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| Friday, February 5th, 2010 | | 8:23 am |
| | Sunday, January 24th, 2010 | | 9:24 am |
My .719 to .781 adjustable reamer story
One thing that can be extremely maddening to me is to run into a stumbling block on my airplane build project at the beginning of a weekend, when it is something that could probably be solved easily on a weekday. Yesterday, with a rare sense of getting on a roll, I found that holes in the rudder pedal mount blocks provided in my kit were only .745" ID. The pedal assembly meant to fit into those holes was .760" OD. This excess included factory powder coating, but clearly even if I sanded down to steel at the fit area, they would end up at a stock tube size of .750", too big for the .745 holes in the delron mount blocks. Double DOH! Who all has a .755" reamer laying around in their garage? Anyone? ...Anyone?? About 6 weeks ago, a slightly off-beat friend of mine, James -- who rightfully prides himself as a very good craftsman and bicycle inventor of sorts -- introduced me to Carlos, a possibly even more eccentric friend of his. Carlos has a side business of making or fixing weird little machined things. He has a Bridgeport mill in his Davis garage, as well as a 12" lathe and numerous other small goodies. (He's a younger version of that frumpy, solitairy machinist with only a first name that Roger knew back in the 60s -- what was his name?) In Carlos' driveway is a stepvan, the inside converted to a tiny shop with perimeter workbench and small precision work tools. He uses this to travel to hospitals and repair surgical instruments. The other odd thing about Carlos is that he's perfectly happy to let a friend of a friend use his stuff! So, otherwise being stumped early in my hoped for airplane weekend, I phoned Carlos. And guess what he had to happily loan me: not just a reamer, but a .719 to .781 adjustable reamer. A 10 minute bike ride later, and I'm back in business. Does it get any better?!! Some days are at least as lucky as some of the other days are not. | | Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | | 10:22 am |
a nice place indeed
For the record, with all the weather this week in California, Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, has looked pretty much like this every day this week. Don't worry, I'm not entirely obsessed. Just observant.  | | Sunday, January 17th, 2010 | | 11:09 am |
motorcycle rambling
First, the weather. You know how the local TV newscasts show weather in terms of a graphic with sun,cloud,rain, or whatever? Yesterday, ours showed the same exact picture for each of the next seven days: rain rain rain rain rain rain rain. Not a lick of sun. In the two weeks since getting back from bright and sunny Colorado, we've had sun on about 1 1/2 days, and low overcast the rest. In short, this January is living up to it's more tradtional weather pattern, instead of what I think has seemed a little more interesting in recent years. But alas, as always during any rain, CA gets the much needed water. Being yesterday was to be the dryest day of the coming 7, I took my Beamer on a ride over to Berryessa Dam. This was my first foray into actual twisties, curvey roads as they are referred to by aficionados. Yeah, it was fun. I found myself musing that I seem to be drawn toward rather serious hobbies. The visualized fun of sport cycling is to get all the speed control -- braking, rpms (torque), shifting -- done very smoothly as one decelerates into a corner and then the complementary actions accelerating out of the corner. It is both technical and artful, and impossible to perfect no matter what the level of expertise. One also has to allow for variations in any piece of the curve. I'm pretty much a scaredy cat. I took Putah Creek Road west from home, because it has at least some twisties on the way to the Berryessa hills. As a technical matter, one cannot afford to do much braking while cornering, as adding that force to centrifugal force greatly increases the point at which tire traction will disappear. Therefore, entry speed must allow for one to quickly back off in the moments entering a turn to straighten up the bike (lessen the centrifugal force) if the closer view shows gravel, water, bumps, dead squirrels, or whatever. The road yesterday did indeed toss up these little gremlins, as it is a farm road, and mud or gravel had been tracked onto the turns in some places. I did good! And, it was fun to get some clean turns in other places too. The big acceleation out with the bike coming back upright and the gremlin variables falling away, all matched to the engine bark and feel of good upshifts, is pretty darn awesome. I'm still closer to little old lady caliber on any of this. And I'm rather content to leave it that way even though I know I'm getting better. I've learned to (usually) make much smoother and faster gear shifts. At first I'd almost always bump the wrong amount of throttle, resulting in a clunk or chirp as the resultant wrong engine torque is whacked onto the back wheel. The gear ratios feel much closer together between 4,5 and 6th than 1 and 2 -- not that you asked. In addition to the above indulgences, my motorcycle is known as a sport/touring bike, so there is also the anticipated fun of occassional day or weekend travels. It is not lost that riding a bike or motorcycle has similarities -- in fun and physics -- to flying a plane or sailing a boat (or sailboard). For now, the motorcycle is a fun interlude without much overhead: Open garage door. 10 second preflight. Suit up. Turn key. Be careful. Have fun. | | Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 | | 10:38 pm |
