May 27th

We went over to the airfield so I could take a look at the plane - I was thinking there'd be a few things to tidy up, but it all looks ready to go, from what I can tell.

I was covering for our guy in Australia, so that buggered up the rest of my day, but Ken texted me to tell me Richard and Sue had been killed in a crash in Petaluma :o(

May 26th

I had intended to go and fly with Rick in the Flightstar, but the sky was covered in big cumulus clouds, so it was going to be bumpy.  I decided against that (I'm sure he'd have gone for it, but I don't want to scare the guy just yet).

In the evening, we watched "Black Panther".

May 25th

After work, we went to Davis to watch Don's band, The Funicellos, play.  I think they sound better than the last band he was in :o)

May 24th

Ken texted to say everything's pretty much done on the Magni, so now I need to get over there and tidy stuff up.

May 23rd

Ken texted to say he was popping down tomorrow, so I went to the airport and dropped off all the parts I've accumulated for the Magni.  The new PTT switches fit without any sort of modification, and an old hair tie takes off the parking brake, so we're pretty much there :o)

May 20th

Ken had an annual inspection to do on a parachute, so I met him for lunch, then we looked at the brake bracket he'd made up.  Unfortunately it bends in use, so we ended up drilling an extra hole on the original bracket, and that looks like it'll work OK.  There isn't enough movement to take the parking brake off, so we're going to look at playing with some springs to see if we can rectify that.  The clicky pen spring I had isn't quite strong enough.

The other push to talk switch I had was also a closed switch, but Ken found on in his box 'o stuff.  It was ever so slightly too big, so I tried turning it down a bit, but it fell apart, so I'll need to order some and see what I can do with that.  Ken's away next weekend, but we think we should be able to fly it on the weekend after that.

May 19th

I dropped the modified throttle off with Ken, then went and cooked pancake breakfasts at the LRAA display day.  We had a muted turnout, but there were a couple of people who'd been at the Young Eagles event, so hopefully we can get more word of mouth turnout in future months.

Ken came over and said he thought he'd got the throttle all sorted out, so when I was done there, I went over and checked it out - it works fine, yay.  We've started tinkering with the brake lever, and need to make up a mounting bracket for that.  Sadly the toggle switch I had to use for the radio push to talk was a normally closed switch, and we needed a normally opened switch, so I'll check in my box o' stuff at home.

John had texted to see what I was doing, and came and met us at the airport to see the gyro for the first time.

After we left the airport, we went out and had an early dinner before John needed to head home.

May 18th

I went over and met Ken and we played with the throttle for the gyro.  We have a problem in that the throttle is too hard to shut, due to springs that open the throttle - those are needed to keep the carbs in sync.  We played with various things and stuff, and I took the throttle unit home and took out a stop to allow us more throttle movement, which should hopefully help by allowing us to increase the mechanical advantage.

May 17th

The parts for the Magni have come in, so I went over to the airfield and got in Ken's way while he worked on things and stuff.  We bonded a plate with a pulley to the side - we were going to use fibreglass, but Jack showed up with some carbon fibre, so we used that instead.  While we were waiting for it to dry, we went and got lunch, then did some tinkering for a while, then I went over to Cameron Park and flew for an hour with Don in his Magni.  While my upper air work was fine, I need to work on the landings a little, as I managed to touch the tail (it's OK, it has a roller for exactly this reason) a couple of times.

May 16th

I went to the EAA membership meeting, where Dubs talked about getting back into flying after a 40 year break.  It was funny, as he had a list of web sites he visited, and one of them was mine :o)  I talked to him after the presentation, and he didn't realise that was me :o)

May 15th

We went to dinner with Jen, then went and watched "Avengers: Infinity War".

May 13th

We're still waiting for parts for the gyroplane (it seems they're finished, they just aren't here), so I spent the day doing things around the house.

May 12th

I got up early and went to the airport to help with the EAA Young Eagles event.  I explained how planes work until it was time to start barbecuing, then I helped with the taking everything down and packing it away when it was all finished.  We flew 69 kids - of the 75 that had booked, 65 showed up, which is pretty good.  We've had a lot more just not show up in the past.

May 11th

Ken had texted me to say he thought we should get a new throttle unit for the conversion, as it looks like the unit takes a lot of force over time, and is wearing out.  It wasn't new when we installed it on the S-17, and that was over 10 years ago :o)  I went over to Motion Pro, as they're based in Loomis, and picked one up at lunch.  Of course, I'd decided to take the DRZ, and it was blowing a gale, making it a bit more exciting than I'd anticipated.

After work I went over to the airport to help with the setup for the Young Eagles event, but they were all pretty much done when I got there - yay!

May 10th

The rabbit had a fit of mad running around at around 04:30, and I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up and updated the EAA web site with the new newsletter.

May 9th

I'd intended to go over to Marysville to fly with Rick again, but he couldn't get the plane out of the hangar, again, so Vic and I went out and got pizza instead.

May 7th

After work, I went over to Marysville and flew some circuits with Rick in the Flightstar.

May 6th

I was on call, so after that was over, I was supposed to be going to Marysville to fly with Rick, but he got a call to say he couldn't get the plane out of the hangar, so we called that off.

May 5th

I started the day at the airport helping cook breakfast, then sat in on the board meeting.  Ken's away, so there was nothing else to do, and I went home, as I was on call.

May 1st

It's a new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

April 30th

After work I went back over to Marysville and did some more hops with Rick in the Flightstar.  We did pretty well, especially in a fairly decent crosswind (the main runway's about twice the length of the crosswind runway).  It seems he doesn't have a license (I thought he was just rusty), having flown ultralights before.  I'm going to see if Ken wants to work with him, as it's not like I can sign him off to solo.  I'm going to look out for a hangar at Lincoln for him, so I could end up ferrying the Flightstar back again :o)

April 29th

After all the fun yesterday, we tried to have a calmer day.

In the afternoon, I went over to Marysville and fixed the cut off switch for the Flightstar (it was just a disconnected wire), then did some short hops with Rick, so he can say he's at least flown his new plane :o)  It's an odd setup there, as he calls the hangar owner, and they get the plane out for him, then he calls them again when he's done and they put it away when they're good and ready.  This means it's going to spend a lot of time sitting out overnight, as we generally fly at the end of the day, when they've gone home.  I'd be looking for another hangar if it were me.