February 18th

Today was Presidents Day, when Americans celebrate George Washington's birthday by going shopping.

Of course, the weather sucked so I couldn't fly, so I wasted the day.

February 16th

It was  on and off windy, cloudy and sunny, so I gave up on flying (plus I was on call) and worked on some updates to the EAA website.  I also went out and looked at the window regulator on the van.  I took the door apart so I could get the regulator out, then took that apart.  I think the problem was that it was assembled dry, so I put a load of white lithium grease in it and put in all back together.  It seems to work better, so let's hope it's fixed.  If I'd known what I know now, I'd have used the new regulator to rebuild the original Volkswagen one.

February 13th

I've been playing with cameras on the gyroplane, but vibration makes video unusable :o(  I've been looking at getting a new, image stabilised camera (we bought the Contours for hang gliding, after all, and they work great for that), and noticed that GoPro are doing $50 off the new Hero Black 7.  With a free hat and memory card.  Sold.  Wait a minute, they have a trade in program, where I can send them one of the old, broken cameras I have lying around, and they give me $100 off the list price, so I'd be paying $50 for a 64Gb card and a hat.  I've decided to go that way, and pay $25 for a 128Gb card and live without the hat.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out on the gyro.  And to getting the Contour mount off the mast.

February 10th

The window in the van stuck again, so I think I might have to take the regulator out and figure out what's going on there.

Vic and I flew to Auburn to meet Chris (who flew in from Cameron Park), Jack and Marianne (who drove) for lunch.

February 9th

I ended up at the airport, cooking burgers for the EAA.  Despite the rain, there were a load of people there.

February 8th

It was a grim looking day, so I stayed in and played Warcraft.

February 7th

I went to the airport and took the plane out for a bit.  I had been intending to do circuits for a while, but there was a helicopter practicing auto-rotation emergencies, so I left him to it.  I figure he's paying something like $450 an hour, I'm just dicking about.  I did think of telling him he needs a gyroplane, as that's always auto-rotating :o)  After over an hour, when I practiced turns and stuff, I headed back.  I was doing an overhead join, looking out for Jamie in her gyro who'd called a 45 degree join, only to find her about a mile North of the runway, where she called an extended base entry.  OK, I powered up and flew over her, then did a long final approach.  She said she was having trouble spotting the airport, so ended up further North than she thought she was.