Another beautiful Tuesday of flying

I was surprised when I saw the frost on the shop roof as I was going out to get the motor home ready for flying today.

This is our friend Steve's Rascal with Mt Rainier in the background.

Our friend Horty is with his new plane that we test flew today.  Horty and Vera share the same birth dates.

I managed to run my little Cessna 150 into a hole and Vera got a picture of it.  A few seconds later a small gust of wind flew it back onto the wheels and I took off.

This is late in the day and some people have already left, we had a great day sitting around in the sun visiting and flying.

This is our only Trick of Treaters this year, Tor, Bridget and Jillian.  We had bought the large sized candy bars since we normally only get family coming by.  The kids commented the candy bars were "Huge".

Babysitting

Today was our first time babysitting in a long time.  Josh brought Jordon this morning on his way to work.

Vera got to feed him.

I helped him take a nap.  We had a great time and I think Jordon did too as he didn't do much fussing.

Church and Football

I watched the London NFL game before we headed to church.  This is during the children's message.

Their message ended with them popping balloons, the red ones were really tough and it took both feet to pop that last one.  The kids had helped make pizza which was served after our service.  It was sure smelling good toward the end of the pastor's message and it tasted great.  Then it was home to watch more football and do a little work on the Mustang.

The Big Helicopter Adventure and excitement on the way home.

Ken bought this little helicopter at a garage sale for two dollars.  Leonard (in the red jacket) said it should run on some 50% nitro fuel I had so we planned on trying it today.

We got it running on the bench without too much trouble, then we decided we should be out in the field to try flying it.  It refused to run out there so we took it back to the bench after getting harassed a little by the peanut gallery.  We didn't have any better luck there, we finally gave up on it and started flying our planes

Our friend Steve used my camera to take most of the pictures at the field today.  He did a great job, I really like the color scheme of his MXS.

I got two flights on the glider today.  The thermals were pretty good, the first flight was thirty minutes and the second was twenty five minutes.  I also flew the P-39 three times, the Corsair four or five, the Turbo Bee twice and the Sebac 342 twice.  It was a little foggy in the morning but cleared off and was really nice in the afternoon.

As we came up the hill to home we could see all these flashing lights ahead and this car on the left with a smashed fender and door.

When we got up to the wreck it turned out that Tierney had gotten rear ended by the pickup that is on the wrecker.  She was waiting to make a left turn into their driveway when she got hit.  The pickup some how managed to hit the car coming down the hill as well before pushing Tierney into the right hand ditch.  This picture is a little blurry because we were moving.  I talked to Bob later and Tierney had developed a head ache and sore neck so Cathy took her to Urgent Care to get checked out.

A great Tuesday of flying!

Boy was it foggy this morning.  I mowed half the runway and then decided to fly the white Pilatus Porter.  I could barely keep it close enough to see so I landed after two minutes and flew the little foam plane until the sun came out.

Once the sun came out it was beautiful and warm enough that I took off my jacket.  We had a good turnout, there were fourteen people there counting the wives.  I got in lots of flying and we flew until almost sunset.

Mt St Helens looks like it has less snow that it had last Monday.  I think the freezing level went up pretty high at times last week.

$1.78

We made a run to Kelso/Longview for a few things today.  On the way home we stopped at Safeway and got groceries.

When I filled up after shopping I had enough points to get a dollar off each gallon of gas.  The price per gallon ended up being $1.78.

I pulled into Lions Pride park to check out the river, it has come up a lot from the rain we got this weekend.

This is a couple of trees in fall colors at the end of Cowlitz Street in Castle Rock that we noticed when we stopped to get mail.

This is sure a sharp contrast to the weather we had during the last week, hard to believe we went from eight inches of rain last week to clear blue skies today.

Lots of Rain!

Wow, as I write this my rain gauge is reading 3.81 inches of rain in the last twenty four hours.

I used my paint booth to paint the Mustang's fuselage today and I am really happy with the way it turned out.  I think this yellow will show up much better than the aluminum finish did.  After it dried I was surprised to find out the primer and paint only added seven tens of an ounce to it.

Bunny and the Pitts

Vera spotted a bunny by the pond, it went across the lawn to the border so I got the camera and went out on the back porch to see if I could get a picture.  I you look close it is hiding in the lower left corner of the picture.

I zoomed up on it and got this picture, Vera thought it is one she saw this spring as it had the same white tail.

I worked on the Pitts today fitting the cabane struts.  Boy was that a job, the ones that came with the kit wouldn't work but I was able to use the back ones in the front and after several failures made new ones for the back and diagonal brace.  Now I can take them off and paint then to match the front pair.

Rain, Mustang and Sam

We had some dandy downpours today, Vera took pictures of this one we had just after noon.

