July 30th

I missed my connection in Charlotte, and the following one.  Rather than wait another 2 hours, and force Mum, Dad and Russ to wait 4 or so hours for me to get to Fort Lauderdale, I flew to Orlando and waited for them to pick me up there.  We then drove and drove and drove until getting to a podunk little town called Live Oak, where had dinner, found 2 bars and crashed for the night.

July 29th

Vince came over to mirror his current laptop hard drive to a new one so he can upgrade his Windows 7 installation to Windows 10, before the free upgrade expires at midnight.  Nothing like leaving it to the last minute... I had thought about reminding him earlier in the month, but the last time I'd brought it up he'd said "fuck Microsoft", so I didn't bother :)

Later he came over and borrowed my external drive cage and a spare drive I had, because his upgrade worked somehow.

Rich and Josh came over, and we went out and got dinner before Vic ran me to the airport to catch a plane to Charlotte.  The plane was delayed 2 hours because of a thunderstorm in Phoenix, and a load of people were getting really upset that the flight to Phoenix was cancelled due to said thunderstorm.  I think they were expecting to fly, in a thunderstorm that the pilot had said was too severe.  Pussy.

July 24th

I spent quite a bit of time working, but I've managed to build a USB charging cable for the camera (of all the stupid... it needs a 10 ohm resistor between the data pins or it won't charge).  I looked at the keyless ignition system on the DRZ, and I've decided to leave it unplugged for a day or so, as I seem to remember needing something like that to reset everything properly.

I went to the airfield in the evening, and fixed the airspeed indicator.  I then went out for a flight, and was running down the river doing around 70mph ground speed when I suddenly realised I'd have to get home before it gets dark.  Rather than play around anywhere else, I headed straight back to the airfield.  I played around to see how low I could get the ground speed - 28mph - and landed shortly before sunset.  At least I managed to put the plane away before it got dark.

July 23rd

I've noticed a crack in the silencer on the Vanagon, so I ordered a new one.  It's here, so I installed it.  It's stainless steel, so you'd think it'll last, but it's not braced like the mild steel one it's replacing.  On the plus side, it has a lifetime warranty.  I had read about the new one being smaller than the original, but I've managed to bend the outer casing clamping it down, so I don't think that's a problem.

In the evening, I went over to the airfield and took the plane out for a bit.  I had the video camera running, and saw a train, so I chased it for a mile or two.  I went along the river, and ran around the lake, and was tootling along when the airspeed indicator went down to zero.  That bothered me, so I went back to the airfield... the hose from the probe has come unhooked.  Doy.

July 22nd

The new lithium battery arrived, and it's tiny, and weighs bugger all.  I installed it, but now the keyless ignition controller isn't working.  It still starts with the key though, so that's something.

July 20th

We went to the EAA members' meeting.  I was expecting to cook barbecue, but we had pizza.  I don't know how to barbecue pizza.

July 19th

We were going to go to a bike night in Folsom, but the DRZ wouldn't start.  A little investigation after dinner points to the battery being totally and utterly dead.  Still, this looks like an excuse to move to a LiFePO instead.

July 17th

It was too windy to fly, so I just pottered around the house getting things done.  Jack came over to look at the fences that need replacing, hopefully he can work up a reasonable quote :o)

July 16th

I got up and tidied everything away, then went flying.  I was hoping to shoot video along the road along Camp Far West Lake, but I set the camera to 90 degrees rather than 0 degrees (so it was in landscape) and I was getting bounced all over the place - I should have gone sooner.

I fixed the TV to zoom in to 480p content (I think), so it looks like the Windows 10 / hacked WMC is working.  I'd like to get the skin I had previously working, but that's not a big deal really.

I went back to the airfield in the evening, and was chatting to Jack and Marianne when a couple came past with their kid, who's autistic.  He's apparently really into planes, so I spent about an hour showing them around the planes in our and Jack's hangar, and ended up only flying for 25 minutes before it got dark.  I got to play with Mike in his 120 though, so that was fun :o)

July 15th

On my afternoon bicycle ride, I passed a guy blocking the path with his bike while he drank water.  A bit later he came storming past me, on a tricky part of the trail - I know because I've crashed all over the place.  Anyway, I though "this should be interesting", then got to watch him wipe out just in front of me.  He was OK, and waved me past, but didn't pass me again.  About 4 miles later, I got a puncture, and got to walk home.

