday Night Football again!

Mark Morris played Columbia River tonight, the band performed at half time.

James suited up, but did not get to play, it was a close game all the way and they ended up losing 23 to 20 on a last second field goal.  I spent the day before the game making minor repairs to several planes.  I noticed Thursday that the rudder cables on the Sukhoi were loose, I discovered the servo mounting ears were broken, so I replaced it.  I finally got around to fixing the P-51B's gear door that opens in flight.  I also replaced the motor in my little Champ, it was making strange noises and losing power.  I am still enjoying the apple pie from yesterday, in fact, I had it for lunch!

A beautiful day for flying!

First thing this morning we ran down to NAPA and picked up the lawn mower keys, a quick stop at the store and then home to load the mower.  We got to the field about 10, I unloaded the roller and mower, mowed about half the runway and put it away.  I set up my new radar gun with a remote readout, I tried it first with the gun on a tripod across the runway out of the way.  It turned out that it is darn hard to make a pass right over it, I only got one reading the whole flight.  I took it off the tripod and we hand held it, aiming it at the plane, that worked much better!  Later, we got a 134 mph reading on the F-4.  I flew 6 of my planes, 1 helicopter and had a great time.  I also test flew two planes for other flyers.  We ended up with 9 members there flying today.  Vera made an apple pie after we got home and it is delicious!

This guy has character!

I did a lot of hunting online for a pilot for my new Champ.  This is the one I ended up with, he came in the mail today, I did a little repainting on him and got him installed tonight for some flying tomorrow.  I spent most of the day working on the club lawn mower.  I pulled the mower deck, sharpened the blades, greased the towers and found a frozen tensioner for the belt that I freed up.  Then I changed oil after putting the deck back on.  I made a run to town to see if I could buy a key for it, no luck, but NAPA ordered some for me that will be here tomorrow morning.  I hooked up the trailer and got the roller loaded before quitting for the day.  Then I loaded planes, worked on the Champ and watched a little TV.

Fresh Cupcakes!

There was lots of knocking on the door this morning, when I opened it, Ava and Harper were there holding cupcakes.  They had decorated one for me, one for Vera and they tasted great!  That afternoon, William, the new member in LCRC, came by with some questions about building the kit he had bought at the swap meet on Sunday.  We went over the kit and I showed him some of the things he had to do, plus I had a video going of SEFF that we watched some parts of.

Monday Afternoon Football

I got the nose gear doors on the F-4 repaired during a thundershower today.  I did not want to go through it to the house.  I also got some of the stuff unloaded from the motor home.  We headed for James' game at Mark Morris early so we could get a good parking spot in case we needed to watch it in the rain.  It was sprinkling when the game started, but by half time I had to take off my rain coat, it was too warm.  James is making a tackle from the linebacker position in this picture.  He had ripped a toe nail before the game, so the coach pulled him from defense shortly after this.

James played quarterback the entire game, he threw for two touchdowns and had a great game!

Here he (#14) is scoring on a quarterback sneak.  It was an exciting game with lots of scoring, they were playing LaCenter and ended up winning 48 to 45.  After the game we went to Papa Pete's for pizza with Mik, Michelle and James, that was a nice way to end the day.

Here is a link to a short video from the game. https://vimeo.com/74746137

Here is a clip from The Daily News about the game.

Mark Morris 48 La Center 45: Zach McCarthy came up with an interception late to seal the win for MM. McCarthy added a 3-yard touchdown run, while Mason Baker had scoring runs of 2 and 20 yards and James Manthe had a 1-yard TD run and 55-yard TD reception from Jordan Frost. Also scoring for MM were August Shulda from 2 yards and Chase Longtain from 28.

Flying in the Rain

A little rain and fog has never stopped us from flying before and it didn't today.  The lights on the Super Cub were sure showing up nicely!  It did not look good for us having our Fly-In/Swap Meet/Picnic today when we got there, but then out of town flyers started showing up and I posted on our forum that we were flying.  Pretty soon, we had 26 people there.  I managed to sell one plane and found out about another swap meet coming up in November.

I got a couple of more flights on the new Champ, Dick sat his small Champ on mine and took this picture.  They are both great flying airplanes.

After lunch, I go the F-4 out, it is a pretty big job getting it ready to fly.

This flight was much easier than the first one, but I was still nervous.  I had the doors fixed and the wheels went all the way up, so I got a GPS data logger readout of 136 MPH today.  When I pull up after those speed runs it seems to climb forever, I ended up pulling the power off and doing a split esse every time.  I really tested the nose gear wheels, I landed a little hot and just barely got it stopped before the end of the runway and they stayed on.  Things started to wind down after that, I visited with a couple of visitors, and started loading.  Vera and I had a nice peaceful ride home, only seeing a half dozen other cars on old highway.  After we took care of the left over food, we settled in for the night.  Vera had made one of the cakes for the fly in where you mix a cake mix with crushed pineapple and bake it.  It turned out great and so far I have had two pieces of what was left.  There is one more piece left, but it may not survive until bedtime.

Loading

The squirrels have been planting sunflower seeds for us, this one is just blooming.  First thing this morning, we went down to Safeway and picked up the food for the club picnic tomorrow.  I got it loaded into the motor home after we got home, then unhooked the trailer from yesterday's mowing, I had to unload the mower from it.  Since I had it running, I decided to mow the lawn, boy has it grown with this rain.  Then I started loading the planes I was going to try and sell Sunday.  I had a visit from William, a new member of the club.  He wanted to show me the plane he built, it looked pretty good for his first one.  I sent him home with a bunch of Bill's stuff.

This is what the motor home looked like when I finished loading.

It Flies!

