Happy Birthday Bev!

The tracking said my Seahawks stuff was at the post office today, so I made a run down to pick it up.  Now I am all set for the game, Go Seahawks!  I worked on the plane until it was time for Bev's birthday party, her birthday was yesterday, but she had to work.  We all met up at Debbie's for pizza and cake about 5.

Josh and I were sitting at the table talking cars and engines when I mentioned the Buick Straight Eight.  He had never heard of the straight eights and then we were wondering what the firing order was, I just looked it up and it is 1-6-2-5-8-3-7-4.  It is amazing what you can find on the internet in just a couple of minutes.  It was a nice relaxed evening and to finish it off we took a picture of the girls around Debbie's new chair.

Every time we have some get together, it seems like James gets a little bit taller than Vera.  I asked him about his knees and he said they are both doing fine.  The coach has been working him out in weight training so he will be ready for baseball and football.  The coach said he is doing better than he expected.

Kaiser here we come!

We walked this morning and had a great time, everyone was in a good mood.  We picked up breakfast at BK and headed home until it was time for our eye appointments at Kaiser.  Somehow, I looked at the clock wrong and hustled us out the door an hour early.  We were all checked in at 10:10 and the appointments were not until 11:20 for Vera and 11:40 for me.  We settled down for a long wait, Vera with her Kindle and me with my Galaxy.  After a little while I remembered the Xray I was supposed to get of my replacement knee, so I headed down to the lab and checked in.  It was good timing, there was no one else waiting and I was in there in about 5 minutes.  By the time I was finished there, it was only about 15 minutes until Vera's appointment, but they were running late!  I think it was about a half hour before they called her in.  I was next while her eyes were dilating, my prescription had changed enough that I ordered new glasses and new sun glasses after I got out.  From Kaiser, we went to "Freddie's just for Halibut" for lunch, stopped at Fred Meyer for a couple of things.  We took the long slow way home over Delameter Valley Rd., stopped to pick up the mail and finally got home about three.

I spent part of the afternoon working on the Dirty Birdy, I got the elevator servo installed and started planning where the rudder servo goes.

I got the elevator linkage all cut to length before calling it a night.  Then I headed in to get caught up with my blog.  Three days took a little while by the time I picked out the pictures to use, edited them and got everything written up.  Now I can head in and relax with my new Model Aviation magazine.

More covering!

Good progress today, I got the vertical fin covered, the elevators glued onto the stabilizer and the whole assembly glued to the fuselage.  Getting the stabilizer glued on took quite a while, as I did lots of measuring to make sure it was straight.  If it is not square with the wing, it will make the plane yaw when the elevator is used.  This evening, I settled in and watched the Pro Bowl.  The new format worked pretty well, making it a good game to watch.

Late again!

OK, I am late again, it is Thursday now!  We walked this morning and then I messed around on the computer for quite awhile before heading to the shop.  I never made it to the shop, I went over to Steve and Dianne's to see what was going on and had a great visit.  That is Ava sitting in the crate for the leggos, wrapped up in Harper's blanket as they watch TV.  Dianne was amazed that Harper let her use it.  I finally made it to the shop and did some covering on the Dirty Birdy, finishing the aileron and getting the elevators covered.

Forgot one!

I had planned on putting this picture in yesterday's blog, but I forgot, this is Lynne, Robin, Laury and Bev on the loader Dad ran.

Just after breakfast, I walked up to the sink, bent over and my back suddenly hurt like crazy.  I puttered on the computer for a couple of hours with heat on it and it felt better.  I went to the shop and got the hinges for the ailerons glued into the wing and the elevator hinges glued into the stabilizer.  Then I started covering the ailerons, as you can see, I got one completely covered and it lines up pretty good.  I got the other one a little over half done before calling it a night.  We had the left over beef stew over potatoes O'Brien for dinner along with acorn squash and fish sticks, boy did it taste good!  Then I topped it off with one of the peanut butter cookies Vera made today.

Great Memories!

I scanned a bunch of negatives today, this is how it looked when Mt St Helens blew, from Studebaker Place where we lived at the time.  I was loading up to go flying when Vera called me in to look at the funny cloud she could see out the kitchen window, it had lightening in it.  As I came in to the kitchen the neighbor jumped the fence and ran over hollering "The mountain blew".  I did make a flight later off the road in front of the house.

