My Time Since Arriving in Quartzsite

Where Are Today

 Park Place RV Park  

Quartzsite Arizona

Since our arrival here at the park, we have kept busy with our normal activities and helping here in the park, 3 days a week.

I am still the president of the Quartzsite Desert Flyers for another year. We have completed two new projects at the field this past month, as we strive to make improvements and upgrades. 

 The first project, was to lay new carpet in the pit area. The present carpet was laid, November 21, 2021. The Arizona sun does a number on the carpet, so before it deteriorates, we use it as a base and lay new carpet over top of it.

New Carpet

We also painted the flight stands and Ken making the door frame for the wall.

The second project, was to build a wall in the shelter to make a larger storage area and to make that area more secure. The present area was divided by a chain link fence with locked gate, but you could climb over the top of it. Each spring would move valuable equipment to a member’s residence for safe keeping. As that member is in his 90’s, it is inevitable that he may not be able to come any longer, so this way, we can leave the equipment in a more secure area of our shelter.

Finished Wall

I have also kept up my flying both day and night time. Also purchased another plane which is electric powered. It is an ARF kit of a Somethin Xtra. I had one a couple of years ago that I built from a kit. It was electric powered also, but it crashed a year ago. Keeping the motor and other electronics, I was able to put them in the new plane. So far it has had it’s maiden flight and I am pleased with the way it flies.

My New Somethin Xtra

I had one personal project, and that was to make wing bags for wings of my airplanes.

One set of wing bags

That should catch you all up to now, thanks for stopping in. I am sure you are reading our daily activities on Pat’s blog Patsy's Blog

Hoping you had a Merry Christmas and wishing you all the best for 2026.

 

Three Projects

Where Are We Today

Park Place RV Park

Quartzsite, Arizona

For those of you who follow Pat's blog, you know of our daily activities, mine generally is around my hobby of RC airplanes.

However, occasionally, I have little projects to do, so here are three little ones that I have worked on in the last couple of weeks.

The first was a repair to the tonneau cover on the truck. It is a tri fold hard cover made of Styrofoam sandwiched between thin aluminum sheets. Each section has a bar that goes from side to side with a latching system to hold it down. The bar is held in place with 4 rivets on each side. Just before we left home last fall, yes, I procrastinate, it came off, so I tucked it away in the box to fix it down here. This is the second tonneau cover this has happened to, so I knew how I was going to fix it.

Top-rivets removed, bottom left- bar bolted back on and bottom right - mechanism slid back in.

First, I removed the latch mechanism by removing screws and sliding it out one end of the bar. Next, hold the bar in its place and drill 5 holes through the bar and the tonneau cover to accept the bolts that I was going to use to re-fasten it. The bolts being long enough to pass through the tonneau cover and bar to accept lock washer and nut, but short enough to allow the latch mechanism to slide back on.

Top- you can see the new bolts holding the bar in place.
Bottom - the under side 

Sliding the latch mechanism back in place, put the screws in and its as good has new.

The second project was to replace the padding and material on our dining chairs. We found some padding on Amazon and Pat had picked up some material along the way to do the job.

Top - before removing the old, bottom left - removing the staples, bottom right - the flattened old foam

First was to remove the 200 staples holding the material in place, along with the old padding. Next was to cut the new and thicker padding to size and I glued it to the board that made up the base of the seat. Now the fun part of wrapping the new material around the padding and stapling it to the bottom of the board. It turned out well with the second one better than the first. Pat is happy with it and that is what matters.

Cutting to size, gluing to seat, finished and Gibbs approved

The third and last project was at the flying field. We have a bulletin board under the shelter for putting up notices. Someone vandalized it by breaking the plexiglass cover back in December.

The club purchased a sheet of plexiglass, hinges, and a couple of latches to make a new one. Using a 2x4x8 left over from the new flight stands that we built in the fall, I ripped one down the middle, run each half through the table saw leaving a 5/8 inch deep saw blade width cut.

New Plexiglass in frame

Next, the plexiglass was cut to size, the 2x4 cut to size for each side along with the ends cut at 45 degrees so the corners would meet neatly. Each side was slid onto the .100 of inch plexiglass, screwed at the corners, angle brackets added for strength and silicone caulking applied inside and out. The hinges and hooks were added and then hung on the bulletin board. Looks good and will protect the notices for a long time.

There you have it, thanks for stopping by and taking time to read about what I have been up to, other than flying. Until the next time.

 

Quartzsite, Projects and A Walk

Where Are We Today

Quartzsite, Projects, & A Walk

We arrived in the desert at Quartzsite on Sunday January 7th /18 and will be here until the end of the month. Pat keeps you up to date on our daily activities at Patsy, so you know what we have been up to, she lets me write about my little projects, so here I am.