I loaded up the mower today, we went to Toledo and mowed for the picnic on Sunday.

While Ken and I were mowing, Ken's dog Tucker took Vera for a walk.  Vera said he explored all kinds of places and must have walked a mile.  After I finished mowing, I got the Champ out and put two flights on it.  It is not real aerobatic, just nice to putt around with and shoot touch and goes.  We stopped at Betty's for hamburgers on the way home.  Once I had power hooked up to the motor home and everything locked up, I settled in for an evening of TV.  We heard from Mik that James got to play linebacker during the varsity game tonight, which they won 55 to 8.

Road Trip

I headed out to Olympia this morning for a belated birthday lunch with Barry.  After a nice visit, we went to Dirty Dave's for pizza, I forgot the name of the pizza, but it was sure good!  Since we were on the same street as the hobby shop I asked Barry if he minded stopping there for a few minutes so I could get a new motor and gearbox for the little Champ.  Well, I thought he was going to leave there with a helicopter or a quad because he picked several up and studied them pretty close and then was fingering the one on the counter.  I mentioned that I had a Costco list for on the way home, and he said he could get a few things there also, so that was our next stop.  The picture is him going into the house with his box of a few things.  Their house sure looks a lot better with the tree gone.  We visited a little longer, then I headed home.  I took a short break at Centralia and stopped at my friend Bob's place, that turned into another nice visit.

I watched Thursday night football for a while, then we had a visit from Jeff and Tina.  I got to show off the new Champ and the nose gear doors to them.  As they were leaving, Jeff and I were talking about how nice the moon looked, I went out and took a couple of pictures after they left.  Just after they left, Michelle and James showed up, James was out for a stick shift lesson in the Maxima and delivering football cards.  They were in a great mood and told us all about the lesson.  James told me all about the cold laser treatment he is getting on his knee.  It was a busy day, but I sure enjoyed it!

Another one done!

I finished up the Champ today, now it is all ready for a test flight.  It ended up weighing 2 lb 14 oz and the motor is putting out 440 watts, so the performance should be pretty good!  It will look even better when the pilots get here.

 I also got the F-4 nose gear doors all working, I used some small helicopter linkage to close the small front door.  When I refinish it this winter, I am going to make those doors fit a little better!  Vera's bible study group had a birthday lunch for one of the ladies today, she had made a peach jello dish for it.  I was hoping there would be some left for my lunch and there was!  It was good, I had two helpings.  I spent the last part of the day cleaning the shop up a little, well maybe a lot!  It was getting to the point where I looking for tools or materials longer than I was building.

Vera took a picture of our last dahlia of the summer.

Little Visitors

We had a pretty laid back day, I worked on the F-4 and the Champ.  Once as I was coming out of the shop, around the corner came the girls driving their Jeep.  They said "Hi" to me and started towards the house, when they were inside, they headed for where the toys are and we rolled and threw balls back and forth for a few minutes before they headed for the fort.  After that, we had to make a run to Kaiser for a new prescription the doctor had ordered for me.  I developed a small blood clot in my eye, they figured it was cause by the AF and added this medicine to the other one I take for it.  I did some more work on the planes, then settled in to watch my recording of Monday Night Football.

Vera found this flower out by the pond, so she took a picture of it.  We are not sure what it is, but it is pretty.

F-4 and Football

It took a long time for me to start towards the shop this morning, then on the way I saw the twins outside so I went over to watch.  Dianne got the Jeep going for them and it was hilarious, they did some 4 wheeling through the old garden plot, then Steve took them over to a little hill at Gabe's and the the fun really started.  I can see this happening every time they drive now.  I got the nose gear torn apart today and came up with a plan to hold the wheels on.  I ground a grove for a snap ring and picked up some at Ace before James' football game tonight.  The picture is just before opening kick off and James is at the far right end of the line.

James played about a third of the game at quarterback, completed a couple of passes and had one intercepted.  He also played linebacker and kicked off once, they ended up losing 13 to 12.  It was a beautiful evening for football, warm and a light breeze.

It Flies!

We headed out this morning for a work party at the Toledo field.  It was supposed to start at 9 AM, but when we got there at 8:30, half the work was done!  By 9:10 all the work was done and we started flying until the meeting at 10.  I had brought the F-4 along, so late in the afternoon I decided to test fly it.  I am pumping up the retracts just before the flight.

On takeoff, one of the nose gear wheels fell off.  Then the main gear did not retract all the way, but I still got 112 mph on the gps data logger.

On landing the other nose gear wheel fell off, so it was a sudden stop, but only minor damage.  I was sure happy to get that first flight out of the way!  Then we headed home and I spent the evening watching the Seahawks win!

Update!  Here is a link to a short video of the flight. https://vimeo.com/74132110

Football season has started!

The bunny seems to like this part of the yard best, as that is where we normally see him, Vera is getting pretty good with the Nikon.  I worked on the Champ most of the day and got the horizontal stabilizer completed before it was time to head for the Mark Morris game that James was suiting up for.

This is James during warm up, he did not get to play, a little disappointment for us grandparents, but it was a good game and a great evening for watching.  The game got off to an exciting start when Mark Morris returned the opening kick off 70 yards and scored six plays later.

The half time entertainment was Pee Wee football and they had little cheerleaders with them.  It wasn't long before the regular cheerleaders had them out with them cheering for MM.

They had four Pee Wee teams playing at half time and it was great fun to watch.  They scored quite a few touchdowns.  To start the second half, MM did an onside kick and recovered the ball, they scored a couple of minutes later.  Mark Morris ended up winning 40 to 20.  We picked up a couple of things at Fred Meyer, stopped at Coby's for a yogurt treat and headed home.