July 3rd

It was a holiday here, as tomorrow's July 4th, some sort of big thing here, usually.  So, as I didn't have to go to work, I went to the airport and met Randy.  We were supposed to meet Chris at Auburn at 12:00, but we were early, so we took off and headed towards Cameron Park with the aim of meeting Chris en route and following him.

As we got near to Cameron Park, we could hear a plane leaving, but it wasn't Chris.  I figured we should head to Auburn so as not to be late, and when we were about 12 miles out, we heard Chris joining the pattern there.  Oh well.

We met a bunch of Chris' friends from Intel, and after lunch Randy and I headed back to Lincoln.

We did a couple of little things on the gyros, and sat around eating ice cream until we figured we'd head home.

July 2nd

After work, I went to the airfield and ran into Randy. We discussed Jamie's new gyro, and how she couldn't get it to start.  Because she'd disconnected the (flat) battery, and not reconnected it properly.  We marvelled that she'd managed to get through the whole startup sequence without seeing a single light come up, or hear the fuel pump running, and still thought she had an engine problem.  Oh well, we were snapped at a while back for picking up some cigarette butts that were in the pod, so we're staying out of it for now.  It's probably just as well the engine didn't start, as she hasn't installed the battery strap to stop it falling out, either.  I believe she's going to get Ken to look at it, so I've told him what the problem is :o)

We went for a flight, as it was a nice night.  It's funny, as it was quite windy, but of course you hardly notice that in the gyro :o)

July 1st

A new month, so here are the solar stats:

Power billed

Power generated

In the evening, I attended the IMC club meeting via Webex.  I wish people would learn to mute their microphones.

June 30th

My regulator finally came in, so after work I went over to the airport and installed it.  Everything seemed fine, and Chris wanted to meet up at Auburn, so I took the plane up for a flight to check it out.  I was early, so I took the long way there :o)

It's funny to see how much power my landing light draws, for example, when I've never even looked at that before.  After standing and chatting for a while, we headed back to Lincoln for some ice cream before Chris headed home.

June 29th

Apparently my regulator was on its way back to Sacramento:

June 29, 2020, 7:03 am Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility SACRAMENTO

It left there soon after, for parts unknown:

June 29, 2020, 8:45 am Departed USPS Regional Facility SACRAMENTO

Your item departed our USPS facility in SACRAMENTO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER on June 29, 2020 at 8:45 am. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

It finally arrived in Roseville:

June 29, 2020, 3:44 pm Arrived at Post Office ROSEVILLE

Looks like it should be here tomorrow :o)

June 28th

Randy came and picked me up and we went to the airport to look at a stripped thread on one of his carb tops.  He was thinking he'd need to replace it.  Peering at it, I realised we could just swap the tops (there's a nut and bolt on the other side), so we ended up doing that.  Fixed!  Even better, a slight fuel weep he'd had before was now fixed (we were checking that we hadn't made it worse) by us taking stuff apart and putting it back together, so pending a test flight, he can probably cancel the order for that hard fuel line :o)

At home, I tinkered around with the DRZ, and I reckon the problem is the filter's come off one of the fuel input tubes in the tank, and there's crap in the lines / fuel tap or whatever.  Now I just need to figure out exactly what I want to do with that :o(

My regulator is on its way somewhere:

June 28, 2020 In Transit to Next Facility

No idea where it's going now.

We watched "Ma".

June 27th

I got a text at 03:05 to say my regulator had arrived at the post office at Corona.  So, just for completeness, here's where it's travelled.

June 23, 2020, 12:35 am Accepted at USPS Origin Facility CORONA

June 23, 2020, 1:50 am Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility ANAHEIM

June 24, 2020, 3:35 am Departed USPS Regional Facility ANAHEIM

June 24, 2020, 12:31 pm Arrived at USPS Regional Facility SACRAMENTO

June 24, 2020, 10:11 pm Departed USPS Regional Destination Facility SACRAMENTO

June 26, 2020 In Transit to Next Facility

June 27, 2020, 3:03 am Arrived at Post Office CORONA

June 27, 2020, 11:55 am Arrived at USPS Facility CORONA

Priority 2 day shipping my arse.

Paul was on his way back from Truckee (I'd thought it was a day trip, but he's been there all week), so we met him at Auburn for lunch - he and Chris flew in in their gyros, we rode the motorcycles.

My bike started running badly on the way home, and I think it's the gas that's been sitting in the tank for months.  I'm planning to drain that out and use it in the lawn mower, and put nice fresh gas back in, as it felt like it was running out of gas, but the DRZ usually does that for a mile or so, then runs out of gas.

In the evening I went out to the airport and watched what actually happened with my regulator so I can be sure that the new one will fix the problem. 

At around 2,100 rpm tickover, I was showing under 13v, and after a few minutes, the charge light would come on.  Revving the engine (I was on the ground) to maybe 3,500 rpm, I couldn't get the charge light to go out.  I swapped in Randy's regulator, and at tickover I was seeing 13.4v, going up to 13.8v at 3,500 rpm.  I didn't want to run Randy's plane without him there, so I put my regulator back on mine, and had the same lower voltage, but the light didn't come on.  I figured I'd take it out and see what happened, but the light came on before I'd even got to the main taxiway.  It's a shame, as it was quite windy, and I wanted to see how short a takeoff roll I could do :o)