October 30th

I took the day off, and wasted most of it watching TV while playing around with Kodi on the home theatre PC... Windows Media Centre is back down to 5 days' guide data.  I think I've got most things working for the TV and DVD, and it's mostly there for the Blu-Ray stuff too (might need some more software to finish that though).

October 29th

We replaced a leaky hose in the kitchen, eventually getting it all put together with the various adapters and washers and suchlike.

In the afternoon, I went over to the airfield and took the plane out for a bit.

In the evening, I played around with Kodi on the home theatre, and (hopefully) fixed a problem with the guide downloading.

October 28th

I started the day at the airport, supervising Tom cooking breakfast for a bunch of the EAA membership.  Don came over from Cameron Park with his gyroplane to do a presentation, and eventually we had a bunch of people there to listen to him.  He did several introductory flights - I even took one and played with forced landings.  I headed home to get cleaned up and then headed back to take the Flightstar out for a couple of circuits.

October 22nd

I had intended to go flying, but when I was going to head out, the wind was listed as 12 miles an hour, gusting to 17.  So I decided to stay home, but at ~17:30, it had dropped to less than 5mph.  Bummer.

October 21st

The home theatre PC has been having trouble downloading the TV Guide, so I started playing with Kodi again.  I've got it installed, and the TV stuff set up.  It should be downloading the guide itself (but I'll have to wait and see if that continues working), but it threw an error when I went to set up a season recording.  Shortly after this, the Windows Media Centre guide downloaded, so at least I have time to get this working.  I need to test things, then get it to deal with DVDs and Blu-Rays, and then I'll finish the move over to it.  Probably.  I still like WMC, as it's easy to use, but the constant Microsoft screwups are getting tiresome.

In the afternoon, I went to the airfield and looked at the oil pump on the engine - it doesn't seem to be shutting off properly.  It's not the cable by itself, and it's not the pump by itself, so it's probably the routing of the cable.  I've rerouted it a little, and that didn't seem to help too much, but it had closed down properly when I came back from my flight.  I'm thinking the rattling of the engine helps :o)  Still, too much oil just means that it's using about as much as when it's being pre-mixed, so I'm not going to lose too much sleep over it.

October 18th

I went to the airfield and barbecued for about 25 of my closest friends.  Bruce explained everything that had happened at the latest airport hangar meeting (short version - the rent is only going up by around 10%, and they're not going to be insufferable dicks about everything else), and Marty talked about his career designing propellers and rotors for the XV-15 and V-22.

October 17th

I went to the airfield for a hangar tenant meeting.  Basically the city is taking over the hangars, but doesn't seem to have a plan for how they're doing it, and have communicated this lack of a plan poorly.  We'll see what happens, but it'll be interesting.

Afterwards, Ron and I met at Costco to do the shopping for tomorrow's member's meeting barbecue.

October 15th

I started the day getting up on the roof and washing the smoke residue off the solar panels.  We'll see how long that lasts.

I changed the (endless, so I cut it off with the Dremel) chain and rear sprocket on the DRZ (it's been looking like it has some tight spots, and the rear sprockets are cheap).  The bigger (16T) front sprocket has only been on there for ~3,000 miles, and looks fine.  And is a pain to find - a lot are reported to let the chain hit the cases.  While I was working on things, I made a backing plate for the (cracked) number plate.  When you have a sheet of reasonably thick aluminium, everything is fixed by a piece of aluminium :o)

In the late afternoon, I went to the airfield and took the Flightstar out for a bimble.  The smoke's not terrible, but it is reducing visibility.

October 14th

I started the day working, then I started the process to factory reset and restore my (slowing) Nexus tablet.  Hopefully this'll fix everything up right.

After that I went to the airfield, in case anybody showed up for the poker run.  Nobody did.

I then went over to Richard's hangar to heckle him working on his new spinner, and help him re-fibreglass it when he cracked part of it drilling out a poorly placed rivet.  After that, I went home for a bit, to do some more work, and update the EAA web site.

I went back in the afternoon, rearranged the hangar (Richard Pearl's bloody golf cart should be behind my plane, so I don't need to get it out to go and fly) and went out for a few circuits.

October 11th

Ron and I decided to cancel the poker run on Saturday due to the 4 fires in the area that are killing visibility.  One is at over 850 acres, and is less than half contained.  The forecast wasn't showing any wind above 6mph before the weekend, so even if the fires were put out, there still wasn't time for the smoke to dissipate.

So obviously the wind came up this afternoon and cleared the smoke out of Roseville.  Of course, Auburn and Cameron Park are probably still a bit smokier, but we had a couple of people unable to get to Auburn 2 years ago, so it's probably the right decision.

October 10th

I got up early and played around with the hacked version of Windows Media Centre on the Windows 10 home theatre PC.  Deleting it (v6) and reinstalling the latest version (v8) seems to make it work, but I've lost the ability to search the guide for programmes, and the Blu-ray software (PowerDVD) has disappeared from WMC.  Still, it's working for now, and I have time to look into Kodi (again) and JRiver hopefully before they put in another update that breaks it.

October 9th

We started up the home theatre PC to watch TV, only to have it start upgrading (again) to Windows 10 Creator's Edition.  Despite being told not to.  And the fact that it was actually recording a programme when this started.  I can see that I'm going to have to figure something out, as Microsoft are going to force this update on me whatever I say and do.  Back to Windows 7, maybe.

October 8th

Too windy to fly, so I just pottered around the house again.  I got to go through the "backing out of the upgrade" process again on my home theatre PC, as the Windows 10 Creator's Edition breaks the hacked version of Windows Media Centre that I'm running.  Again.  I went through and did everything I can find to stop it upgrading again.

We did get to spend some time on the bracing of the tree in the front garden, as the wind had bent and broken the hollow metal support tubes that were already out there.

October 7th

I started the day at the airport cooking breakfast for 20 or so of my closest friends.  Bruce and I then went out and dropped off cards for the poker run next week.

I went back to the airfield in the evening and took the plane out for a bit.  Jeez, it's getting dark earlier.

In the evening, we watched "Wonder Woman".

October 5th

I took the van for its smog test after work, and it passed :o)  That's that for another 2 years :o)

October 4th

I went to the EAA board meeting, where things and stuff were discussed.

October 3rd

I called the smog guy, and he said "come on over", so I went on over.  After sitting in the waiting room for 45 minutes, I went out to see how he was getting on - he couldn't find the evap cannister.  I had no idea what he was talking about, and he couldn't explain to me what it did, and he was aiming to close so we bailed on it for the evening.  When I got home, I looked at the evap diagram that's in the engine bay, and found that he's (probably) talking about a charcoal cannister that plugs in to the fuel pressure regulator.  I followed the hoses out of the fuel pressure regulator and found the charcoal cannister after a brief search under the rear wheel arch.  Oh well, I can now go back again some time :o)

October 2nd

I went to try and get the van smogged, but the guy was too busy.  Bah, maybe tomorrow.

October 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

I had intended to go and drop off some of the cards for the poker run, but it was too windy (as in gusts over 20mph), so that didn't happen.