This picture is a little later in the day as the clouds of ash spread out, it's taken from Schaffran Road.

Here is a picture from about that time (1980) of my folk's place.  Michelle and I had been out flying, taking pictures of where Dad worked, Michelle would fly, I would open the window and take pictures.

I had a good day, the grill is back in, the Dirty Birdy elevator halves are glued together and Vera made a great beef stew for dinner.

What a beautiful day.

First thing this morning, we headed down to Kaiser for an appointment at the lab.  One of those amazing things, we were all done and on the way out by the time the appointment was scheduled for.  We had a small list for Safeway so that was our next stop, we managed to fill the cart up before we were done there.  It was a nice sunny day and I had thought about going flying, but by the time we unloaded and finished with lunch, I was not in the mood.  I went back to scanning slides and found one of my second car, a 1951 Chevy.

I had gotten new headlights for the blazer and it was so nice this afternoon I decided to put them in.  In the process, I broke one mounting bracket for the grill.  When I pulled it out to repair, I found two with old cracks in them and one that has been broken for a long time.  The grill is chrome plated plastic so I took it to the shop and repaired it with PVC cement and fiberglass.  I got 120 more slides scanned this evening, lots of good memories there!

More scanning!

I was out here this morning walking on the treadmill again, boy was it cold on the way out.  I had to fill the stove before going in for breakfast, emails and a shower.  I pin striped the black with red, and finished the left side of the fuselage today.  I also scanned some more slides, made a trip over to see the twins and made a mail and grocery run.

This is one of the oldest pictures I scanned today.  It was taken in the late 60's when Vera and I lived on North Street in Castle Rock.  I still have the Blue Hellcat out in the shop but I am not sure what happened to the silver P-47.

More Paint!

I was running a little late this morning, so I did not get a shower before we had to leave for our walk.  We had a nice walk, it was a little warmer than Tuesday and no wind.  Everyone was in a great mood and there was lots of conversation the whole time.  We picked up breakfast at BK on the way home, and I settled down in front of the computer to eat and check emails.  It was getting close to noon before I finished and took my shower.  Then I headed out to work on the Dirty Birdy, I put the canopy on so I could mark where it was going to be, marked around it with a pencil and took it back off.  Then I masked off the front for the black you see in the picture.  I also added black pin striping on the red which sure made it look good.

I scanned about 400 slides yesterday evening, some going back to my high school graduation.  This one really interested me, my dad had gotten a new grapple hook loader to run at Weyerhaeuser and we all went up one weekend when he had to move it.  That is Barry standing beside it, Vera and my 1966 Chevelle in front of it and the folk's 1960 Chevy in the background.

More Dirty Birdy

I got up and did a session on the treadmill again this morning.  I stick a model airplane video in the blue ray player and watch it as I walk.  I worked on the stabilizer and elevators for the Dirty Birdy most of the day.  I got all the old covering off, stunk myself out of the shop using MEK to clean the old covering residue, got the hinge slots cut, filled some dings and then covered the bottom of the stabilizer with the checker board covering.

I went out after dinner and got the top covered with boring white.  It looked so good, that I had to temporarily fit it to the fuselage and take a picture.  This plane is going to look great as it flies over, I hope I can come up with some design for the top that looks as good.

Painting the DB

It was a chilly walk this morning, just Pastor Pam, Vera and I.  I worked on the Dirty Birdy all day, except for a trip over to see what was happening at the Robinson's.  The girls were getting ready to put on a show.  It was fun to watch, which ever one was not dancing started serving play food, plus they gave us some change to pay for it with.  I sure got a funny look from Harper when I said "That looks like enough for a hamburger at Burger King, maybe I will stick it in my pocket!".  She kept a close eye on the money after that.

I masked off the bottom of the DB fuselage and sprayed it this evening, after letting it cure for an hour, I pulled the masking tape and it turned out pretty good.

They match!

I was up fairly early this morning and went to the shop for a session on the treadmill before my shower.  Then after breakfast, emails and news, I went out and covered the second half of the Dirty Birdy wing.  I had to do some measuring, but they came out pretty darn good.  After lunch, I went out and covered the top of the wing with boring white, so no picture.

