Car show.

The club that hosted the show in Putnam for many years has moved to a field in Pomfret. We got there early and after an hour the cars really started piling in. I went to present the car to the public with a For Sale sign on it. The "car people" that I talked to don't know anything about "cars". But they had one thing in common and that is only original steel will do. One person asked "what makes this a 37"? No one knew that the 37 only came with 5 windows. An original came in and with the original roof line reminded me of a top hat. We chatted with a friend and left. A lot of cars were showing up. I guess I don't understand car shows and the people that go on a regular basis.
  I got the Stuka out and put a few flights on it the other day. I need it for the contest next week end. I'll fly it in the Old Time Stunt and Classic Stunt portion of the two day contest. I was using 58 foot lines but put on a 56 1/2 foot set to try maybe today. I also changed the 62 foot lines on the Guru  for a set of 61' 3" lines. Maybe today too if it don't rain before I get there.

Moving up.

The contest at Lee, MA had very good weather. Every flight had the same very light winds. I didn't get a very good score on my first flight and one of the judges told me what I was doing wrong on one maneuver. I made some changes on the second flight and ended up in 3rd place out of 6.
 I was out yesterday and today trying to fix the other areas of my flying that I discussed with the other judge after the contest.
  Another person came and looked at the hot rod yesterday. He brought along another set of eyes so they could compare notes on the way home. I got under the car this morning and wiped off 17 years of oily dirt from the frame. A can of semi-gloss black covered the bare metal areas of the frame. When I took the prospect for a ride I had the a/c going strong and it frosted up. I checked it a few hours later and it was running right. I had barely used the a/c since it was new. The car is running as good as it can right now.
  The high school called this morning and the model building class is on again. 18 students signed up and they will split them in half and build every other week rather than half building to completion then the other half building.
 The next contest is the weekend after Labor Day in Wrentham, MA. They have a profile contest scheduled for early October. Then it's Baton Rouge.

It is winter.

The month of August has been cold. The temp. in the morning has been in the low 50's getting up into the low 80's if we are lucky. This morning it's 48 degrees at 0700. WHERE'S THE GLOBAL WARMING? What a bunch of assholes.
 The winds have been kind and I'm getting some flying. The contest at Lee, Ma is forecast to be good weather with a chance of showers on Sunday. I have a rain plane ready to go.

Funny how it goes.

I planned on flying the Privateer today. I set it on the stand and looked at the neutral of the flaps and elevator. There was up at flap neutral. After a bit of thinking I set the flaps and elevator at neutral. I headed for the field even though the wind is blowing a bit more than I would like. The first flight was good but too much down. I moved the line two holes toward the center of the handle which put both lines at the same distance from the center. Second flight the engine went lean. The controls felt good though. I had to open the needle a turn to get the engine running and then another turn when the dirt got sucked through and I was able to set the rpm I wanted. With all the filters I have in the system dirt still gets through. The third flight went very well. Now the plane flew not too well since day one and now it flys very well at the settings I had on the first flight that didn't work then.
 I heard from the person who gave me the only offer on the hot rod. We may have a sale.

I have found the enemy and he is,well you know.

Dredging up the memory of making the last batch of fuel was painful to say the least. I didn't remember removing 16 ounces of castor from the mix. That gave me around 24% oil. That in turn was gumming up the engines. I grabbed some all synthetic fuel and ran some through the engines which has improved the run. I did some calculations and I think I diluted the oil % down to where it should be. I had used 2 gallons of the mix and now I have 5 gallons again, hopefully of the right oil %.
 The weather has been real good for flying. I've been out mostly in the morning but also in the afternoon on a couple of occasions. I plan on taking the Guru and the Legacy to the Lee, Ma contest. I think the Legacy is the better flyer though. The Privateer needs more trimming and I may bring that on Sat. and get some help with it.
  The dry spell is supposed to end in a few days. Most of the water will run off before it can soak into the dry dirt though. The grass hasn't grown much in the last few weeks which is good.
 I parked the hot rod near the road during the VJ day parade and got a lot of lookers and quite a few stop and looks and several get out and looks. Time will tell.

Engine run problems.

I've been flying the Legacy lately and near the end of the flight the engine takes off lean. I've changed tanks, cleaned tanks, filters and spray bars, changed engines, props and it still does the same thing. Today I'm going to the field with three kinds of fuel. That is the only constant in the equation. My latest batch of fuel fixin's was real cheap.