Thursday, August 30, 2018

August 30th

I took the van in for a service - it's all OK, but apparently needs a new serpentine belt.  I'll have to figure out which one exactly this needs, and I'll do the powered steering belt at the same time, as it'll have to come off anyway.

August 29th

I went over to the airfield and washed the Magni, then took the dash out to see if I could plug the ADS-B receiver in to the GPS directly.  It doesn't have the right connector to do that, so I put in back in the storage pouch in the back seat and took it out for a bit.  The sky's pretty clear, so we have 2 farmers burning their fields :o(

August 28th

I've taken a few days off to do something other than work.  I went over to the airport, and ended up helping Bob put his golf cart extension on - it now has 4 seats instead of 2 and needs heavier springs.

I then took the Magni out for an hour or so, pottering around testing the ADS-B In - it seems to work just fine, and sees traffic before I do :o)  The sky's started to clear up with the wind we've been having, and that's also helping keep the temperature down a bit.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

August 26th

I went over to the airport to test out the ADS-B in doohickey that's finally arrived.  I couldn't get it to work, so after flying for a while, I took the GPS unit out and went home.  Updating the GPS' software got it to connect to the ADS-B receiver, so hopefully I can test that again and it'll work.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

August 25th

I went over to the airport and took the plane out - it was hazy again, so I just did some circuits until Chris arrived and Ken got back from Cameron Park.  Having put everything away, we went and got lunch, then I went home and changed out some more sprinkler heads in the back garden.  Now I need to dig out some sprinklers to replace the barrels.

August 24th

It's Friday, which, as I worked on Sunday to cover APAC, means Saturday.  I ended up going over to the airport and taking the plane out for some circuits - the sky's all hazy again, so I didn't go out and do anything else.

August 22nd

I had the day off, and pottered around the house waiting for something to be delivered.  It wasn't.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

August 19th

Today was National Aviation Day, so I went over to the airport and took the Magni out for a bit.  I had been planning to fly around the Sutter Buttes, but having got there, I realised that time was getting on and headed back.  Once on the ground, I found that it's easy to adjust the rudder pedals, so I've brought those closer to me, to hopefully make the seating position a little better.  I filled it up with gas, then headed home to start work as I'm covering our guy in Australia today.

August 18th

It was a busy day - I started out getting the Magni out, then cooking breakfast at the LRAA display day.  Vic came over towards the end, and we took the plane out over Folsom Lake to see the early Vanagon meet up there.











We then headed back to Lincoln, and after a go-around caused by a Mooney not looking to see us on finals when he pulled on to the runway, landed and put the plane away.  We then headed home, picked up Tilly and headed to Folsom in the van.

We were there for a couple of hours until Tilly was tired, then headed home.  We ended up watching "It's Complicated" while Tilly shuffled around trying to get comfortable.

Friday, August 17, 2018

August 15th

We went to the airport for the EAA membership meeting, where I got to cook before the presentation on the trip to Oshkosh.

August 12th

I wasted most of the day, but I did go to the airport.  I took the dash on the plane apart, and worked on installing a DSub-9 connector to interface the transponder with a Garmin GPS puck to hopefully get ADS-B out.  It all seems to work, but I need to test it with an ADS-B in receiver.

After that, I took the plane out for an hour or so.

Sunday, August 12, 2018

August 11th

I started the day taking the gyro out in the smoke - I was hoping to fly before it got really bad, but the visibility was awful.  I did a few manoeuvres, then headed over to the river to see if things were better there.  They weren't, but I could smell the burning from the fires.  After a vertical descent, I found an inversion layer at ~750', when I got cold - that's not helping with the smoke.  There was  another guy out there, so we circled around each other at a respectful distance, and then I headed back to Lincoln.  The wind had got up to almost 10mph down the runway, so I managed to land at 13mph groundspeed :o)

I cooked lunch for ~30 people - Scott sold the last lunch I was cooking for myself on 3 occasions, so I ended up with a piece of bacon and a cookie - I couldn't be bothered to get another frozen burger out and start cooking again.

I went home, where we had an early dinner and watched "Rampage" and a series of 80s pop-culture moments mashed into a movie - "Ready Player One" :o)

Monday, August 6, 2018

August 5th

As the wind got up overnight and blew a lot of the smoke and ash away, I got up on the roof and washed the solar panels while waiting for Russ and Deeps to arrive.  Once they got here, we loaded Mum and Dad's luggage in their car, and headed to the airport so I could take Russ out in the gyro.  As it was pretty busy, I did a big circle and rejoined the circuit to let others get out, and when we landed, Russ said he hadn't minded the circuit level stuff, so we went out and did another circuit. 

Shortly after we got back, they headed back to Los Angeles with Mum and Dad.  I decided to go out and do some circuits while waiting for Chris to get over from Cameron Park, as he had a guy coming to look at his Sportcopter gyroplane.  Chris arrived as I taxied up, so I did one long circuit, then parked the gyro so I could help fix the rotor speed sensor and strobe while waiting.  The guy finally arrived and looked at the Sportcopter for a long time, but it looks like he's bargain hunting rather than seriously looking.

When he left, I left Chris getting loaded up to fly his Ercoupe back to Cameron Park in the resurgent smoke and headed home, where we watched some TV and had an early night.

August 4th

I started the day at the airport cooking breakfast for 20 of my closest friends.  I then took Mum up in the gyro again, so Dad could video the takeoff.  The smoke in the air is worse than ever, so we just did a big circle and came and rejoined the circuit and landed.

As Dad's hurt his back and didn't want to try and get in the gyro, we went home and waited for Russ and Deeps to arrive so we could meet them for dinner.

August 2nd

We went to the casino to eat at the buffet until we felt uncomfortably full.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

August 1st

It's a new month, so here are the stats:
Power generated

Power billed

July 31st

We went to the last Downtown Roseville Tuesday night thing, where we looked at the old cars and waited a long time for hot dogs.