A lazy Sunday

We were tired today so we skipped church and had a lazy stay at home day.  One of my Facebook friends asked how I stored my planes, so I took this picture and posted it. 

Vic had put some screen captures from old videos on Facebook and we were were chatting about them.  This one is Michelle and I in the water being watched by Cliff who ran the hobby shop in Longview.  We are at a lake near Madras OR flying seaplanes.

I got the trim put on the vertical fin and then covered the stabilizer today.  I am pretty happy with the way they turned out.

Belated Birthday and Family Lunch

Jordon was asleep when Debbie and Josh arrived for our family lunch and my belated birthday party.  James has been sick since getting back from Florida, they were at Kaiser so they were going to be a little late.  We had a nice visit with Debbie and Josh while we were waiting.

Jordon was in a great mood when he woke up and had lots of big smiles for us.

Michelle had made pork chops to be served with apple sauce, Debbie and Josh brought mashed potatoes and salad so we had a great lunch.  I got to order my own cake, chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting and fudge between the layers, I loved it!

James was happy that he got a couple of prescriptions for his cold, hopefully he will be feeling better in a couple of days.  We fixed his windshield wiper that wasn't working before he left, the arm was loose on the shaft.

Jordon was moving around pretty good in the little walker.  He really liked it when Vera fed him some cake and ice cream.

I went out this afternoon and got both of the red trim strips ironed on.  Then I came in and edited pictures for the blog.

Skylane

I went to "Coffee with the Pastor" this morning, only three of us there, probably because of the cold weather.  I worked on the Skylane today, before I quit I had all the white Ultracote on the right side and both sides of the vertical fin.  I got the red trim for the right side cut out and taped on to see how it was going to look.

Snowy drive

This is how the Jackson Hwy looked this morning as we headed up to Centralia.  We had some business to try and take care of for Marie.  Jackson Hwy was icy most of the way, so we took I5 home.  That gave us a chance to see the truck wreck that had burned last night at the Winlock exit.

I got all the white Ultracote put on the left side of the Skylane this evening.  I don't think it will be any problem getting it done for the maiden flight event in June.  I also located an exact replacement motor for the furnace and got it ordered.

I smell something hot!

This is how it looked at seven thirty this morning.  Vera decided she didn't want to drive on the slick roads so she skipped bible study today.  After Carole talked to her, she canceled the study for this week.

My fiend Ken emailed me some pictures today that he ran across from the 70s when the club flew at Lexington.  The Cobra was my first really successful helicopter.  Under the table is my first helicopter which did not fly all that well.

About ten tonight Vera said she could smell something hot.  After some searching we narrowed it down to the furnace.  The fan motor was not running so it was pretty warm.  I shut off the breakers and started pulling covers off.  I discovered the fan motor was frozen up.  Big surprise, I disconnected two wires after taking this picture so I would know where to put them back.  Then I removed four screws and the whole fan assembly slid right out.  We took it to the shop, everything came apart fairly easily and I was able to clean up and lube the motor bearings so it would spin freely.  We took it back in, reinstalled it and it ran but makes a weird noise once in a while but should be OK until I locate a new one.  I was pretty happy that it only took about an hour and a half to get it going again since the night time temperatures have been in the twenties.

A snowy drive

Tuesday I had an appointment with the Ophthalmology department at the Salmon Creek Kaiser.  We left early because it was snowing and drove through snow all the way.  Since we were there early, they got me in early and my eye pressures checked good.  It was lunch time when we got done and we had lots of time before an appointment about Marie's care at Avamere so we went to Panera Bread for lunch.  Thanks for the Panera gift card Ava, Harper, Dianne and Steve, we really enjoyed our meal.

At 1:30 we had a care conference with the staff at Avamere.  It was good to see Marie alert for the first time since her surgery.  She contributed to the discussion and cracked the care team up at times.

Snow was forecast for this afternoon so we made a quick trip to Costco and headed home.  The last ten miles the snow was coming down hard and the freeway was getting slushy so we were glad we didn't have to go any further.  This picture was taken about thirty minutes after we got home.

What a difference a day makes

I was a slow starter this morning, after watching the news and weather, checking emails, watching Lets Make a Deal and the Price is Right I finally headed to the shop.  Right away I went back for the camera to record what a difference a day can make in the weather.

I spent the majority of the day cleaning in the shop so I would have a spot to cut the covering as I covered the Skylane.

When I headed in for dinner I noticed the moon was out so I got the camera again and took some pictures of it.

The sun was just setting and I got a couple of pictures of it through the trees.

This evening I got the joints between the stab and vertical fin covered with Ultracote.  Then I did one section of the fuselage bottom before calling it a night.

Snow!

This is a little after seven this morning, it was snowing lots of small flakes and there was an inch and a half on the deck.

By eight thirty it had stopped and the sun was out.

About nine Vera said it was snowing big flakes so I took another series of pictures.  She was sitting by the window reading and watching it snow.

I went out and cleared a path to the shop, I also swept the snow off the cars so it wouldn't get frozen on.  I came out about three and most of it had melted but it was snowing lightly but not sticking.

I like to use nylon Phillips headed screws on my planes so the screw driver will not slip out and damage the covering.  I have had two inch screws on order for months but the order was finally canceled when they couldn't get any.  I bought some two inch slotted screws and made up this jig so I could heat up the phillips bit and push it down into the nylon screw to create a phillips headed screw.  It works great, it only took a few minutes to do a dozen screws.  The screws will still work with a flat screw driver.  James stopped after he got back from Florida, he said it was fun but he ended up with a cold so he was headed home to sleep.  I had the second brownie as I was writing this and it tasted just as good as the first one.  It going to be a cold one in the morning, it is already down to 25 degrees.

