First Flip

Vera woke up not feeling good and went back to bed.  Since I was all dressed for church in my good clothes I decided to go alone.  It was a nice service with lots of talk about the talent show last night.  They were also passing out the church history and devotionals that Carole had finished.  Vera had already gotten the history at bible study so I picked up a devotional.  After lunch, I started putting away the things I used at the talent show, the little red quad still had some battery left since the demo was fairly short.  I took it out in the driveway, turned the video recorder in it on and flew around  over the house and shop.  I had never tried doing flips with any of my quads so I got brave today and did some.  It is still in one piece even after hitting the ground after a couple of them.  Vera came out and took the pictures just as I finished because the battery was dead.  Waist high was as high as I could get it for a picture before it settled to the ground again.  It will be interesting to see what the onboard video looks like tomorrow.  I did a little work on the P-39 and got the vertical fin framed up.  I also did some more clean up in the shop computer room.  I had a whole bunch of VHS and Beta tapes that I will probably never watch again so I started throwing them away.

Talent Show

I did a bunch of sanding on the P-39's elevators today.  I use a couple of strips of plywood to hold the elevator lined up with the stabilizer and sand the elevator until I touch the masking tape.

I spent most of the day getting my camera and quads ready for the church talent show tonight.  I had been asked to video it and take pictures.  Linda also asked me to fly so I agreed to.  This picture is a screen capture from the video while I was flying the QX70.  I had a monitor sitting on the piano so people could see the video it was sending.

 I also flew the Aerocraft quad with a DVR in it.  This is another screen capture from that video, it is not a high resolution camera so it is not real clear.

During intermission we even had a birthday party for Bill and Dorothy.  The cake was excellent and the talent show was great, there were some awesome performances!

This is the card they passed out to all the people who participated.

Winter is not over yet!

It was snowing when I got up and 32 degrees.  I took a couple of pictures since I figured it would not last long.

A little later when I checked Facebook there was a reminder of what it was like six years ago on February 24 2011.  My comment with the picture said "30 degrees and snowing".

I went back through my pictures to see what it was like and I discovered this.  This picture was taken just after midnight on February 24 2011

I found this picture from February 23rd of Steve and the twins so the snow probably started about then.  I also found pictures where there was snow on the ground March 2nd.  I hope that doesn't happen this year!

Spring Cleaning

We ran to town this morning to do a couple of things, as we came into Castle Rock there were detour signs directing us onto Front Street.

We had to stop at the Red Canoe and it looked like a small landslide on the hill East of there.  We thought that was the cause for the detour.

After picking up the mail we ran over to 4 Corners to get some wood pellets.  When I mentioned the slide, he told us about a house fire behind the bakery.  It looks like a total loss, but no one was hurt.

I fully intended to work on the elevators this afternoon after unloading the pellets.  I had two sacks of cement on the cart I use for pellets so I dug another hole for the North railing on the shop porch.  I got the post bracket fastened to the porch and filled the hole with cement.  I had a little left so I used it for a low spot in the motor home carport.  I decided to clean the sink in the shop when I finished the cement, that led to me cleaning the counter and rearranging everything on it.  It was looking so good when I got done that I mopped the floor.  I am getting all my spring cleaning done early this year.  I finally did a little work on the right elevator gluing on the dummy ribs.

Cookies

I went to Coffee with the Pastor this morning, lots of good discussion today and most of time we end up staying an hour and a half now.  I picked up the mail, my new batteries came today and then got salad materials at Sentry.  On the way home I stopped by Cathy and Bob's to drop off the pie plate.  I had a nice visit with Cathy, Bob had to go to physical therapy.  Tor was working jigsaw puzzles and he is really good at it.  Right after I got home one of the twins showed up with a plate of cookies.  I can't tell the twins apart but I have a pretty good idea who decorated which cookie by the color.  They taste great!  This afternoon and evening I worked on the elevators for the P-39.  I have one almost all shaped and I am planning on finishing the second one tomorrow.  I got on Facebook this evening and posted all the pictures of the P-39 build on the Sanderson Field Flyers page for the Balsa Build Challenge.

Before and After!

This picture was taken on February 11th., as I was headed out of the shop that night.  I have been doing a little cleaning on it since then but nothing serious.

This morning I decided I was going to get it cleaned up.  I worked all day on it except for a couple of times when I worked on the P-39.  Vera was out there helping me most of the day cleaning, sorting and encouraging me.  Now I only have one bench left to clean, the one where I have the vice and drill press.  That may be tomorrow's project.

A birthday get together.

