Gobble plank

Another fine morning, and I dared to venture into rush traffic to go early so I could get home early for watching grandkids.  Traffic not so bad at 7:30AM, but not great.  Anyway, the field was empty and I flew the Gobby 500 five times, and then my Yak 54 once.  The JB disker was out again, but distant enough and safe.  Yak 54 flew well, started right up and idled good from the beginning.  Nice smoke trail in the blue sky.  Fun with the heli, doing the inverted things.  Got a little nuttier and did a couple half rolls while pretty much vertical diving down from high.  Yikes, but no problems.  Home by 9:30AM!

Gobble gobble

Flew the two Goblins today, 500 and 630.  Four flights on the former, 3 on the latter, ten packs in all.  Fun in mostly clear skies with good light and visibility.  JB was already disking the soil even though they still need to harvest some of the sod, but they are nearly done.  I did not fly my Yak 54 due to the disk tractor making passes close to the runway at times.  The helis flew well before JB got close to the runway.  Good passes inverted, very fun, getting relaxed and likely overconfident, so expect a bad report in the near future, lol.

Sunny sunny

Today was the opposite of yesterday morning.  It was clear and although JB was harvesting, they were done and gone by 9AM.   Before that I got in 5 flights on the Goblin 500.   Then I put in 5 flights on the Bravata...I believe that is the most in one outing for that plane.  I ought to inspect the muffler because that is the weak point in this plane...the stock and then the JTec muffler always loosens or cracks.  I seem to have the loosening cured by using red threadlock on the mounting bolts, but there is not much I can do about the cracking due to vibes in the gas engines.  Anyway, the Bravata was a champ today.  Just so easy to fly and fun to play with flaps and do simple aerobatics like rolls, loops, and stall turns.  The G500 was great and I got in lots of inverted passes.  No pics today as I forgot my cell phone at home.

Foggy foggy

Conditions were not perfect due to fog but I flew anyway.  It was dense enough to warrant staying close but light enough to try, lol.  I got in some inverted anyway, but lower and closer than usual for me.  Good practice I suppose.  Five flights on the Goblin 500.  I had the Bravata but due to half a dozen workers weeding the sod farm (what is left of it to harvest), and the fog, I decided against flying it.

Fog everywhere!

FLight log: 09/19/2016

Flew Monday to test whether I could see good enough after having YAG noninvasive laser surgery on right eye to remove secondary cataract.  Yup, I could fly but not with exact confidence level  as the first 6 months after cataracts were removed in Feb 2016.  Wah, I thought the effects would be permanent but I got secondary cataracts already in both eyes and my vision is down.  While still 20/20 in the right eye, it is a blurry 20/20 with more mistakes on the eye chart.  The left eye is down to 20/30.  Crapola.  Still better than having cataracts.

ANyways I flew the G500 twice and the 7HV four times without losing orientation or crashing, in my worst sky condition....solid grey overcast.  So perhaps my lack of visual accuity was somewhat to blame on the sky condition instead of the YAG effect.  Was happy to see good enough to continue heli and plane flying.

Flight log: 09/15/2016

Nice morning of flying early.  Won't be able to do this much longer to beat the morning traffic because the sun is rising later and later.  Look at the pics below, I stood in the shadow of the tree all the time, but the heli was in sun most of the time because it was higher than the trees' shadows.  Got in 2 flights on the G500 and 4 on the 7HV.  Tighter belt tensioner seemed to reduce the vibes, so I am going to stretch it out some more and see if it helps.  Great flying today with lots of inverted practice.  Getting better at not steadily gaining altitude with each inverted pass, lol.

No sod harvesting today, yay!

My shadow looks cool in this one!

Casino Coast Cruisin!

