Halloween

It was our normal quiet Halloween, just Rielee, Jillian, Bridget and Tor this year.  When Rick and Heather brought their kids, they noticed my quad sitting on the coffee table.  I had only partly charged batteries, but each of the kids got a chance at flying it.  I was really impressed with Bridget, she did a great job of holding altitude with it.  I did some building on a new plane during the afternoon, it is not an ARF this time, I am actually gluing parts together.  Laser cutting and CAD design sure makes the parts fit good now.

My new Lancaster

After Vera got home from bible study I went up to let Sam out and play with him.  He is really good about dropping the ball into the cat bed.  Then he takes off like mad for the next throw.

Monday my new plane showed up and I made good headway on it the last couple of days.  It is basically all done now except for the canopies and turrets.

Flying

It was a little foggy when we got to the flying field at ten thirty this morning!  Today was the only day in this week's weather forecast without rain, so several members planned on flying.  I was going to fly right away, but I had left the transmitter on for the new plane last night and it was dead.  I put it on charge, then remembered the battery for the other transmitter would fit.  I did a quick swap and headed out to test fly the new plane.

I got my new Sbach 342 a week ago and I put the first flights on it today.  It flies great and does the nicest harriers!

This is my Fokker DR1 and Mt Rainier, I fly it just about every time I go out.  I like the looks of it in the air and it is nice and relaxing to fly.

The sun came out about one and a little later the clouds cleared from around Mt St Helens and we could see the new coat of snow.

When we got home, I took some pictures of the leaves as I was going up to feed Sam.  The blueberry bush still looks pretty good.

Church

October is Pastor Appreciation Month, so Jenny, the SPR Chairwomen, arranged via email for everyone to bring a card and/or gift for her.  She also wanted to Roast her by having everyone bring her a golf ball.  It was great, she was putting them in her pockets, then the collection plate and finally one of the ladies got a cardboard box for her to use.  She was totally surprised by the whole thing!

This afternoon, James came up and we changed the oil in his Maxima.  After he left, I watched some football, Vera fixed a great steak and baked potato dinner.  A little later I went out to the shop and finished the new plane and watched more football out there.  I put away a few tools and then headed in about eight, I fully intended to watch the rest of the game, but the computer captured my attention and I got this blog written.

Flying

The day started out kind of foggy and there were some light rain showers when we first got to the field.  With the furnace going and the lights on it was a good test for the new coach battery I installed yesterday.  I stayed in the motor home until the rain quit and then started flying.  After my first flight other flyers started showing up and we ended up with five club members there.  About one the sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon for flying with very light winds.

Vera took this picture toward the end of the day, I sure have a good time flying the DR-1.  I ended up getting my normal twelve or thirteen flights before we called it a day.

A trip North

I had printed up pictures of my friend Bob to take to his celebration of life, but we ended up not going.  I asked my friend Dick to get me in contact with Bob's daughter and he got me the days she worked and her phone number.  Today, we went up and delivered the pictures of Bob flying at the Lewis County club and a DVD with 140 more pictures of him flying on it to her.  She really reminded me of Bob's wife Nancy.  The picture is the window in Marie's room, we went there after delivering the pictures.

I put a SD card with additional pictures on it into her digital picture frame.  During the course to talking about them we some how ended up discussing selfies.  I took this picture while showing Marie how that worked on the phone.  We had a really nice visit until her lunch time, then while she was eating we ran to Walmart and picked up some stuff she needed.  One of the things was Halloween candy and she insisted we sample it when we got back.

Cleanup, Sbach and Flying the Cobra

My new kit showed up Monday and I started right in on it.  It is a 3D park flyer shaped like a Sbach 342, but this one is made out of EPP foam which is very crash resistant.  If you dent it, it just comes back to its original shape.  Waiting for the glue to dry is the hardest part of this plane, as it sits in the picture, there are only six parts to it.  I decided to clean the computer room this week, it took me three hours to clean off the top of the desk.  Now I have almost everything off of the couch.  A couple of more sessions and maybe I will be done.

I had a great time this afternoon blowing leaves off the parking area and driveway with the Cobra.  Since it weighs fifteen pounds it generates lots of air movement and I had it done in just a few minutes.  I had enough battery left to pose it for Vera.  After I put it away, Steve suggested I should have gone down the driveway to the road, maybe next time I will do that with fresh batteries.

Connie's visit day 2

Connie, Sophie and Mack came up to visit this morning.  It was great getting caught up on things with them.

The last time Jean was here, she was restoring a camera like this one on our dining room table. Connie brought me one that was in Jean's stuff, it brings back some great memories!