I got started on the elevators today.  I marked all the rib locations just like the instructions said to, I could see where that would make things a lot easier later on.  Then I glued them to their leading edge.

This eveing we met Debbie, Josh, Michelle, Mik and James at Applebee's for a birthday dinner.  I had a really good time, there was lots of laughter and kidding going on.  I tried something new this time, their Butcher's Meat & Potatoes and I loved it. It tasted great and the portion size was perfect for me. Michelle took a selfie of Herself, Vera, James and Mik.

Then on the way out she took another selfie that got most of us in it.  It was a great evening spent with my family.

Church and more P-39

We went to church this morning, the service was a little different, it was being run by the church members.  Pastor Pam was at Ocean Park for a youth gathering.  We had a guest speaker from Vancouver who told us about their program called Friends of the Carpenter.  It was very interesting and we are planning on stopping there some time.  He had brought some of the things they make with him and I bought this cross.

After church I got the sheeting glued onto one side of the stabilizer frame work.  I was busy for a while getting all the clamps and pins on before the glue set up.

Working on the P-39

This morning I put carbon fiber down on the wax paper and worked epoxy into it.  Then I put the leading edges for the stabilizer and vertical fin on top of it and weighted them down to cure.  Our friend Horty came by to visit and pick up a piece of carbon fiber for his plane, it was missing from the kit.  We had a nice time and I loaded him up with a couple of projects.

By evening it had cured enough that I was able to finish framing up the stabilizer.  If you look close you can see where I added carbon fiber inside the tips also.

Happy Birthday!

My goal today was to get the painting finished on the closet.  I went out right after breakfast and got it done.  It sure feels good to have that job finished.  Not long after I finished Barry called and we had a great visit.  I am looking forward to the birthday pizza in March.

Just after I finished, Cathy, Tierney and Tor came up to wish me a Happy Birthday and brought me a berry pie.  Tor found our Seahawks Nerf football and played catch with Tierney, he has a really good arm.  As they were leaving I gave Tor a tour of the shop and sent him home with a little glider.

I spent quite a while on Facebook reading birthday wishes this morning, a friend Diana posted this picture of me from about 1961.  Since it was so nice and clean we took the Blazer to Jiffy Lube and had it serviced this afternoon.  When we were done there we decided to try Grounds for Opportunity a training kitchen in Kelso for lunch.  When we turned onto South Pacific there were red and blue lights everywhere ahead of us.  I detoured around a couple of blocks to get to the restaurant and the police activity turned out to be right by it.  We found out that it was a stop for a road rage incident suspect that had taken place up by Castle Rock.  The cooks saw the whole thing as their window looked out that side.  They said the police came up to the car with their Tasers out and pointed at the driver.  He got arrested and they towed his car.  We had a great lunch, I had the Cuban sandwich and Vera had a chicken salad.  We are planning on going back and try their breakfast.

This afternoon I went out to the shop and worked on the stabilizer spar.  I lost a brand new Skyraider when the stabilizer fluttered during a high speed pass.  Ever since I have been sure to reinforce the stabilizer on planes I build.  On this one I am going to sandwich this piece of carbon fiber between the two pieces of the spar with epoxy.

After coating everything up with epoxy which is a messy job (I wore rubber gloves) and getting it lined up, I weighted it down with lead weights and left it to cure overnight.

The berry pie didn't last long, I had it for my evening snack while I was rereading the Facebook posts.  My birthday was very enjoyable and relaxing.

Sunrise, Blazer door and Paint

Tuesday morning had a very colorful sunrise, I was out taking pictures before I had breakfast.  Sunrises and Sunsets don't normally last very long so I try to get pictures as soon as I notice them.  I finished up the repairs to the Blazer's driver's door and then had just enough time to wash it before it got dark.   Wednesday I went to coffee with the Pastor and spent the rest of the day cleaning in the shop and sanding on the new closet.  Thursday was more of the same but I got the first coat of paint on the closet door trim and the front of the door.

A great day of flying!

When we got to the field it was really foggy, we couldn't see the trees in the background of this picture which was taken a little after noon.  I was dressed for the cold and I got in quite a few flights before it started to warm up.  The propane heater felt really good when I was working around the bench.

By 2:00 it was sunny and warm, just about everyone had their coats off and we were having a great time flying.  I counted seven other flyers and a couple of spectators.

I flew until the sun went down, as I was packing up one of the other flyers mentioned the sun hitting Mt Rainier as it set.  I grabbed the camera and got this picture.

A little later I thought the sunset looked nice so I walked over to the fence line to get a clear shot of it.  On the way back I took this picture of the motor home and Mt St Helens.

