March 17th

Chris and I were going to meet up at Auburn to run down the canyon, and video ourselves doing it.  I left early, and he was running late, so I flew over towards Folsom Lake and up the river to approach Auburn from the South for once.  Of course, the wind was blowing from the east, so I couldn't do a 45 join, and had to do an overhead join, just in front of Chris.  We compared notes, started cameras and headed out - it's the first time I've taken off on 07 - usually we're on 25 by the time we get around to leaving.  We ran down the canyon and a good time was had by all - my video is here.

As I approached Lincoln, there was a Rans Coyote behind me, and I figured he'd be going faster than me in the circuit, so I slowed right down and let him pass, then toddled on.  I was on finals and offered to let Andy get out in front of me, but he said he wanted to watch me land.  No pressure then :o)

When I got home, Vic and I went out to lunch, and she suggested going to the Chevy dealer so she could see just how f*ck off bright lime green "Shock" is on the Bolt.  They didn't have one on the lot, but offered to drive over to their storage lot and get one - we went along for the ride and Vic drove it back.  We then asked for the numbers, and spent a couple of hours dealing with their nonsense before I gave up and said it wasn't going to work out.  I fully expect a phone call in the week.

March 16th

I'd agreed to meet Chris and Randy at Auburn airport for lunch, but I wanted to dink about on the way.  Of course, you talk to one person and then another, and then another, and you end up rushing to just get there on time.  After lunch we ran down the canyon to Lincoln, as Chris wanted to talk to Ken, who'd already left.  Oh well.

The window winder thing broke again on the van on the way home, so I think I'll need to find a stock VW regulator to replace the aftermarket one.  In the meantime, I might convert it back to a manual window.

March 10th

Vic and I went over to the airfield and took the plane out to shoot some video - the image stabilisation works excellently.  I took off on the same runway as everybody else, despite the ~8mph tailwind, and listened to the people in the pattern finally sorting out using the correct runway.  We flew up the canyon (a bit higher than usual because it was blowy), turning back when I started to see water on the windscreen.  There was a point where I'd throttled back, put the nose down to the point where we were doing 80mph, and we were still getting sucked up at 600' a minute, so we headed back to Lincoln.

March 9th

I went over to the airport and sanded down the epoxy I'd put on the nick in my propeller.  I then noticed how bad previous repairs were, but I think I'll ignore those for the moment.  I made sure the new mount was going to work for the GoPro, stuck it on the mast and went over to the EAA hangar and cooked lunch for about 30 people.  As it was alternatively raining and blowing a gale, and I was on call, I went home and played Warcraft.

March 3rd

It's still crappy weather, so I played a bunch of Warcraft, then went to the airport and put some goo on a nick in the prop - once it's dried, I'll sand it smooth again and look at putting some prop tape on it to hopefully protect it from small nicks in the future.

I was working in the afternoon, so I... worked.

March 2nd

I went to the airport and cooked breakfast for 20 or so of my closest friends.  It was throwing it down with rain on and off, so I wasn't going to be able to fly, and the van was blocked in, so I stayed and heckled the Board meeting.

March 1st

A new month, so here are the power stats - all the rain recently hasn't helped any.

Power billed

Power generated