Saturday Flights

Started the day off with my father flying the Pitts for the first time in quite a few months.

After he flew I took the Pitts up to practice some sequences. However, I brought the plane back early because of more canopy issues. We took the canopy off and tried a new fix. Tomorrow we will see if it works.

Throughout the day there were various flights by a few of the neighbors. We even had two new visitors (Husky and Cessna 152) and one who hasn't been here in a while (Red Tail Glasstar).



SLICK

Spring Break Aviation

The past few days have been beautiful, and some of us in the neighborhood have been taking full advantage of the weather. I flew the Pitts both Tuesday and Wednesday. I practiced the known and free sequences. I really enjoy my free sequence. The maneuvers are fairly simple, but the layout makes for a fun and interesting challenge! Chris and Mike have been flying hang gliders lately off the makeshift runway on Chris's lot. There have also been various other flights throughout the week.


Here are the pictures from the tomcat surgery.

SLICK

Tomcat Surgery Part 2

Everything went well and at 0945 this morning the Tomcat was moved back inside with a properly aligned canopy structure. Pictures to follow.

SLICK

Tomcat Surgery Part 1

At about 18:58 today I began the corrective canopy surgery on Dave's F-14A Tomcat. The canopy, which has caused more problems with this model than anything, was a bit crooked and needed to be straightened out. So far everything is going well...

SLICK

Dust Collector Milestones!

This past week I've been a little too busy to update the blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working in the hangar. I was able to finish two models, both the F/A-18 and the F-14A. I don't much care for the photo inserting insert program on here, so I have added the links from ARC to the pictures of both models completed:

F/A-18:
http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=179854

F-14A:
http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=180285

Two days into spring break and the runway is still a bit wet. Hopefully tomorrow I can begin practicing in the Pitts!

SLICK

Busy Sunday

All day Saturday I was at a track meet, which left me with a lot of play time I needed to make up on Sunday. Today I painted all but the final color on the hornet. The model is getting close. I also prep'd the Tomcat canopy in order to spray the first color soon.

My father did quite a bit of work on the Hog Bipe as well. The bottom wings panels have been joined together and the leading edge sheeting sanded.

I took the Pitts out for a flight only to have it cut short by annoying canopy issues. Once I landed we immediately began work to fix these problems. The right side has been sliding open recently due to part of the rail moving farther forward than it's supposed to. The left side has always slid open just slightly, but I was tired of this happening. The fixes are in place now, and hopefully I will be able to test the canopy tomorrow...as well as show off the new camera location.

Although I didn't fly the Pitts a second time, my father and I did take the Clipper around the patch for a little more than half an hour. The weather today was excellent, and the forecast shows the same for most of the week.

DIRTY SIDE UP!

SLICK