It's being a bit wintery in Davis. Morning bike rides into work and it's hovering just above freezing. I know it's not that big a deal, but it seems like it, just being newly Winter. Also, with Univ of Calif in the poor house, the building heat is turned down and many keep their scarves and jackets on right through the day. My office is fine with all the computer heat. :) I'm tempted to go on about other measures of starkness at work, but that's another post. Despite the new season of cold, it has only barely gotten to freezing and Mike and I each were commenting at Thanksgiving that we're still pulling the last of fresh bell peppers out of our summer gardens. (Mine are somewhat sheltered from frost by weeds. Nice!) I guess that was a brag. :) Plus, it's been sunny for a good two weeks at least. (Yeah Holly, in case you wondered, I read Polly's post about UK weather so I suppose I am rubbing it in a little.) Tonight Bev and I were completely fried out from long work days, and not enf decent food at home, so went out to dinner at Katmandu. I'm not nearly as big on Indian (or Nepalese) food as Bev, but what the hey, we were way over due for that sort anyway. It was pretty darn yummy. Lamb vandaloo and a Sudwerk Marzen for me, btw. It was also the downtown businesses shopping season(?) open house night, where we've traditionally visited all the shops that serve good cookies. Once again tho, we were too late for that. Oh well, still a nice night, and I've always got a chocolate chip or two, or .... at home in the cupboard. | | Thursday, November 26th, 2009 | | 7:39 am |
Thanksgiving scheming #2
Yesterday, work got rather crazy, when it should have been slowing down. While waiting for a 5 minute data copy, I took the chance to jot down a list of some things I might get on the way home for the turkey stuffing. A little wild rice, 2 onions, 2 fuji apples, currants, etc. All good. Work and it's trouble du jour kept going, and going. Finally I left, and about half way home on my "commute" with thoughts returning to my stuffing list, I realize OMG, I forgot the turkey!! How's that for a "Doh!"? It turned out fine tho. The guest of honor -- a 17.75 lb reserved free-range Tom -- was there waiting patiently for me, and is just about to come out of the fridge to greet a big pile of good lookin stuffing. :) | | Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | | 10:24 pm |
Thanksgiving scheming
OH!, okay, now I feel like posting another 'favorite Thanksgiving' -- this one really Thanksgiving as opposed to my last fake substition of Christmas -- and I guess it does have a little to do with "preparations" as prompted by some of the topics from J, i.e. "What to have". It was 1975, just Bev and I, on our honeymoon. We were in an old Volvo stationwagon, camping mostly, out through Utah (brrr) and making it into Grand Junction, CO on that fine Thursday afternoon. We had been looking forward to the splurge of getting a motel, but then had to stress a bit with all the 'no vacancy' signs as we were just getting into town. But alas, we found one, with a kitchenette and tiny oven, as hoped. Score! It was even starting to snow. We got a nice semi-large roasting chicken, a few goodies to stuff it with, and other simplified Thanksgiving food items at a small, independent grocery store. One moral of the story ...it doesn't so much matter what you have for the meal, as much as it matters what, who, and how things contribute to it. Of course, if it's your honeymoon, things are likely to be pretty good no matter what. | | Saturday, November 7th, 2009 | | 9:12 am |
back from London
Hi, I got back from my 10day London holiday last night --- wallked in the door somewhere around midnight, which was (I think) 8am London time. Being couped up for long airline flights is pretty awful. For some dumb reason I woke up this morning at 630 so am still a bit zombied! Going across the pond that way, I always think about 2 things: Lindbergh's first (still amazing), and that it might have triggered Mom's failing health 3 years ago (and yes, if not that, something else would have). But enf drudgery.... It's such a joy to have Theo!!! There are a few more pictures up, in case you've not been there recently. http://picasaweb.google.com/Ransom.Ben/Theo# and one more slightly silly video at http://www.youtube.com/user/bensclips | | Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | | 4:37 am |
US Coast Guard C-130 collision
I'm not really sure why I'm posting this, other than it being a solid dip to my otherwise pretty happy mindset these days. Che Barnes, the pilot of the C-130 that collided with a USMC helicopter ( http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/31/california.midair.collision/index.html), was somewhere between acquaintance and friend. He was part of our pool of friends at UCD airport. He had a Pitts S1 and I shared his hangar for a few months last winter. He was a real nice guy, and it's darn sad he got cut short. It's also just such a weird freak accident that, over all that water, instead of one search aircraft finding a missing rowboat, it instead smacks right into another aircraft. It seems more like "getting hit by a bus" than an airplane accident. | | Friday, October 30th, 2009 | | 10:06 am |
Grampa me
