Vic and I went to the airport and flew up to Auburn for lunch. The smoke was pretty bad, so I ran along the ridge rather than go straight there.
The flight back was a bit more fraught, as Auburn was quoting 9 miles visibility, but Lincoln was quoting 3.5 as we approached. Still, I know where I'm going :o)
I went to the airport and took the plane out for a flight. The visibility was awful, and Camp Far West Lake is almost dry.
I've taken the week off, and Vic's off for the first half of this week.
Vic's been thinking about getting a bicycle, so we went and looked at the Specialized bike dealer in Roseville. I suggested she try one of the electric assist bikes, and she seems to have enjoyed it. More things to think about :o)
We started the day going to the airport and tried to install the brackets I'd made for the drip tray. I'd missed the angle that it needed to be installed at. We went and had lunch, then went home so I could remake the brackets.
We went back and installed them, and it took a long time, as it was a bit of a nightmare, but eventually we got it all done.
Randy and I met at the airport to tinker with the planes, then went out for a flight. The cafe at Auburn is closed this weekend, so we figured we'd meet Chris at Cameron Park and fly back to Lincoln, then have lunch there. I wanted to fly over Don's house, so I put what I believe to be the GPS coordinates in, and we headed out. The wind was blowing from the North, so the smoke is starting to come back in, but because the AWOS was calling calm winds, everybody was using 15. So we took off downwind, and shortly after that, they changed the runway.
Randy had texted Chris to say we'd meet in the air, and I announced on the radio that we were passing overhead (we could see Chris' gyro ready to go), then heading to the West and out to the lake. We were puttering around over the lake (I got down to 29mph ground speed per Flightaware without really trying, as there was quite a strong headwind) and Randy texted Chris to see where he was, as he hadn't taken off yet - he still thought we were landing. So, we toddled back to Lincoln and put the gyros away, just in time to close up the hangar and head over to Mary's.
After lunch, we all headed to our respective homes, and I started playing with a bracket to replace the broken carb drip tray on the plane. Hopefully I can get that installed tomorrow and fly again.
Vic took the van and went to spend a few days at her mother's, so I'm
Vic's taken some time off, and took Tilly to the park. They weren't out that long, but it seems Tilly crashed once by herself, and was rolled once by a German Shepherd. So, Tilly's going to be tired for a few days.
In the afternoon, she went and got her hair done again.
I'd mentioned to Jen about going to Auburn for breakfast, as she'd found the trip to Oroville a bit too long, so she came over and we flew to Auburn.
The smoke seemed to have finally cleared, so Randy and I met at the airport. The smoke was looking pretty bad, so we gave up on going to Petaluma and decided to just loop Beale. Well, as we got under Beale airspace, I suggested we turn around, as the visibility was getting noticeably worse. We decided to head for Far West Lake to the East of us, but gave up on that soon, too. We thought we'd go South and fly over our houses, and eventually had to give up on that and just went back to the airport, where we parked up and went for lunch at Mary's.
I went to the EAA membership meeting in Zoom. We had a talk about flying the RQ-4 Global Hawk, which sounds like something from a 1980s flight simulator.
Tilly got me up early to go out and pee, and I noticed that I could see the moon and Venus. Maybe the smoke's clearing a little? No, later on the visibility was crap. No big deal, it's not like I could fly anyway, as:
a) I'm working
b) there's a TFR over McClellan airport, pretty much grounding everything in the area. The president's visiting the fire control people
Randy called to say the electric skateboard controller is under warranty until the 7th of October, so he was going to the airport to pull that and send it in :o)
Having done nothing all day yesterday because of the smoke, I'd hoped to be able to fly today. No such luck... the visibility was possibly even worse than yesterday.
Chris and Randy had suggested we meet for brunch, so I picked Randy up and we met Chris over in Folsom. On the way back we decided to go to the airport, as Chris had fallen off Randy's electric skateboard and broken one of the control cables. Chris thought we could solder it back together, but I suggested just buying a new cable. Well, with the new cable, it doesn't work, so I suggested we test the new cable to make sure there wasn't a short or something inside it. I thought I had a multimeter at the airport, but I didn't, so we grabbed the cable and took it home and tested it. All the wires are connected to something at the other end, which suggests the controller board has failed - there's pretty much nothing else it can be, as the battery is holding voltage.
Vic had taken Tilly to the dog park again, and this time they come home when Tilly was rolled off her feet by a German Shepherd puppy. She's not as sore as last weekend, but she's still a little stiff.
Randy texted me later in the day to say he'd found the testing procedure for the controller board, and it seemed simple enough. Even later, he went out and tested the board and it looks like that's dead. He's not sure, but he thinks it might still be under warranty, which'll save Chris another headache.
The wind has really picked up today, which I'd hoped would blow the smoke out so we can see better when we're flying.
However, it's just got darker and started looking like Mars again :o(
Today was Labo(u)r Day, when Americans celebrate the success of their unions by going shopping. Even if it's only on Amazon.
Tilly was a lot better this morning - she's still sore, but she's walking when she doesn't have to, which is a positive.
I went and met Chris for lunch at Lincoln, and we took a quick flight before he headed back to Cameron Park and I went home to get some work done :o(
Vic took Tilly to the dog park, and she ran until she started to fall over. I had to lift her out of the van when they got back, and she (Tilly) spent most of the day lying in the same spot, sleeping.
Randy suggested we fly, rather than drive over to meet Chris for lunch, so I picked him up and we headed over there. The visibility was actually better than we've seen for a while - there was a layer of crap at around 750', but once we'd flown through that, we could see Folsom Lake.
He'd finished putting the patch on his fuel tank, so we went for lunch, then flew back to Lincoln. The visibility hadn't got any worse, and we could see the casino from the lake.
When I got home, Tilly was all kinds of sore, so we spent the evening helping her out to the garden and suchlike. Has she learned not to overdo it? I very much doubt it.
It's still pretty smoky here. We'd talked about flying to Oroville and Brownsville, but we ended up just flying to Auburn.
At Lincoln, we tinkered around with Chris' gyro, as he has a slight fuel leak.
A new month, so here are the stats:
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| Power billed |
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| Power generated |
I went ahead and deleted the Faceberk app from my phone and tablet, as it doesn't look like they'll be letting me back on their platform.