I worked on the Mustang I dinged last week, I have the fuselage all fiberglassed and started on the wing.  I must have mixed or thinned the epoxy too much because it wasn't setting up before I quit for the day.

I went up to feed Sam about five, I threw the ball and he brought it back once.  The next throw he took it into the brush and started playing with limbs.  While I was waiting for him I took this picture of the Mitsubishi in front of Laury's tree.  When Sam finally came back he had a small limb he wanted me to throw.  I didn't expect him to play outside when it was wet but he was having a great time.

Babysitting

Tuesday Vera was out taking pictures, some of the blueberries have turned color and look pretty nice.

The flowers that Mona makes sure add color to the landscaping as everything else is starting to fade.

Later in the day Tuesday she noticed the clouds looked like ripples so she grabbed the camera and took some more pictures.  I worked on the Mustang today doing some more glassing and sanding.  Then this evening I made some candy and a Watergate salad.

I found some primer for filling large scratches today and gave the Mustang a coat.  I also cleaned up the shop and vacuumed the floors.  Maybe I should have taken a picture because that doesn't happen too often.

This evening we got to babysit Jordon for a little while.  Debbie had to be at LCC before Josh got off work.  Jordon was sound asleep when they got there and barely stirred when taken out of the car seat.  I sat in my chair and it wasn't long until I was taking a nap with him.  We had a nice visit with Josh when he came by to pick him up.

Jordon woke up for a few minutes when Josh buckled him in and I made sure I got a picture.  That was sure a fun end to our day, something we hadn't done for a long time.

Another Monday of Great Flying!

I knew it was foggy by looking at the airport cameras before we came to the field to get set up.  It was still foggy when I got done so I got two flights in before anyone else showed up.  The little foamy is great for this kind of flying.  I could climb up almost out of sight and then flat spin down or play around with high alpha flight like I am doing in the picture.

Doug put the crepe paper streamer on his Slow Stick, Ken and I went up to try and cut it with our Slow Sticks.  It was great fun, Vera got this picture as the piece I cut off the streamer was falling to the ground.

Doug wrapped the cut off piece of streamer around my Slow Stick as a trophy.

We had a great turn out today, twelve members showed up and I counted twenty seven airplanes.  I think everyone had looked at the forecast for the rest of the week which has rain until next Sunday, so next Monday may be our next day of flying.

Another great day of flying

One of the first things I noticed when we got to the Lewis County field was the unusual cloud formation by Mt. Rainier.  Right after that I realized all the cameras were home so I used my cell phone to take this one.  Thursday and Friday were spent finishing up the battery wiring changes so I could take the motor home flying today.  It was frosty again this morning when we got to the field but very little wind so I had my jacket off not long after I finished mowing half the runway.

When I took this picture the guys were looking at two guys way out in the field.  One guy had his engine quit and he made a deadstick landing out in the brush.  He hiked way out in the field and disappeared from sight.  His friend drove out and stopped in the right spot, pretty soon they came out with the plane.  The only damage was a broken prop.  I was surprised when we had a total of nine flyers out today.  This evening James stopped by for a little while after his JAL home run derby.

Flu Shots, Battery, Marie and Cora

 We made our shopping trip Tuesday, the first stop was Kaiser for Flu Shots.  There was a very short line so we were on our way in about ten minutes.  Art's Automotive was the next stop for the new motor home battery.  I also dropped off a half dozen old lead acid batteries for recycling, it is amazing how fast things accumulate.  We stopped at Walmart and picked up some stuff Marie needed.  We did our weekly shopping at Safeway and went to Burger King for lunch.  Their two for six dollar Whoppers are pretty good if you order them without mayonnaise and they have to make them fresh.  After a stop at home to unload the groceries we headed up to Marie's and delivered her supplies.  Jackie had sent me some pictures of Cora that I showed Marie and then I took her picture and sent it to Jackie to show Marie how the texting worked.

This is a picture that Jackie sent me Monday that I showed Marie, Cora had our picture that I laminated for them.

Today Jackie sent me this picture of Cora playing with some sticks, she looks pretty busy doing big work.

I got started on putting the battery in the motor home.  I am making some changes to the wiring because we are adding a pair of 100 watt solar panels.  I also put in new spark plugs and put water in all the batteries.

A Great Day of Flying

The forecast for today was great so we changed our plans and went flying instead of shopping for a new battery.  I had a surprise when I ran my fingers across the tables and it was frost, not dew.  I scrapped it into pile so I could show it to the guys who came later.

It was foggy so I couldn't fly the faster planes.  I flew the little foam plane in the middle while I waited for the fog to clear.

The day turned out to be perfect for flying and there were eight other flyers out during the day.  I had a great time flying the P-39, I flew it five times and ended up with a total of sixteen flights before we headed home.