Haven't taken the Boxster on a long drive for a loooooooooooonnnng time, so I finally got off the dime and hit the road on something manageable.  133.3 miles in about 4 hours took me from home to Chinook Winds in Lincoln City first, via Hwy 22, then Hwy 18 and short stretch of Hwy 101.  Hit four 4's on video poker but I was only playing one credit of 25 cents so that won $20.  Left there in 20 minutes with $15 of the winnings.  Drove next north on 101 heading for Hebo.  Construction signs warned of closure of Hwy 22.  I didn't know if that would be north or south of Hebo, so I took the first right off 101 on the Neskowin River cutoff.  Many one lane bridges on this route but nice twisties.  That joined with Hwy 22 apparently south of the closure because I rode it all the way to Grand Ronde and Spirit Mountain.  Lost $5 of my winnings from CW while at SM for perhaps 20 minutes again.  Headed home $10 in the black.  Round trip was about four hours from just before 9AM till 1PM.

I parked on the upmost tier of the Chinook Winds parking lot.

At Spirit Mountain, I just parked far enough out in the middle of the lot.

The 981 Boxster was a joy driving on the state highways and the county roads I took today.  Very smooth ride, easy steering, and power to spare.  Passed on the uphill passing lanes near where the buffalo used to roam, hitting 90 mph easy to scoot by everyone I wanted to pass.  Then I hit about 85 mph on the first long uphill passing section just west of Grand Ronde.  Very positive and feels safe.  No incidents recorded with numbnuts parking next to my Boxster just to be irritating.  All in all, just a very fine outing in the 981!

Weekend flying

Yesterday was the KRCA annual picnic and fly-in, so I took just my Toledo Special and Aerostar 40 to fly.  Got 3 flights on the Aerostar, and maybe 4 on the TS.  I forget!  Hamburgers and hot dogs were great!

This morning I flew helis with Tad.  I charged all 14 of my 4000 mah packs and got in 2 flights on the X5, 2 on the G500, 2 on the G630, and 3 on the 7HV.  When Tad came at 8AM I had 4 flights in on the smaller helis, and then we took turns from then on.  Tad had 4 flights on the beautiful Forza 700.  I did a lot of inverted practice again.  Keep on piling on the time and something is bound to improve, lol.  Tad said my pullouts from inverted were lower than ever, so that shows more confidence.  Or stupidity!  Great fun flying with Tad in the perfect weather, with no interruptions from JB or other fliers today.

Geez forgot again

Flew yesterday, 10 packs for 7 flights.  2 on the X5, 2 on the G500, 3 on the 7HV.  All went well, with only watering carried out by JB.  Nobody else there as I was at the field very early for maybe an hour and few minutes in all.  Same old inverted practice went fine.

Labor Day

Nice day for flying early due to no traffic.  Surprised to see JB working on the holiday, but all was good because I got there at 7:15, and as I got my things out of the truck, JB was already sending a full semi-load of sod on its way.  The harvester was in fact back in the midfield area instead of on the south end where the sod was harvested from.  They must have been working in the dark!  To my benefit, they were done and I had the place to myself until Don and Jerry and Bud showed up.  By then though, I was about half done with my flights.

Flew the X5 twice, G500 three times, 7HV once, and 690SX three times.  I wanted to fly the 7HV twice but a vibration has shown up , and it needs to be eliminated.  I actually noticed it last time out, but thought my eyes were playing tricks.  Not so, the vibe is real today.  Got in lots of inverted practice and just am building the time and muscle memory.  A good day of flying.

New record!

Today I took just 1 hour and 45 minutes to go to and from the field and fly 7 flights on my helis there!  2 on the X5, 2 on the G500, and 3 on the 690SX.  Light fog but flyable.  Everything behaved well, no JB workers surprisingly, and calm and cool air, around 55F.

Record time!

I went to the field at 6:45 and was home at 8:45.  AND I got 7 flights in on my helis!  That has to be my record...2 hours for 7 flights and including travel time back and forth, lol.  It was cool and partly grey and cloudy, but fine, with no JB workers ruining the fun!  I put in 2 flights on the X5 first, followed by 2 on the G500, then 3 on the 7HV.  All performed well, and I had a ball doing the usual stuff, with no disorientations nor distractions!