I had gotten the extra magnet installed on the helicopter's canopy so I took it out for a test just before dinner.  No weird noises this time, so Vera took some pictures of it for me.  I went back out this evening and got the aileron servo mounts made and covered.  They match the checkerboard pattern pretty well also.  Now if I can get the ailerons to match when I do them, it will look pretty good from the bottom.

I could do with a little less tension at the end.

Here is how I spent the afternoon and early evening, I had two Seahawks shirts and my Seahawks socks on, it must have worked again!  I could do with a finish that was not so close, I was thinking we were looking at a tie at best, or a loss.  I am sure glad Sherman was there when we needed him.  I got right online and ordered a new Seahawks Conference Champions tee shirt from the NFL store.  I had done a little cleanup and finished adding a magnet to the helicopter's canopy today before the game.  I made it back out this evening and put in a few minutes on the treadmill.

A beautiful day for flying!

I looked at the Toledo airport webcam this morning and it was already sunny, I waited to let the frost melt before heading up there at 11:30.  When we got there, it was perfect, 52 degrees and no wind.  I had been anxious to fly the Corsair some more, so it was the first thing I flew, and the last.  Vera came out and took pictures of just about every flight I made today, this one is the last flight of the day.

 Our friend Todd stopped by to show us the canoe he has been building for about the last year, he did a beautiful job on it.  We have been following the progress on Facebook, they were headed out for the maiden voyage.

I flew one more flight with the Corsair and then loaded up quickly to see if we could get down to the park before they left.  They were on their third or forth run when we got there, they were really happy with the way it preformed.  After that, we headed home, ran back down to BK for dinner, unloaded the motor home, put it away and came in here to check out the 151 pictures we took today.

Watching Paint dry

My helicopter parts showed up this morning, along with my new Tilley hat, it is a new style they just came out with.  I wanted it for the lighter color that should be a little cooler in the summer.

I went out and started installing the new parts and test fit the mechanics into the body.  Everything looked good, so I pulled them out and decided to paint the wood frame so it would match the mechanics.  Some times fast drying paint can take a long time to dry, I got tired of waiting and ended up making Chex Scotcheroos with Vera, she wanted to use up the leftover ingredients for our Christmas baking.  After they were done, the paint still was not dry, so I took a plate of them over to Steve, Dianne, Ava and Harper.  The girls really liked them and Dianne had to tell Harper to stop eating them.  After dinner, I went out and started putting the helicopter back together.  It went pretty good and it wasn't too long until I was out in front of the shop testing it.  Right away, I discovered I had the tail rotor servo hooked up backwards.  The only way to change it was to pull the mechanics out again and move the servo arm to the other side.  It went much faster this time, practice makes perfect.  I took it out and put a test flight on it.  I kept hearing an odd noise, then the canopy fell off, it landed in the grass and was not damaged.  I will have to add another couple of magnets to hold it on.  Other than that, it flies great.

Covering

No walk this morning, Pastor Pam was sick and Vera had a doctor's appointment so we decided to skip it today.  I was due for my monthly blood test, so we had plenty to do, after we were both done, we scheduled eye exams and managed to get them together.  After a stop at Burgerville for a Tillamook cheese burger and a chocolate hazelnut shake, we headed home.  I finally started covering the Dirty Birdy wing this afternoon.  First I put on trim strips to seal the edges.

Then I put the first piece of covering on, the hard part will be getting the other half lined up with it.  I was expecting some parts for the helicopter today, but it appears that 2 day Priority Mail can take 3 or 4 days.

I am getting tired of sanding!

It was after lunch before I made it to the shop today, I must have been dreading the sanding.  It took a couple of hours, but I finally got the filler sanded down.  Then I spotted a couple of low spots in the wood and filled them.  More sanding on that, then spotted a few more places to fill, after a little more sanding it is finally ready to cover.  I took a break from the wing and did some clean up around the lazy susan for the power tools.  There was stuff laying everywhere and it was impossible to turn.  I had it looking pretty good and my legs were getting tired from all the standing, so I walked on the treadmill until dinner time (only 15 minutes).  After dinner, I settled into my chair to prop my legs up for a bit and promptly took a nap.  I slept right through a meeting I had planned on going to.  Except for that, it was a pretty productive day.

Finally glassed!

