March 25th

Vic surprised Tilly and me getting home - we're used to hearing her drive up :o)

March 24th

Vic and I flew up to Auburn to meet Chris for breakfast.  While Vic went and put our name on the list at the grill, we talked to Jim, who owns the Quickie Q200 we keep seeing and gawping at.  It took some 16 years to build, but he's won all manner of awards, including a Lindy at Oshkosh.

After breakfast, Chris went home to play tennis, and we flew to Watts-Woodland.  The local GM dealer there was supposed to be meeting us at the airport with a Chevy Bolt, but somehow managed to go to Yolo.  After several phone calls, he arrived and we did the paperwork - Vic drove him back to the dealership, and then home, and I flew back to Lincoln (after talking to Mike, one of the local RV pilots, for about 20 minutes).  I was in the hangar talking to John when Vic got home to find that we hadn't thought to bring house keys or the garage door clicker - doy.  I offered to open the garage door from the airport using the "stupid little gadget" I'd installed a month or so ago, so all was well.

When I got home, we went out for a little drive so I could see how the car handles (it's a couple of years since I last drove one).  I managed to go around the long block without using the brakes once, as I had it in the max regen mode.  Yay :o)  It's going to take a little getting used to for both of us, as it's a totally different sight picture than the Jeep.  Or the van.  I'm going to get a level 2 charger at some point, but for now it looks like we'll be able to get by with the 110v charger.

Jen came over on her way home from work to pick up some Game of Thrones DVDs, join us for dinner (we drove - we usually take her Golf as it's easier to all get in and out of), then sit in the hot tub with Vic before I turned it off for the summer.

When we got back from dinner, I plugged the car in, and it said it'd be fully charged in about 5 hours - we probably won't use it much more than it got used today most of the time.

March 23rd

I went over to help Chris with some tinkering on his gyro - it was a little screwed up from the start, as he didn't have the card key to get in to the airport, so we used the pedestrian gate and carried tools down to the hangar.  We then found that he didn't have a scissor jack to get the plane up in the air to take one wheel off (to turn the tyre around).  We also didn't have a jiggle hose to empty the fuel tank - I'd originally suggested we use the fuel pumps on the plane, but we tried siphoning it out for a bit, then went and got a hand pump.  When that looked like it'd take all damn day, we plugged the hose we already had in to the fuel line and pumped the tank out.  We then changed the fuel filter.  Score 1.  Interestingly we both thought the tank would have a couple of unusable gallons in the bottom, but when we took out the drain, we found maybe a cupful left inside.  We replaced the (leaking) drain.  Score 2.  We then pulled the dash out, as the oil temperature probe has been playing up, and Dayton had suggested it was a connection problem.  We couldn't see anything wrong, so we went out to lunch and got some electrolytic grease and neoprene washers, then put washers under the larger instrument mounting screws (where they're starting to crack the carbon fibre panel), then put everything back together.  Well, it still runs, and everything still seems to work.

While I was at Cameron Park, the remaining Jeep parts were collected, so yay.

March 21st

Well, the Jeep's gone.  Paul texted me and said they wanted to surprise their daughter (who the car's for), so they were going to pretend they were coming to me to pick up a car part.  They knocked on the door, Tilly barked, I said "let me come out, so she doesn't bother everybody" and we wandered out to the drive, where the Jeep was parked.  I opened the garage door, and pointed at the pile o' stuff from the Jeep, and Paul asked his daughter what she thought of the Jeep.  She said it was cool, so I gave her the keys and said "here, have it".  She was like "whatever" until they said it was hers, at which point she pretty much collapsed on the floor :o)  She and her mother drove of in it, and Paul and I did the paperwork, then he left to join them at lunch.  Yay.

March 20th

I agreed the sale of the Jeep - basically they're buying it as a gift for their daughter, so they want us to hang on to it until the weekend.  Sure, we can do that.

March 19th

I got up early and advertised the Jeep.  I started getting interest almost immediately, which is a good sign :o)

In the evening we finished tidying it up, and took all our stuff out of it.

March 18th

We spent some time cleaning the Jeep up and getting it ready to sell.  Yes, it's been almost 9 years, so it's time for something more practical :o)

March 17th

Chris and I were going to meet up at Auburn to run down the canyon, and video ourselves doing it.  I left early, and he was running late, so I flew over towards Folsom Lake and up the river to approach Auburn from the South for once.  Of course, the wind was blowing from the east, so I couldn't do a 45 join, and had to do an overhead join, just in front of Chris.  We compared notes, started cameras and headed out - it's the first time I've taken off on 07 - usually we're on 25 by the time we get around to leaving.  We ran down the canyon and a good time was had by all - my video is here.

As I approached Lincoln, there was a Rans Coyote behind me, and I figured he'd be going faster than me in the circuit, so I slowed right down and let him pass, then toddled on.  I was on finals and offered to let Andy get out in front of me, but he said he wanted to watch me land.  No pressure then :o)

When I got home, Vic and I went out to lunch, and she suggested going to the Chevy dealer so she could see just how f*ck off bright lime green "Shock" is on the Bolt.  They didn't have one on the lot, but offered to drive over to their storage lot and get one - we went along for the ride and Vic drove it back.  We then asked for the numbers, and spent a couple of hours dealing with their nonsense before I gave up and said it wasn't going to work out.  I fully expect a phone call in the week.

March 16th

I'd agreed to meet Chris and Randy at Auburn airport for lunch, but I wanted to dink about on the way.  Of course, you talk to one person and then another, and then another, and you end up rushing to just get there on time.  After lunch we ran down the canyon to Lincoln, as Chris wanted to talk to Ken, who'd already left.  Oh well.

The window winder thing broke again on the van on the way home, so I think I'll need to find a stock VW regulator to replace the aftermarket one.  In the meantime, I might convert it back to a manual window.

March 10th

Vic and I went over to the airfield and took the plane out to shoot some video - the image stabilisation works excellently.  I took off on the same runway as everybody else, despite the ~8mph tailwind, and listened to the people in the pattern finally sorting out using the correct runway.  We flew up the canyon (a bit higher than usual because it was blowy), turning back when I started to see water on the windscreen.  There was a point where I'd throttled back, put the nose down to the point where we were doing 80mph, and we were still getting sucked up at 600' a minute, so we headed back to Lincoln.

March 9th

I went over to the airport and sanded down the epoxy I'd put on the nick in my propeller.  I then noticed how bad previous repairs were, but I think I'll ignore those for the moment.  I made sure the new mount was going to work for the GoPro, stuck it on the mast and went over to the EAA hangar and cooked lunch for about 30 people.  As it was alternatively raining and blowing a gale, and I was on call, I went home and played Warcraft.

March 3rd

It's still crappy weather, so I played a bunch of Warcraft, then went to the airport and put some goo on a nick in the prop - once it's dried, I'll sand it smooth again and look at putting some prop tape on it to hopefully protect it from small nicks in the future.

I was working in the afternoon, so I... worked.

March 2nd

I went to the airport and cooked breakfast for 20 or so of my closest friends.  It was throwing it down with rain on and off, so I wasn't going to be able to fly, and the van was blocked in, so I stayed and heckled the Board meeting.

March 1st

A new month, so here are the power stats - all the rain recently hasn't helped any.

Power billed

Power generated