Halloween

We had about our normal Halloween with five Trick or Treaters.  There is lots of extra candy if anyone wants to stop by!

We didn't get a picture of Rielee who was the first one to come by, so I hunted up this one from 2006.

Rick, Heather and the kids were our next visitors.  Rick told Tor to give me a Batman super hero move.  Tor and Adam had found the little Seahawks football, Adam threw it to me but there was no way I could catch it left handed with the camera in the right hand.

Bridget had on a cute outfit, she was showing everyone her loose tooth and it was really loose so I don't think it will be long before she gets a visit from the tooth fairy.

Jillian had on a Princess Leia costume.  It was sure fun having them stop by, lots of noise and excitement.

Sunday

At church today these three girls from the youth group planned and conducted most of the service.  This was the final part of the 125 year celebration.  It turned out great, the music they chose had a lot more beat to it than what we traditionally sing but I really liked several of them.

I took some pictures of members who were not at church for the church family picture.  Then I took this one of the social time after the service, the girls served the refreshments.

I watched the Seahawks game when we got home.  I did a little work on the PC-6 and got out the kit I am going to build for a winter balsa build the Sanderson Field RC Flyers is putting on.  Builders put photos of their build on the club's Facebook page during the winter.  Then June Tenth there will be a maiden flight event at the SFRCF field.  Everyone who makes a successful flight has their name put into a hat and they draw names for prizes.

The USPS comes through!

I didn't expect the new Cobra fuselage until Monday, but the USPS got it here in one day!  Of course I had to unpack it right away and check everything out.  There was a nice LED lighting system that I didn't know it came with.

There were lots of maple leaves on the back lawn and since it was dry this afternoon I decided to mulch them.

The next thing I knew, Vera was out on the deck with the camera, so naturally I smiled!

She came back out a little later and took more pictures of me and the plants.  There is still lots of color, it is just different than what we are used to.

The leaves got pretty thick at times, but I kept running over them until most of it was small enough to drop down between the grass.  I also ran up and down the driveway blowing the leaves off it.  I saw our neighbor James outside working on a car so I drove over to visit for a minute.  It turned out he needed a gear puller to get the windshield wipers apart and I had one that worked.

When Vera went in she took a picture of our Halloween decorations and candy.  It is hard, but I have not had a single piece of it.

 I went out this evening and finished up the flaps and flap servo openings.  Just a few more steps and I will be ready to cover.

Flying Weather!

I was checking the tire pressures on the motor home when I heard a heck of a commotion,  It turned out to be Steve and the girls putting up Halloween decorations.  Since I was out there, I walked over to let Sam out and threw the ball for him.

It was so nice out that I asked Vera if she wanted to ride up to the field for a few flights.  I was surprised when I got out of the motor home and it was so warm I didn't need a jacket.  After I had been flying for a little while another member showed up and did some flying also.

During one flight, I heard a round engine, radial engines have a sound different from any other type.  I landed, got the camera and took several pictures as it landed.  I was in the motor home when it took off and it came right over us, boy was it loud!

This is how it looked at five o'clock, hardly a cloud in the sky and still warm.

 I started packing up right after I took the panorama.  My few flights turned into eleven flights!

Betty's Deluxe Burgers is a great way to end a day of flying!

More PC-6

Today after coffee with the pastor, I got the flap modification done and the aileron built and hinged.  Now I am ready to start on the left wing, it should go a lot faster as I made up extra parts for the flaps as I did the first one.  I didn't accomplish a whole lot Tuesday, I slept in until 10:00, worked on the wing a little and finished making up some DVD's of "Here I am Lord" by the Choir and Bell Choir on Sunday to give to the choir members.  Vera took a couple to bible study today for choir members who are in the bible study group and I got a good report back on them.  This rainy weather is sure nice for building.

Plautus Porter PC-6

I made good headway on the PC-6 today.  I finished sanding the fuselage this morning so it is almost ready for covering.  I did my normal reinforcements as I built it, there are carbon fiber rods tying the landing gear blocks into more of the fuselage structure to spread the landing impacts out.  I also added carbon fiber rods to brace the cabin area, you can see one of the black rods by where the windshield will go.

After the great lunch Vera made and a mail run I used the mower to mulch up the leaves on the lawn.  Just as I finished there was a big gust of wind and it doesn't look like I did a thing!  I went out this evening and started on the wing.  The instructions were wrong, if I had done it the way they said I would have had a heck of a mess.  After studying it for a while I came up with my own order of assembly.  It went pretty fast after that.  It will slow down tomorrow while I figure out a modification to add flaps.  Our ballots were at the post office today, we sat down this evening and voted, tomorrow we will drop them off at the ballot box.

125 Years

Today the church had a special service celebrating 125 years in this building.  The choir and bell choir had a version of "Here I am Lord" that they preformed together and it was great!

After the service I took pictures of the congregation for the church records.

Then we went downstairs for cake and ice cream, it was really a good tasting cake!

One of the ladies insisted on getting a picture of Vera and I for her second picture she invited Pastor Ava and her husband, Bob, to join us.  Ava is the director of the hand bell choir and directed today.  The second picture turned out to be the best one so I used it.  When we got home I made a movie of the choir/hand bell song to give to them.  Then I went out and worked on the Plautus PC-6 some more.  I have the construction of the fuselage just about done.  The next step in the instructions is building the wing, so I guess that will be tomorrow's project.

Dress Rehearsal and Dinner Play

This was during dress rehearsal Friday night.  It went pretty good during the first act and half way through the second act, when I put a picture on Facebook that things were going pretty good.  Right after that lines started getting forgotten or cues missed.  It was a fun night with a good audience.

Mik, Michelle and James came up for the dinner play on Saturday.  James had to work, he got there for the third act which is when I flew the quad.  I went down and had dinner with Mik, Michelle and Vera and took some pictures of the dinner crew.

