I finally got back to constructing my ultralight. I ruined my right aileron trying to replace the fabric, and ordered a replacement (for a paltry $200). The replacement sat in my shed for five months, and the cardboard tube it came in warped badly, but fortunately no harm was done aluminum pieces. A corollary to Murphy's Law states that, "when you are working in two places, the desired tool will always be at the other job site." Both, the leading, and trailing edge spars arrived in two pieces, and had to be drilled, and riveted together. Securing the compression struts in the same plane, while drilling rivet holes in the spar, and connecting sleeve was particularly challenging. The jig I constructed for joining the two pieces of the rear stabilizer was in Oracle, and the completed aileron was too long to fit in my car, (and too fragile to tie to the top), so I just "winged it" (contrary to first impressions, the hanger floor is not truly flat...). The book says that my ultralight can be assembled by a single person in 45 hours. That may be true, but only, if this hypothetical person has extensive experience assembling this ultralight model, has ever conceivable tool at his fingertips, and has already constructed the necessary jigs. But then, solving little "thought problems" like these is part of the fun.
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I took the time to watch a 20 minute youtube video on how to put fabric on an aileron, and it saved me much hassle. I took some cleaner (409 brand), and scrubbed down the spars, removing any sticky residues. Then I took a file, and rounded off all the protruding rivet heads, as well as the both edges of the connecting sleeve. Lastly, I liberally applied a silicon based spray lubricant to the leading, and trailing edge spars. After that, the fabric slid on with almost no problem. Almost, because during my original attempt to cover the aileron, I damaged the zipper. Barbara and I repaired it, but misaligned the teeth (more on one side that the other). The result was that I could not close the zipper. I struggled with it for about two hours, before deciding I would just sew it up. The next day, I brought the sewing stuff, and about two hours later it became evident sewing was not the answer. So, I removed the fabric, re-repaired the zipper (correctly aligning the teeth), and slid the fabric back on. With just a little urging the zipper closed, and the world again became copacetic,--or at least it would have, if the holes in the aileron horn, where it bolted to the spars, had not been spaced too far apart. But work progresses...
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On the way home from the airport on that second day, I had a sudden craving for a root beer float. I picked up the ingredients, and brought them home. Barbara joined me in this delicacy, but almost immediately became violently ill. I have yet to decide if it was the brand of ice-cream, or the root beer, or some combination of previously consumed food, and/or life events. At any rate, I enjoyed her float almost as much as I enjoyed mine, even if I didn't make it back to the airport the next day. This reminds me of an experience, that I don't think I have yet bored anyone with. When Dave Ellis, and I were returning from Mongolia, in 2012, we had an 8 hour lay-over in the airport in Beijing, China. We ate, and for dessert, ordered root beer floats. Unlike our domestic floats, these came layered with the root beer on the bottom, overlaid by whipped cream, and then ice-cream on top. I pushed the ice cream through the whipped cream, and into the root beer, and this released the dissolved carbon dioxide. Since the glass was full, it foamed up, and ran all over the table. I felt foolish, until Dave did the same thing, with the same results. At that point, the cause of the problem became obvious. So, the next time you have a Chinese root beer float, be sure to drink the soda prior to attacking the ice cream... |
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It didn't happen as quickly as I had envisioned, but I have finally started on that list of things I put off until, "I have more time..." One of those items was to replace the missing retaining bars that secure objects in place on the door of our upright freezer. I have now finished it, but that ½ hour project took the better part of two days. To do the job, I needed some heavy-gauge wire (think hot dog roasters). I knew I had some, and a quick search located three coils under the work bench in the shed. I could see the coils, but they were buried to the point that I couldn't locate an end and pull out just what I needed. So, I started digging... and was amazed by some of the things I found. That happens when you live in the same place for 30+ years. How about this heavy duty set of training wheels? They are reinforced with angle iron and have at least two feet of welding on them. Does anyone remember using them? |
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Remember these mini cast-iron cauldrons? I think we may have used them to melt copper/silver/brass, when we were playing with jewelry making, using the lost wax method. One of them was full of oil. I can't imagine me putting an open container of oil under that work bench. Any of you kids want to fess up? |
