December 31st

 

Last year's flight destinations...

December 27th

I got the latest utility bill from Roseville.  Looks like the water leak's fixed :o)

December 25th

We spent the morning trying to get Tilly to eat something - she wasn't interested in her kibble, a little interested in chicken, a little interested in baby food with ginger cookies in it, a little interested in carrots and quite interested in bananas and sausage.  She's recently bored of fried rice, wet dog food (different flavours), steamed rice, hot dogs (beef and turkey) and most of her dog biscuits :o(

I spent a little time playing with some video, and came up with a Far West Lake flyby video for the year:

During that time, I managed to delete last year's flyby video, so I've reuploaded that:

I then went and took the plane out - mostly flying in a bigassed circle so I could bother some people who didn't come out and wave :o(

December 24th

I flew out to Oroville to meet Chris for lunch.  We'd initially agreed on 12:00, but then Chris was running early so he called and suggested 11:45.  Paul was in his hangar when we got to Oroville, so we stopped and chatted to him long enough that Chris could no longer get the breakfast burrito by the time we got to the golf club for lunch.

December 23rd

The weather was bad, then goodish, then bad, then good, by which time I'd given up on trying to fly.  We did take Tilly next door to see Pumpkin, but all the grand dogs there sort of freaked her out and she wanted to come home again.

December 21st

We got Tilly's official photo with Santa.

December 18th

Well, SkyAware Anywhere's working again :o)

December 17th

I've noticed that my ADS-B listener seems to be sending data, but I can't see anything on the "SkyAware Anywhere" page.  I started tinkering with things and found there'd been a software update, so I installed that.  I tried looking at the local maps, and couldn't even get to them.  They're provided by lighttpd, so I tinkered around with that to find it wasn't starting.  Checking around, it looks like it needed to be reinstalled, so I did that.  Despite it saying it wasn't touching the config, it screwed that up and I stopped uploading data.  I decided to just start over on a new micro-SD card.

Chris texted about meeting at the airport, so I drove over and collected him and Perry, then we went to lunch.

After lunch, I got the micro-SD card up and running, and got that working.  Data was flowing, the local maps are now working and updating but the Anywhere map still doesn't work.  So I gave up - that comes from the FlightAware servers rather than me directly.

December 16th

I'm still not feeling great, so I wasn't going to be flying anywhere.

We took Tilly to see Santa.

I did start tinkering with some video, but I realised the clips are too long so I need to start over :o(

December 13th

We were supposed to be going to the EAA Xmas party, but I'm sick - my second cold of the season.  It's my own fault for going out amongst the disease vectors, sorry, public.

December 10th

I got up stupid early and went to the airport to fly to Cameron Park and collect Judi.

Randy was flying Judi's cousin, and we went and met Chris at Auburn for lunch.

After lunch, Chris flew Judi back to Cameron Park and I went straight back to Lincoln.

At home, I got a load of leaves cleared out in the garden.  I'm sure that'll last, he said, knowing it won't.

December 9th

I started the day at the airport getting breakfast at the EAA hangar, then getting nagged into buying tickets for the Xmas party.

After breakfast, I took the plane out for a flight to look at Camp Far West Lake reservoir and the Feather River to see the leaves changing colour.

At home, we mounted a couple of solar powered lights to the side of the house to hopefully scare off the skunk that's tearing the ground to pieces digging up worms.

December 5th

We talked to the vet about Tilly's test results - it sounds like she has Cushing's disease and is unlikely to make it past her 18th or 20th birthday.

We've pretty much agreed that this isn't something we're going to stress about yet, as other than maybe drinking more (and a lot of that ends up on the floor, so who really knows?) she's not showing any of the standard symptoms... her appetite isn't great, her lethargy is probably because she's 16 (and almost 4 months,) her hair's looking fine and she definitely doesn't look bloated.  She also doesn't have thin skin or other skin problems or bladder infections.