This is the play cast after the last act, Michelle and James took a bunch of pictures for me.  It was fun and I had a good time during the rehearsals and play, but I had a hard time with the lines so I am not meant to be an actor.  I will be fine taking pictures or flying my quads or planes.

A Busy couple of days!

Mowing, Storm Cleanup, Kaiser, Home Depot, Fred Meyer, Michaels, Harbor Freight, Safeway, Play Practice and a new plane.  Well, that pretty much sums up Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday Vera had play practice and I decided to use the mower to blow the maple leaves and limbs off the lawn.  I made a pass down one trail and there was a limb off our biggest fir tree that was about six inches in diameter and twenty feet long blocking the trail.  After I finished mowing I got the chain saw out, went back and cut the limb into firewood.

Thursday morning Vera had a doctors appointment for a check up and I had a blood test due so we were up early and headed to Kaiser.  Vera's appointment went great, all her tests were great.  I got an email later in the day that my blood tests were all right in the middle of the required range also.  From Kaiser we went to Home Depot for a couple of things, then to Fred Meyer looking for a new ice cream scoop.  We found a scoop to try and on the way out I ended up with a new jacket that is really comfortable.  Michaels was our next stop for some black paint I needed.  We made it out of there with out anything extra.  I needed some plastic bottles that Harbor Freight but I ended up getting some clamps and tape before we made it out.  At Safeway we got stocked up on some stuff we needed.  After we got things put away, I got started on a new plane.  I have been looking for one to build this winter and had it narrowed down to four kits I have.  I finally decided on the one that should build the fastest, a Plautus Porter.  I made good headway on the fuselage before calling it a night.

Play Practice and Hexacopter

Monday night I had play practice, this is just before it started, the youth group on the left and Pastor Pam talking with Fred and Dave.

All of the cast were in costume, this is Charlie (with the mike) and Jason the church trustees.  I took video from three different locations to see where I get the best sound.  As usual the play practice was great fun, lots of kidding around and laughter!

This is the hexacopter I have been working on lately.  I got it done to the point where I needed to program the flight controller.  Today I discovered that the APM controller I had in it would not support the hexacopter configuration so I ended up ordering Pixhawk controller this evening.  Now I need to pick out another project to keep me busy until it shows up.

Roofs, Power, Jazz and Football

Wednesday:  After the great day of flying on Tuesday I had a bunch of things I needed to get ready for the bad weather that was forecast.  The first thing I did was make a couple of repairs on the shop roof and put on moss killer.  Next on the list was to finish hooking up the gable fan.  That turned out to be easier that I thought it would be.  I blew off the roof next and did some caulking, then Vera and I got the tools put away and I called it a day.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday:  Good building weather, I got lots done on the hexacopter when the power wasn't out.  The power was out three times if I remember right, Kindles work great during outages.  I finished the story of the Wright Brothers and started on a fiction story I really enjoyed on Thursday during our longest outage.

After church on Sunday we went down to meet Jazz, Mik, Michelle and James' new black lab puppy.  I had a great time playing tug a war with her.

She gets pretty worked up at times and I found out her teeth are really sharp.  Michelle had fixed a great pulled pork and salad lunch, then we watched the Seahawks win.  I also helped James put his TV onto a wall mount.

Just as we were leaving I got this great picture of Mik and Jazz.  We did a little shopping on the way home, when we got home I spent the rest of the evening watching Sunday Night Football.

Great Flying Weather!

Monday Vera was out taking pictures of the raindrops on the roses, this one turned out great!

The azalea Mik, Michelle and James got Vera is blooming again.  Michelle made the rose in the background for Vera a couple of years ago.
It was foggy and kind of chilly when we got there this morning, in fact I turned on the heater in the motor home for Vera.

Right after we got to Toledo this morning Michelle sent me some pictures of her in a T-28 at the Pearson Education Hanger.  She was there taking a tour with a teachers group called nPower girls.

Here is a picture Michelle sent me showing some of the model aircraft at Pearson Air Museum.

After I got everything unloaded I mowed and rolled the runway while it was clearing up.

  Leonard and Audrey showed up just before I finished mowing.  They had this cute pair of Rascals, the little one is really fast!  Steve showed up a little later, it was nice to see them again, it has been six weeks since the tire blew and caused all the damage.   In the afternoon, I went over and mowed Mrs. Herren's lawn.

I got Vera to take some pictures during my last flight of the day when I saw the moon coming up by Mt St Helens.  The weather had been great all day, warm, very little wind and a beautiful blue sky to fly against.

My table wasn't too neat by the end of the day, actually I was spread out over two tables.

As I was locking the gate I noticed the sunset looked really nice.  The motor home ran great and it sure seems to handle better with the new wheels and tires.

What a cutie!

After getting the motor home done it has been a pretty laid back and rainy week here.  Wednesday I wasn't feeling good so I skipped play practice.

Wednesday night there was a wind storm and the lights went out about ten.  A tree had come down across the power lines up on Schaffran Road.  We read our kindles for a little while and then went to bed.  Some big limbs had came down by our pond so I had to get the chain saw out to clean them up.

Since I was working right in front of the game camera I decided to take it in and see what we had gotten.  The deer have really been enjoying the apples, the camera had been activated one hundred and ten times.  We counted three different sets of deer that come by every day or night.

Jackie sent me this picture of Cora while they were out for a walk on Thursday.  She looks pretty darn cute in that suit.

I have been puttering with a new retract for the nose gear of this little F-4 Phantom all week.  The one that was in there before was one size bigger and it made the plane nose heavy so I was running out of elevator to flare on landing.  I got it all done today, now all I need is some flying weather.  Vera made bread several times this week and I have really been enjoying it.