Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Whistling through the graveyard

Trying to keep focused on chores to keep myself from totally loosing my cookies regarding a recent very frightening medical diagnosis .
The Volvo needs a place to spend the winter so I  . . . 
 Emptied my wood shed and took about three chords of firewood up to mom's .
Using salvaged weathered materials to save on cost and disguise it all  , I repaired the roof edges where they had rotted , added rim joists and drip edge , replaced a corner post and re-dug them all so they line up properly .
Built a knee wall with store bought pressure treated lumber and sheathed it with Hardy-Board sheets .
 Set three salvaged half inch thick glass panels on the knee wall to keep out the weather .
Looks like a dang store front now
 Added some glass doors salvaged from another project . The tarp in the window is cause there is actually too much solar gain .
 Closed in the far end with salvaged pine boards from another job and some left over felt paper .
 Still had a pile of junk to get rid of when I was done
 Removed the old vinyl siding off the back of the garage which I will use to side over the felt paper on the far end. Leveled the ground and lined it with several layers of heavy plastic to keep the moisture out . Made racks and hung one of my kayaks in there as well , and parked the old Volvo after one last run around the neighborhood .
 Stuffed some carboard against the glass to reduce the solar gain and keep prying eyes out
 Cut and framed in a doorway to have access from the garage into the new space .
Might even get my mower to fit between the front of the Volvo and the glass doors .
Got the far end sided , yes inside corners don't line up . But my sheathing is lower on the wood shed so I needed to go lower with the vinyl to cover it properly .
Quasimodo safe in it's cocoon and out of the weather for the winter .

Monday, October 15, 2018

Boring holes in the clouds

Saturday noon we had an appointment with some folks down in Nashua New Hampshire.
 So at about 11am we pull the Bonanza out of the hangar . . .
 . . .  on to a wet and cold tarmac and after a quick top-of of fuel and de-ice fluid . . .
 . . . we are off and away
Climbing out of Portland
 Scud running on an IFR flight plan .
 Nothing but clouds in the windshield climbing out through thirteen hundred feet for . . .
    . . . . six thousand feet , and it is still gray up there
 The thermometer tells us things are a bit cold up here.
 So we turn on the TKS pump to keep wing and prop clear of ice .
Nothing but soup
After a half hour of this . . .
 . . . we shoot the approach and break out of the clouds at two thousand feet and can see the runway at Nashua
Crossing midfield we enter a down wind approach for RWY 32
 
 and circle to land
 The Flight-Aware track and profile of our flight . NOTE ; The image above is a screen capture from later on Saturday , thus the weather depiction on the image is not our actual flight conditions .
After a couple hours the weather has cleared a bit to the north and east so we make our departure .
 And climb back in to the clouds .
 Shoot a practice approach  . . .
 with one turn in the hold .
 Into Concord NH
 Then execute the missed approach procedure and a hold at the fix . . .
  in the broken afternoon clouds with the TKS de-ice fluid streaming on the windshield
 And shoot a practice approach in to Laconia
 Breaking through the scud , marker beacon inbound to Laconia .
 We come out of the clouds below three thousand feet .
Executing the missed approach  . . .
 . . . we cross over lake Winnipesaukee
 Back into the broken clouds headed east .
 And set up for an approach back home into Portland
 Rigby yard and Cash Corner to our left
 Cape Elizabeth and Higgins beach to our right
 We pass over Phineas Sprague's Spurwink farm runway
 And follow vectors to the ILS 29 in to Portland
 Final tun inbound for the ILS 29
 and in real time
 Way out on the glide slope
the video
 Zooming in a bit on the runway
final marker inbound
 Over South Portland
 Looking across to Portland downtown
 The Portland working waterfront with the Casco Bay bridge
 Short final
 Over Phineas Sprague's new boat yard on Commercial St
 Looking over the right shoulder back at Portland
 St Johns Street and the new hospital building
 Short final and landing
The track and profile of our return trip