Sort of a double post from facebook for starters: Theodore is wonderful ...expressive, wiggly, soft, warm, and Cute! He's awake for 2-3 hours in the morning, very self-content. Same for an hour after dinner. Otherwise he does a lot of sleeping, eating, and diaper changing, the latter being almost the only thing he's not too charmed about, and indicating a healthy set of lungs. Holly says too that his stomach has been upset from time to time, cause for a little discomfort. For my part, holding little Theo is just like holding Holly and Chelsea, seemingling not so long ago, and the same tricks (and limitations) still work. It's really really nice.  http://picasaweb.google.com/Ransom.Ben/Theo#http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMjjffYpfc | | Sunday, October 18th, 2009 | | 10:30 pm |
this wknd
This wknd I went mountain biking with Jonathan to a new place, Salmon Falls. It isn't a water Fall so far as I know, but after last week's rain, is a sizable tributary flowing into Folsom Lake. It was a nice Fall day with overcast and a breeze, so just perfect. There were wide open areas with surprisingly expansive views, dry now but covered by the lake in wetter times. For contrast, maybe half of the bike trail was single track through chaperel and oaks, some parts easy riding and others technically challenging. Darn fun and not all too far from home. After that, I finished reroofing the shed as it was trying to sprinkle Sunday evening. I was just doing the ridge crest, but since it was coolish, I had to first lay each shingle piece over a heat lamp so they would take the ridge bend without cracking. Then scurry up the ladder and shinny along the roof top to place and nail down a few at a time. Glad to have finished another summer project ...ps, a summer 08 project, done in 09. | | Sunday, September 13th, 2009 | | 8:59 am |
We took our 'not so tall ship' up to Silver Lake yesterday. Thunder clouds, short bouts of heavy rain drops, a cold swim, and some relaxed reading.... | | Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 | | 9:01 pm |
 I finally received the Hoerner wing tips for my plane. (Big $ check to Dave Fife last March, tips received Sept 6 after much unanswered prodding). In the photo, the Murphy factory wingtip is black, the Fife tip is white. The photo lighting is done poorly, but the difference in shape is fairly apparent. Chord is ~5 ft, max thickness is 9 inches. Aside from the worry that these would never show up, others report they work extremely well ...reducing stall speed about 5mph, and dramatically improving low speed handling overall. So, I'm glad they are here! I got them with halogen landing lights and lense covers (cutouts visible in the photo), as well as mount bumps for position lights. I'll mount one landing light pointed high for approach, the other pointed low for taxiing. | | Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 | | 7:11 pm |
| | Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 | | 10:19 am |
My Cinderella yacht episode
I wrote this private (posted to just myself) about a month ago. Finally, what the heck, I'll add public evidence to my craziness. ----------------------------------- Since vacationing in Puget Sound earlier this summer, I went through a spate of pleasure shopping for waterfront property. Not just any such property, but the kind that moves around, to any waterfront of choice, powered by big colorful sails. This was admittedly fantasizing about future possibilities, but as I think we all know, pleasure shopping on Craigslist or Ebay has a bit of playing-with-matches built in. On these shopping excursions, I sometimes included the search term “partner”, wondering what the market looks like for those realizing that they can’t possibly use a whole boat. Of course, I soon found a Screamin’ Deal. By the next day, I caved to temptation and replied to the seller with a question or two. To know how screamin, the ad’ claimed: “Own half of an Ericson 28 in excellent condition, on Lake Tahoe, for $5000 and half the expenses.”    In pondering this, on the plus side I’m thinking of course about a more upscale style of sailing than I’m used to -- i.e. no wetsuit required – on Tahoe no less, weekend overnights to coves, dinner and wine with friends, etc. Good grief, a sailboat with a stand-up galley, comfy sleeping for four, and the mast is already stepped! Why have I not recognized this possibility before? But I’m also thinking that at least as important as the boat, is the partner. So, my purpose with the Ericson ad’ was 90% information gathering, for perhaps similar possibilities down the road with someone we’d enjoy partnering with. I did, however, google the owner’s name and found that he showed up as a 1999 UCD graduate, where-upon I even wondered if his name was familiar. It wouldn’t be impossible to have known the guy and have it turn out to be a compatible partnership as is. Wouldn’t that be nifty! So anyway, as mentioned, I replied to the ad'. Getting a message back from the seller (I’ll call him Eric here …sort of like the boat) I somehow sensed that he was in a financial league way beyond mine. His first reply was automated from his iphone – simple, perfunctory, in charge, don’t waste time emailing questions, etc. I could tell, I was already taking directions …from him! Not my idea of a workable partnership. Five minutes later we connected, and I was primed to get to the point with just a few salient questions. Again, “Eric” was complete, but simple, friendly, and easy going. Background noise indicated he’s on the road. I know I’m imagining this part, but I pictured a Jaguar Xj6 convertible, top down, heading toward Tahoe Keys along the West shore of Tahoe. So yeah, I guess I am gullible. Eric quickly gets past