Charlie's Amateur Hour

I spent the day getting organized for Charlie's Amateur Hour at the church tonight.  I had made a list of what I wanted to take, so I cleaned them and got everything loaded into the motor home.  I made sure the batteries were charged for the couple of things I was going to demonstrate.  We headed down at 5 to get setup, the picture shows most of what I took.

This is the "Warm up act", it was great!  Everyone was laughing so hard by the time it was over, it was a good start to the night.

I was the next to last act, I have not been up in front of people for a long time, so I was a little nervous.  I flew the quadcopter and the little helicopter Mik, Michelle and James got me for my birthday.  I even landed it back in my hand.  It was a fun night!

Well, lets see what I can remember!

Tuesday morning we walked, Pastor Pam did not make it back from her class in time, so the newly retired Don took her place.  I got the new servo installed in the Yak 55, then while I was checking that out and setting up the radio I discovered the motor shaft was bent in the crash.  I dug around and found a spare, then I had to change the speed control over to the new motor.  This one ran really smooth and I thought I was done until I noticed there was no tail skid on it.  After a couple of tries, I got one bent up the way I wanted it and installed it.  Now, it is finally done, I will test fly and trim it out the next time we go flying.

Wednesday, Vera had bible study and I started installing the hinges for the Cub's elevator.  I worked kind of slow today, it felt like a touch of the flu and I did not have a lot of energy.

Today was a nice day, I got the hinges all glued into the elevator and rudder of the Cub.  After they had dried, I started hooking up the linkages.  I did not like the way the aileron linkage was turning out, so I went to plan "B" and made my own.  It was so warm out that Vera worked outside cleaning the flower beds, feeding the roses and pruning the blueberries.  I saw the girls outside at the fort, so I went over to watch and visit.  They were showing off their skills on the monkey bars and swings so I took a short video.  Ava and Harper at the fort.
I got the pole pruner out after that and trimmed around a Christmas tree we had planted years ago.  Then I got in a flight on the Vapor and the MCPx heli.

2013!!

Sunday, I watched some of the Daytona 500 before going to church this morning.  There was a really nice service today, and I had a pleasant visit with a couple of people afterwards. Then after church, I came in and started watching the race again, I was amazed that they were only on lap 10, but I figured there had been a rain delay.  I had watched about a hundred laps before I figured out they were showing the 2013 race because the 2014 was stopped for rain and lightening.  I headed for the shop, but ended up at Steve and Dianne's for a visit.  I went to the shop after that and did some covering on the Yak 55.  When I came back in, they were just starting the race again and I ended up watching the whole thing.

Monday, we walked this morning and it was really nice, no rain!  I did some more work on the Yak 55 this morning, fitting the pushrods.

This afternoon, we went down to the parsonage for an open house to celebrate Pastor Pam's husband Don's retirement.  We had a really nice time, everyone was in a great mood.  This evening, I went out and just about finished the Yak 55, I discovered one bad aileron servo from the crash that will need changing tomorrow.

Finally some Flying!

We started the day at a little swap meet in West Longview.  There wasn't too much airplane stuff, but I did buy two really small servos from Jeff and Tina, they are on the right side of the picture.  Jeff also gave me a box of older electric motors.  I had a good time talking with several club members that were there.

When I finished at the swap meet, we ran home, had lunch, I got the motor home out and loaded.  It was one of those rare things, we left exactly when I had planned on leaving.  Leonard, Audrey, Ken and Rene were there ahead of us.  I got these three planes out right away, I was anxious to test fly the Dirty Birdy.  Two clicks of up elevator trim and two clicks of right aileron trim and it was flying great, it is a keeper!  This was the first time out to the field with the helicopter since I put the body on it.  It is much easier to see when it gets out there a ways.  The Corsair is turning into one of my favorites, it handles so nice.  I also put a flight on the Facetmobile, I found a slow servo, so I changed both of them, it flies much better now.

 Our excitement today was that Leonard had a midair with his wife Audrey.  Vera and I happened to be watching and saw the whole thing, Vera said Leonard caught up with the smaller plane from behind and knocked one wing off.  This is the third time they have had a midair.  It was a little chilly out there, so everyone was heading toward home about 2.  I unloaded the motor home, put it away, got a load of pellets with the four wheeler and got the shop stove going.  This evening, I sorted the box of old motors, glued the ailerons on the Cub wing and set up the GPS stability system that came the other day.  Now I have to figure which plane to put it in.  It has the ability to bring the plane back if you get too far out, you flip a switch on the transmitter and that turns on the "Return Home" feature.

