Monday, October 31, 2022

October 30th

I was pretty tired after the last week and a couple of miles of walking at over 6,000', so I played around on the computer most of the day.  I did, however, put together some video from the creek we walked along:



Sunday, October 30, 2022

October 29th

I drove over to Cameron Park to meet Chris.  We ended up retorquing his prop bolts, then flying the Lee Vining, by Mono Lake.

We hit 11,500' on the way there, and Chris used oxygen while we were up there (it's only required after 20 minutes) but only has 1 bottle (I've only been that high once in the gyroplane, so I've never even looked at it.)

We wandered through the (tiny) town, had lunch, then walked the trail along the creek there.


We briefly touched 13,000' on the way back, and I saw my blood oxygen level hit 44%.  Oops, I'm going to have a headache tonight.

Thursday, October 27, 2022

October 27th

We'd been invited up to Nevada County airport for a show and tell with one of the local schools' first grade class, so Shane and I flew up to answer questions about the gyroplanes.

Kids are weird.  Adults want to know how they fly, how fast they go and how far you can go in them.  Kids want to know why there are so many buttons.

We met (and Shane chatted with) Juan Browne of Blancolirio YouTube fame.

At home I sorted out a video of me landing there.


October 26th

We started what looks like a miserable process dealing with the insurance company over the car.

Vic went and organised getting it towed down the hill and dropped off at the Chevy dealer in Roseville.

I dealt with the assessor.  He's said the Chevrolet dealer isn't one of their approved repairers, so they'll have to approve any repairs before they happen.  I'm probably going to end up telling them they can send it wherever they want, but if it's not a certified GM EV repair centre, I'll be wanting a letter from them saying they'll accept liability in the case that it catches fire somewhere because a panel repairer was chosen to repair the cooling system.  These aren't like your average internal combustion engine car, and they need to be aware of that. 

October 25th

Vic had been up in Auburn, and on the way back on the freeway she hit something - she thinks it was a ladder.  The front of the car looked OK, but the bottom's torn up and it's leaking fluid, most likely coolant for the battery.  She called me, and I went and picked her up, leaving the car in a gas station parking lot (well away from the pumps.)

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

October 24th

We'd had a company holiday on Friday, and obviously everybody in support couldn't be off at the same time, so I had Monday off.  I intended to work on some things on the van.  When I went to look at replacing the O2 sensor in the catalytic converter (because the fuel economy's gone down a bit,) I was thinking it looked like a lot of aggravation to get the old connector out.  Just generally checking the engine, I found a couple of slightly loose spark plugs, which could well be the issue, so I figured I'd just tighten them and call it fixed.

Monday, October 24, 2022

October 23rd

I flew to Auburn to meet Chris, Tim, Shane and Liza for brunch.  I left early, so I flew towards Cameron Park hoping to hear Chris leave, but the first I heard of him was 5 miles out from Auburn, so I was a bit later than them getting there.  Exactly on time for Shane and Liza (who drove) though.


It was chuffing windy, as you can see in my speed graph - ~70kts on the way out to Folsom, and ~45kts on the way back to Auburn...

After breakfast, I flew straight home, as the turbulence was less fun than I'd hoped.


Sunday, October 23, 2022

October 22nd

I went to the airport early to fly a couple of Young Eagles for the EAA.


After that, I stayed for the EAA lunch and Brent's presentation about his Mini-IMP airplane.

Friday, October 21, 2022

October 20th

I'd taken the day off to go to a school day thing up at the Grass Valley airport, but that was rescheduled and I couldn't be bothered to cancel the day off, so I decided to get some stuff done.

We dropped the car off at the Chevy dealer so it could get a software update, and Vic dropped me home on her way to work.
They then called to say that the EV guy wasn't coming in today, so they couldn't do the software update.  That's all well and good, but I'd already told them not to rush because I couldn't come and get it if it was done by 11:00.

There's an LED by the water dispenser on the new fridge that's supposed to come on when you get water.  It's never worked, so I logged a ticket with Samsung to get that fixed, and the guy was supposed to be here between 13:00 and 17:00.  I was hoping earlier rather than later, so I went out and cut the grass in the morning, then settled in to screw about on the computer while I was waiting.
At 16:35 he called to say he was 35 minutes away in Yuba City, and I told him not to bother because
a) Yuba City is a 45 minute drive without traffic, and it's 16:35 and
b) I have to go and collect the car that hasn't had the software update it was dropped off for

Vic picked me up on her way home from work, and ran me over to the Chevy dealer.  They were very apologetic about it, and we'll figure something out.

So, on my day off the only thing I achieved was getting the grass cut.  Which I'd have done in the evening after work if I didn't have the day off and have to go and collect the car after Vic's work day.  FML.

