A Pleasant Surprise!

This is JP's Preschool picture, we got a call from John this morning wanting to know it they could stop by.  They brought us JP's school picture for this year, he sure looks grown up!

I remembered seeing the Hot Wheels in the shop not long ago, I went out to try and find them so JP would have something to play with.  Luckily, I spotted them right away.  We had a nice visit with John and Anne while JP played.

When he got tired of the Hot Wheels, he spotted the airplane plant stand on the table and wanted it.  We pulled the flowers out and he spun the propeller for a long time.

I was really impressed when he spilled some water from his glass, he ran right in, got a towel and did a great job of cleaning it up.  They had a lunch date further South, so they couldn't stay a long time but we really enjoyed seeing them!

Flying in the church!

I like this picture, the cheapest I have gotten gas for a long time!  We came to town for an appointment today, then did some shopping at Safeway.  I had gotten an email that offered double gas rewards if you purchased over twenty dollars worth of groceries.  We never have a problem getting over that, so we had plenty of gas rewards when I filled up on the way home.  Pastor Pam is teaching a 4H robotics class at the church and she asked me if I could fly for the kids like I did at the church talent show.  I wasn't ready last Thursday, so I emailed her that I could do it today and she said "Awesome".  Last night I got a brain storm that I could mount a video camera and transmitter on the tank and let them drive it around using the screen to see where they were going.  I flew a couple of quads, a helicopter, a plane and then let them fly the predator quad, they did pretty good with it.  Then I got the tank going and made one run up the aisle to show them how it worked.  The first boy went up and down the aisle fine, the next one ended up under the pews and the fun started, they discovered they could go anywhere and roamed all over the room.  The one girl in the group did not want to try the quad, but she was right there to run the tank and did a great job, probably the only one who didn't run into something.  The battery was getting pretty low when I finally had them quit.  While I flew one quad I turned its video recorder on as I made a quick pass over the pews.  I will put a link to it at the end.

Flying for the Robotics group

A busy day!

We were up this morning at 6 AM so we could be at the Olympic Flight Museum by 8 and get set up for the swap meet.  This picture is looking toward the front of the hanger from our table.  We got rid of all the kits, sold some miscellaneous stuff, gave away one plane and acquired a new one.  We packed up early so we could get back for Joe's celebration of life.

 This is the wreath that Dianne made up, it was really pretty.

They had a display of pictures about Joe.

I had never seen these pictures from when he was a kid.

There was a great turn out of friends and family, they had to set up extra tables and it was still standing room only at times.

Debbie and Josh went around to every table and visited everyone.

Mik took a selfie of Vera and him.

This is Debbie with Joe's friend Eric.  We had a good time visiting with everyone, some of whom we had not seen for a long time.

Getting Ready!

What strange weather, Vera noticed one of our azalea's is in bloom again.

The snapdragons are still blooming also, we have gotten lots of enjoyment out of the flowers this year.

I spent most of the day loading up the Blazer for the swap meet in Olympia tomorrow.  Hopefully, we will get rid of the last of these kits.

Cold Weather Flying

It was in the low thirties this morning, so I bundled up in lots of layers as I got ready to go flying.  It was fairly foggy when I got there and there was lots of dew on the grass.  I wanted to fly my new bomber with retracts but when I checked the runway it was pretty lumpy with tall grass and dandelions.  I got the mower and roller out and did about half the runway which really smoothed it out.  The Lancaster took off fine, it flew pretty good after a little trimming but when I slowed down to land it got really touchy.  I got it down OK on the first flight but the second flight I set a new personal best by breaking three props in one landing!

My friend Horty wanted some help with a new twin, it flew great, much better than the Lancaster.

He also brought out FREDe a cartoon scale plane.  We have flown it before, but Horty made some changes and it flew pretty good today.

As I finished the last flight on my helicopter, I notice the sunshine coming through the clouds so I hurried up shutting down and grabbed the camera for some pictures.  Horty and I were the only ones there today, Horty is always pleasant to talk with so I had a very nice day.

Happy Birthday Debbie!

Today, we met Debbie, Josh, Bev, Bev's friend Diane and James at the Masthead to have a birthday lunch for Debbie.  It is hard to believe she is twenty two already.  This picture was taken in 1999 during her birthday party at McDonald's.  We had a real nice time and got to hear all about her car breaking down at Woodland and then not being able to get back to it because of a police chase and wreck with the driver running off afterwards.  I was listening to it on my scanner and James happened to go by and took some video of all the police cars, not knowing Debbie was there.  After school, James came up and we made a replacement towel bar for his friend.  Before he left, he packed in some pellets for me, the stove is running quite a bit now that the weather is getting colder.  I almost forgot the club meeting tonight, luckily the phone reminded me.

Sunday

No this post is not about Sunday, it is about my new plane named Sunday!  I got it all built and today I added some carbon fiber reinforcements and sanded it.

It took a while, but I finally found my transparent covering.  The red and yellow looked great together so I started covering.  I got the yellow all on and had started on the red when it was dinner time.  I went out later and finished the red before watching Monday night football.  I figured out three things during the game, Luck is color blind, why else would he throw right to the other team.  Then I noticed it can rain just as hard in Carolina as here.  Lastly, I think the announcers are getting paid by the word.  Actually, the last quarter and the overtime were pretty interesting.