Saturday, October 27, 2007

B-25 at South County

A strange visitor appeared at South County a few weeks ago...a huge and very weathered B-25 parked out in the weeds by the fuel island. It's been drawing a steady stream of gawkers from the highway.

As you can see it still seems to be wearing it's original paint -- so much peeling that it's hard to believe it can get airborne. Lots of buckets to catch leaking oil too.

Apparently the owner plans to restore it and display it at South County, and seeks volunteers to help. There's a note to this effect on the airplane but it's now illegible due to the brief rains we had.

We've also had a lot of RVs buzzing around, and strange helicopters...

Dynon update, Watsonville again

New software on the Dynons shows percent-engine-power, winds aloft on the EFIS screen, and all sorts of other screen-cluttering goodies.

Flew over to Watsonville and ran into some fellow EAAers. The enchiladas draw people from all across the state...

Monday, October 15, 2007

Harris Ranch and misc flying

Flew to Harris Ranch on saturday, but forgot the camera. Too bad, I was dodging cumulus all the way down there.

On Sunday, I set out to do some maintenance and found my brake fluid reservoir was leaking all over the inside of the firewall and my soundproofing foam. That fitting has leaked before -- I tightened it and forgot about it. Now it was loose again, even though there's no way it can rotate. I suspect that nylon fitting just isn't up to the job, and will need to be replaced.

I also added a trim tab for my rudder, made of two pieces of stacked AEX wedge, taped on with aluminum tape.



I had planned to fly over to Watsonville for cheap gas, but it was fogged in. So I cruised over to RHV for the first time instead.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

San Luis Obispo


Hills in the King City area

There's a small commuter terminal at SBP -- yet it is the biggest airport that this airplane has been to!


View of the airplane from the Spirit of San Luis restaurant. The food was good, though not cheap.


Quick flight out to the coast from there with Nick, who met me for lunch.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Current temps

Long hot climbout...still hotter than I'd like.

Cruise at 5500, 75% power

Columbia

Bumpy ride into Columbia today. Cool terrain nearby really chops up the air.
Winds got very high by the end of the day -- really had to struggle to keep the controls straight while taxiing.



Columbia was...Columbia. I had been here about 6 years ago. There was a rose show going on, though, and they had some really amazing miniature roses.