Sad News

I found out this evening that the twin's Grandma Barb passed away.  I only met her once or twice, at Charb and Kelly's wedding, she made a point of coming over and introducing herself, she wanted to tell me how much she enjoyed my blog with the pictures of the girls and my stories of going over to see them.  It sure made sitting down and doing this in the evenings feel good.

A Lazy Day!

We were lucky on our walk this morning, when the downpour started, we were almost finished, only a block from the car.  I got the aileron servos all installed on the Cub today, then I took the wing to the shop so I could glue the aileron hinges in.  While I was waiting for the glue to dry, I started covering the Yak fuselage.  I had dug around in my covering boxes and found some yellow that looked pretty close.  Then I realized it was made by the same company that manufactured the Yak, I had a perfect match when I put it together for the picture.  Not too much else went on here today, kind of a lazy day.

And still more birthday!

Vera liked the looks of this bunch of flowers on the azalea, so we took some pictures of it this morning before she headed to bible study.  Vera took my new blog book to class and it was a hit.  I edited a few pictures, then headed to the shop and discovered the stove was empty, so I cleaned and filled it.  I did a little work on the Yak fuselage, it is all ready to cover now.  Steve came up this afternoon to see what was new and ask a couple of questions, he is always pleasant to talk to, so it was a nice visit.

While Steve and I were in the shop, Ava and Harper brought cards they had made over to the house.  After giving them to Vera, they came to the shop and Harper showed me the ukulele she had, I asked her if Papa Steve was going to teach her how to play, she informed me that she knew how to play, papa's computer had a program on it that she had used to learn how.

I thought they did a great job of writing my name on the front and Harper put plenty of candles on the cake.  I really liked the "I Heart U" Ava did on her card.  I did some work on the aileron servos for the new Cub this evening before starting this.  I am almost ready to join the wings on it.

Here is a short video from Monday when James and I were trying out the little helicopters.

James and the heli

More Birhday

Our walk this morning was a wet one, raining like crazy, I had an umbrella but my pants were still pretty damp when we got home.  I did a bunch of practicing with the little helicopter today.  It steers by tilting the controller rather than moving sticks like I normally do.  I have to be ready for when James gets the matching one so we can do combat.  With the last ones we had, every time I turned around, he would shoot me down.   We met Bev and Debbie at the Country Village and they treated us to another birthday lunch.  It was nice to get caught up, we do a lot of texting and phone calls but the visit in person was really nice.  From there, we went to Kaiser for my monthly blood test.  It was raining so hard that we decided there was nothing else in town that couldn't wait, so we headed home.

This afternoon, Auna brought over a plate of cupcakes that she did in Seahawks colors.  I had one right away and they are good!

I got the cowl installed on the Cub this evening.  I had been working on it adding an exhaust pipe and inlet filter.

Birthday

My birthday started out with a walk, the river was quite a bit higher than last week and muddy with lots of debris and foam.  It was raining, but just lightly, so we did not get too wet.

About 10:00, we went down to Cascade to help Michelle identify and sort the parts for robotic kits the kids will be working with.  This is just one kit spread out on three tables, there are twenty more that need to be done once she figures out how to store them.

About noon we went down to Lowe's to see if they had any toolboxes that would work for storing the parts.  On the way down the hill, the Blazer quit twice, Vera had asked as we left home if we had enough gas, of course, I said "We have plenty!".  We did make it to Fred Meyer and filled up while Michelle and James checked at Lowe's, they did not have anything that would work.  Michelle, Mik and James took us to the Masthead for a birthday lunch.  We had a nice time visiting, I got a new Seahawks hat and a combat helicopter from them.

After lunch, we went back to Cascade for the Cheesecake brownies Vera had brought along.  Mik had gotten James a helicopter also, so we did some flying after we ate.

James did some homework while we were there.  Then James brought the Maxima up to our place so we could take a look at the tail light that was not working.  The bulbs were looking really dark, so James made a run down to Castle Rock in the Blazer for new bulbs, and we found a bad contact that we cleaned up and everything worked great.  Cathy and Bob stopped by about that time with a box of candy for me.  We had a good time showing them the Blog books I had printed.  While James was here, Vera measured his height and he had grown about and inch in the last year.

