Going down.

The flood waters are slowly receding. Kaman has doors open to let the water out. The high water mark on the walls is 3 courses high. Cement blocks. I think 8 inches high each. The water is still over the road and flowing quite fast. Kaman parking lots are torn up pretty bad as are the fences. The logs and phone poles have been moved out of the road way. Others are scattered over the property. The water in the basement here has slowed a lot but is still coming down the hill and around the garage into the driveway.

8 feet high ans rising.

Here's a couple of pictures of the flooding. The two of the bridge shows how much the water level rose in 5 hours. Over a foot.

6 feet high and rising.

It rained all night again and is forecast to rain all day and into the night tapering off to showers by Wednesday morning. The river is over it's banks flooding Kaman's parking lot for the first time ever. I'll get some pictures after it gets light. We've been here 41 years and this is the most rain ever. Water is coming into the basement from under the stairs. I figure it's under ground water as I have re directed all top of ground water away from the house. The water table is almost at LA levels during the dry season. This is the third multi day storm within 30 days.

Another dark and stormy night,day, night, day and night.

Water everywhere. and 2 nights and a day to go of more rain. Water is running down the hill and out to the wall. Puddles all around the garage and the garden is filling fast. The water from the previous storm hasn't drained yet and we are getting even more this time. 5 feet high and rising.
I watched the race today and figured the 11 and 18 were screwed when they were the only ones to pit for tires with 8 laps to go. Gordon in the lead and the 18 hits the wall, another caution. The 11 is up to 4th. The restart the 17 gets by Gordon and they bump letting the 11 and 20 to get by for a 1 and 2 finish. A real fantastic finish.
My balsa order came in so I can finish up the latest build, a foam wing Shoestring. I got another in mind as I came across another reduction of the 576 Ringmaster plans. 90% this time for a 48 inch wing span. Hopefully the weather will be good enough so I wont start it until winter.

New rack.

11 + 1 on the rack.

Another dark and stormy night.

I ordered some balsa for the new build. The foam wing and molded leading edges came out well and the balsa order will get it to the end.
The plane storage rack in the last post was fine until I tried to take a plane out of the center. The cutouts are an inch too close together and the wheels are under the plane next it. I had some left on a Home Depot gift card and bought an eight foot board. I spaced the cutouts at 8 inches and got 11 planes on the rack now. I moved things around in the room and put the rack near the wall. I took planes from the rack near the windows and put them in the rack on the opposite wall. I took the window rack down along with the curtain that blocked sunlight from ruining the covering on the planes in that rack.
While I was trying to self check out at Home Depot I spotted some money near the scanner. I picked it up and after a major fight with myself I turned it over to the attendant who may have done the right thing. $31.00 worth. I didn't look back.

A dark and stormy night, again.

All day the weather just was crappy enough so I couldn't do much outside. A light sprinkle now and then. So I went into R&D mode and came up with a rack to hold my fleet in a compact area. I can get 9 planes in a 5 foot long rack. No more on the floor but still some on the old wall racks. I moved the Astro Hog into the basement as it is a big plane. I built it from Model Airplane News plans 4 years ago and never finished it. I couldn't get it into the truck with the others when I went to the auction. It's got a 6 foot wing and the original flew with a .35 engine and changed r/c pattern forever. It was the first successful low wing aerobatic plane.I should take in a club meeting and offer it up. I can't get through on the club web site.

End of summer.

I tried a different formula on the fuel but no change. I changed glow plugs again and that seemed to be the problem. I'm still getting 6 minutes of engine run on 2-1/2 ounces of fuel. Pretty good really Were looking at 2 or 3 days of rain again here. I got in a few short flights with the Eagle 63. It still flies good after 23 years.

Summer's here at last.

I had to use a different needle in the Fox .40 spray bar. I had one that fit and it had a longer taper for finer adjustment. I started the weed wacker I got from my brother and gassed it up. I made an extension for the line marker spray can and taped the can to a 3 foot long board. I loaded up and headed for the dog track. I stopped at Agway for more paint cans first. I set up in the new location and got in 2 flights. Then I got the tape measure and painted a circle in the center and another circle 75 feet in radius. I got the weed wacker out and cut down the grass and weed sticks within the 75 foot circle. The first flights were much more stable being away from the tree line but the winds were very light. I went back after lunch and got in 2 more flights and the winds were stronger coming over the tree line. I didn't notice any of the turbulence that was in the other circle.
I got the shredder out and chewed up the leaf piles the neighbor kids left last fall. Then I went over to the pile of pine cones and dropped a few into the shredder. They exploded out the chute in many pieces. I proceeded to shred all of them. The bag was full and very heavy as I used the new wagon to bring it to the woods.

