Skylane Tail

Vera had bible study this morning, while she was gone I made a run to the Post Office, recycled the cans, cardboard and plastic bottles.  Then I picked up some wood pellets as I was down to the last bag in the shop.  James is coming up Friday and he is always happy to help me unload them.  I worked on putting in an air duct to cool the Skylane's battery this afternoon.  This evening I used the laser level to align the vertical fin and glued it in.  I am almost to the point of covering the fuselage and tail assembly.

Church, Barry, Moon and Skylane

Monday morning I had an 8:20 AM doctors appointment, they called about 7:30 and cancelled it because the doctor had called in sick.  They rescheduled me for later in the week, I hope he is well by then.  I puttered on the computer until it was time for choir practice at church, then I went down to download the files off of the computer I worked on last week.  It is running Windows XP so I got to sit there for quite a while as it did the transfer and listen to the choir practice which was nice.  I spent most of the rest of the day cleaning my desk and organizing things for doing our Income Taxes.

I worked on the Skylane first thing this morning once "Lets make a Deal" was over.  I came in for something and when I headed back out there was a strange car, as I was trying to see who it was, Barry got out, that was a big surprise.

We visited for a while and then he headed on to Olympia.  Their Mazda CX 5 is sure a nice looking car.

The spinner I wanted to use on the Skylane needed the back plate bored out to fit the adapter.  I got the lathe out, put the back plate in the chuck and discovered the jaws hit the rails so it would not turn.  As I was pondering that I remembered they make a plate that goes under the headstock to raise it up.  I was able to block the headstock and cutter up 3/4 of an inch and get the job done.  Now I have a bid in for one on eBay.

I got the assembly mounted on the Skylane, it runs true and looks just the way I wanted.

James came up to mount a switch for his car stereo and mentioned the moon sure looked big.  We ended up outside taking pictures and this was the best one.  I tried later but there was a thin layer of clouds so I never got a clear picture.

Today was Bev's birthday so I hunted up this picture of her first birthday party at my folk's house and sent it to her.

More Skylane

Saturday I temporarily mounted the windshield  to see how it was going to fit.  I decide to see if I could find some smaller flat head screws for the windows.  I did find some later on Amazon and they should be here next week.  I also started hinging the elevators but didn't do much before calling it a night.

After church I went out, got the elevator hinging figured out and got both sides hinged.  I did some shaping on the stabilizer trailing edge but still have some sanding to do.  I am watching the Pro Bowl as I write this.

Skylane

January 25th:  Thursday was pretty laid back, I installed the rear window in the Skylane.  This picture was taken part way through the job, it now has four screws down each side where the clamps are.  We also made a pretty good dent in the left over pizza from Wednesday night.  Todd a former member of the Lewis County club stopped by for some inspiration as he wants to get back into radio control flying.  He was interested in Corsairs so I said there was a kit in the front room that someone had started but never finished.  I got it out and it turns out I got it from him years ago when he got out of the hobby.  He had bought it used for the balsa sheeting in it.  I sent it home with him and was trying to get him to take another but he said he would wait on that.

I went to "Coffee with the Pastor" this morning, there was a good turn out, nine people showed up and there were some pretty interesting and funny topics covered.

Today I was going to install the front windshield when it dawned on me that I needed to make sure the battery would go in just ahead of it.  I got a couple of batteries out of the motor home to try.  They went through the opening I had made so I started planning how to mount them.  I came up with this tray that is boxed in at the lower end to restrain the battery, I will use Velcro at the top end to hold the battery.

It is tight, but I can get it out by taking four screws out which is good because the nose gear linkage is under the front end.  Tomorrow I plan on drilling some lightening holes in the sides and possibly run a cooling air duct to the lower end of the box.

Pink Panther Night.

January 22nd I picked up one of the church's computers to see if I could get anything off of the hard drives after it quit working.  We made a run to Safeway and then I fought with that computer the rest of the day and finally gave up with nothing recovered.

   January 23rd. I went up and let Sam out about noon, I threw the ball for him and after a few times he headed into the brush.  It wasn't long until he was wrestling with that limb which must have been ten or twelve feet long.  Every few minutes he would look up to make sure I was still watching.  After a little while he got the ball and came back for me to throw it again.  We did that until he knocked another rung off the Dolan's porch rail and I decided it was time to quit.   My new old radio showed up today, I bought it to replace a really old one I have.  It had one broken switch, I had one in a drawer to replace it with so I got it repaired before I quit for the evening.  This evening I transferred the Pink Panther movies from the external hard drive to the DVR so we could watch them Wednesday.

