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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Tue, 29 Aug 2006This coming Thursday is the last day of operation for the Larry's Market supermarket near my house. This makes me sad, since Larry's was the one market that didn't stoop to such ridiculous practices as customer loyalty cards or bait-and-switch style advertising. They just had good food, and usually kept it in stock. Sometimes it cost more than elsewhere, sometimes it was the same price, sometimes it was cheaper. They usually had things I couldn't get anywhere else (Tunnock's Caramel Wafer bars, anyone? -- pure, Scottish candy heaven). If the bitter checkers are to be believed, poor management felled the Larry's chain, resulting in a chapter 11 earlier this year. Apparently now, Metropolitan Market has offered to buy up some, but not all, of the stores, destroying the value of the chain as a whole. "My" Larry's is not slated to be saved, and will shut down on Thursday. I probably just got back from my last shopping trip there. This leaves me with a few choices, none of which appeal to me. Safeway is down Greenwood, on 87th. It's a bit further than Larry's, but still decent bicycling range. It's considerably lower rent, carrying a lot of the high-fat, high-starch prepared food that I try to avoid. To the west, QFC is easily accessible, and a bit less low-rent than Safeway. It'll probably be my next choice for when I want "normal" groceries. By my work, though, is PCC, which will probably be gaining a fair chunk of my grocery business, particularly produce and "hippie" groceries. I'll just have to stop by after work, rather than taking a random trip there whenever I feel like it. It's just annoying to see such an otherwise good choice go casters-up. Posted at 20:08 permanent link category: /misc Sat, 26 Aug 2006I've returned from my Montana trip. Oof, tired. I actually got back last night, but the only things I wanted last night were a shower, a shave, and sleep. Some statistics for your edification:
Camping was a mixed bag, first night was ok, second night sucked, third night was fabulous. I was going to camp a fourth night, but the campground was so awful-looking, and I didn't have an alternate planned, so I set my sights on home, and more than doubled my riding day. Yesterday was a bit mad, departing from Troy, MT (nearby, anyway, at the Bad Medicine Campground, which I highly recommend) at 9:30 MDT (aka 8:30 PDT), arriving at my intended destination around 2 pm PDT, deciding I'd rather ride 8 more hours than stay there, and got home at 10:45 PDT. Surprisingly, "butt burn" on a long ride like that gets up to a certain level of pain then just plateaus, so that's nice at least. This is all going to turn into a lengthy write-up with lots of pictures interspersed, have no fear. For the moment, you can content yourself with thousands and thousands of pictures with no explanatory text, if you like. I have pages and pages of notes I took to help me remember what all happened and what I experienced on the trip, which should help in constructing the trip report. Notable points included: hitting 71.3 MPG on one tank of gas; getting up to Logan Pass and the Continental Divide; having one of the Myrna Loy Theater's lights go "fizzle, fizzle, BANG!" inches from my face (no damage, just scary); twice having something very large walk close to my tent in the pitch black night, amidst conspicuous "recent bear activity!" signs; successfully riding over 500 miles in one day on slow back roads. I'll post here when I've got the trip report up, just in case you're not in the habit of checking the other pages for activity. Posted at 13:16 permanent link category: /motorcycle Thu, 17 Aug 2006
A moment in Ian's personal aviation history
I just looked, for giggles, to see who currently owns N1912H, the Piper Cherokee in which I did most of my training. Imagine my dismay when I came across this entry in the NTSB database. Yep, 1912H was crashed two years ago, killing one of the passengers. The idiot pilot loaded it more than 100 lbs overweight, didn't do a weight and balance calculation, and plowed into some trees. Sounds like he did a fair job of piloting once he realized the predicament he was in, so credit to him for thinking fast. But really, minus several million points for thinking he could load four people in that little plane in 100° F temperatures and actually take off. It's kind of sad for me, as I always liked that plane. It wasn't fast, but it certainly worked well for me. It took me to Portland and back, and I probably spent 40+ hours in it for my training. I was bummed when Zephyr went under, and it stopped being an option for rental (although I see Zephyr is still in business in some form, and still has the $100 I had on account there when they croaked in 2002). 