What did you do today?

Played the Russian side in the Battle of Moekern and studied Japanese.
 
chartbundle said:
Yes, hopefully. A Utah Non-Profit, Vintage Aviation Museum, bought it. https://www.potb.org/tillamook-air-museum-announces-partnership-with-vintage-aviation-museum
Initial work to stabilize the damage is underway with a hope to re-open soon while the remainder of the work is funded/completed. https://www.tillamookheadlightheral...cle_0d68ffef-d507-4e54-997f-9d862249277a.html
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That is awesome to hear! My brother lives nearby and I was really sad when he told me it was shutting down and not going to be fixed.

I always appreciated their sense of humor: (this is looking straight up while walking through the gargantuan blimp entry doors - 120 feet tall)

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flyingcheesehead said:
So, uh... What's next? I hope you're not going to be planeless!
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Managed to get away for the last few days of salmon fishing. Caught this coho after 30 minutes casting from shore. Broke my rod. Brought a spare.
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Back at it later this morning.
 
Not today but yesterday. Went flying two days post-annual so flying buddy could get approaches in. Left vacuum pump died. Always something...
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
Not today but yesterday. Went flying two days post-annual so flying buddy could get approaches in. Left vacuum pump died. Always something...
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Regretting the twin? Tempted to buy an apache from my uncle just to get my multi.
 
Finished a pretty epic 19 days of aviating. 2400 NM of cross country VFR, 33 hours logged, 13 aerobatic sorties, 5 competition flights including 2 at IAC Nationals. Feeling like a pilot right now.

Big thanks to @Tools for hosting me on my stop home, and making sure the airport was throwing a BBQ party when I landed. I can confirm he is indeed the king of tools. The man has more industrial grade bandsaws than I have screwdrivers.

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Installed a fresh set of Chinesium Alloy blades on the zero-turn mower. Can't even remember the last time they were replaced - I think it's safe to say we got our money's worth. I knew it was time when I bent the tip of one while removing it to clean the deck. :rofl:
 

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I've been doing paint repairs on my cowling over and over again. It's a new spray gun (for me). An HVLP as opposed to the old style pressure gun I used in the past. There are too many variables with adjustments for the width of the spray pattern, the amount of pressure to the gun, the amount of paint allowed to enter the gravity fed stream, and the amount of reducer used when mixing the 2 part paint. For several weeks, my settings resulted in paint it on, wait for it to cure and then sand it off and try again. It is a single stage paint, so it is really hard (for me) to tell when a coat has "flashed" and is ready for a second coat. Spraying the paint too heavily on the first pass, or applying the second coat too soon resulted in heavy orange peel. I've finally settled on multiple thin coats and letting the paint cure with light scuffing with 1,000 grit between coats to get the finish I want. Of course, the weather has been perfect for flying while I've been doing this and now that I'm nearing the end of the project the rain clouds have returned. Sigh.
 

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Tough skill to learn. Get the air pressure just high enough that it atomizes the paint instead of spitting big globs. Dial in your fan pattern by spraying a quick blast against a clean piece of masking paper - kinda lens shaped is ideal, but if you fan it out too far you'll end up with two heavy spots on the tips like an hourglass; if it's not fanned enough you'll have a heavy round deposit in the middle and it will probably run before you are able to get rid of all the orange peel in your overlap between passes. If those two settings are in the ballpark, most of the challenge comes down to travel speed and getting a good reflection off the surface to gauge material deposition. The right amount of lighting is crucial.

If you're consistently spraying too heavy and getting runs, speed up or reduce the trigger travel - dial up the fluid control knob behind the needle so you physically cannot move the trigger too far back.

Good luck! I've never sprayed U-Tech. My jobber mostly sells Nason, Dupont, Axalta, Imron.

Edit: another complicating factor could be the speed of your reducer. If they have fast/medium/slow reducers for your paint system, use a slower reducer in hotter weather and a faster reducer in cool weather. If you use a fast reducer in hot weather, the material may flash off before it has a chance to settle into a gloss and you'll get orange peel. If you use a slow reducer in cool weather, it may sag or run as the material remains liquid for too prolonged a period of time.
 