As I got into the motor home the final time the sunset had gotten much prettier so I pulled over by the fence and took a couple more pictures.  They turned out much better than the first set.  We putted along Jackson Hwy. and Barnes Drive at 35 or 40 mph all the way home, it was a nice relaxing drive.

Saturday and Sunday

While we were cleaning the shop this week I ran across a poster that was made for my retirement in 1999.  On Saturday I cleaned it up and took pictures of it This school picture of me was on it, I don't know what year but it was before I started wearing glasses.

There was also this picture of Vera, James and I at the mechanical center on my last day at Longview Fibre.  I also got the Blazer door opened on Saturday, the only thing I found wrong was one clip half way off.  After I got the lock and latch assembly working I started repairing the damage I did to the door panel to get to the locking rod.

Sunday we were the candle lighters at church.  After we got home I made up the second piece of sheeting for the stab of the P-39.  I cut the pieces to shape, tape them together, turn it over to expose the seam, bend it to open it and put glue in the groove.

After I close it and wipe off the excess glue, I put it on the sheet of glass and weight it down with magazines and lead weights to dry.

My other big accomplishment Sunday was getting the trim around the door of the new storage closet.

Finally done

While we were cleaning and rearranging in the shop we ran across this old ticket my friend Dick Evans had written Bev and Michelle.  Dick was a Cowlitz County sheriffs deputy who flew radio control with me.  He was working that day but stopped by to visit, he slipped this on the girls bicycle as he was leaving.  The girls were a little upset until we convinced them it was a joke.

This is how the closet turned out.  I haven't had this much room to move around in a long time.  We sorted and cleaned up a lot of stuff.  I threw away quite a few things that just aren't used anymore.

The North bench hasn't looked this good in a long time.  You can see my next project on the other bench.

I started on the stab of the Airacobra this evening.  I got some of the ribs cut out.  This is an older kit that was manufactured before laser cutting.  The parts have been die cut and I have to go over most of the cutting with a knife to get the parts out.  I am building this plane for a balsa build challenge the Shelton club is putting on.  You post pictures of the build on their Facebook site and then this spring they have a day for first flights on all the planes entered.  If you make a flight, your name goes into the hat and at the end of the day they draw out names for prizes.

Off to Olympia

I went to Coffee with the Pastor this morning, when I came out to head home the driver's side door refused to unlock.  I ended up having to climb over the console.  I made a quick attempt to fix it when I got home but couldn't.  Since Marie usually sits in front we decided that we would have to get her settled in the back and then I would put her wheelchair in before climbing over the console.  Marie and the nurse at Colonial don't get along so she was not happy to be going and never had much to say all day.  That made for a kind of stressful day when combined with the lousy road conditions.  I did get another coat of paint on this evening.

Paint

We made a run to Home Depot today and picked up paint for the shop closet.  Then we picked up the supplies Marie had requested in a letter, had lunch at Skipper's and headed home.  I got the first coat of paint on it this evening.

Snow damage

Monday morning we were up to seven inches of snow.  The cascara in the south lawn came down during the night.  We were scheduled to take Marie to a doctors appointment in Olympia today but I had no desire to drive in the snow so Vera called and they got it rescheduled to Wednesday.  In the afternoon I got the chainsaw out and did some cutting on the cascara tree plus some other small ones that were on the trails.  I got one of my cable winches hooked up the the dogwood tree and pulled it back up.  This happen once before and I had to pull it up then also.  I will be able to take the winch off in a few months and it will be fine.  The rest of the day was spent puttering on the computer or out in the shop.

Sanding, Superbowl and Snow

Saturday was more sanding on the new storage closet in the shop, I did make one run to town for mail and groceries.

Sunday after church the snow started sticking pretty good.  James called and asked if He and Dalton could come up and watch the Superbowl with me.  By the time they got here it was really coming down.  The first half of the game was great for us Falcon fans.  The snow was really piling up by half time, so they decided maybe they should head home.

They had to clean off all they windows before they could leave.  They pushed a lady up one hill on the way home, luckily they both have four wheel drives.  I had planned on watching my recording of the game, but since I had already watched half, I sat and watched the rest.

While I was watching the game with the boys I realized that I had not assembled the metal P-51 James got me for Christmas.  When the game was over I started putting it together, it took a little longer than I expected as some of the parts were pretty small.  He had also gotten me a solar powered turn table to display it on.  I was sure surprised when I discovered it would run under the light by my recliner.

It was a wet heavy snow and at 11:45 PM our twenty foot pink dogwood was laying on the birdbath.  We had six and a half inches then.