I installed and flew with an MGL Flight-2 instrument this past weekend.  What a wonderful product!!  It was easy to install, easy to setup, is loaded with features, displays a TON of data, and is very reasonably priced - I HIGHLY recommend it.

This past weekend I made a trip to Jean, NV and back home for the 2009 Mountain States Fly-In and Contact! Magazine Alternative Engine Roundup.  It was a blast and a very big thank you to Pat Panzera of Contact! Magazine and all the folks that made it happen!  More details and photos on this trip page.

Today I flew the prop that I made myself from a Paul Lipps design. This first prop was a fact finding exercise as I was unable to provide exact performance numbers for my engine. The prop had too much pitch for my little engine but hopefully this information get's us a step closer to the ideal propellor design. View photo album of the propellor construction from start to finish.

I am very honored to have been published a couple of times lately.  First was Contact! Magazine and now in the EAA Experimenter.

Spring is windy season in New Mexico. Usually; it doesn't kick up til mid-morning or so.  Not this past Saturday....  I enjoyed breakfast and conversation for a bit too long at a nearby airport on Saturday.  When I stuck my head out the door to leave the wind was really howling.  I took off and returned home to find the wind was a direct 20kt crosswind with gusts.  Given our very narrow runway (E98), I figured I would claim 'yeller' and live to fight another day.  So, I returned to the breakfast airport, tied down, and called for a ride.  My poor girl doesn't sit outside very often and, come Sunday morning, was quite annoyed that I had done that too her.  It had been cold overnight and she didn't want to start.  I cranked and cranked and finally got a nice backfire - then starter problems....  It was obvious pretty quickly that I had broken something.  A look revealed that the starter mount that was an integrated part of my engine block (previously part of the bell housing before I cut it off) had broken.  I was...

I am well into my 2009 condition inspection and happy to report that there have been no surprises.  While I have the wheels off, I'm taking the opportunity to change the brake mounting to the LaRue/Coughlin setup. My brakes have worked ok up to this point with the floating caliper approach - ok means that they did not grab unexpectedly. However; they had little "holding" power and their effectiveness after landing was questionable.  As part of this update, I have made my own brake pads out of a softer material so we'll see how that works out.

January 1, 2009 was a gorgeous, clear, blue sky, warm day so I just had to get the year started off right.  I took off and headed northwest.  No particular destination in mind, just clicking pictures, enjoying the scenary, and loving flight!  Spent about 1.5 hours in the air and took some nice photos.  They are posted here.  What a great start to the new year!!

I have been in the prop making business for the last couple of weeks. I am building a Paul Lipps designed test propellor. While not "hard" work, it certainly is time consuming. I'm not very well equipped for wood work and that hasn't helped. Hopefully I'll have a finished product in the a month or so.  Photos here.

As part of pre-flight I always put one hand on the top and one on the bottom and try to move the elevator up and down at the mid-span and outer pivots.  This morning the right side mid-span pivot felt very wrong, the left side outer pivot felt kinda wrong.  So, I pulled the elevators off.  Much to my surprise the right side mid-span pivot pin was BROKEN.  The left side outer pivot was loose.  The left side outer pivot was an easy fix, tighten up the nut.  The mid-span was a bit harder but still managed to get-er-done.  While I was at it I took the opportunity to machine a set of elevator to fuselage spacers that provide the correct spacing.  My last set allowed more side-to-side movement than I cared for - not any more!

Flew to Casa Grande, AZ for the 2008 Copperstate Fly-in this past weekend.  Had a great flight over and back and super time there.  Copperstate is a very nice fly-in.  At the awards dinner, I was quite surprised to be announced as the winner of the Alernative Power award and Furthest Distance Alternative Power.  I got to bring home two very nice plaques!!!