Tuesday, June 27, 2017

June 25th

I cleared out some work stuff, then took my desk apart and dusted everything for the first time in ages.

I then went out and looked at the air conditioning on the van again.  This time I found the disconnected wire, and the compressor now runs.  The pressure seems a little low (even with the new coolant I've added), but at least it's blowing cold air, rather than warm air now.  I've zip tied the connection so it hopefully won't drop off again, but also so it'll be obvious if it does.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

June 24th

I started the day at the airport listening to a talk from Norcal ATC - there were a bunch of things I never realised, for example that their radar is 2D, so they have no idea how high I am (like, so high, man).  I'm going to start listening in, and telling them where I am and how high I'll be so they can vector people over me, rather than around me.

While I was there, I replaced a couple of breather hoses on the plane in the hopes that they've been causing it to run a little lean, and are the cause of the high cylinder head temperatures I've been seeing.

I was on call, so I spent a fair amount of the day just playing Warcraft and responding to tickets about spam from over a week ago.  /sigh.

I had intended to fly in the evening, as it was supposed to be cooling down.  It didn't cool down, so I couldn't face going out to the airport while it was 102F, so I went out and took a look at the air conditioning on the van.  It hasn't been working, and I got some leak stopping goo for it.  The thing is, the pressure on the low pressure side is stupidly high, and the compressor isn't running.  I peered at various things and stuff, but I can't see why.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

June 20th

We watched "Logan" - it was excellent, and it's nice to see a good wrap up of a superhero story.  Of course, they'll go and reboot Wolverine with Channing Tatum or something.

Monday, June 19, 2017

June 18th

I headed to the airport stupid early again, as the forecast was for 108F.  It was again pretty windy aloft, and today there was an inversion at around 1000-1100', so it was much warmer up there than at ground level.  Luckily there were very few planes around this morning, so I didn't have to fight anybody to land on 33, the upwind runway.

Bruce and I tinkered with his iPad and the projector, but everything's working fine now.  Shame we ended up cancelling Wednesday's meeting, as it'll still be well over 100F.

I tinkered around with the plane, and talked to Jack until Mike came back from his camping trip and we could see the PT-22 he's bought.

When I got home I replaced a strap that I've used to mount the catalytic converter on the van - the old one's disappeared, and there's vibration from the catalytic converter hitting the bracket I've put back there to mount it to.  I used 2 hose clamps :o)

I spent the rest of the day playing Warcraft and hiding from the stupid heat out.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

June 17th

I got up stupid early and headed to the airfield to fly before it got hot.  It was a bit windy at height - I thought the airspeed indicator was playing up when I was seeing 33mph ground speed and 58mph airspeed.  Turning around, I saw 60mph airspeed and 85mph ground speed.  Dicking around, I got my ground speed down to 18mph at one point.  When I got back to the airfield, people were still landing on 15 despite the ~10-15mpg wind from the North, so I landed with the traffic.  While I was putting the plane away, I saw a go-around, and that seemed to break everyone of using the downwind runway, so they moved to 33.  Doy.

There had been a plan to have a Vanagon meetup at Folsom Lake, but the water level is too high (yay!), so we'd talked about meeting up at a local coffee shop.   We loaded Tilly into the van and headed over there, about an hour late.  There was nobody there, so after letting Tilly adventure around for a while, we went home.  There were a bunch of people who did the same thing, so maybe we need to organise better next time :o)

I headed back to the airport to see the end of the LRAA annual meeting, then look at Bruce's iPad displaying on the projector.  We decided that the problems he's been having are due to the Lightning to HDMI adapter, so he went and replaced that.  A text from him later said it was working with his TV just fine.

In the evening we watched "The Accountant".

June 16th

We watched "Jason Bourne".  If you're a fan of wobbli-cam and jump cuts...

Monday, June 12, 2017

June 11th

I pulled the attic fan out of the garage (as I'm not convinced it's helping any), and Vic helped me install it in the loft of the house, where the one up there had stopped working.

While I had the ladder out, I figured I'd get up on the roof and reset the weather station sender, as it's not been sensing rain recently (yeah, I know, it's June, how do I even know this?).  Last time it did that, a reset fixed it.  Then I figured I might as well clean the solar panels and the dryer vent.

In the afternoon we went to the SPCA volunteer appreciation event.

In the evening we watched "Victor Frankenstein" - it was OK, and I noticed the hat tip to "Young Frankenstein", which is still the mark to beat for Frankenstein movies.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

June 10th

I got up early and went to the airport to cook breakfasts at the Airfest event.  We eventually ran out of sausages and the pancake mix, so I'd say we were successful :o)

June 7th

I went to the EAA board meeting.  Mostly we talked about the Airfest this weekend.

June 6th

After work, I headed to the airport and took the Flightstar out for a bit.  It was pretty bumpy, so I ended up cutting my flight short and heading home.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

June 4th

I mounted the Snoopy fence painting to the wall in the hallway, and played Warcraft.  The wind was a bit blowy in the afternoon, so I gave up on flying for the weekend.

June 3rd

I started the day cooking pancakes at the airfield for the EAA first Saturday breakfast.  Afterwards, we painted some wood panels for somethingorother to do with the Airfest next weekend.  A couple of us helped Ron with getting his wheel off the Columbia, then I went home again.

After lunch, I felt a bit unwell, so I gave up on going flying.

Friday, June 2, 2017

June 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

May 30th

We watched "A Dog's Purpose", which is a schmaltzy pupper story with a happy ending.

May 29th

Today was Memorial Day, when Americans remember their war dead by going shopping.

I pottered around the house, and made up the fence panels with the Snoopy painting.  I ended up breaking up some of the dirt along the side of the house so we can look at replanting grass seed.  I was too damn tired to do anything after that.

May 28th

I went to the airfield in the afternoon and went out for a flight again.  I had intended to weigh the plane with a view to doing a weight and balance for a possible Rotax 582, but the plane rolled off the scales, breaking them.  So I threw those in the bin and gave up - I'll look at the build manuals and see what they say about putting in a 582 on the original build.

May 27th

I tinkered around with stuff in the house for a bit in the morning, and painted up some battens to use for the old Snoopy fence painting.

In the afternoon I went to the airfield and flew for a bit before going and shooting the shit with Tony and co for a while.