5850W, the Cherokee 160 I now fly via Northway is fine, but I liked that 140 better. Anyway, I'm taking a moment of reflection on the passing of a friend. It was just a hunk of metal and electronics, but it was my hunk of metal, on the occasions I was in it. So things go, I guess. Note to self: weight and balance calculations are important. Posted at 14:39 permanent link category: /aviation Wed, 16 Aug 2006I contacted the current owner of my old Ninja 250, and asked if he'd trade seats with me for the trip to Montana. Sure, he said, and we traded. I thought to myself, "Whew! That's one load off my mind!" Then I rode it home. Yep, you guessed it (ain't foreshadowing great?), it's not very comfortable. But, how can this be? I hear myself and my colossal readership asking. Answer: I don't know. It may be the basket on back pushing me forward, and certainly that's part of it. However, the basket is smaller than the bags I'm intending to put on the back, which means I'll be shoved even further forward. The question now is, what do I do? Honestly, it's starting to feel like the stock seat will be the best choice. The hard, flat stock seat. At least it doesn't press uncomfortably into my legs or hips. Maybe I can find someone selling a scrap of sheepskin suitable for use as a seat pad (the Airhawk sheepskin seat pad is supposed to work wonders). I'm feeling stuck at this point. Due to multiple time-robbing committments, I've got more riding to do today. I guess I'll do that on the old seat and see if I can figure out something to make it more comfortable. This is definitely not how I wanted to feel before a major, 3000 mile trip. Posted at 18:48 permanent link category: /motorcycle I've recently joined the Fishnet mailing list, a list for people to discuss Fisher Flying Products airplanes. The model I'm looking at, the Celebrity, is a FFP kit. Anyway, among the first things I asked about (if you click that link, you can read the list archives) was cockpit size. The consensus seems to be that I'll probably fit as the pilot, but I might well not fit as the passenger. That's kind of a problem. A number of people I'm imagining as passengers are about my size. If they can't fit as passengers, why am I building a plane with two seats? It'd be much cheaper, and just as satisfying, to build a smaller airplane, with a smaller motor, with a smaller weight envelope, and with one seat. Granted, it'd just be me, but this project is really about what I want, and not what other people want. It just happens that one of my desires aligns pretty well with some other people's desires: for both of us to go flying in the plane I built. So, I think that before I commit any money to anything, I need to find myself a Celebrity with a completed cockpit and mounted wings, to see how hard it really is to get into the passenger seat. If it really is improbable, I need to move on and keep looking. The other thing I need to look at long and hard is my intended mission. My current flying regimen breaks down about like this:
It's actually a bit more biased in favor of the touch-n-go flying, but that's pretty close as far as how things line up in my mind, whatever may be in the logbook. If I built a plane, what would I want it to do?
How about passengers? Right now, I've got about 40 hours in the logbook since I got my license, with about 60 spent in training. Discounting training as a special case (which it is), of the remaining 40 hours, I've probably spent 5 to 7 of them with one passenger, and perhaps 3-4 with two or more passengers. That's 10% with two or more passengers, almost 20% with one passenger, and 70% by myself. But, what would I like to do? I know I want to fly with one passenger. That's a no-brainer. Whether it's my girlfriend, or a friend who wants to go up, or a parent or brother, I want to be able to accomodate them. But some of those people I just listed are my size or bigger, either in height or breadth, so I must be able to be a passenger without much trouble in order to ensure that they can too. I don't need to carry more than one passenger. If I need to do that, I just go rent a plane from Larry's SpamCan Rental, and we go wherever in certified comfort. It'd be cool to be able to fly groups in my own airplane, but then we're getting into serious money and time to build. Both are things which will prevent successful completion of a project like this. I'll just do the occasional rental for that, it's way cheaper in the long run. So, my mission includes at least 10% distance flight. For distance flight, you want at least moderate comfort. Is that comfort afforded by a small wooden biplane? Probably not. My mission includes at least 10% local flight, and probably more once I realize I can do it and how much fun it is. All you need for that is appropriate clothing and a tough enough butt to last 30-60 minutes in the cockpit. Pretty much anything will supply that. I could fly to Orcas in a powered hang glider if I really wanted to. Night flight poses the same requirements as local flight, with the addition of some weight for lights. The interesting one is mountain flying. I think mountain flying, and I think of big, powerful airplanes. But I realized that part of the reason I think that is because I think of climb rate. To put this in perspective, the Piper Cherokee I usually fly has a climb rate of about 440 feet per minute (fpm) at 4000 feet, which is about what mountain passes require around here. At 4000 feet, a Piper Cherokee Six (the little Cherokee I fly, but scaled up a bit), probably has a climb rate over 1000 fpm. That's good, and that'd make me feel