Spring is still spriniing.

Tractor Supply had an ad in the paper yesterday and there was a 4 wheel dump cart in it for $59 something. I've been getti9ng the eye about a new wagon of some kind for yard work and the wheel barrow is on it's last legs. I got one today and put it together between trips to the dog track. It's got a plastic body and can be pulled by the lawn mower. Fairly strong construction.
I tried a working tank onthe Padre and didn't get any change in engine run. I tried muffler pressure to the tank but no change. I put two different needle valve asm. and ran it but still no change. Then I noticed a piece of crap in the first needle valve and cleaned it out and replaced it but that didn't help either. Off with the head and in with a .020 shim. That calmed it down nicely. I went to the dog track and flew it and it behaved very well. As it neared the bottom of the fuel load I was waiting for a hint that the engine was going to stop. I was surprised when it quit dead with out a hint. I think I'll keep that tank on for a while. The wind was about 20 mph and coming over the nearby trees knocking the plane about as it passed close to the trees. I started walking away from the trees and it smoothed out some. I'm going to move the circle about 100 yards further from the tree line. The pavement looks more level there too. I'll still have to put up with the thermals.

Spring is here again.

It got up to the low 60's today with light winds. I moved the El Camino over one stall and moved all the stuff out of the way of the hot rod so I could get it out of the shed and into the garage for the season. I had to wash it as the winds had dusted it up real good. I started the lawn mower and ran it around a bit to loosen it up. We went to the dog track late morning and I got in 3 flights with a tank that held 4.4 ounces. What a difference having more than enough fuel. One flight was too lean and went over 9 minutes. I had filled it to the top on that one. The engine is still breaking in and isn't a steady runner yet. Fox .40. The wind wasn't blowing into the sun for the most part. With all the rain we've had the horseshoe pits were dry. Hard to figure.

Ignition lock.

I tried to get at the tumblers/wafers in the Saturn ign. lock to no avail. The cover I thought was holding the wafer springs down was covering an electronic thing that wasn't hooked to anything. It may be the thing that wipes the memory from the computer when unplugged or disturbed. I tried to remove the cylinder but nothing within reach would release it. I remember locks that needed a hole drilled in the right place so a probe could be inserted to depress a spring loaded tab to get the cylinder out. That was 40 years ago. Anyway the sun is out .

It was a dark and stormy,well forever.

Four days and counting. Rain and wind day and night. Getting on my nerves. So much so I started another plane. I had the Shoestring plans enlarged 140% and have been slowly figuring out how to build the fuselage. The motor mounts are on the top of the fuse. side and have to be secured to the front formers first to accomplish this. On top of this the formers are wider than the motor mount assembly the mounts are in the air and depend on the formers to locate them. Making the assembly so it will be easy to finish after getting it glued to the sides was slow work. Lots of engineering as one former has a cutout for the fuel tank and making the cut out before installation would make the former fall apart. I scored the cutout with a chisel and should be able to pop it out after fuselage assembly. My usual procedure of making the fuse. sides was not usable. It took a wedge piece about a foot long to get the stab. a place to sit. I plan to use the same airfoil that is on the Padre. It came from Gil and was from the Cardinal, a model designed by Windy Urtnowski.
Still raining. Forecast to get better Tuesday afternoon.

Some progress.

