Lots of texting today

This is the latest ultrasound of Jackie's baby at 12 weeks.  I was texting with her this morning and she is doing OK!  I made a mail run about noon and some parts for my Tarot 200 quad and batteries for the Mcpx were there.  Then I went up to let Sam out, he wasn't real anxious to be outside in the cold.  I worked on my Mcpx heli first and did some flying with it in the spot I cleaned out to work on the 4 wheeler.  Once I had it trimmed out I went outside and made a short flight.  I got the Tarot put together this afternoon and flew it in the shop also, it was raining out so I couldn't take it outside.  Monday Night Football had a great ending, James was texting me asking if I had got to it on the DVR.  I am glad he didn't tell me what the final play was!

The Surprise!

Mik did a turkey and his great asparagus on his Traeger for a late Thanksgiving dinner with Debbie.

  

I am not sure what is going on here, everything turned out great so it must not have been too serious!

Here is Vera with the girls and grandkids, we had a great time with lots of good food and visiting with the family.  James had the RedZone on TV, the first time I have seen it and it was interesting to watch.

This is Josh and his best friend Josh, they look like they could be brothers!

What do we have here?

Debbie surprised us with her engagement ring, congratulations Debbie and Josh!

Barry is back!

This is the poinsettia that Mik, Michelle and James got for us.  It looks really nice on the coffee table.

 

About 1:30 there was a knock on the door and there was Barry!  They just stopped by for a few minutes before heading on to Olympia.  Mona was in the motor home staying warm, they aren't used to this cold weather and were already missing Arizona.

Vera took a picture of the fudge Bev and Diane made for me, James was here for a little while this afternoon and had a couple of pieces and said they were good!  I spent the better part of the day putting my little BO-105 heli back together.  One servo has been acting up, so I bought a new one and replaced it.  When I tested it after I was done, it did exactly the same thing, it seems I have a bad control board.  Big surprise, Amazon has them so I will have a new one Tuesday.

Apple Cup

Not much went on here today, Mik and James went up to the Apple Cup game today, this is a picture they sent me.  They were up there early tailgating with a friend of Mik's.  James said he really enjoyed the game, I watched some of it and the Huskies were doing great.

About 10:30, I noticed the moon was in a good spot for a picture so I got the camera and took a few.

The 27 degree temperature with no clouds made the moon picture turn out nice and clear.

Thankgiving

After many years of the family having Thanksgiving dinner at the Mansion, it was closed recently, so Kim made arrangements for us to get together at the Red Lion.  There ended up being fourteen of us there, Mik, Michelle and James, Bev and Diane, Mik's mom Margaret, and Mik's brother Jim, Kim and their kids.  I thought the food was excellent, and I started and ended with dessert.  Then I got a surprise from Bev and Diane, they had made fudge for me for letting them use the motor home.  Three kinds of fudge, and it is all good because I sampled it once we got home.  When you have family you enjoy being around, you really have something to be thankful for.

My partner at starting with dessert, it is fun sitting next to James.  He came up afterwards and we watched some football.

Of course, I had to have a picture of the girls!

This is Mik with Jim and Kim's daughter Elle.

Suzuki and James

I spent most of the day rearranging the front room of the shop so I can bring the 4 wheeler in to work on it.  I have new boots for the axles, a brake to repair, the front rack to straighten (I might have ran into a tree once!) and new fenders for it.  I put the last bag of pellets that was in the shop into the stove, so I texted James that when he had time could he pack some more in for me.  Those forty pound bags seem a lot heavier now than they used to.  He answered that he could probably do it tomorrow, so it was a big surprise when he showed up tonight.  As he was leaving Vera noticed the moon and ran for the camera so we could have a picture of James and it.  It took a couple of tries, but we finally got one that everything looked right.

Flying the new Planes

It was frosty again this morning, I did the last of loading before we went to church.  We had a good time at church, one kid's facial expressions made the children's sermon really enjoyable!  After a quick stop at Burger King, we hopped in the motor home and headed for the Toledo flying field.  Our timing was just about right, the fog had lifted and the other flyers were just finishing their first flight.  Leonard had helped Doug get the first flight on the plane that Doug and I had worked on yesterday.  Doug's is the one closest to the camera, Leonard's is behind it.

My new MXS flies great, it only took a couple of clicks of trim to get it flying straight!  My changes to the Lancaster bomber made it fly better, but it still needs some work.  I ended up getting in six flights, it was a little cool, but I was dressed for it.  The sun and lack of wind made it pretty comfortable out there.  We were there about two hours and I had a great time.  Then I came home and watched the Seahawks win while catching up on my blog.

Winterizing

It was even frostier this morning, I was up earlier today and got this picture just as the sun was coming up.  I did the winterizing once it warmed up, I drained all the hoses and put on the faucet covers.  A friend, Doug, came up for some help setting up his new plane this afternoon.  I had never seen the type of stabilizer he had so it took a little reading of the instructions before I got it set up.  We made a run to town for some RV antifreeze and I got the motor home taken care of.  I was anxious to test fly my new planes, so I got the motor home all set up so we could leave right after church tomorrow.

Frost and a new F-4

When I looked out this morning we had our first frost of the season.  We hung around home today waiting for FedEx with a package that had to be signed for.  Boy was his truck packed full of packages, it took him awhile to find mine.

Right after FedEx showed up, Vera came out and showed me the picture she had taken of the tree at Steve and Dianne's.  We can see it out the dining room windows and it looks great!

I went right in and opened the box!

I have the MXS all finished, I moved it out of the way so I would have some room for the F-4.

I got all of the parts out and checked them over.  The F-4 is finished in Air Force Thunderbird colors and it looks great.

Vera put the bird feeders up this morning and it didn't take the birds long to find them.

