May 25th

Today was Memorial Day, when Americans remember their war dead usually by going shopping, but this year it seems to be by whining about not being able to go shopping.

I went over to the airport early, and pulled one of Randy's carbs before he got there.  We replaced the inlet, the manifold and the diaphragm, then did the other side.

I'd guessed at 2.5 hours to do this, but it was before 10am when we finished, so he suggested we do his engine mounts.  So we did.  They were a fair amount more work, but we got them all changed out and were tidying up when Chris arrived.  The Spitfire Grille was closed, so we headed out - I went and collected Vic and met them at the sub place, where we had sandwiches before heading home.

I've managed to break my thumb nail high enough to cause it to bleed, meaning it hurts when I do anything requiring me to grip something :o(  Still, it's supposed to be over 100F for the next few days, so I probably won't want to do anything anyway.

May 24th

We flew to Auburn to meet Chris, Jackie and Randy and have breakfast at the Wings restaurant.

We flew back afterwards, and rearranged the hangar to fit Randy's gyro in next to mine.

I also got around to cleaning and re-oiling my air filter, which I've been meaning to do all week.

May 23rd

We met at the airport, and Randy took a test flight in his gyro.  I was concerned about some residue I found on the fuel lines, but he's sprayed some air filter cleaner around, so it wasn't gas.

Chris came over in his RV-6A with his friend Tim, then we all headed to Oroville for lunch :o)

We were flying into a pretty stiff headwind by the time we got there, so my landing was pretty much at walking speed :o)

After lunch, we flew back and changed the rubbers on the crossover tube and the turbo inlet tube on Randy's gyro - now we just have the carbs to redo... the inlets and manifolds, and the diaphragms.

May 22nd

I met Randy at the airport and we replaced his fuel lines, then went and had lunch, and came back and replaced his vacuum lines too.  We have some carb work to do, then replace rod end bearings and engine mounts, and he's ready for his annual at the end of next month :o)

May 21st

Randy's fuel lines are starting to crack, so we'd talked about replacing them.  He was flying a friend in the morning, so we'd agreed to get lunch, then look at them.  I got the airport and pulled the plane out to wait for him to get back from his flight.  When he did, he'd tried replacing one of the lines, but the fuel hose I'd used was too big, so he'd put that line back on.  Tony was zipping around on his scooter, so I suggested he meet us up in Auburn for lunch.  He asked if we had a spare seat, and I said we had two, so we ended up flying both the lads in his workshop, while he flew the Cub.

It's funny, as he took off right behind me, and flew alongside shooting some video with his phone.  The thing is, he's used to videoing other fixed wings, and when he hits a thermal, so do they.  Well, he hit a thermal and bounced up, and we didn't bounce up, so it looked like we were diving away from him :o)  After lunch, we headed home, where we saw some ridge lift at Bald Hill, he was bounced all over the place - he said he was seriously considering going around (on a 6,000' runway, no less) due to the crosswind that we didn't really notice :o)

Randy's headed off to get 1/4" fuel line (rather than the 5/16" I had) and we're going to look at it again tomorrow morning.

May 20th

It looked pretty clear at Lincoln, so I took the plane and headed to Daffodil Hill in the Sierra foothills, where there was a lot of low, puffy cloud.  I took a bit of a beating, and luckily there was nothing there any more - should have come out sooner, methinks.

I decided to head for flatter ground before heading back.  I had to avoid a Blackhawk, and George in his Kitfox on the way back to Lincoln :o)  When I got home, I found that I can get a .kml file of my trip from Flightaware and drop it in to Google Earth:

That's kind of cool, no?

May 19th

Still quite blustery, and the puffy cumulus clouds suggested that flying wasn't a great idea, so I didn't.