| After seeing it again, I vaguely remember a basketball hoop. Ethan, your mother wrote that you are often observed bouncing a basket ball (in the house...). Would you like a hoop to shoot baskets? It doesn't have a net, but Wal-Mart would be happy to remedy that for you. And if not Ethan, anyone else? |
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One of the more surprising finds was this collection of vacuum tubes. I suspect that none of you have ever seen a vacuum tube before, and would have no idea of their use if you were to trip over them, (and no, HI-FI on the box does not stand for high-five, but rather High Fidelity [meaning an up-scale record player {not that you have seen many records}]). Starting in the 1950's, vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors. I have spent more hours than I care to admit calculating, input, and output voltages from vacuum tubes but, at this point in time, that skill has become pretty archaic. Barbara suggested I list them on ebay. Surprisingly enough, there seems to be a market for these things, so yesterday I complied with her suggestion, and added them to the world wide garage sale. My auction ends next Wednesday, and if I get a single bid, I will be pleased. If not, the trash can awaits them. Either way, I will have one more story I will have to tell my grandkids. |
| Well, I'm down to talking about the weather. We are just now leaving a period when very heavy rainfall was forecast. We did get some rain from this last storm, but not nearly as much as some prognosticators projected. I lifted this photo and verbiage off of the NOAA website. It's not often that you see the probability of rain set at 100% with an amount of up to 9 inches--at least not in this area. |
Significant threat for flash-flooding continues across the southwestern U.S. Heavy precipitation continues to be forecasted for much of the southwestern U.S. this week, due to the remnants of weakening Tropical Storm Odile. The heavy rainfall will be concentrated across southern Arizona, southern New Mexico and western Texas, where 3 to 6 inches could fall through Friday, with some locales receiving up to 9 inches. Flash Flood Watches remain in effect, for much of this area.
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On, or about, the ninth of September, we got splashed. That was the same date, that Sky-Harbor Airport, in Phoenix, reported 3.2 inches. I don't have a functioning rain gauge, but David Ellis got 3 inches at his place (circa three miles from here). It rained through the night, and the next morning I took my Nikon, and went out to see if I could get some interesting pictures. This panorama shows the clouds in the valley (in retrospect, I could have done the same thing using the wide angle lens, and avoided the color demarkations). The back road to San Manuel was closed. |
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There was water in some of the washes, but it wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped it might be... |
| Closer to home, it did flood the rabbit house. I had brought in 12 to 18 inches of fill dirt under the big rock saw, and kitchen counter, and this material was wet enough to be spongy when walked on. I decided to stay off of it until it dried but, at the current rate, that may take months. |
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I came close to sustaining damage to my electric bike. Water covered the front axle, but that can probably be rectified by cleaning and repacking it in grease. |
| The rear axle, that has the motor in the hub, was more of a concern. It was evident that the motor was partially submerged. I didn't document it, but the battery, mounted under the frame, avoided swimming by mere millimeters. I let everything dry for three days, before checking it out. It powered up, and the motor turned so, in the absence of late appearing complications, I think I avoided major damage. This was from the first storm. When the second storm was forecast, I hung the bike from the rafters... |
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I made yet another, undoubtedly futile, attempt to route storm run-off, back into its original channel. I dug this mini diversion ditch in the rain. Barbara thought that was kind of silly, but wet ground moves much easier than dry, and flowing water quickly pinpoints deviations from grade. And, fortunately, I have a high solubility product constant, meaning I'm almost completely insoluble... |
| Even though we can not currently access the equipment in the rabbit house, we are trying to remain in the rock polishing business. Thinking that small, danglely rocks would work well as bolo tie ends, (as well as earrings, and neckless pendents) we slabbed, then re-slabbed some stones into relatively uniform, rectangular pieces, and started them tumbling. It was amazing how many stones broke, while being cut to length. I suspect that many more will break while being tumbled but, in the final analysis, they are just rocks. This tumbler contains 190 pieces. |
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