We had a nice walk this morning, everyone was in a great mood.  I still had the Corsair in the Blazer from our trip to Centralia yesterday, so I showed it off the the ladies when we were done.  When I finally made it out to the shop this afternoon, I did some more sanding on the Dirty Birdy wing and glassed the bottom of the wing.  Later, after it cured I mixed up another batch of epoxy and micro ballons, then spread it on to fill the weave.  That means a bunch more sanding tomorrow!

Meeting Night

I had a club meeting in Centralia tonight, so we left early to pick up the mail and visit Marie and Bob.  My 2013 printed blog book was at the post office and it looks good.  Marie was in a good mood and we had a nice visit.  I had taken a new SD card with some of my latest pictures on it for her digital picture frame.  The first thing she said to me was "It quit working!".  It was not doing a slide show, it was just sitting on one picture.  I turned it off and inserted the new SD card and it took right off.  They had a short power failure last weekend and that may have caused it to stop.  When we left there, we stopped by Bob's for a short visit and to drop off a receiver.  As always, Bob's is a very pleasant stop.

Sam (well maybe Laury) had given me an Applebee's gift card for watching him.  When we left Bob's, we went there and had a great dinner.  Before going to the meeting, I put a few gallons of gas in the Blazer because, Castle Rock's new Chevron seems to have the cheapest gas around, that was a big surprise.

They don't all show in the picture, but we had 16 people at the meeting, almost 50% of the current membership.  To get more people at the meetings, we are having show and tell sessions.  I took my Corsair and there were 3 other planes there as well.  One fooled all of us, it looked like wood and fabric construction, but it turned out to be painted foam.  It was kind of a long meeting because we were discussing bylaw changes.  We did get a couple changed and a committee was formed to come up with recommendations at the next meeting.  When we got home, I pulled into the Chevron and discovered I could use my Safeway discount there, so the gas ended up costing $2.89 a gallon.  I did the minutes right after we got home so I wouldn't forget what my notes meant.  It was a good day and it sure went by fast, well, except for one hour.

Looking Good!

This morning Vera went to bible classes before church, I was downloading some plans I located on the internet and got tired of doing it.  The thread has about 900 pages in it and I have only looked at 100.  I went to the shop to put the graphics that came yesterday onto the Corsair.  The shop was cold yet, the thermostat had just started warming the shop up, so I went back in and changed clothes so I could go to church.  It was a nice service and I got to visit with a couple of people afterwards.  I watched the Panthers/49ers game until half time, got bored with it, so I went out and put on the graphics.  The small 122s did not come with the set I got, so I got out my small vinyl cutter.  That is when I discover that I did not have the right font in my laptop.  After some searching online, I got Amarillo USAF font downloaded and installed.  The cutting of the numbers went really well and I made two sets just in case I messed up installing them (which I did).  I went out, got them all applied, brought it in the house to show Vera and take a picture for the blog.  Then I sat down and zipped through the Chargers/Bronco's game, no surprises there.  I deleted the second half of the Panthers/49ers game as I had seen the outcome online.  It was a nice relaxing day!

Wind, Rain and No Power!

Friday, I had an appointment with my eye doctor, I worked on the helicopter until it was time to leave.  I figured a new way to run the pushrod for the tail rotor pitch control, so I had to take out some bends I had put in it.  Later, I was telling Vera about it, she said "why didn't you just turn it around since the other end needs to be bent", what was I thinking!  After my appointment, we had dinner at Freddy's just for the halibut.  My eyes had been dilated, so Vera got to drive us home via Safeway.

Saturday, well this day started different, I looked at the clock at 7:01 AM, I laid there a few minutes, got up and there was no lights!  I had breakfast and started planning what I would do if it was out all day.  It came on after about an hour!

I had checked the tracking on my new Seahawks gear and it was at the post office, so we made a run to town to picked it up.

After we got home, Vera made a batch of cookies, her timing was great, because not long after they were done, the power went out again.  By then it was getting close to time for the Seahawks game to start, so I moved the motor home over and hooked the generator to the refrigerator, a heater and the TV.

I put on my new lucky Seahawks socks and settled in to watch the game.  The power came back on, but I decided to leave the TV hooked to the motor home until the game was over.

