The Bird of Time's first flight

We were the first ones at the field today trying to beat the heat.  I put the Bird of Time together right away so I could get the first flight in without the pressure of people watching.

I am sure glad the wing is in three pieces since it would be a tough job getting a ten foot wing through the motor home door.

Vera did a great job getting a nice picture of the first launch.

It flew great and only needed 4 clicks of down trim to be perfect.  I flew it two more times and had 25 minutes flights with two minutes of motor run.  It is a keeper, very relaxing to fly and easy to see at altitude.

There were thirteen flyers out today.  I made two flights on the B-36 and put it away, I did the same thing with the P-39 which turned out to be a good thing.  Both of them were out of harms way when a dust devil came through and picked up the second blue sun shade from the left and rolled it up the flight line clear to my table.  The blue Cub on the ground had the covering torn as it rolled over it.  We got the sun shade stopped before it hit my planes and my only damage was small dents in the Bird of Time covering that ironed right out when we got home.  The white sun shade blew over also but didn't hurt anything.  The blue sun shade was a twisted mess and I don't think it is repairable.  We left early again today to beat the heat and it sure felt good to get home to the air conditioning.

Babysitting Jordon

Josh called yesterday evening and asked if we could watch Jordon for a little while today, of course I said yes.  The truck of Tor's that Cathy brought up seems to be his favorite toy.  He is getting really good at pushing the buttons to make it go or play sounds.

The dominoes are another favorite he likes to bang them together or bang them on the box lid.

Vera got him laughing about something, he is such a good natured little guy!

I took him over to see if Steve and Dianne were home but no one was there so we went over and swung in the hammock for a while and watched the neighbor mow their lawn.  When he got restless there I got the mower out and took him for a ride.  He enjoyed that and was trying to steer at times.

After some lunch I got him to settle down for a nap, it wasn't long before I was asleep as well.  We ended up having a nice two hour nap together.

He was in a good mood after the nap and crawled around exploring the house.  When Vera ate a piece of his rice cake he was right over there trying to get it back.

He gets a kick out of playing Peek a Boo.  Josh came and picked him up not long after this picture, he was excited to see Dad.  Things had came up at work for Josh and we ended up getting to watch Jordon most of the day and had a good time doing it.

I went out this evening and charged up batteries for flying tomorrow.  I also finished up the Bird of Time so I can test fly it tomorrow.

More catching up

Sunday 7-22-2018 We went to church then rested up the rest of the day.

Monday 7-23-2018 I made repairs to a couple of minor issues on the B-36 and loaded it back into the motor home for a club picnic next weekend.

Tuesday 7-24-2018 We went up to see Marie, on the way I stopped at the flying field to fly the X-vert.  That did not go well and I ended up breaking it in half.  I forgot the switch settings were labeled on the battery cover.  We visited with the other flyers for a little while and headed on to Centralia.  Marie was doing OK, but she gets tired in a hurry, naps for a few seconds and then picks the conversation right up where she left off.

When we got home they were just finishing the loading of the dozer Gabe used to prepare Parker's building site, we had to wait a couple of minutes for them to finish before we could get up the driveway.

7-25-2018 Wednesday while Vera was at bible study I saw this doe and fawn walk through the yard and go over to Parker's place.  When they saw me with the camera they ran back across the driveway to our yard.

I walked down to where I could see the yard and whistled at them, they stopped and looked back at me.

I bought a Bird of Time glider at the Big Bird swap meet.  I have been working on it and finished up the cowl I made to cover the motor I added.  Vera suggested that I should make it out of wrapped thin plywood like a plane I used to make.  It worked great and it is ready now for fiberglass and paint.

Friday 7-27-2018 We went flying early at Toledo to beat the heat.  I flew the B-36 twice, the P-39 twice, the Pitts a couple of time and a bunch of flights on the AT-6.  I ended up making about ten flights before for we left.  Thanks Steve K. for taking this picture.  I flew the repaired X-vert today and with the switches set right it flew fine.

Considering how hot it was there was a pretty good turn out.  This is as I was loading up and we were the first ones to leave, we made it home before it got really warm.

Jackie sent a couple of pictures of Cora on Friday, she let Jackie comb her hair today.  Jackie's new phone takes nice pictures.

Sunday 7-29-2018  Today was forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far so we decided not to go to the CVRCF picnic and fun fly.  We went to church which they held in the basement because of the heat.   Then I worked on the Bird of Time glider.

Big Bird day two

I tried to get the same scene as the sunset picture when I got up this morning.  I slept great last night, it is really quiet there.

There was dew on everything so I wiped them down and set everything in the sun to dry.

I wandered up the line looking at planes and found this Corsair with a five cylinder Moki in it that was for sale.  I didn't even ask the price because the engine sells for $4175.00!

He flew it several times during the day and it sounded and looked great, he was a very good pilot.