Debbie, Josh, Jordon, James and Michelle came up for a pizza and Pink Panther night.  While we were eating I gave Jordon a little taste of pizza after that he was grabbing my hand every time I would bring it up to my mouth and pulling it over for another taste.  He was really sucking on it.  We watched the very first Pink Panther movie tonight.  James told us about his new job as assistant baseball coach at Mark Morris, he starts Monday and is really excited about it.  It was a fun evening!

This box showed up today, I couldn't figure out what it was and when we pulled the packing out it looked empty.  Then I looked at the invoice and tucked in one corner was these two little cartridges for the bathroom sink faucets.

Church and visitors

We went to church this morning, I think the Methodist church is the only one in Castle Rock with a choir now and they always sound so nice.

This afternoon Debbie, Josh and Jordon stopped by for a little while.  It wasn't long until Steve and Dianne stopped by to say hi to Jordon.

Jordon sure seems to have grown and gotten a lot stronger since the last time we saw him.  He was really interested in the back of the chair, grabbing it and feeling the bumps in it.  Not too much else went on today, I watched the Eagles and Vikings game I had recorded.

I finally found it!

It has been rainy the last couple of days so I have been working in the shop quite a bit.  I am making good headway on the Skylane.  Since I finished my servo tester I have been looking for the Hanger 9 current and voltage meter.  I have looked everywhere, even in the house.  Today I finally found it.

It is now in the drawer marked Servo Testers.  The funny thing is I looked in the one marked Servo Tester several times, I guess I just couldn't believe it wasn't in there.  When I did find it, it was under the stuff in the drawer marked Servo Modules.  It wasn't a wasted 3 days as a lot of other things have been found and put where they should have been.  Friday I went down to "Coffee with the Pastor" it was really cold out and only three of us showed up.  Today we didn't leave the place, either in the house or the shop.

Changing Oil

I did my normal morning routine today, breakfast, emails and news before heading to the shop.  Vera came out later and asked if I had seen the hail storm, I hadn't but I did hear the one this evening.  James called to see if we could change oil in the Subaru today so I moved the motor home out of the car port.  I was rearranging my file cabinet when James came up and I continued on it while visiting with James.  He got a kick out of the old cards and drawings I found.  One drawing of a helicopter had been done by Michelle, James took a picture of it and sent to his mom.  We gave the Subaru an hour or so to cool down, then I thought there was oil in the shop but there was no 5-30 so we ran to NAPA and got some oil plus the windshield washer fluid which I ran out of last time.  This is the third time we have changed oil in the Subaru and it goes a little better each time.  Maybe we should make some notes.

Sunday to Wednesday

Time to get caught up, Sunday we went to church, I flew the helicopters, worked on the Skylane and watched the Vikings game which was great!  Monday I continued working on the Skylane, I got the wing tips shaped and started glassing the wing, doing the bottom first.  I also got in some more flights with the helicopters.  I made a trip around the trails picking up blown down branches.  I also found Harper's lost drone when I remembered hearing something hit the roof before Steve stopped by to tell me it was lost.  I went out on the deck to check the backside of the roof and spotted it in the lawn with its LED's blinking away.

Tuesday I got the top of the wing fiberglassed, let it cure and then gave it a second coat of epoxy to fill the weave of the fiberglass cloth.

I also put a layer of 3/4 oz fiberglass cloth on the center section of the horizontal stabilizer.  I made another trip around the trails and picked up the last of the limbs.  They are in pretty good shape until the next wind storm.

Vera had bible study today, I did the recycling, got the mail and there was a package I have been tracking there.  I went to the store to get some bread, twenty five dollars later, I had bread, lunch and a couple of other things that caught my eye.  The package I have been waiting for was a clear topped project box.  I had gotten a digital display for the servo pulse width and it was not in a case so I was kind of nervous about it shorting out on something conductive.  I ended up mounting it and a pulse generator in the same box.  By removing the jumper I can use either one by its self.

Flying at Toledo

Friday I went to "Coffee with the Pastor", got the mail, did the recycling, picked up a load of pellets and picked up some food at the store for flying on Saturday.  I spent the rest of the day unloading the pellets, building on the Skylane and getting things ready for flying.

We could hardly wait to start taking pictures of the hills when we got to the field this morning.  The fog in the valleys looked awesome.

This is just before my first flight of the day with the Porter, the transmitter is on and the battery is hooked up in the plane ready for take off.

After that first flight I mowed and rolled half of the runway.  Then I took the roller off and went over to Mrs. Herren's to mow.  It really needed mowing and I had a nice visit with her when I finished.