comfortable flying through the mountains -- if things go wrong, shove that throttle forward and climb out to air that's free of things like clouds and rock. The thing is, if I put that Jabiru 3300 engine in a Celebrity, it would climb like a kicked mule. It'd probably top 1500 fpm at sea level, and be above 1000 fpm at 4000 feet. All that wing plus a generous dose of HP and low weight means you can go up fast. So mountain flying doesn't actually mean big plane. It means plane that can climb well. The Celebrity would score well on that scale. That isn't remotely all there is to it, though. That's just one of the factors which occurred to me. I probably wouldn't want to do any serious mountain flying without a much more significant investment in instruments than the Celebrity will allow, among other things. It's just an interesting thought. The bottom line is that the Celebrity is right for a few things, even most of the flying I'd want to do. But it may well fall down when it comes time to pack a 6' 2" friend into the passenger seat. I'll just have to see one in person. Anyone have a Celebrity I can come see in person? Posted at 13:59 permanent link category: /aviation Tue, 15 Aug 2006I tried my best. I really did. But I just couldn't finish that damned seat. I set about a week or so ago to build another custom seat, for the new Ninja 250. I got a really good start, and figured I was within a few days of done (don't I always?). It just needed a little bit of tweaking... So yeah, most of a week later, tweaking multiple times every day, I finally run out of time, and throw a cover on it, knowing I am simply too late to do anything else. Needless to say, it wasn't right, and in the process of covering it, I somehow made it much worse than it had been, with what feels like a sharp corner pressing on my femoral artery, or something. Ow! Not acceptable. I tried grinding that bit down, and that made it better, but it was still pinching something. No good! So, I gave in. I emailed the current owner of my previous bike (who conveniently parks right next to me at work), and he's agreed to swap seats with me. Phew! That's a huge load off my mind. At least when I head for Montana I know I'll be on a good seat. Now, of course, I just have to contend with the fact that I'm likely looking at a 3000 mile trip on a 28 HP motorcycle, going over big mountain passes. It's gonna be quite a trip. I'll be stopping to take a lot of pictures, I hope. I'm planning on it. Posted at 23:41 permanent link category: /motorcycle Mon, 14 Aug 2006
The first vestiges... it might be real
I've taken the first ominous step towards making the biplane project real. I've put up a web page about it. Yep. I'm doomed. Posted at 16:39 permanent link category: /aviation Sun, 13 Aug 2006I just tried packing up 95% of my camping gear and strapping it to the bike. Hmm. I think it'll work, but it's got a bit of side-to-side wobble. It's not that big a deal, since motorcycles don't experience side loading (or if they do, it's because they've fallen over). The whole thing seemed to strap on securely enough that I'd be willing to travel in that condition, but I'd defintely be checking the security of the straps at the first stop. I might even make the first stop a bit early, just to be on the safe side. I think the plan of wrapping the tarp around the non-waterproofed pieces may be doomed to failure, due to wind-induced flapping. I may have to go with fewer clothes than I'd planned on, but mostly in the form of the giant wool sweater, which I don't think I'll be needing in Montana in summer. Current weather is supposed to go down as low as 50° F, but I can survive that without a giant sweater. I may also want to work on fewer changes of clothes. The main thing concerning me right now is that my clever first aid kit is so enormous that I have no idea how I'll pack it in. It's very comprehensive, and I'm sure it'd be a useful thing, but I think it needs to become smaller if I'm actually intending to take it with me. A very comprehensive first aid kit sitting in my bedroom does me no good if I'm 500 or 1000 miles away from it. So, it's nice to get a quick sanity check that I will most likely be able to pack everything I was intending to pack. Some adjustments may be necessary. Posted at 12:18 permanent link category: /motorcycle Fri, 11 Aug 2006I attended the monthly EAA Chapter 26 meeting last night. It was pretty interesting, and as I suspected, I've found another old-rich-white-man hobby. (That's not an insult, the people at this meeting were very friendly, and I felt like I fit pretty well with a number of them.) There were a few presentations, some discussion, an impromptu dissertation on why fatal crashes are happening at Oshkosh (a very large fly-in event where they have to deal with lots and lots of air traffic), and finally a free-for-all after the meeting. The presentations were interesting, being mostly pictures of airplanes. The first person to speak had a Kitfox which struck me for two reasons: first, it was on floats (the idea of flying with floats is intriguing to me); second, it had the coolest paint job I've seen in quite a while, with a Northwest Indian animal head painted on the cowling. When