Happy Birthday

I got lots of birthday wishes on Facebook today, the first one was Saya in Japan since they are a day ahead of us.  The second was James because Florida is four hours ahead of us and he texted me just after midnight there.  Since some really cold weather is forecast for next week I spent the morning winterizing the motor home.  Barry gave me a call while we were doing that and told us about his shopping trip for a dinner party they were having tonight.  As I was putting the motor home away Ava and Steve came over with a birthday card the twins had made, it is really cute.

Bev, Rich and Jordon came by this afternoon.  Jordon was in a great mood and had a good time in the walker from Dianne.  Rich had never seen my shop so I showed him around and we repaired a Star Wars model he had.

We went down to the El Compadre for dinner after they left and both of us had their Pollo Loco which we really like.

We made a run down to Lions Pride park and watched the river for a little while.  It has been running pretty high lately.

Well, I almost made it through the day without a treat but the bakery was calling me as we came back from the river.  It was almost closing time but I got their last two brownies.  They are huge and I could only get one eaten tonight.

Wing struts and covering

Wednesday I got the magnets for holding the wing struts on and started installing them.  On Thursday the streamlined aluminum tubing showed up and I was able to finish both sides.

Friday I got this big box and couldn't figure out what it could be.  I was sure surprised to find one roll of covering for the Skylane and a ton of packing material.  It is really strange the way they do this.  Some times fragile things hardly have any packing.    I also got the new receiver for the P-51 that was glitching the last couple of times I flew it.  I got it bound to the transmitter and all the controls set up.

Off to Centralia

We ran up to Centralia this morning to take care of some things for Marie.  It was raining pretty good when we left so rather than fight all the spray on the freeway we took Barnes Drive and Jackson Hwy both ways.  After a couple of stops and lunch at Dairy Queen so I could have a Blizzard we headed home.  One of the things I have been waiting for was at the Post Office so we made a run to town later and then drove around for a while looking at things.  Vera wanted a picture of the sun on the water so we drove up on the dike and she took this one.

Jordon

We were watching Jordon today and wouldn't you know it, I woke up with a terrible backache.  By being careful and planning out every move I made it through the day fine.  Jordon seems to have grown so much and is doing new things every time we see him.  Vera had a dental appointment so I was on my own for several hours and we did great.  I got him settled down for an hour and a half nap, I probably don't need to mention that I spent it on the heat pad.  After he woke up and Vera got home I took him over to Dianne's for a visit.  Cathy was there visiting and he put on quite a show for them after Dianne put him in this walker.  Dianne brought it over when we walked back and loaned it to us, Jordon really seems to enjoy it.  We had a nice visit with Josh this morning when he dropped off Jordon and then had a good one with Debbie when she picked him up.  I made it out to the shop this evening and got a little work done on the Skylane.  Moving around has loosened my back up and it feels a lot better tonight.

Choir

We went to church today, the choir sure sounded nice.  After church we had to run down to Vancouver and sign some admission paper work for Marie at the rehab facility.  Not much got done the rest of the day, we just rested up from the big day of flying Saturday.

Staying warm

We got to the field this morning just as the fog was lifting.  Vera squeegeed off the table and said there was ice on it.

While I was waiting for the fog to clear on the WDOT cameras at the airport I made up a insulated reflective cover for my flying chair.  It worked great and I had to turn it down to low after a little while.

Vera came out and took a picture of me all ready for my first flight of the day.  It was quite a while before any other flyers showed up but before the day was over there were eleven of us there.

 This is how Mt Rainier looked most of the day.  The plane is being test flown after Dale bought it used and rebuilt it.  He does really nice work, the covering job was flawless.

There were some hardy skydivers out jumping for the whole time we were at the field.

As I was walking in from putting the motor home away it was hard to miss this sunset so I took a few pictures.  Thanks to the heated chair enclosure, the heated vest and the great sandwiches Vera had made it was a very enjoyable day.

Trip to Vancouver

The last time I talked to the nurse last night she said the best time to visit Marie would be Noon or shortly before.  We got down there about eleven and the hunt for a parking spot started.  I finally found one in Lot E.  Marie was sleeping when we got there.  Bev, Debbie and Jordon showed up about noon and Marie got to meet Jordon for the first time.  She really seemed to perk up with all the family around.  It sounds like she will be down there for another day or two.

On the way home we stopped at Costco.  It had been a while since we made a Costco run so we needed lots of  our favorite things.  The cart was getting pretty darn heavy by the time we checked out.

We filled the trunk clear up and had stuff in the back seat by the time we had everything loaded in the Mitsubishi.  Once we got past the Battleground exit the traffic wasn't too bad.  Debbie stopped by later, she had ran to Centralia and checked out three places that could give Marie physical therapy.  There was one that is much better than the rest so we have information now for when they are ready to release Marie.  James stopped by while Debbie was there and Jordon put on quite a show for him, we were having a great time watching it.  He is all set for his trip to Florida.  He showed me a video of the Eagles Super Bowl celebration that was hilarious.

Another day of flying

I put this picture on Facebook just before I stated flying today.  I had a great start to the day by meeting Barry for breakfast at the 49ER as he was heading back to Arizona.

There were nine members out flying today and it got really nice in the afternoon.  I didn't need the propane heater today and turned the vest off for most of the day.

They discovered it is a little soft over by the North fence when they went out to recover a crashed plane and got stuck.

It seems like the snow is going away pretty fast this year.  Marie had her surgery this afternoon and was back in her room the last we heard.