We had a fair turnout of eight members, five of them got in at least one flight.

Vera visited with Audrey while she was flying and between flights.

I got to put a test flight on this P-51 for Brian, it flew great with only a couple of minor trim adjustments.

I had a lot of fun with this trio of planes, I lined them up for the picture just before we left.  I also flew the J-3 Cub with a video camera on it and several flights on the foam P-51.

When I got out to lock the gate the sun was just setting so I took a couple of pictures with my cell phone.  It was a great day, about sixty degrees but we did have a pretty strong cross wind all day long.

Forgot about that!

Wednesday and today I put in five more flights each day in with the helicopters.  I saw Vera taking pictures so I flew the BO-105 over closer to her so it would show up better.  Other than that I have been working on the Skylane and cleaning up things in the shop.  I did find a video camera that I had forgotten about.  I am not sure how many years it has been sitting in it's box.  I found the instructions online and printed them out.  Then I discovered the battery was bad, I couldn't find a replacement online so I extended the battery wires and made it so I can use an external battery.  I will have to mount it on a plane and try it during next flying session.

Flying at Home

Monday I got in five flights with helicopters out in front of the shop.  I decided that I was going to do more helicopter flying this year and if the weather permits I will be flying every day.

Today I got in four and a half flights, it started raining during the last one and I had to land.  I hope I wasn't as close to the tree as this looks!

Also on Monday I started vacuum forming windows for the Skylane.  The plans called for gluing a sheet of plastic over the window area, filling around the edges to smooth it out and then masking off the windows and painting.  I didn't want to have the bump on the side of the fuselage so I made up a mold of the rear windows and it worked out fine.  The picture is of the base with the mold for the front windows on it that I did today.  The perfboard is covered with metal screen and sealed around the edges with tape and silicone rubber.

This is the lid with plastic mounted in it.  The plastic is heated until soft and the lid is closed with the vacuum cleaner running and it is pulled down around the mold.

Here is the lid closed over the mold before heating to check the position of the mold.

Here it is after heating and closing the lid.  My hot air gun doesn't get quite hot enough so I had to go around the edges with it real close so the plastic would pull down to the screen.

I trim the pieces to have a flange on the upper part and then put them in from the inside and they end up flush on the outside.  Now they are wrapped in paper  and stored in a baggie to protect them from scratches until I need them.

Resting up

I didn't do much this weekend except rest up, watch football and putter with the Skylane tail.  I finally got it fitted the way I want today.  Boy was there lots of sanding involved in this step.

Jordon

We babysat Jordon today.  He hadn't slept good last night so he wanted lots of attention.  I did manage to get him down for two forty five minute naps before noon.  Then this afternoon I got him to take an hour and a half nap.

He was in a lot better mood after the last nap.  He is easy to get a grin out of, even when he was tired this morning.  We watched a bunch of radio control videos on YouTube today and he pays pretty good attention to them.  After Josh picked him up I was really beat, Vera and I decided we might be a little too old for this on a regular basis so I asked Debbie if we could just do it once a month.  Josh's grandma had said she could do lots of babysitting so it worked out OK.

A great day of flying!

Wednesday's forecast was so good that I changed plans and decided to go flying while Vera was at bible study.  As I drove to the field I could see Mt Rainier looked a lot different in the morning sun so I hopped right out and took a picture when I was parked at the field.

I didn't take many pictures today, this is a screen capture from my Soloshot which was taking video of my planes as a flew.  I will post a link to the video at the end of this post.  There was only four of us there today but boy did we have a good time.

I flew everything you can see in the picture today.  Between my heated vest and the sunshine I was really comfortable all day.

Here is a link to me flying today.
Vimeo a video of me flying my Convergence

New Years Day Flying

We got to the field for my annual New Years day flying and it was really foggy.  I unloaded my planes and got in a couple of flights.  I wanted to try the yellow P-51 but the field was too rough for the retracts so I got the mower out and rolled half the runway.  The fog never lifted so I ended up not flying it or the glider.  I did get in lots of flying with my slower planes.

Our friend Dick was the next one to show up and got his first flight of the year in right away.  Ken was next and he brought a basket of fresh warm cinnamon rolls made by his friend May.  They were really good and did not last long.

This picture is Ken flying while Dick takes pictures.  We couldn't fly very high today, about a hundred feet up the plane was getting hard to see.  You could fly out quite a ways if you stayed low.

We had a good turn out, I think we counted 18 members and most of them put in at least one flight.  Brian had brought his diesel fueled space heater and generator so this was the popular spot to stand around and talk.  We had a great day of flying and visiting, as usual I was one of the last ones to leave.