Motor Home

This motor home is the reason I have not posted here for several days.  We bought a 1994 thirty three foot Damon Intruder.  We have been busy learning how things work, fixing a couple of issues, and updating some of the equipment.  It has lots of basement storage and two of the compartments are pass through so I shouldn't have any trouble hauling the bigger planes.  Vera had two requirements for a newer model, a walk around queen sized bed and a living room type area, this one had both.  It also was fairly low mileage and the tires only have 5000 mile on them.  I have been taking pictures and will get the days I missed caught up on here soon.

Roofing

At eight this morning the roofers showed up ready to finish the job.

The first thing they started on was removing the shingles from the North roof of the shop.

Meanwhile the other half of the crew was putting shingles down on the South side and installing the fascia.  The West one is done in this picture and they are ready to put up the East one.

The next time I came out they had the fascia done and were making good headway on the shingles.

After the shingles were all off they replaced the bad plywood and started installing the North fascia boards.

I happened to go by the small pond and discovered the water lilies were blooming.

All the laborers have left, the North fascia is on and the roofers are finishing up the roof

The South roof is all done in this picture.  Now I need to paint the fascia before having new gutters put up.

I am thinking about painting the whole shop now that the roof is done.

They installed the last of the vents on the house today and cleaned up everything.  We are really happy with the job they did.  Dalton and James came up just as the roofers finished.  James and I each got to shoot a clip through Dalton's 9mm, that was fun but my ears rang for a little while.

Roofing

The All Weather company showed up this morning to do the roofs.

Vera came right out and lined the crew up for a picture before they started.

They started on the house first.

They are taking the shingles off the West side of the house.

In this picture they have all the shingles removed from the East side.

There was some really rotten plywood in this area that they replaced plus they had to rebuild a couple of rafters.

Once the house was all striped part of the crew came over and started taking the shingles off the South side of the shop.  They also helped me take down the Ham antenna and pole.  Nice guys, there is no way I could have done it myself.

This is the shop after they finished today, the South side is all ready for shingles.

The house is all done except for a couple of vents.  Boy is it a good feeling to have that done.

Father's Day

We met Mik, Michelle and James at the Pancake House for breakfast This morning.

I am sure glad we planned on 8 AM, we walked in and sat right down at an empty booth.  By the time we left the line of people waiting to get seated extended out to the sidewalk.

I sure had a good time visiting with everybody, plus I had my favorite french toast with apple cinnamon filling on top.

Mik saw this biplane and thought it was just the kind of thing I would enjoy, he was right as I really like it.

After breakfast we went to Harbor Freight and I ended up with a new cordless pole saw and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff I have been needing.  We went and had the car washed and vacuumed it out before making a stop at Safeway on the way home.

I finished up the Bird of Time this afternoon, now I am looking forward to flying it again.  It was sure an enjoyable Father's Day.

A productive day

I surprised myself today by getting everything I had planned done.  I got the nose gear on the Vortex straightened and the new vent cover for the shop bathroom installed.  Then we made a mail run, picked up some groceries and headed for Four Corners to get bird seed.  We had to wait a little while on the way over as the Fire Department put out a pickup fire.  There was lots of black smoke as we came over the bridge but by the time I took this picture they had put the fire out.  After we got home I got the rudder installed on the Bird of Time and painted the cowl.  I should have it finished tomorrow.  I also found time to repair a motion light and check out my GPS speed meter, it needs a new battery.

Fun flying the Vortex

The weather today was a lot different than what was forecast, cooler and windier.  It was nice seeing Steve again and the group had some nice bull sessions.

I got five flights on the Vortex today, Leonard brought his so we did a little informal racing, boy was that fun!  I tried the F-22 Raptor on a four cell battery today and it flew much better.  I hadn't had the Electra Streak glider out for quite a while so I had to wash the wing before bringing it out of the motor home.  We stopped at Betty's for their fish and chips on the way home.  It was a good ten flight day.

New Batteries

After UPS sent the package from Portland to Klamath Falls instead of Kelso, I finally got the adapters for my new 16000 mah batteries today. 

The four motored quad was having a hard time carrying the extra weight and made an unscheduled landing but didn't hurt anything.  I put a smaller battery in it and it flew fine.

The Hexacopter with it's six motors didn't have any problem lifting the added weight.  I still have a small problem with the compass programming of it's flight controller.  It was sure warm today, I saw 87 on my shop thermometer.  I was up early and did some more pruning of the rhododendrons North of the shop.

