September 20th

I went and lifted the tank on the DRZ (which means removing the seat and radiator side panels... jeez) and found the vacuum hose that had come off the carb.  The end was all stretched out, so it wasn't likely it'd stay when put back on, so I trimmed it off a little bit and reinstalled it.  Here's hoping it stays there, but with the larger Clarke tank, the tap is lower than stock, meaning the hose is possibly a little tighter than it should be.  Still, it's been like that for ~10 years, so meh.

September 19th

So I set off for the EAA meeting on the motorcycle, as Vic had the van to carry stuff for her employee picnic.  After stopping for gas, I got on the freeway, and shortly ended up on the hard shoulder, as it felt like it had run out of gas.  I fiddled with the choke, the gas cap and the gas tap (turn it to "reserve"), and got it started again.  It then stopped again, and I applied my massive intellect to the problem and decided the vacuum hose that opens the gas tap when the engine's running was split or something.  Sure enough, it started and ran on "prime", and I got to the airfield.  When I got there, I found the vacuum hose was completely missing.  Well, that'd be it.

I cooked about 40 burgers, and we had an interesting presentation on the RQ-4 drone that they fly out of Beale.  I was sitting by John Tate, who used to fly them too - he had to stop when he couldn't pass the USAF medical (to fly a drone with a mouse and keyboard), so he retired to fly 787s for United.

September 18th

We watched "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom".  It was a movie.

September 16th

Yesterday I'd been talking to Tom, an EAA member, at the pancake breakfast, and his 79 year old mother-in law who's visiting from Scotland.  She was very interested in the gyro, and I said I'd be happy to take her up before she goes home early next month.  So I called them this morning and suggested we meet at Lincoln.  I pulled the plane out, we had a quick pre-flight briefing, then went out and flew over Tom's house, over to the West to go over the crashed airplane sculpture, then back to Lincoln - just short of an hour, all told.  She was really impressed.  She's walking the Great Wall of China next year for her 80th birthday :o)

I took the gyro over to Marysville and back, but the wind seemed to be getting gustier, so I called it a day at that.

September 15th

I started the day helping cook breakfast for 31 visitors at the display day.  After I put the plane away, Tom, John and I took John's Bonanza down to Livermore to take part in a formation flypast at a veterans event.

September 14th

Jen came over and we went to the airport and took the plane out for a bit.  After a couple of crappy landings (need more practice with a passenger, methinks) we went and gt dinner.

September 11th

I went out to the airfield and took the plane out.  When I got back, Randy was tinkering with his gyro, so we talked until we were sick of getting bitten by mosquitoes.