Cheesecake Brownie's

We went to church this morning, I really enjoyed the service, of course when they asked if there were any birthdays, Vera had her hand up right away.  There were several birthdays in addition to mine, the oldest was 85 and Charlie qualified for Social Security.  After a delicious avocado salad for lunch, Vera started making Cheesecake Brownie Squares for my birthday.  Right away, we discovered that there were not enough eggs, so it was back to town!

  This how it turned out, you will notice some areas are just frosted in chocolate, in case some one does not like coconut.  It is going to be tough waiting until tomorrow for a sample.  That is why I took the picture right away.

Visitors!

I worked in the shop most of the day, finishing up the pilot for the Cub and figuring out a way to mount him.  He has to be removable because he is right over the servos.  I also added a boom mike to his headset and a cord running down.  I made good headway on the Yak I am repairing, I laminated up a curved piece to form the canopy, 3 layers of 1/16 balsa with carbon fiber between them.  It should be plenty strong enough for an occasional nose over.  I made a run to the store and post office this afternoon, my new Seahawks Super Bowl Champions hat showed up, along with James' tee shirt and the latest Hallmark card program for the computer.

This evening, there was a knock on the door and Mik came in with this valentines day Azalea for Vera.  They couldn't stay as they were on the way to a ball game and had friends in the car.  A little later, James and his friends stopped by, they were on the way to a birthday party and did not want to be the first ones there.  They had heard that there was only family there so far.  We gave James his hat and shirt before they left and I got to give them a short tour of the shop.

The Queen of the dance!

The Kelso Methodist Church had a pot luck dinner followed by dancing to a jazz band.  We went to the 49er for dinner and then went down to listen to the band.  Tom, pastor Vonda's husband is playing the guitar and a big surprise, Joel from the flying club is playing the drums.  They had everyone there put their name on a card, then they drew names for King and Queen of the dance.

Guess what, Vera was the Queen of the Dance. The band sounded great and I even danced a couple of times with the Queen.  Afterwards, we stopped at Coby's for a dessert before heading home.

Ready for a test flight!

It is nice seeing some blue sky once in a while, I could get used to it!  We had a nice walk this morning, it is a lot easier when I don't have to wear my parka.

I spent the day doing last little jobs on the Dirty Birdy, I got the wheels on, finished up the battery hatch latch, picked out a prop and fitted the spinner to it, test ran the motor/prop combination and checked the amps 467 watts and 41 amps, the motor is good for 55 amps, so I ordered a different prop, but this one will work fine for a test flight.  I also weighed it, 5 pounds 3 ounces with the battery in it.  Once it is trimmed out, I will add some more decorations to the top of the wings, they sure look plain compared to the checkerboard on the bottom.  I think a pilot will look good also.

The last thing I did before coming in tonight was add the diagonal braces to the Cub.

A busy day!

Boy, did I sleep good last night!  I ended up getting a bunch of things done today.  My first project was updating the GPS, 4 of the apps in it updated and then the map update started downloading and installing.  The program said it would take 3 hours and it could be left alone.  I went out to work in the shop, but I noticed the sun was out and it was not too cold out, so I headed outside to work.  First, I cut down the vine maple that the snow had bent over.

Then I decided to cover the septic tank back up.  It went pretty good except the clay sure sticks to the shovel and my boots.  Some new bark dust and it will be looking good.

It was almost time for Vera to get home from bible study, I had mud all over my boots and I did not want to track it into the shop, so I spaded up the flower bed.  After Vera got home and got me the hose, I cleaned up the tools, my boots and headed in for a shower.

After my shower, I went over to Dianne's to see what was going on there.  The girls were making valentine cards for Auna, it was fun to watch, they are so darn cute!  I got two flights on the helicopter this afternoon, that Trex sure flies nice.  I had a good evening working on the planes, all I have left on the Dirty Birdy is the put the wheels on and choose the right prop.

First Solo Trip!

Surprise visitor tonight, James got his license today and made his first solo drive up to see Vera and I!  We had a nice visit with him before he headed back home, he was one happy kid.

We have been collecting BK fry sauce for Dianne, the kids really like it.  This afternoon I took some over and when I came in the door, Harper had just finished decorating a cupcake for me.  She gave it to me and insisted I eat it right then, that was easy to do, it tasted great.  When I left, they sent one home for Vera.  While I was gone, Vera had made peanut butter cookies, I sampled one and then set the cupcake down in it's place and took a picture.  Need I say that I am pretty full as I write this!  James also went home with some cookies.