The leaf blowing Cobra

I went through three batteries in the leaf blower today.  The maple leaves were everywhere, the decks were the worst.  When I got them done I started on the driveway, I got it all done except the area in front of me.  I decided to get the Cobra out and use it to finish up.  It is not as precise as the leaf blower, but it is a heck of a lot more fun.  By the time it's batteries ran down I had it pretty well cleaned off.  I also finished up the MXS today, the weather is looking pretty good for a test flight Friday or Saturday.  Sam was fun today, I get such a kick out of watching him chase the ball.  I think he needs boots as he sure doesn't like the wet grass.

Sunday is done

There was a knock on the door this morning and there was the Fedex truck with my new digital picture frame.  The one out in the shop quit last week.  I have been adding pictures to the folder for my frame the last couple of days so the first thing I did was transfer them to the SD card for the new one.  I had to modify my mount a little as the hole spacing was different, but it is up and working great.  It is much brighter and has a wider viewing angle than the old one.  I got the second piece of trim on the Sunday, so it is all done and ready for a test flight when ever the rain quits.  I also got the first new servo mounted in the MXS, the plane Sunday was sitting on yesterday.

Sunday

It was a pretty laid back day here, I messed around on the computer until about about noon.  Then I went out to work on the Sunday plane, the stove was about out of pellets, so I texted James to see if he could come pack some in for me.  He was able to do it for me and we had a nice visit while he was here.  I worked on the Sunday the rest of the day while watching several football games.  I got all the wiring secured and the prop selected and mounted.  I started working on the red trim on the top of the fuselage.  That turned into a fussy job and it took quite a while to cut two pieces that matched.  I got one on before I quit.  I couldn't resist putting the Sunday on the MXS to show the difference in size before I went in for the night.

A Pleasant Surprise!

This is JP's Preschool picture, we got a call from John this morning wanting to know it they could stop by.  They brought us JP's school picture for this year, he sure looks grown up!

I remembered seeing the Hot Wheels in the shop not long ago, I went out to try and find them so JP would have something to play with.  Luckily, I spotted them right away.  We had a nice visit with John and Anne while JP played.

When he got tired of the Hot Wheels, he spotted the airplane plant stand on the table and wanted it.  We pulled the flowers out and he spun the propeller for a long time.

I was really impressed when he spilled some water from his glass, he ran right in, got a towel and did a great job of cleaning it up.  They had a lunch date further South, so they couldn't stay a long time but we really enjoyed seeing them!

Flying in the church!

I like this picture, the cheapest I have gotten gas for a long time!  We came to town for an appointment today, then did some shopping at Safeway.  I had gotten an email that offered double gas rewards if you purchased over twenty dollars worth of groceries.  We never have a problem getting over that, so we had plenty of gas rewards when I filled up on the way home.  Pastor Pam is teaching a 4H robotics class at the church and she asked me if I could fly for the kids like I did at the church talent show.  I wasn't ready last Thursday, so I emailed her that I could do it today and she said "Awesome".  Last night I got a brain storm that I could mount a video camera and transmitter on the tank and let them drive it around using the screen to see where they were going.  I flew a couple of quads, a helicopter, a plane and then let them fly the predator quad, they did pretty good with it.  Then I got the tank going and made one run up the aisle to show them how it worked.  The first boy went up and down the aisle fine, the next one ended up under the pews and the fun started, they discovered they could go anywhere and roamed all over the room.  The one girl in the group did not want to try the quad, but she was right there to run the tank and did a great job, probably the only one who didn't run into something.  The battery was getting pretty low when I finally had them quit.  While I flew one quad I turned its video recorder on as I made a quick pass over the pews.  I will put a link to it at the end.

Flying for the Robotics group

A busy day!

We were up this morning at 6 AM so we could be at the Olympic Flight Museum by 8 and get set up for the swap meet.  This picture is looking toward the front of the hanger from our table.  We got rid of all the kits, sold some miscellaneous stuff, gave away one plane and acquired a new one.  We packed up early so we could get back for Joe's celebration of life.

 This is the wreath that Dianne made up, it was really pretty.

They had a display of pictures about Joe.

I had never seen these pictures from when he was a kid.

There was a great turn out of friends and family, they had to set up extra tables and it was still standing room only at times.

Debbie and Josh went around to every table and visited everyone.

Mik took a selfie of Vera and him.

This is Debbie with Joe's friend Eric.  We had a good time visiting with everyone, some of whom we had not seen for a long time.

Getting Ready!

What strange weather, Vera noticed one of our azalea's is in bloom again.

The snapdragons are still blooming also, we have gotten lots of enjoyment out of the flowers this year.

I spent most of the day loading up the Blazer for the swap meet in Olympia tomorrow.  Hopefully, we will get rid of the last of these kits.

Cold Weather Flying

It was in the low thirties this morning, so I bundled up in lots of layers as I got ready to go flying.  It was fairly foggy when I got there and there was lots of dew on the grass.  I wanted to fly my new bomber with retracts but when I checked the runway it was pretty lumpy with tall grass and dandelions.  I got the mower and roller out and did about half the runway which really smoothed it out.  The Lancaster took off fine, it flew pretty good after a little trimming but when I slowed down to land it got really touchy.  I got it down OK on the first flight but the second flight I set a new personal best by breaking three props in one landing!

My friend Horty wanted some help with a new twin, it flew great, much better than the Lancaster.

He also brought out FREDe a cartoon scale plane.  We have flown it before, but Horty made some changes and it flew pretty good today.

As I finished the last flight on my helicopter, I notice the sunshine coming through the clouds so I hurried up shutting down and grabbed the camera for some pictures.  Horty and I were the only ones there today, Horty is always pleasant to talk with so I had a very nice day.