Monday, October 17, 2022

October 16th

I was still on call, so I cleared out the support tickets, then Vic and I went to the airport for the monthly lake flypast.


We had intended to go to Auburn for breakfast, but the weather up there was crappy.  Actually, down in Lincoln it still wasn't great - there was a lot of haze.  Anyway, we parked the plane and closed the hangar, then went and got breakfast.

At home, I cleared more stuff at work out.

Sunday, October 16, 2022

October 15th

I was on call, I got up early to clear everything out at work, then met Shane and Randy at the airport so we could fly to Watts-Woodland for their display day.

There were fewer planes than last time, but more cars.

When we got back to Lincoln, we all trooped out to get some lunch before heading home.

The home theatre PC has been crashing after a few hours' viewing, and I figure this is probably heat.  I decided to disable the graphics card (NVidia 730) and use the one on the motherboard, to see if that would help.  When I disabled the graphics card, Windows fell back to using its default adapter drivers, which are stuck at 1024x768, which wouldn't let Kodi start.  Of course, I hadn't expected this, so I had to get into the Task Manager and disable the auto start before it had started, as it would never get past the error :o(  I eventually managed that, and couldn't see a way of bypassing the NVidia drivers while leaving the card in place, and the motherboard HDMI port wouldn't work with the NVidia card installed.  So I got to take the PC apart and remove the card.

It still came up in 1024x768, so I had to figure out what motherboard it is (MSI B150 Mortar, for reference) so I could figure out what drivers to install, and as I found out it's an Intel 530, Windows installed the drivers for it, even though I'd told it like 4x to upgrade the drivers.

Then I just had to install the Intel controller software (from the Microsoft Store, that's a first) to get full RBG rather than the dumb cut down RGB for LDS screens, and I had real black on the OLED TV.  I even got to watch "Family Guy."  Now we'll see if it's truly fixed...

Friday, October 14, 2022

October 13th

I went to an FAA web conference on mid air collisions, which seems timely due to the Watsonville crash a short while ago.

October 12th

We watched "Bad Teacher."

Monday, October 10, 2022

October 9th

There'd been a note on the hangar door talking about an inspection by the city, and cut locks if the hangar was locked.  They said 72 hours from 10/6 at 12:23, so we got there early and tidied up, putting all the empty gas cans and suchlike in the van and Randy's truck, then left the hangar open and went for a flight around Beale Air Force Base.

As usual we dropped off ADS-B when we got to the part of the map labelled "here be dragons."

Back at the hangar, no sign of inspectors, and Chris showed up.  We left the hangar open and went to lunch.  When we got back, no sign of inspectors, but Marty in the hangar next door said "tomorrow," so Randy'll deal with it as he's off.

Saturday, October 8, 2022

October 8th

I got up early and went to the airport for the Airport Day, which was open to the public.  The plan was to have the balloon lift happen at 07:30, so I took off at 07:30 to watch the take off.

So, there was a Cherokee doing pattern work, meaning I couldn't just fly around in circles, so I toddled off to the West for a bit and screwed around, then headed back as everything was starting up, and the balloons were just lifting off.

I parked up with Randy and Chris (who'd flown in from Cameron Park - Shane's come down with the COVID :o() and spent the day looking at the planes and cars, and answering questions about the gyroplanes.

In the evening, I threw together a video of the balloon:



October 7th

Gwen and CJ (and Jazebra) came over and picked up the fridge from the garage.  Now I need to put everything back where it was :o)

October 5th

I attended a web conference on operations at untowered airports, like Lincoln.

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

October 2nd

We got up and joined the family for breakfast, then left them heading South and headed back North and home.  Charging the car was free again in Gilroy, and while I pottered about with Tilly (she was fine) at home, Vic fast charged the car for free at the mall.

Sunday, October 2, 2022

October 1st

A new month, so here are the stats...

Power billed

Power generated

Our plan had been to have Tilly stay with our next door neighbours, and we dropped her off early so we'd be about if there were issues.  There were issues - she wouldn't settle down and stop whining, so it was decided that she'd stay at home, and they'd check in on her.  She's used to spending 22 hours a day asleep around our house, so we left her to it.

We drove down to Pacific Grove to meet Russ and Deepah, and hand over the parents.  The high point of the drive was stopping at Gilroy to charge and find that it looks like Electrify America's free this weekend.

When Russ and Deeps arrived (in their Tesla) we walked up the road to dinner, and a good time was had by all.

September 30th

Dad and I moved the old fridge into the garage.  We had to take the doors off to get it through the front door, then put them back on once it was out there.

Dad and I went to the airport so we could do the Bear Creek flight.  Oh, and give way to a Gulfstream coming in to Lincoln :o)