Time to do the first flight after the annual.: Weather was a bit better for VFR flight on Friday than it was on Thursday…..Winds 36 ,12 gusting 29. But skies clear to 12000 and vis was greater than 10. It was time to fly after nearly a month…
Windy and gusty…But, since I have a runway 36, I pulled the plane out, cranked it for 3 minutes (30 seconds crank, 3 minutes to cool the starter, repeat) and then pushed in the mixture and primed three times.
The engine caught and ran. I had oil pressure.

I warmed it up and then cycled the prop until it FINALLY (took like 10 minutes) until it too was full of oil and working as it should.

Taxiiied, did my runup, called my runway (36) and took off to the north, entered a crosswind and did a downwind departure to the south.

Climbed, trimmed, and leaned. Then climbed some more. Then did some turns, some descents, and ended up at 2000 feet and did some turns around a point over barn south and west of the airport. Climbed some more and then the air was (relatively) smooth, so I leveled at 4500 and drove straight west. I flew at 136 KIAS for about 10 minutes, but then it got rough again, so I slowed to 95.

Turned into the wind, climbed and did some stalls. At 5500, the wind was 36 at about 48 knots, so I was at zero ground speed and, at one point, slightly negative GS.

Recovered after some of that fun, leveled off and went back to flight at 90 or so and turned for home.

Entered the pattern and my first approach was less than perfect. But my short final was pretty good and my touchdown was right at my aim point and smooth and on centerline.  Took off and did the pattern, this time a better approach. Final was great and the touchdown as, again, exactly where I wanted it. It should count for two though, ’cause just as I lowered the nosewheel to the pavement, that pesky wind gusted and lifted me up about 2 inches and set me down again. Kinda fun, actually. I think it was the retracting flaps that made it settle down again.

I figured that was enough, so I taxiied back and put the 182 back in the barn.

Saturday, a short cross country, and then the start of the the reassembly of the manifolds on the ’27 Chrysler.

So the plane is ready for runup and flight. Was ready Wed evening, actually.

Sadly, yesterday (Thursday) the ceiling was 400 ft and the visibility was less than a mile.

Today is spozed to be clear and unlimited. I intend to wring it out for a trip on Saturday.

But, yesterday, I got the broken bolt holes drilled and retapped on the ’27 Chrysler exhaust manifold  and picked up the fan belt. (No one stocks it…who knew??)
Reassembly happens this weekend.

Plus selling raffle tickets for the range at a gunshow this Sunday.

Some interesting comments here.

If you are interested.

Plus, read the linked blogpost.

Apparently, the “anomaly” wasn’t a new thing, it’s just that most other pilots had the training to overcome it. The ones from places where there was good training and oversight by the governments had “incidents” and the pilots disconnected the automation and simply flew the plane manually….pitch and power/stick and rudder.

The ‘Third World” airlines: Not so much.

Please note that the “copilot” only had 200 hours of time in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

So the prop came in for the 182 yesterday. Fully rebuilt/resealed/repainted… Last thing besides pressurizing the front strut and putting the cowling on.

And the weather is suppozed to be AWESOME! tomorrow.

I should be flying about noon local on Thursday. 

“MAGA” is only used by Liberals. MAGA is not used by folks who think it is time to “Make America Great Again”….

Pretty much only journalists and Liberals who ahve never actually known a Conservative (or a Blue Collar tyoe, or anyone else who might wear a ‘Make America Great Again” hat.

Jussie Smollet told everyone that 2 people told him “This is “MAGA” country” before they put another leftist symbol around his neck…and we found out later (although anyone with a brain already knew) that he had made the wole thing up.

So, having said all of the above, O gotta wonder….Who paid this guy to write “MAGA” and all the other stuff that Leftists think means some secret hate speech slogan on his hand?

Suspected mob boss killer writes ‘MAGA Forever,’ QAnon symbol on his hand

The only people they are gonna influence are already convinced.

Not mentioned in the article, either. Wonder who is payin’ for all those kids???