Basically it seems that nobody realised how many dogs are getting this because it just looks like old age a lot of the time, and she is so very, very old.

December 4th

We took Tilly to the vet for her annual inspection.  This was our first visit as part of the Dog Aging Project's precision cohort, so there were a bunch more tests to be done.  We also decided to try some drugs to help her with her arthritis and (hopefully) sleeping all night.

I went and met Randy at the airport and got the oil filter wrench back so I could tighten the filter about 1/4 turn.  After lunch, I went for a brief test flight and everything seemed fine afterwards.

December 3rd

I went to the airport and test flew the plane.

There was a slight oil leak at the oil filter, and I need my oil filter wrench to tighten it.  I ended up driving up to Auburn to meet Chris and Perry for lunch.

December 2nd

Vic and I went to the airport and finished up the service on the plane - greasing bearings and so on, then went to lunch.  It was crappy weather so there wasn't much else to do.

December 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

November 29th

I got the utility bill for Roseville, and our water use is way down even though we were leaking water for a while at the beginning of the month.

As I was wrapping up at work, John called to say he was in the area and came over.  After chatting for a while, we were just heading out to get something to eat when Vic got home, so we took her with us.

November 28th

I took the day off to do a bunch of stuff I didn't manage to get done on Sunday.  After tidying up the garden a little, I went to the airport and did some work on the plane.  It's now almost finished with the 1500 hour service - I need a hand to do the remaining bits.

November 26th

I went to the airport and flew to Auburn to met Chris, Perry, Shane and Liza for lunch.

After lunch, I flew back.  Luckily the 2 planes flying circuits and landing downwind left and landed and stopped so I could land into wind :o)

I sat and waited for the engine to cool down a bit, then started the oil draining.  That usually takes 10 minutes or so, so then I get everything ready to change the filter - I was testing using using a diesel exhaust fluid funnel that I'd bought on Amazon for less than $2 to catch the oil from the filter, but I couldn't find my damned oil filter wrench anywhere.  I looked several times, and eventually resolved to go home and get my strap wrench that barely fits behind the exhaust to try and get the filter off.  I also got Vic to come back with me in case I had to hammer a screwdriver through it - you're time limited as the oil runs out of the engine into the external oil tank - too much and you have to re-prime the oil system.

We managed to get the strap wrench on and get the filter off - the funnel worked fine other than a slight leak at the end where I'd put electrical tape over it.  I put the new filter on as tight as I could get it by hand (until the gasket touches then 3/4 of a turn,) drained more oil out of the previously empty tank, which was concerning, put 2 litres in the tank and fired the engine up.  It took longer than usual, but the pressure came up within 10 seconds so I shut the engine down and called it good - hopefully the filter's tight enough, otherwise I'll have to try and get the strap wrench back on, tighten it a little and get it back off again.

In the evening, we sat in the hot tub for the first time in ages.

It seemed Randy had taken the wrench over to Cameron Park :o(

November 25th

After knocking around the house for a while, I went to the airport and took the plane out for a couple of laps of Camp Far West Lake reservoir.

November 24th

Today was Black Friday when Americans work off their turkey hangovers by going shopping.  Once it had warmed up a bit, I set myself the task of getting the hot tub all cleaned up, and hoped the wind would have died down by the time that was finished.

I got the hot tub cleaned and left it filling to go to the airport and try to fly.  Remember the shopping holiday?  It took me an hour to get to Costco to get gas for the plane.  When I got to the airport, I ran into our A&P, Randy, and when I'd finished chatting with him it didn't seem worth getting the plane out and taxying the 3/4 of a mile to the threshold of 33, so I just filled it up with gas and left.

November 23rd

Today was Thanksgiving, when Americans eat turkey.  I was on call so couldn't leave the house, but I got some work done in the garden.  As the afternoon wound on and the Australians came online, I did think about going flying but there was a wind advisory until tomorrow afternoon.

November 19th

It was a lovely day, but being on call and still not being 100% over my cold meant I didn't go and fly.  I thought about it though.

