October 28th

I went out to the airport and met Chris and Ken - after lunch, Chris and I went for a short flight together before he headed back to Placerville.  It was OK, I guess, but several fires in the area meant the visibility was crap and everything smells of burning.

October 27th

After pottering around in the house all morning, I went to the airfield and finished installing the strobe light on the mast.  I also replaced the blown fuse, and then took the plane out for a flight.  The annual is due at the end of the month, so I'm trying to get some flying in before I have to stop and do maintenance.

October 24th

I found that the DRZ is still leaking gas into the engine, so that suggests that the float O ring also needs replacing.  Joy.  I'll just order a whole carb rebuild kit and be done with it. Hopefully.

October 21st

I pottered around the house for most of the morning - I've put the DRZ back together while I wait for the oil change kits to arrive, hopefully that'll be early next week.  I went to the airfield and got the new mast strobe figured out, but managed to blow a little tiny fuse doing that.  After that, I took the plane out and did some circuits, then some other practice manoeuvres - I've been thinking my speed control sucks recently :o)

October 20th

I started the day cooking pancakes at the LRAA display day (for the last time this year - we expect the weather to suck from here on out).  I'd taken the Magni out, and Randy brought his M-16, and Ken brought his M-24 out and parked next to me.  After we'd packed everything away, I took Jim up for a quick flight, then took Randy's wife up to fly over Folsom Lake (he doesn't have his license yet).  That's 2 people off my list of people who want to fly - I don't think I'm keeping up with additions to the list at the moment :o)

October 17th

The new fuel tap for the DRZ arrived, so I installed that and left the tank with some gas in it to make sure it isn't leaking.  The oil change kits haven't shipped yet :o(

October 14th

The weather forecast is for high, gusty wind, so I decided to do some maintenance on vehicles.  I started off replacing the alternator and powered steering belts on the van, and that was actually easier than I'd thought, once I figured everything out - it's a lot easier to take the silencer off that try and work around it.

We then went out and got a party pack of viton O rings and went to lunch, and when we got home I started in on the DRZ.  I couldn't get any of the O rings to seal the fuel tap, so I've just ordered a new tap, but I think I've got one sorted for the carb.  Taking the carb out and putting it back in was a real trial, but it's done now.  I took the spark plug out and turned the engine over to (hopefully) blow all the gas in the engine all over the garage.  I've ordered an oil change kit (it's an olde-worlde dirtbike style oil filter, rather than a spin-on, so there are a bunch of O rings in there that need replacing, too).