August 30th

We went to the airport early, and convinced Todd and Randy to join us up at Auburn for breakfast.  The visibility was listed at 10 miles, but I'd say we were struggling to see 5.

After lunch we flew back, but I'd say the visibility was even worse after we'd passed the ridge by Bald Hill.  Oh well, we knew where we were going :o)

When we got back, we left Todd and Randy working on the hangar doors, and headed home so I could finish the on call work day.

Oh, I've had a response from Faceberk about my account.  I think they're upset about me calling myself Dug.  You know the name I've been using forever, that isn't the name on my state issued ID.  I've downloaded my data and skimmed through it, and can't see anything I've done that would violate their terms of service.

Your account has been disabled

You can't use Facebook because your account, or activity on it, didn't follow our Community Standards. We have already reviewed this decision and it can't be reversed. To learn more about the reasons why we disable accounts visit the Community Standards.

August 29th

I'm on call this weekend, so after clearing out the stuff that came in overnight, I found out that Faceberk had disabled my account for some bullshit reason or another.  I made a start on the recovery process, then went to the airport for the display day.

I chatted to Ken for a bit, and he mentioned maybe looking at buying my old plane, but it hasn't been up for sale for a while.  I said I still have the buyer's phone number somewhere, but decided to check the registration - it's been sold and moved to Princeton, CA, which is sort of between Colusa and Willows - maybe I'll see it flying again if we ever get to have the Colusa fly in again.

I got the plane out, and taxied down for the display day stuff - I was the first one there, so yay.  I've had a grinding noise from one of the brakes, and I thought I'd fixed it, but getting to taxi at a faster speed, I really haven't.  After the display stuff was all done with, I taxied back to the hangar and took a look at the brakes - the pads looked the same as always, but I reckon they're shot, so I put on a spare set I had from Greg at Magni.  He'd never replaced a set, so he thought they might be bonded on or something, but they came off easily enough with an Allen wrench.  The new ones were significantly thicker, and I put everything back together and took the plane out for a little flight.  While the new brakes are bedding in they don't work well at all, but they're getting better all the time - at first they'd barely hold the thing still at 2,000rpm, but now they're holding it at 2,500rpm, so they're almost normal now.

I went home and got everything up to date with work, and jumped through the various hoops for Faceberk, but I'm actually not bothered about jettisoning it if they make this too difficult - I've been reading about people who couldn't re-enable their account, and then couldn't create a new account without changing their name or something.  I'd be interested to know what exactly has caused this.

August 23rd

It's still really smoky, but Chris said he was going to fly over from Cameron Park for lunch, so I went and met him.  Randy showed up too, but we agreed that flying for the sake of flying wasn't going to be much fun, so neither of us did.

August 22nd

Thanks to all the fires, it's really smoky here, meaning I didn't get to fly - I just pottered around the house working on things.

August 19th

I woke up stupidly early, so I started the day by updating the EAA website, then after work I had the EAA online meeting.

August 17th

There was a massive thunderstorm overnight, so we didn't get much sleep.

Proofpoint had Friday off as a company holiday, but obviously the entire support organisation couldn't be off all at once, so I got today off.

Randy wasn't working, so he came over and we worked on a wooden spacer bracket for his instrument panel.  We then went back to the airport, greased the rotor bearings on both planes, and tinkered around with the new bracket.  We then went home to make a few changes to it, then went back to the airport and installed it.

I ran the engine for a bit to test one of the brakes that had been dragging.  Everything seems to be fine now.

August 16th

I went over to the airport and worked on the plane for a while, getting the flex cable all greased and back together.  It was ridiculously hot, so I ended up heading home early without flying or anything.

August 15th

I'd agreed to fly Steve's future father in law, so I started the day going to the airport and off we went.  We flew around in a big circle, and flew over Gladding McBean in Lincoln, as he wanted to do that, but Steve can't fly over stuff in his powered parachute.

 

When we got back, I took his girlfriend up for a quick circuit, as she didn't want to fly for long.  Eh, the plane was out, so it wasn't a big deal.

Randy rejoined us at the airport, and after Steve and co had left, we flew up to Auburn to meet Chris for lunch.

After lunch, we flew back to Lincoln, where I started doing some servicing on the plane.

I changed the oil, spark plugs, main tyres, cleaned the air filter, retorqued stuff until I was pretty much done with the damn stupid heat.

August 13th

We watched "Bad Boys For Life."