July 14th

After work, I went flying, and looked hard at the road that runs along Camp Far West Lake - I reckon it'd be cool to video Vic riding along there :o)

In the evening I loaded a hacked version of Windows Media Centre on the HTPC, as Kodi seems to hang on waking up from sleep, and I can't get it to download the guide more than a day or so out.  I don't want to pay for a guide subscription until I'm sure everything works, and I'm a ways from that right now.

In WMC, I seem to have most things working, and now I just need to get DVDs to play full screen - I have a feeling this is the TV, as I see it downshifting to 480p from 1080p.  I've seem problems with the resolution on wake, too, but I'll carry on testing it.

July 10th

We went to the local Jeep dealer and looked at a Renegade Trailhawk they had there.  Nobody seemed interested in selling us a $30,000 car, so we wandered over to Elk Grove, where they had a brand new 2015 one on sale.  We took that for a test drive, and decided to see what they'd trade the Wrangler for.  The $13,000 offer was some $5,000 below what Kelly Blue Book say the trade-in value is, which sort of soured us on the whole thing.  While I was pretty sure I could have beaten them into a deal we'd have accepted, Vic wasn't that bothered about the car - when we looked at the Wrangler, she was all excited, and this one is just "meh, it's a car", so we walked.

In the evening I met CJ, Gwen and Jahzara over at the airfield so Jahzara could see and sit in the plane, and see me (and others) fly.  After I'd done 1 circuit, Jack arrived, and we ended up both doing circuits (me in the Flightstar, him in the M-Squared) to entertain the ladies until they had to go home for Jahzara's bed time.

June 9th

I went out to the airport to help / harangue Jack working on his M-Squared, and we got it all buttoned up.  Steve, a Flightstar and Quicksilver guy, was there, so he took it up for a test flight, then took Jack up for a second test flight.  They reckon it needs a different gearbox and prop, but in my book it flies, so that's just tuning - they can do that later.  We stopped at a restaurant on the way out from the airport, and Vic came and joined us.

June 8th

As Kodi seems to be working OK, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade the media centre to Windows 10.  It's a while since I've done that, and it's even more painfully slow than I remember, as there are a lot of upgrades to install.  Still, if it doesn't work, I've got a month to go back to 7.

July 7th

Having run a bunch of errands all day, I decided screw it, the wind looks like it's pretty constant, and close to straight down the runway at Lincoln.  I did one circuit, getting bashed about quite well, and went home.

July 6th

I got PowerDVD integrated into Kodi, and even though it's a little different, I think I'll be able to get it all to work.  Either that or I stay with Windows 7 until Microsoft stop sending out the TV Guide updates (again).

In the evening, I went to the EAA Board of Directors' meeting, and managed to not pick up anything new to do.

July 5th

I've taken the week off so I don't end up losing vacation time.  Obviously it's too windy to fly.  As Microsoft are stopping the free Windows 7-10 upgrades at the end of the month (the 29th, to be exact), I figured I should get the media centre sorted out.  So I installed Kodi on it.  It's basically working with NextPVR, I just need to figure out the PowerDVD integration.

July 4th

Today was Independence Day, when Americans celebrate them leaving the British Empire by going shopping.

It was too windy to fly, so I pottered about the house doing little stuff, and changed the oil in the Jeep.

July 3rd

I met Luis from Lodi at the airport so he could look at the Flightstar again.  Sadly it was too windy to fly (~17mph), but we did figure out that he's too tall for it.  Not sure why we didn't see his knees were against the instrument panel yesterday.  We tried a couple more planes to see what could fit him, but I think he's a bit screwed because he has long legs.  Oh well.

In the afternoon, I picked up Vince and we went to Turlock to look at a Rans S-12.  It's in good condition, but has a fuel leak at the moment, so isn't flyable.  Hmmm.

In the evening, we had to put up with the fireworks at Sun City, and Tilly was barking at the people in the street outside watching them, so we went out to join them.  Tilly ended up sitting on Kathy's lap, then sitting with me, then sitting on Kathy's lap, then sitting with me, then wanting to go in.

July 2nd

I'd advertised the Flightstar on Barnstormers, and a guy's called up wanting to see it.  He flew in from Lodi, and seems very excited about getting it.  Hmmm.

On the way back from the airport, I stopped and talked to Rich at Roseville Honda for a while.

July 1st

A new month, so new solar stats.

Power billed

Power generated

Having spent the week in the office, I managed to slope out just after 15:00.  Meaning I got home after 19:00.  Stupid holiday weekend.

June 26th

I'd intended to go flying in the morning again, but I wasn't feeling so great, so I washed the solar panels and tidied up before going to San Francisco, where I'll be working for the week.