Woman gives birth to sextuplets in Houston

ETA: Kenny had the link first, I think.

So in trying to get the manifold apart for the ’27 Chrysler to fix the exhaust leak, I snapped off 3 bolts.

Not a surprise, they are likely the original ’27 bolts in an exhaust manifold been heated and cooled man, many times……but I needed some left handed drill bits to try to pull out the bolt stubs and my lefty bits (at least the small ones) were worn and of dubious utility.

So, off to Menards.
Pretty disappointing. Not much selection and what was there were all brands that I had never heard of. I really don’t want to use cheap drill bits that will snap off in the work and compound my problems…

Next stop: Home Depot. Not only NO lefty drill bits, but also the clerk in the hardware section was unbelieving that they even made such things….the look she gave me was one of “Don’t fuck with me, dude, I know they don’t make 5 lb tubs of “Elbow Grease” either….”.
 I had to explain (and show via her internet) that there really are such things as left handed drill bits. She’d never heard of them. So much for qualified folks in the stores…. But Home Depot doesn’t stock ’em . So no joy there.

Lowes online only has “Hanson”, “Irwin”,  and another brand which I haven’t ever heard of, so I think I will pass there as well. Hanson/Irwin drill bits are about Harbor Freight quality in my experience…

I guess DeWalt and Bosch don’t make left drill bits. I really don’t want to use some cheap bits that will break off or some cheaper cast screw extractor that will break inside the work and leave me in worse shape.

I may well track down a Snap-On guy and buy some lefty drill bits…maybe some extractors too Snap-On is pricey, but their tools are good. Not so much with the home improvement stores cheapo ones….The manifold on which I am working is too hard to replace.

do mass murder….And we are told it is terrible to be a Muslim in the US today….
Yet things like what Joe refers to happen often around the world….and the media doesn’t make a big deal about it.
And it isn’t very newsworthy, for some reason.

Haters of all races/cultures/religions are haters. And these folks should be stopped, no matter who they are killing. No matter who you are, as a group, someone hates you. Someone wants to kill you because your beliefs aren’t theirs. Because they think they know the One True Way and younaren’t following it.

But the selective media reporting would make you believe that it only happens to Muslims (and the outcry would make you think that as well).
(Ok, maybe the Jews and the homosexuals cry that they are just as persecuted….) But the statistics here in the US don’t support that. Other countries? Well. they even eat their own.

 Bottom line: If every time they attempted this they’d get shot (early and often), the attacks would stop pretty quickly There are hateful people who would commit mass murder in nearly every society. Don’t be defenseless.  Let them do the dying, not you and your group. Not saying go looking for trouble, but don’t let it happen if it comes to you.

Now, make no mistake, I believe that men and women should be able to rent themselves out or otherwise choose what they do for pay. It really matter little to me if you work 8 hours on a factory abusing your hands to assemble Widgets or on your back…either way, it is renting your body. The only difference is the work you choose to do.

Having said that, lets look at this:
Johnson said often older men have paid for her school, where she lives and even what she drives.

Now, if she and her (ahem) “Sugar Daddies” are happy with the arrangement, I’m all for it. This sort of thing has, in one form or another, been going on informally since the beginning of time. Young women and older/rich/successful men. In the Keys and Bahamas, they have “Boat Bunnies”….in the ski areas, they have “Snow Bunnies”. And it has been going on elsewhere where some folks have “Mistresses” or “Kept Women”.

But this? This is pretty blatant. And while I think it ought to be legal, it is, at best, the authorities turning a blind eye to prostitution.

Yeah, it is a simplistic headline.

But in the end, there are more job openings than there are unemployed people to fill them.

This does not really mean more jobs than people, just more jobs than people that are looking for jobs.
Nor does it take into account that many of these jobs require some skill, not just a strong back or willing hands. (and many of the jobs require a clean blood test and/or that folks actually show up on time and/or work for a whole 8 hours….)
And this is the FIRST TIME IN 18 YEARS that there are more jobs available than there are people looking for jobs.

Lets hope that the DNC majority in the House doesn’t break that.