I was hoping that the wind would hold off longer than it did. Too windy to go flying. I got the idea to measure the capy. of my plastic fuel tanks. They are listed as such on the tanks but I double checked anyway. Sullivan/Pylon brand came up a bit short as did Hayes tanks. I had a new Du-Bro 4 oz. and it held 4.4 ozs. A 6 oz Du-Bro of a different style is actually shorter than the 4 oz. I put them both on planes and will relegate the others to test stand duty. The good thing about the plastic tanks over a metal one is I only need an ounce of fuel to get in a short trim flight with a plastic tank and I have to fill a metal one over half full.
I had mixed the alcohol into fuel and emptied the 5 gallon jugs a few weeks ago. I mixed each gallon jug as I filled it from the larger container. I thought about that and the likely hood of a different mix because of rough measuring. I brought a 5 gallon jug in and dumped all the fuel in it and mixed it up. Then I poured it back into the gallon jugs so it should be consistent.
When I put the 5 gallon jug back on the shelf I knocked something off and onto the floor. It was a pack of stick on velcro that was for the tonneau cover on the El Camino. I've been wondering on where to put the tachometer in the El Camino as there is little room on the steering column and I didn't want to drill holes in the A pillar covers or dash. I tried to stick it in a corner of the dash but there wasn't enough support to keep it in place. Then I tried it on the steering column real close to the wheel hub. I don't need the screw clamp to hold it and it's out of the way of the rotating portion of the column that is the shifter. The clamp would get in the way of the ignition lock and not work at all. It should be fine where it is as the velcro is new and strong. I put the wires through a piece of black shrink tube and will hook it up later. I labeled the wires when I removed it after paint hoping I could re use it as the speedo is way off.
Crappy weather for tonight and tomorrow.
I sent emails to a bunch of politicians through the WTIC radio web site against obama care.

Pass the Charmin, quick!!

Went to the dog track this morning and it had started to sprinkle. I got in 3 flights with the Padre and the winds were almost too light. I had put another tank on the Super 80. I also took the end cap off the problem tank and put a short length of tube over the long slice on the end of the feed tube. It brought the open end 1/4" further away from the vent tube. I brought it with me to try after the first tank trial. The first worked so well I didn't try the other one. During one of the maneuvers the lines loosened and the clips hooked together. The plane started to make lopsided loops as I ran back trying to keep control as long as possible and to lessen the impact. It went around several times and, luckily, the clips separated and I regained control of my bowels and the plane. Before that flight I had made an adjustment of the leadouts and the front line was against the front end of the tip leadout slot moving it closer to the other line. I re adjusted the leadouts and my shorts when I got home. I put a trim tab on the outside wing as It looks like the wing is low a bit. I also put a half ounce on the outside wing as that is supposed to improve line tension.
I went back to the track and tried the fixed tank. Still crap. I made some adjustments to the trim tab and the wings are a little more level and the tip weight seems to have worked as the line tension was improved. No more line snags.

More good weather.

We headed to the dog track before noon. I brought the plane with the new wingwith flaps and tail I fixed up over the winter. It was named the Primary Pupster but with the new stuff I changed the name to Padre. It has a copy of the Primary Force fuse. and I put flaps and a new tail on the Primary Force changing it so it looks like the Padre, somewhat. Keeping with the theme I named it Vicar. Anyway I flew the Padre 3 times and got 2 patterns out of it. The first flight was a test and tune to see how the engine was running.
I started to take the leaf shredder apart to see why it wouldn't start and gave up and went back to the dog track with the Super 80 and 3 fuel tanks. I started with the tank I had on it originally and everything went well. I put the larger tank on that gave me trouble and within a few laps it acted up again. I'll take the end cap off again and replace the feed tube. The one on it has a very long bologna slice at the end and it may be sucking air from the uniflow vent tube which is close to it. I removed a ball of solder that fell in when I plugged a hole that was missed at manufacture. I put the first tank back on and it flew well again.
I went back to the shredder and found a sheared key in the flywheel. I replaced it and it started right up.

Back in the 50's.

I went to play horseshoes this morning but nothing to brag about. Went flying this afternoon and it was a bit windy and the new tank hated the engine. As soon as I released it the engine went into overdrive. 3.88 sec. laps. 3 different props and no change. I put the other tank on and opened up the new one to remove a solder ball. It may have been covering the pick up tube in flight. No hard landings anyway.

In the 60's today.

We decided to go to the hobby shop today instead of Wed. I got some decals for the Super 80 and props, wheels and a tank. We stopped at a breakfast/lunch place next to the Woodstock Fair grounds for a bite as we have never been there. Nice place. When we got home we headed for the dog track. I got in 4 flights with the the Super 80 and the wind was picking up in good shape. The last flight the engine quit so that touch down was up wind. The turbulence pushed the plane towards the ground and I gave it up but the wind forced it onto the ground and bounced it 4 feet high. I managed to keep it hitting on the wheels the second time and it bounced up a foot, came down on the wheels again and the wind flipped over. No damage to speak of. I didn't take the other plane out at all.
I installed the new tank on the 80. It's a 3 1/2 ounce tank. I also re set the leadouts by using a tape measure to see just how much the nose hangs below level. I think this will be a much more accurate way of doing it.