Back in 2016 when we purchased our satellite dish and programming, we got a PVR, two standard receiver boxes, satellite dish, portable tripod stand and coax cable. The installer said we could have 50 feet of cable free, two for the PVR and one for the first box, the second box we weren't going to use right away so I didn't get any for it.
  

The three original grey cables

The second standard receiver was going to be used between the TV in the bunky and one in the basement storage of the 5th wheel. I didn't get the TV for the trailer until last summer. When I installed it, I thought I had a 50 ft. piece of coax to use, turns out it wasn't 50 feet.

The shorter black one is the one I had and the other black one is the new 50 ft one

The other day I went into Satellite Advantage and picked up a 50 foot piece of coax and proceeded to install it along with the 3 original cables. To my surprise it wasn't the same length as the originals. After getting out my 100 foot tape measure, I discovered the originals were more like 65 feet long.

Today I went back to Satellite Advantage and got another 15 feet of coax cable and a connector to make everything the same length. Back home I had it all installed and looking neat.

The white one is the 15 ft that I added to the 50 ft. black one to make them all even

The other day, George, from Our Awesome Travels, was in buying a handle for his new heater. I asked him to pick me one up to, has we have the same heater. It only took a few minutes to install it and Pat is happy as she can pick it up and move it easily when sweeping the floor or wanting to get into the cupboard that it sits in front of when it is in use.

Drilling some pilot holes to attach the handle.

Handle attached and now easy to move around.

As you know, Pat likes to walk and is often up and out before I get up. This morning we were up together and I said if she would wait until after I made a quick trip to town, I would walk with her. She agreed and we went for about an hour after I got back from town.

Extreme solar  power here in the desert.

4860 watts of solar panels, he can run that window air conditioner.

Walking towards the front of the LTVA area.

The rest of the day was relaxing, reading and some social time with the neighbors at happy hour.

Sun setting on the suite tonight.

Sun shining on the mountains to the east

Another shot looking east at sunset.

Hope you had a great day too, until the next time, take care and be safe.

Comments are read faithfully each day, so thanks for making them. 

 

Bet You Thought I Fell Off The Face Of The Earth

Where Are We Today

"The Ridge", Priceville,Ont

 (click on pic to enlarge)

Well, no I didn't, and if you follow Chillin' With Patsy, you would know that I'm still around and kickin'. Being it has been awhile since I wrote anything, I thought that today I had better put something to "blog" and tell you about my day.

I have had a few projects that I have wanted to do for awhile and always something else got in the way, so today I got at some of them.

The first was to install the screen door grill that we had bought last winter at Camping World, when we were south. I tried to install it at that time and found that there was not enough material of the screen door showing to do it, at least, not to my liking so, I decided to wait until we got home. I purchased a aluminum strip from the local automotive store and cut four pieces 1 1/4 inch long X 3/4" X 3/32" and drilled two hole in each. One hole to fasten the piece to the grill and the other to fasten to the screen door.

Screen door grill atttached

Pieces of aluminum fastened to grill and door

The second was to put up a piece of eves trough along one side of the "Bunkie" to catch the rain water for our barrel. Now the piece was found by my brother and sister - in law, at the time they were guessing it was long enough, it is a little short, but will do the job. First I had to cut the hole for the down spout, fasten attachment ring, then fasten the trough to the eves. Next, cut the down spout to the right length and fasten it to the ring. There, that's another one done.

eves trough up ready for the next rain fall

The third was to take apart an old wash stand. When my in-laws bought this property, there was a stainless steel sink fastened to a metal frame with a hand pump attached to it. I never liked the look of the thing and always had it in my mind to take it apart and build something more appealing. Also the hand pump is broken  beyond repair and we have purchased another one to replace it. The sink was tack welded to the metal stand, so not having a grinder, I got out my cold chisel and hammer and went at breaking all those tacks around the sink. With that done, I will now create a new stand to hold the sink and new pump. That's a project for another day, will write about it when I do.

Approximately 30 tacks that had to be broken 

The stand and old pump

The fourth just kind of presented itself to me today. We had another contraption found here on the property, that was some kind of three wheel cart. We used it to move our paddle boat around at one time but when took the paddle boat over to Donna and Gerry's pond, the cart was no longer needed. We have two kayaks, so I thought this might be perfect for taking them down to our pond. After pumping up the tires, I lifted the kayaks onto the cart, fastened a couple of straps to hold them, tied a piece of rope to the front for puling and voila, there you have it. 

Side view

From the front

I'm wore out, time for a snooze, tomorrows another day, so will see what happens. Thanks for following along,  comments are always welcome. Until the next time, take care and be safe.