August 12th

Today is Tilly's birthday.  She's 13.  She didn't want any toys (she has rope toys and tennis balls already) so we gave her a big peanut butter cookie, which is pretty much her favourite thing :o)

August 11th

It was pretty windy, which means that the temperature wasn't too high, so I went out and worked on the DRZ first - I've replaced the vacuum operated petrol tap with a stupid on/off one, and that means that the fuel line can be shorter.  The old fuel line didn't want to go over the output line from the petrol tap, and the new fuel line (from what I haven't used on the plane) is too thick for the clamps to work, so I ended up using screw on clamps.  I then had to take all that off so I could take the tank off to put a piece of folded over vacuum hose on the carb to cap that off.  It all looks like it should work, but I want to get some fresh fuel to test it with, as it's pretty old now.

I then went and worked on the power window line on the van again - it had forced the guide off again, so I reinstalled that.  Again.

August 9th

Something (I thought mosquito, but now I'm starting to think maybe a spider) has bitten me on the hand, and despite taking a Benadryl (tm) last night, I woke up with a swollen hand.  It doesn't hurt, it's just a bit itchy and swollen :(

Jen had expressed an interest in flying Oroville with us for lunch, so she met me at home and I drove us to the airport.  We took off and played around waiting for Randy and Mehul to get in the air.  We then pottered up to Oroville.

Chris met us up there in his RV, landing just before we did.

We flew back along the Feather River, but for some reason we don't seem to have shown up on anybody's radar on the way home.

In the early evening, Gwen came and picked up her PC (that I couldn't find anything wrong with), so I'm starting to get to the point where I can look at the DRZ :o)

August 8th

First thing, we got up in the attic and took down the fan in there that's started screeching.  I think the bearings are failing, and there's what looks like oil on the motor.  I'll see about replacing the motor or just throw the thing away and get a new one.

I pottered around the house for the rest of the day, then went for a flight in the early evening.  I flew over Todd's house, didn't see anybody, so I flew over home, Randy's, then over to Chris', then went home.  At 2500' it was fairly cool, but descending to 1000' at Lincoln, it was a lot warmer.

August 7th

I spent some time steeling myself to drill a bigassed hole in the wall of the laundry room, then went ahead and did it.  That went surprisingly well, so we went ahead and built the OpenEVSE adapter, then got ready to plug it in.  The car tells us when it'll be fully charged, so I plugged it in and it said it'd be fully charged by 03:30.  I then plugged in the new charger, and it said it'd be ready in an hour :o)  I think we'll call that done - OK, it's running at 24a, where the car can accept 32a (and the charger supports 48a, for a later, faster charging car), but it's still something like 5x faster.

August 5th

Gwen and CJ came over after work with Jazebra to pick up their laptop that I'd got working.  I hadn't had a chance to look at the desktop, but a quick squint after they'd left showed it seeming to work - I just need the password now :o)

I watched an online meeting about flying in to Truckee airport, as one day I might get around to doing that.

I managed to get to Lowe's to pick up some face plates for the OpenEVSE charger project, so hopefully now I'll manage to make some more progress on that and even get it built and installed :o)

August 4th

I got a reply from the OpenEVSE people, and they said the connector was fine, I just need to use the screw in blocks for them.  Their instructions aren't up to date.

Randy texted me to say that the family were playing in Chris' swimmy pool, and it would be cool if I could fly over them.  So, after work, I went over to the airport and dragged the plane out.  I flew over to Chris', and spent a short while finding the house, then did a couple of laps - there was nobody in the pool, so I headed back.

I texted Randy when I'd landed, and they left Chris' shortly before I got there :o(

On the way home I stopped and picked up some switch plate blanks for the car charger project, then got a text message from Gwen - their laptop's died, so could I take a look at it.  I stopped in there on the way home and picked it, and a desktop that's not working, up.  I'll try and look at them tomorrow :o)

August 3rd

My OpenEVSE finally arrived, and I made a start on building it.  I got stuck by a connector that's missing a couple of pins, so I'll have to log a support ticket with them in the morning.

August 2nd

After tidying up work, I went and met Randy so we could fly to Auburn for breakfast.

After breakfast we flew back again.

We tinkered with Randy's plane a little before heading home so I could catch up with work.

In the evening, we watched "Birds of Prey".  It was not a good movie, IMHO.

August 1st

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

Power billed

Power generated

I started the day working, as I was on call, then went to the airfield, doing my biennial flight review with Ken.  It was pretty quiet at the airfield, so we managed to do everything pretty close in :o)

Once that was all over and done with, Randy had shown up with a couple of people he was taking for a flight, so I took one of them, Laurel, and we flew around Beale Air Force Base.

Chris showed up (in the car - he wasn't feeling well) just as we were done, so we met Vic at the Spitfire Cafe for lunch.  Afterwards, we tinkered around with Randy's plane for a little bit, then headed home so I could catch up on work again.

July 31st

I got up early and went to the airport.  I got to take a look at a Bristell that Ken was working on, then took the gyro out for a flight to practice some maneuvres.