November 18th

I'm on call again, so I need to carry my damn laptop with me everywhere I go.  So I don't go many places.

It was throwing it down with rain, so I went and met Chris and Perry for lunch.

November 12th

Still not feeling well.  Still staying in.

November 11th

I've got a cold, so I decided not to go to the EAA breakfast at the airport, and instead just stayed in.

November 8th

The plumber came out and while the pressure relief valve seems fine, we discovered that the humming noise goes away when the irrigation valve is open.  But I'd wanted to leave it closed for the winter.  We agreed it's annoying, and he's gone away to think about it.

November 6th

The water's working, but there's a loud humming noise when it's flowing.  My Google Fu tells me that it's probably a pressure problem.  Luckily we cut out the pressure relief valve that's been working for almost 30 years and replaced it with a new one that's plumbed in to be easily replaced.  So we get to wait for them to come out and look at it on Wednesday.

November 5th

We got up early and walked Tilly, and when it started to get light, we turned the water back on.  The water to the house was fine, but there's a slight leak where it heads off to the irrigation system, so they needed to come back.

I went and dropped the recently updated GPS at the airport and saw an L-39 in SpaceX colours.

I then went and met Shane, Randy, Chris and Perry for brunch, but we all drove because of the rain that started and stopped.

In the evening, a plumber came and replaced the PVC elbow with copper, so that's all (hopefully) fixed now :o)

November 4th

While waiting for the plumber to show up and fix the water leak, I headed out to the airport to kill some time with my November Far West Lake flyby.

The plumber showed up and we agreed it was probably best to replace a whole chunk of pipe - he (and the Water Wise dude) was surprised that the pressure relief valve was even still working at this age, and it would have needed to be cut out.  So, several hours later, it's all shiny and new, with 90 degree shutoffs rather than taps.  Now we just need to leave it overnight for the glue to fully cure.

November 3rd

Vic was working early, so when she got home she dug out the hole in the front garden a little deeper and found the cracked elbow joint.  The hole filled up as soon as I turned the water back on, and we took showers and filled the kettle before turning it off again for the night.  Now we just wait for the plumber to show up.

November 2nd

The guy from the city Water Wise department came out and looked at the leak in the front - he thinks it's in the same place I do, and he tested a couple of things.

After I'd cut the grass, I dug out the wet soil and the hole quickly filled up with water.  I couldn't get much deeper, but the water was flowing, so I knew I was close.

Vic called because the van wouldn't start - it'd been sitting in the garage for a few weeks without starting or charging, so this isn't unexpected :o(  I went and jumped it from the car - just leave the car "running" so the big battery'll top up the little 12v one.

When we got home we agreed to turn the water off (it's leaking almost a gallon a minute now) overnight to stop pissing water into the ground, and to hopefully dry out the hole.

November 1st

A new month, so here are the stats:

Power billed

Power generated

October 31st

We took Tilly for her evening walk while all the kids were out trick or treating.  We got to meet the cat lady who lives up the road and her family and talk about the neighbourhood cats, and Tilly stopped in at Jim and Kathy's to get some treats.

October 29th

Still on call.

The sprinkler we replaced yesterday is still leaking, but not enough to be the problem.  I poked at a bunch of things without making any progress.

October 28th

We've had a change at work where a certain customer has been promised 60 minutes time to fix, and this was the first weekend of that.  So obviously I'm on call.  I barely left the house in case they called, but I did get to the EAA hangar for the October meeting.  I took my laptop with me in case :o(

We've figured out that there's a water leak at the house, and one of my thoughts was that it could be one sprinkler that's lower than the others.  I replaced it, and that leaked, so we went and bought the parts to reinstall it again, and left the glue to dry overnight.

I'm bothered about the leak, as it seems to be a stupid amount, in which case where's the water?

October 23rd

I had the day off (a "wellness day" at work,) so obviously the day started out misty after torrential rain last night.