It was a slushy walk this morning, we ended up walking over half of it on the road because the trail and sidewalks were slippery.  I got some receivers I had ordered when we checked the mail, so I worked on the Dirty Birdy most of the day installing one of them, the motor and one landing gear.  The landing gear fit at one time, but when I glassed the wing, I must have gotten some epoxy in the groves.  I got one cleaned out before I called it a night.  Wheels, prop, canopy, neaten up the wiring and it will be ready the next time we have some good weather.

The snow is getting ugly now.

After breakfast, emails and news, I did some work on the Cub.  I got the elevator and rudder servos mounted.  Then I installed the landing gear so it is stable while I work on it.  When I finally went out to the shop, the pellet stove was almost empty, so I shut it down.  The snow is getting slushy and hard to walk on, so I got the 4 wheeler out and used it to get a load of pellets from the wood shed.  I took a ride around the trails and the snow had not knocked anything down.  Later, I used the 4 wheeler to tow the garbage can down to the road for pickup.  I robbed a motor off a plane waiting to be repaired to put on the Cub.  I also got the rudder linkage on the Dirty Birdy hooked up this afternoon, not much left to do on it.  It warmed up to 43 today and it has been raining, so the snow is getting pretty ugly.  It is really slippery to walk on, so I cleaned off the porches.  Walking was cancelled today, hopefully we will be able to in the morning.

A much better day!

The decks and their furniture sure look different all covered in snow. 

Vera was out taking pictures first thing this morning, the table is partly under the eves so only half of it had snow.

I was out in the shop working on the Cub when I heard a strange noise, I stepped out the front door and there was Dan clearing the driveway with Bob's tractor.  I moved out a little further to take a picture and noticed David digging their car out.  Before the driveway was cleared, he got one wheel off the edge, every time he tried to move the car slid a little farther down the slope until it was nose to nose with the motor home.  The digging didn't do it, so he hooked up to the tractor and Dan pulled him out.

Later, I heard the tractor again and Dan was clearing a path behind the Blazer, "Thank You Dan"!

I worked most of the day on the Cub.  I added braces to the landing gear mount, I ran carbon fiber rods around the window area as it is normally a weak area and I painted inside the cabin area black.  After a great dinner of shrimp, potatoes O'Brien and salad I went back out, touched up the spots I missed on the paint and finished loading up the tool box with things I need to finish it in the house.  This will give me something to work on in the evenings.

Well this is not how I planned to start the day!

One of the first things I did this morning was take a picture toward the ponds, the big one hardly shows.  Vera mentioned the tub was not draining good this morning.  I used some drain cleaner, waited for it to work.  Things seemed better, so Vera did some laundry, as the machine was pumping out, I heard the drains bubbling, so I shut it down and decided the sewer line was plugged.

It has plugged a couple of other times in the 32 years we have lived here, always in the same place, so that is where I started digging.  I was right, it was plugged right where it comes into the tank.  I was all done about 10:30.  I needed a few things in town, so I cleared off the Blazer and headed down.  On the way back, I was going pick up lunch at Burger King, they were closed, so I came home and had toasted cinnamon bread with peanut butter and jam.

While I was in town, it started snowing and I don't think it quit all afternoon.  This picture was taken at 6:45 PM and it was building up on the Blazer again.  I worked on the new Cub this evening, when I came in, I measured with a ruler in several places and we had 8 inches then.

A good inside day!

I meant to put this picture with yesterday's posting, but I forgot.  I was surprised how well the cell phone did in the dark, using only the shops motion light.

It was a beautiful sunshiny day for most of today, but it never got above freezing.  We were content to stay inside and work on the computer room most of the day.  I think it started snowing about four this afternoon.

This corner of the computer room has been a disaster for quite a while.  The smaller bookcase is what I picked up yesterday in Longview.  I moved all the boxes that were stacked in the corner, rearranged the file cabinets and put the bookcase where they had been.  Now I can get to all the shelves, before, I couldn't even get close to the bigger bookcase.  Once I had everything in it's place, I spent the afternoon sorting paper work that had built up on the desk.  I ended up with a pretty good pile that went into the garbage.

I had set up that lifetime table next to the desk in the computer room so I can work on kits that don't take any cutting or sanding.  This evening, I went out and got my new project, the Eflite J-3 Cub.  I sold my old bigger one at the last swap meet because this one is closer to scale and a little smaller which will make it easier to haul.