the howdy do’s. Me too, as I jump in with, “Look, $5k for half an Ericson 28 in excellent condition …is this really a $10k boat, because it sounds like there’s something more involved, or ….” Eric politely interrupts with, “Yeah, well, here’s the situation. I bought the boat in Florida a couple months ago for $7200, paid 3 to truck it here, and another thousand to have it rigged and detailed. Yes, it’s worth more, but I don't really care that much about the money. I just have so many things going on that I can’t possibly use it much. I’m just looking for someone else that would like to use it and make my keeping it more reasonable.” I should add, that at the beginning of the phone call he needed to clarify whether I was calling about the Ericson 28 or the Islander 30, which he bought a week after the Ericson. I’m thinking, “Man! It’s like I have a twin!” Only this guy really IS stinkin rich (and I just like to think I am). At no point in any of this did the guy sound fake or fraudulent. I can’t explain it; everything seemed too unstaged. I asked him just a couple more things, such as where on the lake, and slip fees, then finished off saying, “just like you, I’ve got way too much going on, and honestly just better let it go”. Again, a polite, perfunctory good-bye from Eric, and that was that. In the days following that phone call, I looked a little wider for perspective. The boat was on the bargain end of the range, but with the slack economy, great looking boat deals are easy to find. As for Tahoe slip fees, good grief, Eric said $1000/year for the Ericson, while my checking around showed six to seven times that. Plus, one marina contact told me it is uncommon to leave boats in the lake year round, in particular those with liquid cooled engines. So,the slip fee may turn into a storage fee, but it still totals $4 to 5k. I don’t get the guy only saying $1k. Honestly, I'm not sure where I was headed with this. A big part of my drama is that I'm weary of my airplane project requiring so much (all) of my spare time, for so long -- 5 years going on 8, in the garage regardless of weather, poking at aluminum. I sometimes feel that once finished, I could name it "Opportunity Cost". OK, that's way too bleak; I do enjoy it usually, and in fact there is something nice about a long-term project. But my eyes do wander, and someday -- maybe after the airplane -- we will be on a "proper" sailboat. | | Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 | | 4:24 pm |
I have a bit of tendonitis in my right arm. The cause: operating the hand drill on some of the 20,000 rivet holes for my airplane. Darn. The tendonitis adds to bursitis pain I have in the same arm/shoulder. Double Darn! The bursitis is from swimming, set off in particular from starting to add a reasonable amount of backstroke into my workout starting last May. I finally went to the Dr a week ago to get a referral to a physical therapist. The bursitis had already begun to improve, but I'm really glad to have a solid diagnosis (rule out any rotator cuff problems) and get a regimen of exercises to fix and prevent further shoulder trouble. The tendonitis is still not so good, and the only good cure is reduced use. I've tried to improve the dexterity and accuracy of left-handed work on the airplane. By now I've finished another major section of drilling/deburring, so that should help too. This was to be the summer I finally took up kiteboarding. But alas, so far this would have been a bad idea. Now I'm using the arm trouble as an excuse when the real trouble is, like most mortals, I really can't figure out how to take the time for another project. I'm not done with the 20,000 holes yet, but I bet I've got at least 16,000 done. | | Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 | | 9:43 am |
conflicted
This is about as far from a real problem as one can get, but... If i have a very small group of 'friends' on facebook and an even smaller group in LJ, how do I resolve posting something nearly pointless in the first place, to both groups, just because of my poorly understood urge to post at all? Obviously this is only a dilemma in my thinking about two people that are in both my facebook and LJ groups, and with whom I have actual conversations with fairly often. Honest, I don't really have some inflated sense of the importance of my "news". | | Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 | | 8:31 am |
| | Saturday, July 18th, 2009 | | 12:14 pm |
vacation photos
Here are some pictures of our mini-vacation to the San Juan Islands... http://picasaweb.google.com/Ransom.Ben/SanJuans2009#This is our 6th vacation there I think: 1985 1997? in the turtle 2001? meeting Mom, R2, and Kateri after Jim and I flew up in the Grumman 2004 Bev and I to the Canadian side 2006 me only, and really only to Arlington fly-in plus Seattle 2009 this one and I'd go again in a heartbeat | | Friday, July 17th, 2009 | | 8:37 am |
UC furloughs approved
UC Regents yesterday approved a one year furlough plan to cut costs. For Bev and I it means we now have 93% time jobs. (Furlough amounts are lower for low income employees, higher as you go up the scale.) In a more applied sense, it means 7% pay reduction and 18 "days off" over the 12 months beginning September 1. It is likely that 12 of the 18 days will be set, such as those days between Xmas and New Years, days between academic quarters, etc. I personally am grateful for a part time job -- a pretty darn good one at that -- for the first time in almost 30 years. :) |
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