Spring is still springing.

Mid 50's today.
We headed to the dog track in the El Camino for a change. I got in several test flights with 2 planes. I had to change a few things when I got home but nothing special. I had the elevator flutter on the bigger plane and I found the horn not that tight. I'll keep an eye on it next time out and cut the elevator shorter if the flutter is still there. Tomorrow should be nice too.
Dave Miller and family stopped in while I was flying and we chatted for a bit between flights. He put Richard Woods engine together and installed other go fast goodies in the Monte Carlo. They are looking for mid 11's so Richard can race during the night shows. 11.50 E.T. min. for the big shows at night.

Spring might be springing.

Low 50's today and light winds.I went to the dog track and got some flights with the Super 80 and the Flite Streak. I took the engine off the 80 and the Streak and put the LA .25 on the 80. It is a lot more powerful than the older OS .25. The 80 is more stable than the Streak so I will try it with the better engine.
I washed the car and the truck, played some horseshoes and had an early supper.
I have been watching a different repo man show on TV and switching between the public access channel which has Polka music. These bands must be from the 60's as they all have beetle hair cuts. The worst ones played Willie Nelson's "Blue eyes crying in the rain". As bad as they were they are still better than Willie. Must have been the dual accordions. I can't wait for the Baton brothers to come on. Too bad there not on u tube. They are probably banned for life.

More crappy weather.

Sat. is looking good so far.
I used some JB Weld and made the push rod for the Super 80. It's still curing. By tomorrow it will be flyable. I put the old OS .25 that I found in the dump in it for the first flights. The LA .25 is in the Flite Streak for testing. I'll have to check the hobby shop in Groton for some decals as the Super 80 looks bare with nothing on the wings.
I did some adjusting on the oil lines on the Harley and put it back together.

Crappy weather and hot paint.

Mid 30's and snow showers and windy.
I read in one of my magazines that heating dope paint will allow it to flow in longer producing a smoother finish. After applying the color coats I put the plane in a heated room and the clear dope in hot water. When I figured it was hot enough I sprayed on a wet coat of clear. The dope took a long time to flash off meaning it was flowing out smoother. I put on a second coat and after it dried the finish is much smoother. I would have thought the heated paint would have dried very fast but that isn't the case here.

Nice weather today.

The forecast was for temps in the high 40's and light winds. Rain and snow for tonight.We headed for the dog track around noon and I got in 4 flights with the Flite Streak using the tank I got at the hobby shop. The engine wouldn't cooperate but did run. I didn't make any trim changes this time but I did swap engines. I put the needle valve on the exhaust side so an inverted landing won't break it. A little tricky to set it though with the hot muffler and prop in the way.
I glued the wing, stab and rudder on the Super 80. I also covered the wing. I'm going to paint the fuse. bright silver from a Krylon can and then clear dope it to make sure it's fuel proof. Orange on the wing and tail like the PT-19 and other trainers from WW2. Calculated weight is around 25 ounces.

Back to 'dark and stormy' weather.

When I got up Sat. morning there was 2 inches of snow on the ground. I drove to East Hartford for the horseshoe tournament and got third place. $10.00 richer, it cost $15.00 to enter and $20.00 for gas. The snow was clinging to the tree branches and was still there at noon. Dead calm all day. Half the snow was gone by the time I got home so we went to the dog track. I got in 3 flights with the Flite Streak and noted some changes that were in order. I replaced the needle valve assy. as it got bent during the inverted landing. I removed the tail weight that was needed to put the balance at the suggested spot and added another washer under the engine for more out thrust. On Sun. the snow was gone and we went back to the dog track. The changes worked very well. I think it could use some more nose weight as the corners are very sharp but the plane is a lot more stable. I put on an aluminum hub spinner and an APC prop for the next session. The kit came with a fuel tank, which is still leaking from another seam, and a pre formed push rod. There is no way to adjust the controls with the push rod. I remembered some solder on 2-56 threaded adapters and cut the rod and soldered one on with a clevis. Now I got adjustment to center the handle. It's a pain to hold up or down to get the plane to fly level.
I got the Super 80 wing sheeted, controls installed, glued together and tips installed over the weekend. The bellcrank pivot rod extends out of the wing top and bottom and rests against the fuse. side so it wont pull out.
Weather forecast for the next 5 days was sunny but that changed to 30% chance of rain and snow. WTFD.