After Wilson ran out of bounds at the two minute warning, they panned the crowd and I thought I saw my nephew Charb who was at the game.  I backed up and ran it again and sure enough there he was!  It was a good game, a little closer than I would have liked at the end, but the Seahawks won!

After the game, I disconnected the generator, put the extension cords away and I was getting ready to put the motor home away when I saw Steve, I walked over to see what he thought of the game and out came the twins, they were spending the night.  I went in and visited with them and Dianne for a few minutes, then finished putting the motor home away.  I was out in the shop staring at my P-51C when in came Rielee, Ava and Harper to play with the magnets.  They had been in the house delivering cupcakes that they made sure Vera understood were done up in Seahawks colors.  They taste great, a nice ending to a good day.

Way Back when

I had a pleasant surprise in my email today, an old flying buddy, Ken, was scanning old pictures and ran across several from the late sixties or early seventies when we flew at Lutrell's field near Deer Island, OR.  I just sold that plane at a swap meet last year.  The picture sure brought back some good memories of Ken, Cliff, John and Dick.

After our walk this morning and puttering on the computer for a while, I went out and started putting the landing gear on the new fuselage.  It went great, and I had it installed in no time.  I had not planned on it, but pretty soon I was fitting the mechanics of the Trex 500 into the fuselage.  I must have had those mechanics in and out of there 20 times today.   Each time, something would interfere with the fit, I moved the tail rotor pitch servo, the receiver and had to adjust the position of one cyclic servo.  I am getting close, maybe tomorrow I can finish it.

More heli parts!

I had a vision field test this morning at Kaiser, so we left early and dropped off the speedometer I had forgotten yesterday to Mik.  I did good on the vision field test and I was done in a little over ten minutes.  We went to lunch after that, we tried a new hamburger shop, it was OK, but not so special that we will be making a special effort to go back.  I was looking at my helicopter the other day and noticed the tail rotor blades were all chipped up.  I ordered some new ones, in the process, I found this nice all metal tail rotor assembly on sale, so I ordered it also.  It arrived today, I installed it this evening, it is going to look good with that new body.

I have also been fitting the canopy to the Dirty Birdy, it is taking lots of trimming, but I am almost there.  The paint on the fuselage turned out great, so I am almost ready to do the trim colors on it.  I still have not gotten the fiberglass on the center section of the wing, I keep finding little dings to repair.  One of these days, I will probably just glass it dings and all.  I love Photoshop, notice how I cropped out some of the clutter on the bench!  It is still a mess, just not quite as bad.  I hope you had a good day, I sure did.

This is Nice!

I saw this body for my Trex 500 on sale for $59.95 during the year end sales and it showed up today.  I am impressed, it is really nice and very little needs to be done to mount it to the helicopter.  We walked this morning and I did a little work on the Dirty Birdy before heading to Longview for the model club meeting this evening.  I stopped by Debbie's with the guarantee for Josh's Christmas present and had a nice visit with her.  Then I stopped by Mik, Michelle and James' to drop off a check.  I got to spend about  20 minutes and had a great time getting caught up with them.  I went early to the meeting and had their Swiss steak dinner, not bad, but Vera's cooking is better.  The meeting was only about 30 minutes, so I was home by eight and settled into my chair for the rest of the evening.

Late Presents

We had gotten Ava and Harper Barbie dolls for Christmas, but decided to wait until they were back up here after Christmas vacation to give them to the girls.  It sure did not take long to unwrap them.  Not knowing anything about Barbies, I had just looked for clothes in their favorite colors.  It turned out I got the high end ones with articulated joints and real eye lashes, the eye lashes really impressed them!

They played with the dolls a long time, then changed into their fancy outfits and put on a show for us.  It was really funny when they were getting set up, they wanted their Boom Box moved into the living room, when Steve brought it in, Ava told him "there is a plugger there" and pointed behind the entertainment center where there was an outlet.  They each danced for us, then it was lunch time, it was all great fun to watch.

A laid back day!

Vera went to church this morning and I went to the shop, turned on the game and sanded on the Dirty Birdy wing while watching it.  I got the fairing on the leading edge/fuselage joint glued in this afternoon, sanded it to shape and filled the cracks.  After the second game was over, I went out, sanded the filler down and took this picture.  The center section will be ready for fiberglass with a little more filler and sanding.  There is not much planned for tomorrow, so maybe I will get that done.