Wednesday, July 30, 2014

July 30th

I called one of the aircraft shops who don't have the parts I need to find that they actually have most of them, so I ordered those, and the remaining parts somewhere else.  If I'm lucky, they'll be here sooner rather than later.

I put some paint over the thin parts I can now see in the bathroom.

July 29th

I spoke to Vince in the morning, and it seems that the rear cylinder seized on the Flightstar.  He's suggested that I try and find the gubbins to convert the engine from free-air to fan cooling, so I'll add that to my list of things to do.  I can't find anybody who has the parts we need for the fix for the piston yet, but I'll keep trying :o(  Of course, anybody who's anybody's at Oshkosh this week, and that's slowing everything down.

There was a request in the suggestions box for a brighter light over the shower in the bathroom.  I've had a 60W incandescent, 14W fluorescent and (currently) 6W LED bulb in the housing, so I've decided that the housing is the problem.  In the evening, I installed a 9W LED fixture that's so bright I can see smudges and thin bits in the paint on the opposite wall.  And a ghost image of the fixture in the eyes for about 10 minutes after looking at it.

July 28th

I got another puncture on my bicycle ride, but at least this time I only had to push it 2 miles or so home.

In the evening we wrested the tyre off, and the last patch I applied wasn't holding the air in.  I peeled it off, scuffed the remains away and put a new patch on it, with lots of glue (the last one was one of the new "peel and stick" types, and I must say I'm not impressed).

July 27th

Frank got back to me to say that the article on the Cozy Jet looked good (he made a few minor tweaks), so I went ahead and posted it.  Of course, anybody who's anybody's at Oshkosh this week.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

July 26th

After playing Warcraft for a while, I wrote up my notes from talking to Frank yesterday.  I finished painting the bits around the windows in the bathroom, but I've screwed up my favourite paint brush - the paint dried on it when I was painting the other day :o(

We went over to the local Honda dealer, and looked at the Grom they have in stock.  I've never seen one in real life, and it's a bit taller than I thought.  Vic likes it, so it looks like we'd need two if we're going to get any :o)

In the evening, we watched the original "Jurassic Park" for the first time in ages.  We were pointing out the plot holes and inaccuracies :o)

July 25th

I went over to Lincoln and talked to Frank about the Cozy Jet, so I can write it up for the EAA chapter web site.

July 24th

I did yet more painting in the bedroom... the bit around the windows that's hard to get to because of the shutters.  Of course, it looks like it'll need another coat :o(

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

July 23rd

After work, I horked it over to Lincoln to go up for a lesson With Shean.  We got to about 400' when we had what felt like a partial seizure, so we turned back.  At least we booked it as a practice engine failure on take-off :o)

July 22nd

We watched "300: Rise of an Empire", which wasn't as bad as I'd expected it to be :o)

Sunday, July 20, 2014

July 20th

I didn't sleep at all well, so I played Warcraft for a while, then threw some white paint at doors in the bedroom.
I recently bought a Chromecast, so I got that working in the bedroom (the main TV doesn't have an HDMI port, y'see - one of the reasons I'd still like to replace it).  After that, I tried to service the bicycle - it's been getting noisier, and less likely to change gears.  It's better than it was, but it's still unhappy at the maximum crosswise extensions of the gears (lowest front, highest rear, that sort of thing).  Screw it, I can ride it in the gears I generally use.  I installed a couple of D rings in the back of the van, so I can bungee stuff like the gas can for the plane to stop it sliding all over back there.  As it was cloudy, and my arm's playing up, I decided against flying.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

July 19th

We got up stupid early and rode to the airfield for the Young Eagles event.  I helped Jack with the cooking while others flew 25 boy scouts.  It seems to have been a success :o)

In the early evening, I went back to the airfield to commit a little aviation.  It seemed windy on the freeway as I got there, but undaunted, I took off in the 10mph wind.  I did a bumpy circuit, then took off again in the 13mph wind.  When the wind was showing 14mph, gusting 17mph, I packed the plane away and went home.

July 16th

I went to the EAA chapter meeting at Lincoln - we basically talked about the upcoming Young Eagles event, and started watching the Oshkosh video from last year.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

July 15th

On my lunchtime bicycle ride, I ended up getting a puncture, and got to push my pushbike ~3.5 miles home.  Joy.  At least it wasn't as hot as yesterday.

In the evening, I struggled to get the rear tyre off (damned deep V rims), found a sodding great hole and patched it.  I put a new tyre on, put the wheel back on and changed the front tyre.  When I'd finished that, I discovered the rear tyre was flat again.  I put air in it, and checked again later, and it was flat again, so I figured that the patch wasn't holding, and pulled the wheel again.  The patch was fine, there was another damned hole.  I fixed that, and it looks like everything's fine now.

July 14th

I really struggled on my lunchtime bicycle ride, then got home to find out that it was 106F.  That'd cover it.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

July 13th

I did some patching in the bedroom and bathroom, and put another coat of white on the (remarkably not white) doors.

We watched the (again, excellent) German MotoGP race.

In the evening, we watched "Kick Ass 2", which was a lot better than we expected.

July 12th

I pretty much wasted the day playing Warcraft, as I didn't feel like painting.

July 11th

Yet more painting.  I've thrown paint everywhere now, so I put some hardware back together, while I wait for the strength to get back on the ladder to patch bits I've missed.

Danny called to say a black widow had jumped out at him at the hangar, so he'd used a bug bomb.  I decided to put off flying for the moment :o)

July 10th

More painting, I'm afraid.

July 9th

I painted some more.

In the evening, Vic watched "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" while I read my Sport Pilot knowledge test book.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

July 8th

I started the day by taking the hardware off the bedroom doors, masking up and throwing paint around.  Then, because you only live once, I cut the grass.  I was just trying to figure out a stupid new game on my tablet when Shean texted me to say he was free at the airport, so I drove over so we could chat about my goal to get a US Sport Pilot license.  We went up in the Flightstar, but it was stupidly bumpy, meaning I couldn't maintain height in level flight, let alone in turns around a point and S turns.  We gave up shortly after that, and I then got to land in a 7mph crosswind at 90 degrees to the runway.  Still, any landing you can walk away from, right?

I got home and the house was quiet.  No sign of Tilly, or Rolie Polie Olie, the Roomba.  Suspiciously, the bedroom door was shut.  That was a little troubling, as all the hardware was in the bedroom, so I had to take the stuff off another door to get in there, and let Tilly out.  She was very grateful.  Olie had tangled itself up in the bath mat and turned itself off.

July 7th

In the bedroom, I moved the bed so I could paint behind it, and decided to paint the bathroom while I was at it.

July 6th

I mostly just tidied up the bathroom and the van after the excitement of the last few days.

We went out and got some supplies and stuff, so I picked up a little roller to get between windows and walls in the bedroom, then masked and painted those parts.

In the evening, I went over to Lincoln and went out in the plane for about an hour and ten minutes.  I've been thinking about doing a cross country flight, so I measured about 40 miles in that time, on about 3 gallons of gas.  An 80 mile cross country should be easily do-able with a 10 gallon tank, but I'd probably look at taking an extra 5 gallons in a can, and my little hand pump to transfer it to the main tank at a stop somewhere.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

July 5th

We went out and got lunch, and the sky's filthy with smoke from a couple of fires near us.

I touched up the paint behind the dresser in the bedroom, then re-hung the mirror and pushed the dresser back to the wall.  Egads, the bedroom's big now.  There's still a lot of painting to be done, but now I have the space to move things to get to the unpainted bits.  Joy.

In the evening I went to Lincoln and took the Flightstar out for what turned out to be an hour and three quarters.  It was weird - we're ringed in smoke from the fires, but the air's clear over us, as it's been a bit windy.  2 landings in a 70 degree, 5 mph crosswind, and I put everything away and headed home.  I stopped to put some gas in the van, and it wouldn't start - the engine coughed over and then everything went dark.  I checked with the built in voltmeter, and it didn't even light up.  Uh oh... I thought the battery had shorted out internally or something, so I turned the passenger seat round and popped the battery cover to find the earth lead wasn't on very tight.  I tightened that up with a pair of pliers and the van started and drove home just fine.  Once home, I tightened the clamp with a proper spanner.  I wonder how long that's been going on?

Saturday, July 5, 2014

July 4th

Today is Independence Day, when Americans celebrate their country's birthday by going shopping.  Me?  I threw paint in the bedroom, then in the evening we watched "Watchmen", which we haven't watched for ages.  Part of the reason was there are a lot of whooshes and bangs, and it distracts Tilly from the fireworks outside.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

July 3rd

I installed a new (DOCSIS 3.0) cable modem/router, to take advantage of a 50Mb/s cable upgrade.  I'll be honest, I didn't really think it out very well, so I just plugged it in and got it working with Comcast.  Then I remembered the port forwarding, reserved DHCP addresses and suchlike I'd had set up.  I started the old router, so I could copy down the old configuration and reconfigure the weather station to use the new router.  I couldn't get the TED5000 to work, so there was a lot of testing things, trying other things and so on until I discovered that the CAT-5e cable was the problem.  Unfortunately I only had 6' cables (other than this one 10' cable), so I ended up moving the router closer so I could plug in the old cable, and everything now works.  The only thing I miss is the ability to have my own DNS configuration, for when Comcast's is playing up - I like to have one of the servers configured to an OpenDNS server as a backup, but meh.

July 2nd

I went to Lincoln for the EAA board of director's meeting.  The guy who's running the Young Eagles event on the 19th got stuck in traffic in Wheatland, so we're hoping he's got everything in hand :o|

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

July 1st

A new month...

Power paid for

Power generated









We got a cracked sprinkler pipe all fixed up, so that hopefully that part of the garden won't flood, and other parts of the garden'll get water.  I even remembered to turn that segment back on at the controller.

June 29th

Other than throwing a bit more paint (from atop a ladder), I did pretty much nothing all day.  Just as it should be.