Switches are ON

I finally installed the 3 heavy duty switches in the Ultimate today.  The single one in front is for the ignition.  The pair are for the receiver and servos.

Had a mental block to do them because of the structure inside the fuselage that complicates placement of the switches, and access to them from behind.  I chose areas where there was a single layer of balsa to cut through, with no doublers, and which would not interrupt the exterior color trim on the fuselage.

That inner fuselage structure made it a little challenging to get my fingers and the backplates in, but it turned out really well!

ULTIMATE Decal

Am I going to blog about every single new vinyl decal that I make with the Cricut?  PROBABLY, haha.  Here is the large name decal for my AW Ultimate bipe.  This is about 15" long and 2" hign in Vivid Blue.  I chose the font off the free font disc I got with SCAL2.  After I used the font, the name of it somehow got lost in SCAL2, so I can't even find it again out of thousands on the disc!  Anyway, I probably won't need it again, but is sure is cool to me!  (Note to self...write the font name down next time.)

Here is a pic of the fuselage with 3 Cricut decals mocked in place:

THIS is exactly what I hoped to achieve with my venture into Cricut, to be able to create my own decals for any plane!

Pennzoil Decal with Cricut

I had some fun making a pair of Pennzoil vinyl decals for my Aeroworks Ultimate with the Cricut.  I found this logo online:

 

Of course, I cannot reproduce that exactly since I am limited to sheets of vinyl that are pre-colored.  So I ran that logo through Inkscape, then SCAL2, and came up with this finished vinyl decal today:

ACTUALLY the only shape that survived the process is that red bell.  The outline is from the online logo.  I recreated the letters with a font in SCAL2, and likewise redid the oval.  Both were badly shaped after Inkscape.  As it is these letters are not sharp, but are good enough, because the Cricut just is not capable of making sharp angles.  It is good with straight lines and gentle curves, but not the sharp corners in the letters.  Still, I am happy with the result and they will go on my plane.  Stand 3' away, and they look good, so these are Standoff Scale decals.  :)  BTW, I purposely chose that dark yellow to match my plane.  I have a lighter yellow that matches the online logo better, but not the Monokote on my plane.  Similarly the blue letters match the blue on my plane, so I went with that rather than black.  That is one of the added benefits of making my own decals...I can alter their colors, as well as size, to match my planes.

Lakeside Hideaway

Here is painting #23!  I wanted to try something different...black clouds in a sky with blue on top and light brown on the bottom.  I wanted to work on mountains again too, getting the paint to "break", so Bob Ross says.  Got better at that today.  :)  Overall, I like how the painting came out.  Big trees up front really push the other things back and create depth that is desired. 

After looking at the painting more, I decided to add some white to top off the clouds.  Looks better.

TAXES!

Yeah, who doesn't hate paying taxes!?  I have had Turbo Tax for a couple months, and I finally loaded it on the PC because Jer wanted to do his returns.  I loaded it Sunday AM and Jer did his that night.  LUCKY!!  That made me think about it more seriously, and on Tues I started to load in my income and interest, etc, and soon I was hooked.  I spent most of the day getting the FED and OR returns done.  Fortunately TT does the work of figuring the way to minimize the tax and maximize my refund.  This is my first year with Alex in college, so TT figured that the All American Education Credit is the way to go.  TT also was improved this year so it now recognizes how OR treats federal retirement income like mine, which is a big benny for me.  I think it does it slightly wrong, but I corrected it to my satisfaction and believe I have it right.  After a couple days of sitting on it, I will submit the returns!  I feel relief and might paint today, to free my spirit completely!

Flight Log: 02/20/2011

Brrrrr, cold 45F with 10 mph wind made it feel very cold out there, but Joe, Mike, Bob, and I flew...die hards!  My Giles 202 flew well in the wind, but I had to quarter in the landings from the east because of the strong cross wind from the south.  3 flights, 3 decent landings, nothing broken.  ON the 3rd start, I noticed the idle was high, and it seemed to be even higher on the landing, so I had to make 3 tries at landing.  When I got to the pits, I wiggled the muffler, and sure enough it was loosening, but I don't think loose enough to lose a bolt like Jer did recently.  The loose muffler also explains the difficulty to get the engine primed on the last flight.  I will retighten the bolts and use red thread locker this time instead of blue..."permanent" vs temporary.

Mike flew his Revolver while I was flying the Giles.  He landed before me, and didn't land on the first attempt.  Proceeded around and made 2nd attempt during which he flew it right into the runway, tearing the LG off, which then proceeded to tear the right stab off pretty completely, and dislodged the left side less.  He said it was pure pilot error.  While coming in, he was too high, so he backed off on up elevator, and it smacked the ground before he knew it.

High Haven

Here's my 22nd painting, and 2nd for 2011, in the Bob Ross method.  My paintings have been taking less time since I first started oil painting, but his one took  a long 6 hours today.  I tried to do things better, so it took more thought and time.  BUT I am pretty happy with the results!  I think my clouds improved on this one, the evergreens, the bare tree, and the layout.  I kinda like making these darn cabins and fences too, but I don't want them in every painting.  Also have enjoyed making snow lately, but I don't want that all the time either.