I sure like the twelfth man scheme on this plane. 

I got quite a few flights on the B-36 today everything worked just like it should, I guess that checking it over before loading up paid off.

I am making a landing or a low flyby, I am not sure which.

RC Rebel on Facebook was taking pictures all during the event and did a great job.  I borrowed the B-36 pictures from her posts on Facebook.

The orange and white plane is not big but it sure was fast, 140 Mph!  I didn't even try to get a picture of it flying, it was tough just keeping it in sight at that speed.  I lost sight of it several times when it changed directions.

We stayed for dinner and to hear our friend Bob play.  He and his friend played nineties rock and they sounded great, the little guy swayed along with their music for quite a while.  We listened until about seven thirty when they took a break and then headed home so we could get there before dark.  It was a fun two days.

Vera wanted a picture of the sign painted on their barn as we left.

Time to Catch Up

7-19-2018 Thursday we loaded up the motor home for the Big Bird Event at Pleasant Valley, we were planning on spending Friday night there so I had to do some unloading as soon as we arrived.

The bunk over the cab is pretty well filled up also.

The refrigerator and counters were all full of food so we could have stayed a couple of extra days if we wanted to.

7-20-2018 Friday we headed out fairly early and I don't know for sure what time we arrived because I didn't take any pictures until about noon.  By then I was all set up and had flown several times.  The new airplane covers I got sure did work good keeping the planes cool.  The dark colored ones like the P-39 and the MXS-R get hot enough that the covering wrinkles.

I got quite a few flights with the B-36 today, it kept me busy charging batteries since it uses three packs per flight.

Juan was there practicing with his radio controlled skydiver for his performance on Sunday, he calls the skydiver "Little Juan".

Friday Night they had a Blue Grass band the Lewis County Pickers playing during and after dinner.  I have a video of them on Facebook if you are interested.

Our friend Steve is relaxing and enjoying the music.

It was nice and peaceful as we settled in for the night.  We were surprised that only about six families spent the night.  Well that is enough catching up for one post.  I will do Saturday's activities in the next one.

The new desk works great

We were up early because Vera had an 8:00 dental appointment.  We made it back home early enough that she could go to bible study.  I made a mail and recycling run while she was gone.  I finished up the radio programming for the AT-6 today then discovered the speed control I had installed would not work the way I had it wired up.  I changed to a different brand that had been in one of my helicopters and things started working right but the speed control needed reprogramming to the aircraft mode.  I was able to wheel it over to the new/old deck and use the laptop to update the firmware and settings.  Once that was finished I loaded it back into the motor home, it should be faster now as I have increased the power about twenty five percent.  This afternoon and evening I built new screens for the dinette windows in the motor home, that should make it a little more comfortable on hot days.

Early Flying

We decided to go flying early and beat the heat at the field.  We got there a little after eight and I got in a couple of flights before anyone showed up.

Chuck was the next one to show up, followed by Dan and John.  We had the delicious salad Vera made yesterday for lunch.  By noon it was getting pretty warm sitting in the sun while flying so we packed up to head home.  Just as I started the motor Leonard and Audrey arrived.  Leonard wanted to tell me all about the vintage aircraft fly-in in McMinnville this weekend he went to so we had a short visit parked side by side.  It felt good to get home before it really got hot.  I brought the AT-6 in for a radio change after having several glitches today.  Programming the radio took most of the evening but I am on the right track now.

Finally some covering

We didn't do much today, watered the flowers, a mail and grocery run which turned into a ride to look at the river and check out the barn that burned yesterday up on Schaffran Rd, sadly it burned clear to the ground.  This afternoon I finally got some covering on the delta.  One more strip of red and the removable fuselage top will be done.

A first!

Right after my shower I noticed this buck walking by the bedroom window.  He was kind of nervous so when I bumped the window with the lens he took off but I did get two pictures.

I had every intention of doing some covering on the delta today so Vera and I cleaned the North bench this morning.

We had stacked the stuff from the North bench on the East bench so we ended up cleaning it also.  By then I didn't feel like covering so after lunch we started on the electronics bench.

This is how it looked when we quit tonight.  I think this is the first time all three benches have been clean at the same time.  I won't mention how the South bench looks!  It was a good day and I know where lots of my things are now as we did some labeling while putting them away.

Desk

Vera and I got started putting things in the desk this morning.  I also went through and threw away some old electronics that I will probably never use again.  We may need overload springs on the garbage can this week.  I turned the area into a spot where I can program the flight controllers for my quads (drones), transmitters and receivers.  Barry stopped by on the way to Cale and Erika's wedding, I decided not to go because of my nose.  It is surprising how often I get asked what happened and I just did not feel like getting into a bunch of explanations.

As we came in from the shop tonight the sky was really pretty.  We made a lot of headway today and I think tomorrow I can start covering the delta.