he got to a later picture with wheels on, the wheel fairings were painted in the same style with eagle claws. It was a very striking design. I was particularly interested, because I haven't yet decided anything about how I might paint my plane. The next two presentations were pictures from the big Arlington fly-in, which I missed by a week. Of course, it's less than an hour up the freeway, so it would have been a fabulous and inspirational introduction to the whole homebuilding subject. Ah well, next year. One thing I saw which piqued my interest in those pictures was a biplane on floats. I didn't know people did that. In the discussion afterwards, I was able to talk to a few people, and got some good information. That's why I came to the meeting, to meet other people who know more about this subject than I do. I got three good tidbits of information. First, "limit the number of 'experimental' variables as much as possible: your freshly built airframe is experimental, so try to avoid having an experimental engine." Good thought, and it inclines me back towards the Continental O-200, which is a known-good engine, with millions of cumulative flying hours. Next was the same guy asking why I wasn't considering the Jabiru engines. I replied that I thought they were horribly expensive, and he said, "nah, they cost about $14k, just like a bunch of other engines [including the radial R2800]." Ah-hah. So I went and looked, and the Jabiru 2200 actually looks pretty interesting. What is it with Aussies and airplane engines? (The same guy also guessed that I'd want an 80 HP motor, which I found interesting and worthy of note -- I'd been thinking 100 HP would be the more appropriate level, but there's a lot to be said for lighter weight. The Jabiru 2200 only weighs 132 lbs, vs. the 220 for a Corvair or R2800. That's a big difference.) Finally, I got a recommendation from a new member to seek out George Kirkish for tailwheel instruction. He runs Vashon Island Air, which despite its name operates out of Boeing Field. He has a couple of Piper Cubs and a Maule, all of which he uses for training. I think if it'll lift us, there's no way I can pass up doing training in a Cub. I've got that set to go in later September, after my theatrical schedule calms down a bit. So, hooray for progress. Of course, now I want to build a plane more than ever. Posted at 08:40 permanent link category: /aviation Wed, 09 Aug 2006In case you've been waiting for the scanner stream to come back, your day has come. It's back, and appears to be fully functional. Still one user at a time, unfortunately, but it's back to where it was. Hooray! Posted at 18:45 permanent link category: /misc I got an email from Dave Quinn today, intrepid importer of Hagon shocks. He said that my spring rate on my rear shock is 90 kg/cm (or about 500 lbs/in), which is nice to know. He also said that the damping adjuster should have a range of 7.5 full turns, yet mine has 4.5 (or 5 if I turn the adjuster really hard). I've emailed him back asking whether he thinks it's safe in that condition (ie, can I ride it to Montana and back). I'm concerned that if it should have 7.5 and only has 5, something's got to be blocking it, and that something could come loose and make riding the bike either very uncomfortable, or actually dangerous. If he thinks it's safe as-is, I'll make the trip, then send it back to have this error corrected. If not, I guess I'll swap the stock shock back in and suffer along with a sagging rear-end (of the bike, get your mind out of the.. gutter, I guess?). It'll be pretty sag-tastic once I get my ~50 lbs of gear loaded on the back. But then I can get the shock sent of to jolly ol' England and they can get it back to where it should be. Dave's website suggesst that these shocks have a 2 year warranty, and that Dave Quinn "extends" that warranty to me, the consumer. When I've gone anywhere near this territory on the phone with him, Dave has shied away like I was asking for a pound of flesh, so I'm not sure what he considers "extending the warranty" to include. I suspect it just means that if I send the shock back at my expense, Hagon will fix it and send it back again, still at my expense for shipping. Update: I just talked to Dave, and he says that his rating of 7.5 turns is actually based on another type of shock, and when he grabbed a shock similar to mine off the shelf, he only got 5.5 turns out of its adjuster. Sounds like my shock just gets 5 turns of adjustment. Whew! I'd hate to have to ride to Montana and back on the stock spring. Posted at 14:24 permanent link category: /motorcycle Tue, 08 Aug 2006I actually wrote a very critical post just now, which I discovered was unwarranted. So if you saw an entry with me lambasting ElectroSport, it was premature. Turns out the results I was waiting for were stuck in my spam folder. (Hooray for spam!) Anyway. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's fine, just ignore me.) I got the results on the Ninja 250's alternator today, from ElectroSport. The bottom line is that with no modifications at all, I could drop in a new stator and get another 50W out of my electrical system. With a bit of machining of the sidecase, I could drop in 110W extra. My goodness. (If you're looking at that xls file, the top line ("row 4") is the original, stock part. Apparently the curve is basically flat beyond 6k RPM.) It's an intriguing upgrade, since when I ride with a heated vest (44W), the +50W alternator would basically cover the difference, leaving me with stock power generation. There's just room for the vest with the stock setup, but with the additional power, I could run the vest and something else, like an extra light, without worrying. Not so much something I'm worried about, but I have no doubt it'll be interesting to a few of the more touring-minded 250 riders. Posted at 16:05 permanent link category: /motorcycle Sat, 05 Aug 2006I gathered together all the stuff I think I'm going to take along with me on my camping trip to Montana:
It's.... quite a bit. Although looking it over, it looks like I'll actually be able to fit it into the Ortlieb drybag I've got without too much trouble. The sleeping bag (red), tent (black, behind the sleeping bag) and sleeping pad (black, in front of the sleeping bag) will be strapped on outside the drybag. The tarp (blue) will probably be wrapped around the tent and sleeping pad, since they're not in waterproof bags. A lot of the smaller stuff will be packed into the tank bag, which isn't in the picture. It's going to be quite a bit to pack, though. Unfortunately, there's very little in there I feel would be a good idea to leave behind. It depends a lot on projected weather for the area -- I won't need to take the big army-green sweater if it looks like temperatures will be mild, for instance. It's the biggest single item I'm trying to pack into the drybag, and I've got other, smaller warm stuff. This is all a good sanity-check. Now I know what all I'm missing, and I have a decent idea of how it's all going to go together. Posted at 12:56 permanent link category: /motorcycle Thu, 03 Aug 2006I was poking around today, and it finally struck me that a Corvair engine might be a really good choice. I got some disturbing news about the Rotec radial which makes me think it's not a great choice (bad customer experiences, and a few failures). I read up some more on the Continental O-200, and it's still an interesting choice, but the Corvair looks quite interesting. That site I linked above sells completely overhauled and flight-ready Corvair engines for $8k, which now seems like a downright bargain to me. I really like that the Corvair doesn't need any gearing to turn the prop at the right speed, which is very unusual among automotive engine conversions. I also hadn't realized that the Corvair was a boxer engine, which immediately endears me to it. Yet another choice. At least I'm not suffering for lack of options. Posted at 21:25 permanent link category: /aviation Tue, 01 Aug 2006I just took my newly carved Ninja 250 seat for a ride around the block. It's actually really good! I don't think the "butt-facing" parts of the seat need any more adjustment, aside from one edge being rounded down a little bit. Now, it's just reducing the width of the forward section (which I guess would be the "thigh-facing" part), and doing the finish shaping to make it look purdy. I'm going to be done sooner than I thought. Better stock up on some more adhesive, top foam and vinyl. Posted at 23:04 permanent link category: /motorcycle So, I just had an interesting idea. Let me set it up for you. The Fisher Celebrity biplane (the airplane I'm considering building) has three gas tanks. One is mounted between the passenger and the engine, and is the main tank. Two supplementary tanks are located in the upper wings, near the center. I don't know how fuel management is normally accomplished, but I suspect it's done with shutoff valves -- you turn on the wing root tank's valve, and it recharges the main tank. But what if that same fuel management were automatic? The idea is to use floats inside the main tank to cut off flow from the wing tanks, and open them up once the main tank drops below a certain level (say, half a tank). You could even hook up a switch to each float, and if either of them drops to the stop, it'd actuate the switch. Either switch turning on would set a flasher going in the cockpit to let you know you were running low on fuel. That way, you'd fill all three tanks, and fly. The tanks automatically equalize the way you want, and when you get below a half main tank (probably 3 gallons remaining, or about an hour of flight), the flasher lights to let you know that you need to land and get more gas NOW. The circuit would be simple enough that a momentary switch in the cockpit could test the light to make sure it still flashes. It's a very interesting idea. I've posted it over on homebuiltairplanes.com to see what the more experienced folks there think of it. Maybe it's already been built and used in many planes. I'm sure I'm not the first person to have thought of it. It's not without its faults (implementing it would be somewhat difficult, but not insurmountably so), but I'd put up with a longer build time if it significantly enhanced flight safety (and this idea would do just that). Posted at 14:05 permanent link category: /aviation Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |
