Monday, May 30, 2016

May 29th

I got up early again, and headed out to the airport. I flew out to the Feather River, and headed back over the flooded fields when it started to get bumpy.

In the early evening I met Jack at the airport so he could try the Flightstar for a little bit, but the rev counter was playing up a bit, so we headed back, only for it to start playing nicely as we got back.

May 28th

I got up fairly early and headed to the airfield in time to watch an Icon A5 take off.  I'm thinking he's on his way back to the Nut Tree airport where they all seem to live - I don't think they're delivering anything yet.
I took the Flightstar out for a few circuits, but it was pretty bumpy.
I went home and pottered about the house for the day, then dropped off some stuff with Rich and went out to the airport again, and went out over the Feather River and Camp Far West reservoir.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

May 21st

I went over to the airport and picked up the new tyres for the plane.  I then put them on, only to hole one of the inner tubes.  It's OK, I have a spare, but it was at home, so I went home and picked it up, and got Vic to come and help split the rim and change the tube.

Still too windy to fly.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

May 18th

We pottered around during the day, then went to the airport for the EAA membership meeting.  Of course the weather was fine and I could have flown, but I got to cook instead.

Right at the end of the meeting, the second hangar tenant showed up - a brand new Carbon Cub, in yellow.  It's really pretty, if a little out of my budget :o)

May 17th

It was too windy (well, gusty) to fly, so I decided to start the annual argument with Comcast about my bill.  It started off OK, as I've talked to them before, so it was just a matter of convincing them that I want the package I'd been told I could have, without any TV.

Once that was sorted out, I started the troubleshooting as to why I wasn't getting the speeds I've been paying for - the sales department say I get 75Mb/s, but the technical department say I get 50Mb/s.  I'm getting ~45Mb/s, so I believe the technical department.  We discovered that even though you have to go through various hoops to register a new modem, they'd somehow not registered the modem when I changed it about 2 years ago.  After that, I still wasn't getting the speed I should, but they did manage to slow down the upload speeds to what I should be getting.  Joy.  We went through various steps until they suggested I reset the modem, when the missing word there is "factory".  I lost the entire configuration, so I then spent the next hour or so getting things working again.

I went to the airfield to tighten up a couple of nuts I remembered leaving loose, and decided that it was still too gusty to fly.

When I got home, the Nest thermostat was complaining about the network, so I fixed that and the irrigation controller.

May 16th

I rode the DRZ over to the local Ducati / Suzuki / Kawasaki dealer to look at the various different Scramblers.  I was hoping to see the new Z125 Pro, too, but they didn't have any yet.

On the way back, I stopped at Cycle Gear, just to see if there's anything new and exciting, and there isn't.

I rode up through Loomis and home via 193 and Sierra College, so it was a good day.

Vic got home early from her trip, and Tilly was really happy to see the van back.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

May 15th

I wasted the day playing Warcraft as it was pretty windy.  I ended up going over to the airfield to do some tinkering on the plane, and ended up looking at Jack's M-squared.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

May 14th

I went over to the airport to help run the poker run for this year.  There was a pretty good turnout, better than last year, but it was a bit too gusty / bumpy for me to fly afterwards.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

May 11th

Vic left, in the van, for McMinnville to see friends and family.  Tilly was quite upset about it until Gwen showed up to feed the guinea pigs and throw the ball.

May 8th

Vic spent the day getting ready for her trip, and I pretty much spent the day keeping out of the way by playing Warcraft.

May 7th

I got up early and headed to the airport for our first pancake breakfast in the hangar.  I helped Ron set up, and cooked the first batch of breakfasts before more helpers arrived.  It was raining, and windy, so we'd expected maybe 10 people, most of them being the board, but quite a few showed up.  One guy even flew in from McClellan, in between showers.  We'll call that a success then.

In the afternoon we went to Mig's birthday meetup for a few hours, so I could get nagged about buying more motorcycles and drink a couple of ciders.

May 5th

Vic rented, so we watched "The 5th Wave".  Utter wank :o(

Monday, May 2, 2016

May 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:
Power billed

Power generated










I screwed around all morning playing Warcraft and suchlike, and tried to get a pressure washer I bought to work.  It didn't, so I went to the airfield to tinker with the plane.  I've been thinking that the airspeed indicator is over-reading, and that's since I put the static line in, so I unplugged that.  I also tried to get the nosewheel centered when the rudder pedals are level.  The thing is, usually you'd turn the rods and one end would have left handed threads, so you'd make the rods longer or shorter as required.  Not here though, they're both right handed threads on both ends, so all I did was move the rods.  I'll need to take one end off, then loosen / tighten the fittings.  Bugger.

After struggling to get the plane out (the glider is in the wrong place, so I couldn't open the doors all the way without moving the glider) I took off, and the airspeed indicator was all over the place.  It was a bit bouncy, and once in the air I could see all the weather coming towards the airport, so I just did the one circuit, plugged the static line back in and put everything away.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

April 30th

It was bloody windy, so I spent the day tinkering with installing the second Stow 'n Go seat in the van.  It was a lot more aggravation than the first one - I think things aren't quite square in there :o(

Anyway, I got that finished, and we took the van out to drop off the recycling.  The seats sit lower than the old ones, and I'm thinking I'll probably look at remounting them when Vic gets back from her trip up the coast.

April 27th

I decided to move forward with the seats in the van, so I took the (new) passenger seat out, and the (old) driver's side seat out, and installed the new seat on the driver's side with the smaller mounting hardware.  It went in folded up surprisingly easily, but then I discovered that I couldn't lift the back as the steering wheel was in the way.  I took the steering wheel off, unfolded the seat and put the steering wheel back on.  Hopefully in the right place :o)