We went for a walk to show them around Wisteria Rd and had a nice time at the Dolan's.

Mack had a great time with Sam!

Then we went out on the front porch, Connie and Laury visited, Mack and Sophie threw the ball for Sam.  On the way home, I showed them the mobile hanger (motor home) and the shop.

At three, we all met at Dan and Robin's for a pot luck.  We had a good turn out of cousins for them to see.

Why is everyone pointing at me?  I was getting the credit or blame for something in this picture!

Boy was there lots of good food, everything I had tasted great!

Sophie and Mack are checking out the food.

This is Cousins Laury, Connie, Sophie, Cathy and I.

Connie went around and visited with everyone there at least once.

Tor was giving Sophie lots of attention, she babysits, so she is good with little kids.

We owe Dan and Robin a big Thank You for letting Connie and the kids stay there and for hosting the pot luck, it was a great afternoon!

Connie's Visit

Cousins Connie, Sophie and Mack arrived for a weekend visit this evening.  It has been 20 years since the last time we saw Connie at her mom's (my aunt Jean) funeral.  They arrived at Dan and Robin's a little after 9 and we had a short visit before heading home.

It was sure nice to see Connie again.  I had a good time visiting with Mack, he is a World War 2 buff, he should find some of my models interesting.

Flying and a beautiful sunset

We got to the field about 10 and there was still some fog, but not enough that I couldn't fly.  About noon it cleared off and the rest of the day was great.  Five other flyers showed up during the day, the last one just as I was packing up to leave.  He planned on doing some night flying, so I got in another flight, that made 18 flights today.

I took a 1 second exposure as Guy flew by, I was surprised by how well the detail in the picture showed up.  It was dark enough that we needed lights to do anything, you can see Guy's light on the bench to the left.

It also meant that I had to use our lantern to finish loading my planes.

There was an added benefit to staying, I got a great picture of the sunset.

Mowing

Monday, I decided to mow, well, more like vacuum up the leaves and branches.  At about noon, I rode the mower up to let Sam out and as I was sitting on the porch throwing the ball for him I notice this maple of Laury's, very pretty!

This is what our back yard looked like after the big cloudburst on Saturday, not much grass, but lots of debris.

Sunday night, Jackie and Chris spent the night here in our motor home.  Sunday afternoon we played several games of Yahtzee with them, it took three games, but I finally won one.  We also took a walk and Jackie got to visit the Robinson's and the Dolan's.

Jackie and the Apple Thieves

Jackie and her friend Chris stopped by on the way to Debbie's this afternoon.  It was good to see her at this difficult time and we had a nice visit.  Boy, did we have a cloudburst while they were here.

I brought the game camera in today to see what had been eating the apples that fall off the tree.  In addition to these bunnies, there were raccoons, a coyote and deer.

Vera looked out the window after Jackie left and there was one of the deer having a snack.  She ran and got the camera and we got several nice pictures of it.

The weather change and rain has really made the color on the burning bush Michelle gave Vera vivid!

Vera noticed this vine maple by the driveway was a light yellow instead of orange or red like some of our others.  That cloudburst sure put a lot of debris down on the driveway.

Indoor Flying and Joe

I spent the day getting my indoor planes ready to fly and then we headed up to the Centralia Middle School for an evening of flying.  It was a smaller than normal turn out, but we had a good time.

Towards the end of our flying session, I got a call from Bev that Joe had passed away.  It was quite a shock to hear someone so young had died.  I have lots of good memories of racing radio control trucks with him.

Mowing and Flying

At the club meeting Tuesday night, I learned the club mower was broken.  I wanted to come down to Goble and fly today, so I loaded up our mower on the trailer.  After unloading a couple of planes, I mowed the runway and pit area.

Here I am getting ready for my first flight of the day, I ended up flying 16 flights today.

Next up was the F-4, the prime reason for mowing as it does not have very big wheels.

The F-15 got a good work out today, it was fairly inexpensive but I sure have lots of fun with it.

This is some of the planes I flew today.

I have been flying the Trex 500 quite a bit lately and I am starting to feel really comfortable with it.

I love my new shirt!

I was sure surprised on the second flight of the F-4 when the landing gear tore out during what looked like a nice landing.  I hadn't built the plane so I didn't know there was only a couple of small pieces of plywood in there that were mounted to styrofoam.  I will probably build new wings for it with the landing gear tied into spars.

As we got to Castle Rock, I had to pull over and take a picture of the beautiful sunset, a nice end to a great day of flying.