When it had warmed up a bit I spent a couple of hours on the roof unclogging the drains that had been pouring over the top last night.

October 22nd

The forecast was for rain, so despite the occasional bit of blue sky, we drove up to Auburn to meet Chris and Perry for lunch.

October 21st

I went to the airport and took off as Randy arrived from Cameron Park, and we flew to Watts-Woodland for their display day.

When everybody started to leave, we headed home - me to Lincoln, Randy back to Cameron Park.

After a nap I got some paint onto the frame I've been working on.  Until I ran out of paint and daylight.  It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I probably won't get much more done on that for a while :o(

October 20th

Looks like there's a temporary fix (ie a copy of the old data) for my map problem here.  Hopefully they'll sort out the API changes before the copy goes away.

October 18th

Despite not yet having a working map to install, I worked some more on the frame for the new map - I've rounded off the edges, and we'll see how that looks when I get it painted and try to put it all together.

October 17th

Well, because I'd started working (again) on my nicer map display, the old one stopped working.  I spent a little while investigating to find it was getting an error trying to download the map data.  It seems that the weather centre at the FAA had moved to a new way of distributing the data, so I tried hacking in the new location to the map software only to find that the format has changed too.  The people who wrote the software seemed to have figured this out around the same time I did, so they're looking into it.

October 16th

Vic had taken the van to work, and the table saw lives behind the van meaning I could get it out and play with some wood to try and make a frame for my new weather map.  I've finished everything I needed the saw for, but there are a few things I'd still like to try before building the frame.

October 15th

I went and met Shane and Liza at the airport, to fly up to Auburn to meet Kim and Victoria for breakfast.

Afterwards we flew home again.

When we left the airport, there was a Blackhawk doing pattern work :o)

October 14th

I got up stupidly early and headed to the airport for the October Young Eagles rally.  I managed to fly 4 kids...

There was an eclipse during the morning, but there was too much cloud cover to see it.  The light got weird though.

After that, I tidied up a little in the hangar and headed home.

October 9th

Perry was in Rocklin doing some sort of training class, so after that he came over to see Tilly.  Once she'd got bored of him, we went out to dinner and left her at home.

October 8th

Tilly was a lot more settled this morning, meaning I didn't have to resort to Plan B (driving to breakfast and being her emotional support animal.)  I flew up to Auburn to meet Chris and Randy, via Camp Far West Lake, in a modicum of smoke from the fire down South.

After breakfast, they headed back to Cameron Park, and I went back to Lincoln.

October 7th

I'd aimed to meet Chris at Pine Mountain Lake for their airport day, but Tilly was all kinds of would up and it didn't seem like a good idea to leave her alone for half the day, so I didn't go :o(

October 6th

Vic took the car and went to see her mother for the weekend.  Tilly's been upset all day as she wanted to go too.

October 5th

I'm supposed to be on call this weekend, and my phone's playing up.  I dug out my obsolete old Samsung S8 and got that all set up and working.  Joy.

October 4th

I'm off this week, and so far I've been just resting and doing little things around the house.  Today, however, I decided to go flying.

I've started having a problem with my phone, where it shuts down and complains about the battery even though it's at ~90%.  After charging for 10 minutes, it'll restart and say it's ~90%, then later crashes again.  Yay.

October 3rd

I'm off this week, and today's goal was to install a new ceiling fan in Vic's room.  It went basically OK :o)

October 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

We dropped Mum and Dad at the station for the trip down to see Russ and Deepah in Los Angeles.

September 30th

We'd intended flying to the Props, Cop and Rodders show at Cameron Park, but it rained all morning so we drove over instead.

September 29th

The weather's started to look a little odd, so Dad and I went to the airport and flew while we could.

The ADS-B showed cloud moving over the area, so we toddled back quickly.

September 28th

We went to the airport to meet Randy and look at his Bendix, but he was running late.  I took Mum for a flight towards him, and when he passed us (ADS-B - I never saw him) we turned and followed him back to Lincoln.

