Irish has a pretty convincing argument that the New Zealand shooting at the Mosque was not real, but rather a CGI fake.

I just don’t know.

I DO know that it is not impossible. Which is, really, frightening to me. 

So my brother, who is a very skilled outdoorsman, called me:

“Want some fresh trout? I just pulled in 2 large trout and if you’d like some, come get it”.

So, since I was going that way, I did.

Man, was that was worth the trip.
A hot pan, melted butter. a 1 pound filet. Just a dusting of  onion powder (I didn’t have an onion) and a blessing of cayenne on one side.
Cook 4 minutes, flip.

A little seasoned rice on the side and a piece of bread.

Man, there is nothing like FRESH pan fried trout. Less than 2 hours hour from stream to plate.

The only way it could have been better was if I had other companions and it was cooked on a campfire streamside.

Thanks, bro. 

Gettin there….
Got the issue with the distributor fixed, and it now stays in time. Odd how well it works when it is out together correctly instead of how the prior owner did it…

Runs pretty well, except for the exhaust leak. Leaks, actually. Major.

I found gaskets at Olsonsgaskets.com. He has gaskets for pretty much any car up to the early ’70’s. Pretty nice guy to work with too. Highly recommended. Not cheap, but good gaskets and good advice and quick service,

Of course, when taking the manifolds apart, some of the bolts in the manifold snapped.

So drill and tap,…Except they were so hard after all these years that that was difficult, as I could not get a punch to make an impression in the bolt. So very careful drilling and filing was necessary….It ain’t like I can go to a U-Pull-It Junkyard and get another manifold for a car that is nearly a hundred years old. But I got the remains of the studs out, even though no local stores had any left handed drill bits for extraction. 

2 drilled and tapped, one had to be tapped up to the next size. (from 5/16″ to 3/8″) I left the other 2 the original size….One can always move up but it is hard to shrink them….

All surfaces cleaned, scraped, and brushed, and assembly should take place tonight or tomorrow.

Oddly, none of the auto parts shops in the area carry copper based Never-Seize….which I like to use because I may have to take it apart someday….And they don’t carry much in the way of studs either. Still have the Dorman drawers, just nothing in them anymore. I ended up making the studs I needed with some rod and a die set.

Then I gotta see if the cooling system will hold any pressure (or water). I know for sure I gotta make a gasket for the radiator cap.

After that, of course, is cleaning out the fuel tank and lines (and fixing the vacuum fuel pump setup) and then it should be roadable.

Between flying (and doing the annual on the aeroplane), shooting and now this project, I’m keeping pretty busy. Keeps me out of trouble though.

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.