Windsock Village Open House Fly-in

Saturday we went to the open-house / fly in being held at Windsock Village in Ossipee New-Hampshire . Windsock Village and Soaring Heights are two residential air parks that share a four thousand foot runway . Seems a lot of owners have passed away or moved on recently and they have quite a few properties available for sale . So the general idea was to try and promote sales to a fairly narrow market of aviators that want to live next to their own hangar . As usual it was a good time with friends and acquaintances . And there were lots of nice airplanes to be seen .

A 1920s Curtiss Robin

With a nice classic looking hangar

This is the same model plane that Wrong Way Corringan flew across the Atlantic in 1938. He had flown from California to NY and was denied permission to fly across to Europe . So he filed plans for a flight back to California but "lost his way" and landed in Ireland .

Wicker seats , one in front, and two skinny ones side by each in the back .

And just the basics for instruments .

Beautifully done hand painting

Large low windows between the pilot and the engine .

Classic stance

A nice reasonable size house and the perfect toy-box

One of the properties with a perfectly restored Aeronca Sedan out front .

Just as nice inside as it is outside

A lovely home built Thorpe T-18 .

In front of its owners house

A view down the 4000 foot runway

And another home-built RV-6

And a Farichild 24 awaiting reassembly after shipment ,property of the same fellow that owns the Curtiss Robin

The usual suspects were present . . .

. . . with their ability to alight on water as well as land

And this is the hangar where the main festivities and food were being served . It is here when the battery in the camera went dead . So I'll leave you with some more fun photos taken by Paula Moore at this link .
https://goo.gl/photos/aQGfGgPjWmefUPis6

Hampton Fly-Market 2016

Saturday was the annual Hampton New Hampshire Fly-Market (aviation boot sale for yous foreigners) . So we went down for the morning to see whats new. Did not find anything that I absolutely needed among the items for sale, so we just checked out the planes and visited with friends and acquaintances .

Saw a perfectly restored Piper J-5 in the hangar

The J-5 is the Cub Cruiser with the wider fuselage and roomier back seat and a 100 hp engine

Looked like the day it was delivered from the factory

Its available for sale  . . . .  and if I hit the Lottery I'd be all over it .

Same mechanic was working on a restoration of a Taylorcraft

He sure does nice work

He had a freshly restored Aeronca Champ available for sale as well.

On the flight line there were the usual suspects, so I won't bore you too much with them all

This one an old Cessna 195

And the yellow mongrel had a new coat of paint

A Grumman Widgeon made an appearance

Straight out of Tales Of The Gold Monkey, except with some new-fangled electronics

Quite roomy and with the back seats out it would make for a nice camper

A classic from the 1940s still flying today

Among the homebuilts was a new Tatcher CX-4

80 mph on a VW boxer engine sipping three gallons an hour. Not bad

And spent a few minutes chatting with Bill Beauvais who was building a Corvair engine for his Fly-Baby and had a few extra bits for sale .

Welfare Bum Eradication Program

Seems the local welfare bums have been getting a bit aggressive lately . They were not content with the bird food on the patio floor but have now taken to crossing the power lines from the pole to the house and attempting to get in to the bird feeders hanging on the soffits of the foyer . So it was time to dig out the old homemade critter trap .

In no time flat Number One found out the free food is never really free .

A day later Number Two learned his lesson and also went for a ride a few miles away , over by the town dump , where he has to cross several roads to make it back this way .

Today I watched Number Three go in and come back out . But he was way too tempted and soon his fate was sealed .

Pretty good for some old chicken wire and an old Coleman stove lid I found by the side of the road .

We've also had this little critter visit on occasion . He is most definitely not a Gray Squirrel, and not a Chipmunk , but he don't look like any red squirrel I have ever seen . And I have never seen any reds around here in 13 years we have lived here .

Here is a profile shot of him . He best look out if he tries any funny business with me he'll be joining the other three trouble makers over by the town dump.

We've also had a pair of Gold Finches visit . Never had them here before .

A pair of Catbirds have been coming around as well .

And most interesting of all a Red Breasted Grosbeak .

He is definitely a new one to us .

Our bird book says he is a cousin to the Cardinal , and he may well be , but they don't really like each other as the Cardinal let him know whose bird feeder it was and chased him away .

Different looking guy for sure .

Kitchen remodel progress

Bought a couple more 6x6 timbers last week .

Ten foot long is just about the limit of what I can handle alone .

Of course since they are rough cut, and the thickness planer only opens up to six inches, they did not want to go though the machine if there was any variation, so I had to hit some stubborn spots with the hand planer when they got stuck.

I should have cut them down to length first so they'd be easier to handle, but I wanted to clean them up first so I could select the better looking part of them .

Not a lot of fun on this part .

Got the new kitchen window trimmed and re-shingled back in .

Did my best to reuse some of the old weathered shingles so it would blend in .

Then it snowed three inches and the welfare bums came for a handout .

By noon the next day the snow was mostly gone .

Cut the timbers to length and cut a shallow tenon on the top end to fit in the mortise I previously made in the beam.

Sanded them and knocked the corners off with the block plane .

Using my floor jack this time, I lifted the beam enough to remove the temporary posts and fitted the permanent posts shimming them up 3/4 of an inch at the bottom so the mortise and tenon would fit together at the top  .

Once the post were in place the island goes back together again . It all seems so much easier in pictures .

And I cut the counter-top to fit around the new post .

Earlier this week I rebuilt all my saw horses as they were all getting a bit wobbly .

Made up some temporary MDF counters in preparation for when I tear in to the sink side wall .

And since I was able to fix my over heating lap top last week , and the desktop computer fan was acting up a bit, I tore in to that one too.

And found the heat sink completely clogged, so got that one cleaned as well.