After lunch, we looked at the Bendix, and I think the problem is the wrong grease - moly rather than the waterproof W-100.  As it's been sitting outside for a while, that's affected it.  We cleaned and regreased it several times and it seems to be working better now.

September 26th

It was overcast this morning, but I fixed a few things around the house and washed the solar panels.

Vic got home from Tahoe in the van, so all is right again in Tillyworld.

September 25th

We pottered around the house again, but did get out to go to the Galleria and Best Buy.

September 24th

We pottered around the house - drilling holes in the map board for my updated weather map and cooking sausage rolls, then went to Glenn and Judi's for movie night, where we watched "One Six Right."

September 23rd

Vic took the van and headed for the hills to (hopefully) get a few nights of proper sleep without being woken up a couple of times a night by Tilly.

The rest of us went to the airport - too late to fly Young Eagles, but early enough to get lunch and see the Airventure / kids' scholarship presentations.

We spent a fair amount of the reset of the day watching the 3D printer.

I did have an interesting interaction with ChatGPT, as I'm too lazy to do the maths.

what percentage would I need to increase the size of a 1/3 cup measuring cup to get to 5oz in a 3D print?

To determine what percentage you would need to increase the size of a 1/3 cup measuring cup to achieve a volume of 5 ounces in a 3D print, you can use the following formula:
Percentage Increase = ((Desired Volume - Original Volume) / Original Volume) * 100
<maths deleted>
So, you would need to increase the size of the 1/3 cup measuring cup by approximately 87.5% in a 3D print to achieve a volume of 5 ounces.

remember volume increases much faster than area

You're absolutely correct; when scaling three-dimensional objects, volume increases much faster than area. To achieve a specific volume increase, you would need to consider the cube root of the scaling factor.
In your case, you want to increase the volume from 1/3 cup to 5 ounces. As mentioned earlier, 1/3 cup is approximately 2.67 ounces. So, you want to scale it to 5 ounces.
Let's calculate the scaling factor:
Scaling Factor = (Desired Volume / Original Volume)^(1/3)
<maths deleted>
So, you would need to increase the size of the 1/3 cup measuring cup by approximately 21.7% in a 3D print to achieve a volume of 5 ounces, taking into account the fact that volume increases more rapidly than linear dimensions.

I'm not worried about the Terminator just yet.

September 22nd

Mum and Dad arrived, and I went and picked them up from the airport.

September 21st

Vic was off work today, and amongst her tasks was getting the van smogged - the rolling road thing was broken when I took it in last week.  It passed :o)

We watched "The Flash."

September 16th

I went to the airport early and flew up to Auburn to met Chris for breakfast - Vic drove up and met us there.  She'd got there early and was in Target when I flew past, reminding her to get to the airport :o)

After breakfast, I flew home and just wasted the rest of the day.

September 13th

Sue and Bob headed off to San Jose in the morning, hoping to get out and about and go to Alcatraz before they fly home at the weekend.

In the evening, the interweb went down.  Boo.  It looked like the modem had taken a dump, so I grabbed the old one and tried that, but it didn't light up either.  I checked the power brick and that was putting out 0v.  I dug through all my crap and found another 12v power brick that I wasn't using, but it used a different plug, so I cut the plug off the broken power brick and soldered it onto the working one, and tada, interweb.

September 12th

Sue and Bob were here visiting Tilly, and it seems that they'd wanted to go through Yosemite but the gates had been closed when they passed.

Sue's been to Yosemite before, so I asked Chris if he'd be up for flying Bob over the valley and he agreed to do so.

They got back not long before I finished work, so we went to dinner again.

September 11th

Sue and Bob showed up on their way from Dallas to San Francisco to see Tilly.  After we got off work, we let Tilly go back to bed and went out to dinner.

