Might rain today.

We went to the dog track this morning. The weeds are having a time with the oil residue. I got in 3 flights with the Padre. I read a post on what to do to fix a plane that wanders (hunts) up and down as it goes around the circle. One of the more knowledgeable replies said to move the leadouts foreward a bit. I moved the leadouts of the Padre forward a bit and the plane didn't hunt nearly as bad as it has. It would start a climb going into the wind and a dive going down wind. I was constantly correcting for it. In todays wind the plane was stable all around. The reasoning is to get the fuse. more in line with the flight path.
I went to the plumbing store and got a thing called a shark bite coupling. I wanted a union so I could bypass a leaking shut off valve while gluing some pipes together but they didn't have one. I guess it works on the same principle as the fuel injection connectors on some cars. Just stick the pipe in the fitting and it's sealed. Push on the right place and it comes apart. $5.00 dollars vs $1.50.
I'm waiting for the forecast rain to start but it don't look good. Maybe tonight we will get some.

New weed killer trial.

I mixed some many years old kerosene with a quart of drain oil and headed for the dog track. The sky clouded over as we got to the track and helped a lot keeping the temps down. I sprayed 3 gallons on the weeds growing in the asphalt cracks. The Bayer weed killer made no change to the weeds at all. If this blend don't work I'll have to get some agent orange. I drained the Kerosun heaters as the fuel in them is as old as the stuff I mixed.
I have to get a new saw chain or have the old one sharpened I don't know which. Maybe both.
I've just about concluded the grass trials at the new school. I have wheels that are big enough to keep the plane from tipping up on it's nose but not too big as to look stupid. It's a major points loss if any part of the plane, other than the wheels, touch the ground during landing. The Pathfinder works very well with the trike gear. It flys pretty good too.

All cleaned up.

I went to the new school this morning and tested the new tank. It went well until about half the fuel load was gone then the engine sped up. I think it is because the tank is moving around so I put more elastics on it. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

I got to scraping, sanding , priming, painting the wheels and clear coating the hub caps. They look a lot better now.

Rims and tires.

I went to the new school again this morning and got in two flights with the pathfinder. The trike gear works very well on grass.

I went to Brooklyn and got 4 tires and rims with the donut spare this afternoon. I cleaned them off a bit and took some pictures of the worst ones. Should be good for the duration.

88 at 1030 am.

We went to the new school at 0830 and I got in 3 flights before the heat got too bad. I flew the Pathfinder as I had re installed the trike gear. I bent the nose gear straighter to give more prop clearance and bent the mains to the rear to keep it from tilting on the tail with no fuel. The changes worked well and I got in two partial patterns as I couldn't get enough fuel in the tank. The overflow tube was split lengthwise for a half inch. I took it apart and covered the split with fuel tubing. The Flite Streak flew horribly yesterday with the c/g set to the plans. I put it back and it still flys poorly. I added a Higley heavy hub but the temp. kept me from trying that change. What is strange is that the other Flite Streak flys so well. I built them both the same. I checked the alignment of the wing and stab. and it's not off too much. About a half degree so I cut under it and added a wedge to bring it into alignment. But that didn't help. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler a bit.
I've improved my horseshoe game a bit. I don't do any back swing and I get more ringers like I used to. This way I'm forced to throw the shoe higher and farther to reach the stake. I'm almost at the bottom of the league and need more ringers to climb up.

A.M. flights.

I'm heading for the new school in Sterling shortly and a person from the Boston area should meet me there. I went there yesterday and someone was hitting golf balls through the space I wanted to fly in. I ended up at the dog track. I hope to get there first today. The new guy don't want to fly off pavement at all but there is a lot of grass to choose from. I'm still trimming the Snow Fox and am getting close. I had to reverse the flap horn to get more down control. I built it like the plan, I think, and had more up. The pushrod holes were in front of the hinge line so I moved them in back of the line and things were better. I put 3 inch wheels on it to keep it from tipping up on the nose on grass but haven't tried them yet. Looks stupid. The second Flite Streak flies like crap and I re-set everything to the directions yesterday. I'll try that today too.
We went to Jereme's to visit with Neal for a while last evening. The usual fare for a cookout. Beer, tequila, wine, explosives.

Things to ponder

Why, with all the speeding penalties on pit road, don't nascar drivers use a GPS unit for speed information??
And another thing; You can lead a liberal to water but he will never understand why.