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This kind of thing is what makes POA great. Flyhound posts about his ordeal with painting his plane, and ColinD comes on with professional level advice on how to make it better. Love it
 
ColinD said:
Edit: another complicating factor could be the speed of your reducer. If they have fast/medium/slow reducers for your paint system, use a slower reducer in hotter weather and a faster reducer in cool weather. If you use a fast reducer in hot weather, the material may flash off before it has a chance to settle into a gloss and you'll get orange peel. If you use a slow reducer in cool weather, it may sag or run as the material remains liquid for too prolonged a period of time.
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My results improved when I put effort into getting viscosity right. Zahn cup is good for that. Also make sure the gun nozzle size matches the paint spec sheet.

Oooo, and the new Harbor Freight disposable paint cups are great.
 
Disposable cups are so nice. I still haven't bothered to buy a PPS 2.0 adapter for my Iwata LPH400; thankfully PPS 1.0 compatible liners and lids are still widely available on Amazon. I attended college for auto body, but it was 20 years ago so a ton of my product and procedure knowledge is woefully outdated. The fundamentals of laying down gloss remain pretty much the same (with a solvent-based system anyway.)
 
Cut up 9 sheets of 5/16 steel plate on the plasma table. 5,742lbs.

Then got to drive this bad boy. Training was maybe 2 minutes. Someone that was actually trained bent the tie rod and the 1-1/4 thick steel bracket some how.IMG_4851.jpegIMG_4852.jpeg
 
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Picked up the airplane after it got a surefly. Had the a/p install a hall effect sensor coming off the tach drive, instead of surefly sim p lead hookup.

But... Found a little weeper near the left inboard fuel sump. It ain't the sump. So looks like the tank will need sealing in the not to distant future
 
First drive in 60 years for my Great Grandfathers 52 Ford F1. A trip to the local ice cream place (https://www.bobbysuesnh.com/) and back for a quick wash job. Lots left to do but she's licensed and on the road. My wife did say seat belts should be towards the top of the list and as usual, she likely right. Back and gave her a quick wash and back in the garage. Will try and get the side windows in this week but do need to go do some flying too. tempImageCo555L.jpg

 
Cleaned and polished our leather couch as well as another chair, and then took my dog Mr. Spock for a 5 mile walk to the local farmers market.
 
Almost let a day pass without doing airplane stuff for the first time in 4 weeks.

But that window hinge sometimes binds up a bit. On my way to the airfield to fix it.
 
Flew to Arcadia, FL (X06) with a few airpark neighbors for the EAA chapter’s monthly pancake breakfast. And diverted to Okeechobee (KOBE) for second breakfast on the way home, because there were t-storms between there and home. If the storms had been in the TAF or MOS, we wouldn’t have gone, but we got more time hanging out and talking aviation and not doing chores, so it’s good.
 
ateamer said:
Flew to Arcadia, FL (X06) with a few airpark neighbors for the EAA chapter’s monthly pancake breakfast. And diverted to Okeechobee (KOBE) for second breakfast on the way home, because there were t-storms between there and home. If the storms had been in the TAF or MOS, we wouldn’t have gone, but we got more time hanging out and talking aviation and not doing chores, so it’s good.
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I stumbled upon that event by dumb luck about 3 years ago. Haven't been back, but I should.
 
Pugs said:
First drive in 60 years for my Great Grandfathers 52 Ford F1. A trip to the local ice cream place (https://www.bobbysuesnh.com/) and back for a quick wash job. Lots left to do but she's licensed and on the road. My wife did say seat belts should be towards the top of the list and as usual, she likely right. Back and gave her a quick wash and back in the garage. Will try and get the side windows in this week but do need to go do some flying too. View attachment 155448

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Hell yeah! I might be hitting you up as I've got the same year and model sitting in my garage. My tenants moving out and destroying the rental house has put it on the backburner
 
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Ed Haywood said:
I stumbled upon that event by dumb luck about 3 years ago. Haven't been back, but I should.
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ateamer said:
It’s such a nice airport with the park and campground.
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Next time you visit Arcadia, take a ride over to the cemetery and check out the British plot from WWII.
Half Fast

Thread 'A little bit of England....'

Today SWMBO and I took a drive down to Arcadia, FL. If you don't know where Arcadia is, it's maybe 15 minutes south of Zolfo Springs. Arcadia is a quaint little town with a variety of antique shops, small restaurants, a bookstore, etc. It also has a rather unique place, at least unique for a spot in the middle of Nowhere, Florida.

If you drive just a bit north to the end of Nowhere and turn left, the road will become sand and gravel and lead into Oakridge Cemetery, a rather old and obscure cemetery well off the beaten path. Towards the back and off to one side, there's a small burial...
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The town is nice, too. Lots of little shops and restaurants.
 
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