Lunch with Barry and MOHS

Wednesday Barry and I met at the Centralia Papa Pete's for lunch.  We spent a couple of hours visiting and getting caught up.  I had planned on taking a picture while we were at lunch but I was enjoying the visit so much I forgot all about it.  On the way home I stopped and visited Horty and Nancy for a while, the first time I had been to their new place.

Thursday we were up early and left a little after six for my MOHS surgery in Portland.  Boy am I glad we started early as it took over thirty minutes to go seven miles on I5 in Vancouver.

The surgery went OK but it took two tries to make sure the margins were clear on the two basal cells.  Because it healed so good before the surgeon and I decided to go the same route of keeping the scab off and keeping it moist while it heals rather than do a reconstruction.  It was a seven hour day at the clinic before I was all done seeing the reconstruction surgeon.

This is how I looked when we got home, a ton of bandages for a spot 3/8 of an inch on each side.  I slept sitting up in my recliner to help keep it from starting to bleed.

 No pain yesterday or today until I bent over once and then I could feel it big time.  I think I will sleep in the recliner again tonight.  I puttered in the shop some today doing some work on the radio controlled car I got at a garage sale for ten dollars.  This afternoon Vera made this awesome rhubarb crisp, can you tell I had some before taking the picture.

I went back to the shop this evening to work on the delta I got at the swap meet, on the way I noticed it was fairly calm so I got the Tarot 250 out for a flight.  When I got set up on the shop porch I saw David unloading brush on the burn pile so I flew down there.

David noticed the quad and waved at it a couple of times.  I managed to land in a bush when I got back to the shop when the camera came loose.  I took it to the shop and when I got done I don't think it will fall off again. That was a fun way to finish the day

MXS done

We went flying today, one of the first things we noticed was the clouds.  The top picture is looking North and the bottom one is looking West, the forecast was for calm winds until about 1 AM but the wind started picking up shortly after we got set up.

I had some of my favorite planes out today since I finished the P-39 it has been right near the top of the list.

Here is the MXS-R all done and taxiing out for it's first flight.  It flew great just like the one I had before and is pretty far up the favorites list already.

This evening we met Bev, Michelle, James, Debbie, Josh and Jordon at the 49er for a combination Vera's birthday and Fathers day celebration.  Boy was it fun, lots of stories and laughter.

After dinner everyone stopped by our house for a few minutes to check out the toys we have collected for Jordon.  Jordon is getting around really good and it doesn't look like it will be long until he is walking.

Class Reunion

This picture is as Cathy tried to get us arranged for a class picture at our sixty first class reunion Saturday it is overexposed as the automatic strobes the photographer was using went off.  We had it together with Cathy's classes sixty year reunion.  It was kind of unusual that twenty three from each class showed up.  Vera and I shared a table with Ken, Bob and their wives from my class, we had a nice evening visiting with them.  The food was great and the cake for dessert was the perfect treat for Vera's birthday.

Cathy did a lot of the organizing for the reunion and it turned out great!  Their class speaker was excellent and had a really funny story about their school play that he told.  It seems most of the class didn't know about it.

Both classes had pictures up of classmates who have passed away.  I was surprise that we have lost twenty already.

Today I got the MXS done and loaded into the motor home ready for a test flight.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of it but I did take a picture after cleaning the shop this afternoon.  Vera came out and helped me.  She sure has a knack for finding things as she found several things I have been looking for while she was cleaning.

James' Potato Plant

James planted this potato plant when he was in kindergarten and it has came up every year since.  James will be twenty one this year so it is one of our older plants.  I have been working on the MXS all week and I hope to get it finished this weekend.

Hot Weather Flying

Monday morning I was up early and got to see the sun come up over the shop.  We made an early shopping trip to Longview and we were back home before ten.  I worked on the MXS a little and oiled the P-39 retracts, Saturday they were leaking air as I flew and the wheels would only stay up about half of a normal flight.

This is just after we arrived today, I pumped up the P-39 retract system and they stayed up for about an hour, they were no trouble when I flew so the oil did the trick.  The forecast was for fairly warm temperatures today, I put in plenty of flights early and we headed home about 2:30.  The air conditioning sure felt good when we got home.

LCRC Picnic and Tail gate swap meet

This is how we got set up for the tailgate swap meet.  I didn't think of taking a picture when we first set up so six of the planes were gone already.  We took ten planes and I was thinking we sold nine as there was just one to take home but Sunday I discovered one tucked out of the way in the motor home that never got taken out.  Oh well, seed for the next one.

There was a pretty good turnout and lots of good food, I counted about thirty people.

Did you notice that all my planes were on the ground?  When the windsock is straight out the wind is ten miles per hour.  I put my wind speed meter up and it showed a steady ten miles per hour with gusts to nineteen.  I checked the Weather Underground station across the road when I got home and that is what their chart showed.

Gene brought some planes to give away, I ended up bringing home the delta with 503 on the tail.  I also got a Gold Edition AT-6 kit that was in a silent auction for three different kits.

This is a picture taken by Steve Irby of my P-39 coming in for a landing with the gear and flaps down.  Church today had the smallest turnout I have ever seen, there was probably lots of Fathers day celebrations going on.  After church we spent a pretty quiet day at home.  We will probably do something next weekend with the family for Vera's birthday and Fathers Day.

James, loading planes and Coffee with the Pastor

Thursday morning we made a quick run to Longview and did a little shopping.  James called about ten minutes after we left wondering where we were.  He had stopped by to visit on the way to a birthday party.  Since he had some time to kill Vera told him to go in and watch TV.  When we got home he was sound asleep on the davenport.  We let him sleep until he got a phone call wondering if he was OK because he was late.  After some quick hugs he headed off.  I loaded some planes for the tailgate swap meet into the motor home during the afternoon, then I took two more loads of limbs to the burn pile.  James stopped on the way home with some maple pepperoni for us, boy is it good!