Roofing

We got a surprise this morning when the materials for the house and shop reroofing showed up.

Of course I had to be out there checking on things.

This looks a lot easier than packing them up a ladder.

The guy running the boom got stung by a wasp when he was up on the roof putting down boards to stack the bundles on.

They finished the shop and left because the conveyor belt was breaking and the guy's hand was swelling up.  We found out later he went to the hospital as it was softball sized by the time they got back to Longview.

One of the original pair came back with a different truck and different helper to finish unloading the house materials.

This is how the house looks now with all the materials stacked on it.  We had quite an interesting day watching them.

Bird of Time

I got the color scheme for the Bird of Time figured out today.  Each joint in the wing will have these pieces.  The entire leading edge will be the same color of red, the bottom of the wing will be a dark blue that shows up good against the sky.  I have the fuselage all ready for paint but I keep putting it off.

A day of rest

I noticed this deer walking across the driveway and got this picture of her getting ready to sample the plum tree leaves.  I didn't do much today but rest after the workout yesterday.

The new Power Pruner

Since we will be getting the house and shop roofed soon the rhododendrons needed trimming on the North side of the shop.  They were tall enough that they were laying on the roof.  It turned out to be like a jungle in there and they were big enough that I had to use the sawzall in places.

My new power pruner was the inspiration for starting today.  UPS delivered it this morning, so I put it right on charge.  It will cut through 3/4 inch limbs and the handle extends to six feet.

While I was waiting for the power pruner to charge I decided to trim the rhododendron by the PUD transformer with the hedge trimmer.  I had it just about done when Vera got home from bible study.  Then we started on the shop and she hauled all the cuttings over to this pile.  We ended up with four or five garden trailer loads that got hauled to the compost pile.

Flying

We went flying today, it was nice to see Steve out again after his long bout with a cold that was going around this winter.  It was a nice day that was warm enough to need the pop up shades.  I spent more time than usual visiting under them.

This is Jim's fun scale Mustang with Mt Rainier in the background.  I got in four or five flights on the Vortex today.  It is fairly fast, I would guess close to a hundred miles an hour.  I will put the GPS tracker in it next time out to see for sure.

Maiden Flight Day

Today was the Winter Build Challenge (WBC) Maiden Flight day.

This is the eleven foot BTE Super Flyin' King and that is Tony walking towards it.

Barry is getting his planes inspected, not our Barry but one we met last year at the WBC when we were camping next to them. The first thing we did was register, then they had two safety inspection stations set to check all the planes before they were flown.  The inspectors were very friendly and polite when they told people what fixes needed to be done.  I never heard one person get upset about having to make a change.

Dale, one of the WBC entrants had passed away just last week.  He had finished his plane so the Sanderson Field club had a short memorial before the maiden flights began.  The club members prepared the plane and flew it for the family members in the picture.

Then they had all the WBC planes line up on the runway for a photo session.  That is Chuck one of the Lewis County club's members standing behind the two red and white planes that I flew for him during the maiden flights.

There is my Vortex in the middle of the lineup.

There was lots of different types of models flown today.

I also flew our friend Horty's Robinhood for him.  I gave him the kit last year and he built it for the WBC.  It looked great and flew fine.

I flew a little while after Horty and the Vortex flew great.  I did a few rolls and loops, then remembered I hadn't retracted the landing gear.  I retracted it and made one low fast pass and discovered it has a nice whistle when it is going fast.  Barry had came over from Olympia to watch so I had him video my flight and when Bruce Tharpe the designer of the Vortex stopped to look at it.

A little later I flew Chuck's two winter builds, one from last year and one from this year.

Before

After, this F-35 would not turn left after take off and ended up crashing out in the field.  It was the only crash of the planes doing their maiden flights.

Jody and Sharon did a great job of putting on the event.  I am really looking forward to next year's WBC.

After all the flights were done, they put the names in a hat and drew names, when your name was drawn you went back and picked the prize you wanted.

I was lucky enough to be the third or fourth one drawn and picked out this delta to build.

When you completed your maiden flight they gave you this coin.

During the closing ceremony they present a plaque like this to each person in the Winter Build Challenge.

The field was opened for any type of flying after that.  This fantastic turbine powered Hine helicopter was flown, it looked and sounded real.  Since Michelle's birthday pizza party was tomorrow we decided to leave rather than spend two nights like we had originally planned.  We had a nice drive back on our slow route and it felt great to sleep in our own bed.