Spring to Fall

Where Are We Today
The "Ridge"
Priceville, Ontario

Here we are days from leaving the Ridge to head south and I haven’t done my Spring wrap up of our trip home and winter mileage. If you recall from Pat’s blog, we had a little excitement on the way home in blowing one of the trailer tires. I did change that tire on the side of the road, not something I would want to do again anytime soon. The rest of the trip home was uneventful. There was little damage to the underside of the trailer and I was able to fix it while sitting at our dealers when we stopped there before returning to the Ridge.

Shredded tire and the arms that hold the electrical and water lines repaired.

Our winter mileage was 14129.8 kms. / 8779.8 mi. The actual miles per gallon I don’t have because, I accidently hit the reset on the trip meter. I can say that it was between 10 and 11 miles per gallon, which is normal for our winter travels.

Someone was asking how our new batteries that we bought for the trailer were doing. I am pleased to say that they are performing well and we have had no issues.

I did go back to work this summer with a few different projects. The one that I am most excited about is the last one, a huge deck, over 700 square feet.

Huge deck, over 700 Sq.ft.

Hobby wise has been up and down, flying most weekends. I did lose two airplanes this summer. One being my Stinson Reliant, pilot error. This was the 6^th time that the landing gear has been torn off, and the last time I was going to fix it. There was other structural damage also.

Stinson was one weekend and the Cub the next weekend.

The second one was my Piper Cub, technically it was pilot error also. One of my fellow flyers had lost control of his plane and it was coming towards me. As I stepped back to get out of its way, I took my eyes off of mine, which was in a left aileron turn and at the same time, must of moved a control stick. When I finally looked back to it, it was out of control and going down. I could not recover and it went nose in. Too much damage to repair.

Our hot water heater relief valve was sticking, so water was continuously dripping from it. After procrastinating far too long, I drained the tank and replaced it. I also replaced the anode rod, though it didn’t look bad, it’s been around a year since it was last changed.

Top Right-old and new relief valves, Bottom Left-old and new anode rods.

So, we are wrapping things up here at the “Ridge” for another year. The motorcycle got put away today, the car and truck get oil and filter changes tomorrow and then the car will go into storage until spring. There will be a few last-minute things to take care of, which you can read about in Pat’s blog as they happen.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have to say. I’ll try to keep you updated on our trip route as we head for Arizona. Until the next time take care and stay safe.

 

Hobby Related

Where Are We Today

Park Place RV Park

Quartzsite Arizona

Time sure flies by when you are enjoying life, and that’s the way it has been for us since arriving here about six weeks ago. If you are reading Pat's Blog, you will have day to day updates of our life here.

Before I get into the main subject of this post, the solar upgrade that I did is working well and I am pleased with the outcome. There is one addition to what I did and that is, I ordered one more battery, that arrived today. In the next couple of days, it will be added to the other three batteries.

Hobby is the topic of this post, that being, flying RC airplanes. Two of the planes that I came with, have crashed, part of the hobby, if you fly often enough, you will crash airplanes. One was a complete write off and the other is repairable, which I will do soon.

This my Somethin Extra that crashed but I will fix it.

Before I left here last spring, I had set aside a Piper Cub, 72 inch wing span and done in Army green colour scheme, at Jim’s place, where we hold our meetings. It is being temperamental in the engine department, so it hasn’t flown yet.

This is the Piper Cub that I had set aside last spring before I left for home.

What I didn’t expect, was the other Piper Cub that he had for sale when I got here this fall.  This one has a 91 inch wing span and is done in the traditional yellow Piper Cub colour.  With a 91 OS Four Stroke engine, it flies very well.

The 91 inch wing span piper Cub

After losing my night flyer last year, I wanted to replace it so I could once again fly at night down here. After lots of deliberation, I settled on the E-Flite Night Timber, that comes with lights installed. Last night was our first night of night flying here at the Quartzsite Desert Flyers field, where I flew it at night for the first time. It flies well and I am surprised and pleased with how well it lights up.

Sorry it is blurry, not quite dark yet.

Daytime picture.

Explanation, Jim that I mentioned above, is one of the founding members of the club down here. He and his wife own property here, on which he built what would look like a driving shed. In there, on one end, his wife has a quilting room, on the other end is an open area where we hold our meetings and there is a work room where we can go and fix/build airplanes. There is also a mezzanine where you can find many airplanes and anything needed to fix/ build them.

Along with flying model airplanes, Jim also buys up planes and hobby related equipment to resell. He does it to keep busy, part of a hobby to him. His resale prices are very fair.

I would also like to state that Jim, at the age of 91, is retired air force veteran, having been active for more than 30 years. Jim was the boom operator on many kinds of fuel tankers.  A gentleman and good friend.

Well that’s it for this post, thanks for stopping by, until the next time.