This morning I went to "Coffee with the Pastor" at the Vault.  This was the last one with Pastor Pam before she goes to her next assignment.

There was a pretty good turnout and Sharon took this picture so I could be in it.

After coffee we ran up to the flying field to see if we could help with the field maintenance for the swap meet and picnic Saturday.  They were all done, so I flew a few flights with the Cub I had brought.  Jim and Teresa had brought their four grandsons to see the flying, they really seemed to enjoy it so maybe we will be seeing some new flyers at the field.  We left after four flights so I could finish loading the swap meet stuff.

While I was loading planes in the motor home I heard Parker running the excavator so I walked over to see what he was doing.  He had gotten all the stumps pulled out and was leveling things out.

I found two more planes to sell so I am now up to ten.  When I finally quit for the night I had everything loaded for the swap meet and picnic, so all we have to do is disconnect the power and take off in the morning.

Sander and burn pile

The new drive belt, sanding discs and sanding belts showed up today along with Vera's new bible.  It took me quite a bit longer to put things back together than I had planned.  Some of the bolts were in really awkward spots to get to, plus there were a surprising number of adjustments to make but I got it done, it looks and runs pretty good.  I also took three trailer loads of limbs from the oak tree to Steve's burn pile.  I thought it would take a while to burn the limbs because they were still pretty wet.  The fire was really hot and by the time I got back each time the previous load was burned up.  I have the MXS-R almost ready for the swap meet Saturday.  I also found a couple of others so I am up to eight planes now.

A great day of flying at Toledo

Steve, Doug and I mowed first thing this morning and then got set up to fly.  Leonard and Audrey showed up next, then Jim and Teresa.  Jim and Teresa brought Leonard his new ejector chair.  It is really a rocking folding chair, but the pistons that let it rock help one to get up out of it.  I guess the first time Leonard got out of Jim or Teresa's it almost launched him into the table.

The mountains were sure looking pretty today.  This is Jim's Cub with Mt St Helens in the background.

I managed to get Mt Rainier in the picture of the take off.

Steve used my camera to get a picture of Jim and I flying, nice when people do this as I don't get many pictures of myself.

Teresa is learning to fly and doing great as you can tell by the relaxed attitude of Leonard her instructor.

We had a great turn out, we counted 15 people there today.

Steve is launching Doug's motor glider, it got kind of exciting for a few seconds when it torqued to the left.

I got to test fly and trim out this electric ducted fan jet today.  It flew great and landed nice and slow with the flaps down.

After I took the picture of the jet I zoomed up on Mt St Helens to see how it looked.

When we got home I noticed this one fuchsia was a different color from all the others on the plant so I took this picture of it.  Pretty amazing that one camera can do both closeup and distance so well.  It was a good day, I got in lots of flying and visiting.  I think my new favorite lunch at the field is peanut butter and honey on cinnamon swirl bread, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Strawberry Shortcake

Today I charged batteries and loaded planes for flying Tuesday.  We made a mail run and stopped at the grocery store for a few things.  I saw a church friend Bill in the parking lot and talked with him until his wife came out.  When I found Vera she had picked up the makings for strawberry shortcake.  We had it for lunch when we got home and I finished it off for my evening snack.

Church Cobra Sander

We went to church this morning, afterwards there was a potluck lunch to honor Don and Pastor Pam as she had been assigned to the Rochester and Oakville churches starting July First.

There was a good turn out in the fellowship hall and lots of great food.

This afternoon I sanded the covers of the sander and sprayed them black in my paint booth.

The cover around the belt sander was big enough that I had to spray it first, then hang it to dry in front of the heater.  While I was waiting for paint to dry I made a couple of modifications to the P-39 so the nose gear cannot get hung up like it did Thursday.  I also got a broken former in the Pitts repaired so it was a pretty productive afternoon and evening for me.

Tailgate Swap Meet Prep and Sander

I have spent the last couple of days getting some planes ready for a tailgate swap meet at the club picnic next week.  I also did some cleanup in the shop, things were getting a little out of hand.  After several months I finally unplugged the shop vacuum system.  Things are looking better already with it working.  I also started cleaning up the belt sander I got for ten dollars at a garage sale.  Boy is it made a lot solider than my old one, it is almost all cast iron.  I found some things not put together right and corrected them, I have new belts and sanding discs coming on Wednesday and it will be ready to use.  My jigsaw quit a while back and I discovered a new motor is more than I could buy a new one for so it went in the garbage can.  That freed up space for the sander on the lazy susan.  As I was moving things around to work on the P-39's nose gear I found the data link I was missing for the drone demo at Cascade.  Why it was under the MXS-R I am building I will never know.

Flying and Mowing

We went flying today, I hadn't had the P-39 out since last fall so I took it and the Skylane.  I got four flights on the Skylane and three on the P-39.  The first flight on the P-39 was great but on the second the nose gear would not come down so I landed as slow as I could and just ended up with a little scuff mark on the spinner.  I found a loose screw that had hung up so I flew it again and the same thing happened again.  Now I have to make a small modification to keep the wheel straight when it is retracted.

Dan was there also, flying his Piper Cub with D Day invasion stripes which was kind of appropriate since it happened on June 6th 74 years ago.

We headed home early because it was windy and kind of cold at the flying field so I decided to mow the lawn which needed it badly.

I hadn't notice our red hot pokers were in bloom, the humming birds are going to like them.

Then I noticed the water lilies have started to open up.

I forgot to put this in the post for the Winter Build Challenge, they gave each of us a coin for completing the build and flight.

This is the back, kind of a nice little memento of a fun trip.