September 10th

I printed off a couple of parts for Shane, then went to meet him at the airport.  We flew to Oroville to meet Chris and PJ for lunch - funnily enough we were running early (because I wanted to do my Camp Far West Lake flyby) and so was Chris, so they got there just before we did.

As usual, we disappeared around Beale because there aren't any UAT listener posts out there.

We met Paul (who Chris interviewed for one of his YouTub videos) and his wife Eileen at Oroville, and I gave them some controller mounting boxes I'd printed for them :o)

After lunch we flew back - it was a little bumpier.

Back at the airport, I replaced the grip and the push to talk switch on the plane - believe it or not, I don't think I have anything on the squawk list until the 500 hour service in a few weeks :o)

September 9th

I'd intended to go to the Columbia fly-in with the guys, but Tilly had a bad night, waking us up and keeping us awake several times, so I decided that ~3 hours' flying might not be such a great idea.

Still, I went to the airport and had breakfast at the EAA hangar, then went and pulled the plane apart to move the Garmin GDL39 ADS-B receiver.  I found that the line was juuuust about long enough to put it where I wanted, but that the GPS for the ADS-B transponder was in the way.  That had much more wire on it, so I pulled that out, installed the GDL39, then installed the GPS receiver.  At first glance everything seems fine.  I had wanted to replace the grip on my throttle unit, but that means rewiring and I'd forgotten my forceps to hold things, so I called it a day there and put everything back together and went home.

I met Shane at the house (rather than have him drive all the way out to the airport) and we tinkered around with the 3D print stuff for his helmet.  I like to think we're making progress, and we played with Fusion 360, a more complex 3D modelling software than I've been playing with (TinkerCAD.)

September 5th

I sat and thought about the bracket I printed yesterday and decided it should be at 90 degrees to how I've printed it.  So I redesigned it, thinner, and more like I think it needs to be.  This is a little annoying, as it's not my favoured solution (moving the receiver to a different place) but I don't want to open everything up and find I can't move it, then have to put it back together as it is now so I can work out a bracket.  Still, all ready now - I just need the time and energy to go out and install it.

September 4th

Today was Labo(u)r Day, when Americans celebrate the successes of the union movement by going shopping.

I started the day playing around with the 3D printer - I designed my first 3D thing, a bracket to hold up the ADS-B receiver in the plane, then spent ages watching it print.  It's probably a ways thicker than it needs to be, but it should work.

September 3rd

The forecast for today was terrible, so we'd agreed to drive to lunch to meet up.  Of course, it wasn't all that bad, but we'd all set out by that point.  Still, I went and met Chris, Perry, Randy and Shane for lunch.

September 2nd

Dave and Sam came up to see Tilly and to drop off some Lift for me, then we went to lunch before they headed out to a murder mystery thing in Sacramento.

After that, Shane came over to see Tilly and discuss a couple of 3D printing things for the Team Wendy helmets that we use in the gyros.

September 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

August 31st

Chris mailed to say Rock Monsterz was playing at Cameron Park, so we drove over there after work to watch their practice session.  I'm still humming Kashmir.

August 30th

Shane and Liza came by to visit Tilly.  Oh, and to pick up a piece of plastic I printed for Shane.

August 27th

We went to the airport early and flew to Cameron Park for their EAA burrito breakfast.

I performed what Vic said was the worst landing we've ever done as I was trying to hurry up and get out of the way of one of Don's students.  Oh well... the plane can still be flown, so that makes it a great landing.

Judi asked me to fly one of the kids, so I did.

After all was said and done, we headed back to Lincoln.

I cleared out more work stuff, then cut a little video together from the Blackhawk landing at Lincoln yesterday:

After a while, I went back to the airport to meet Chris, where we took his RV-6A to Oroville to meet Paul.

Paul's an interesting character who owns a beautiful Wittman Tailwind and a Midget Mustang.  Chris interviewed him for his YouTube channel and I wandered around shooting B roll with the GoPro and trying to stay out of the way.  When we were done, he even dropped me back at Lincoln :o)