Saturday, March 30, 2013

Easter at Oppdal

Spent the last couple of days at Oppdal towing gliders with the Pawnee. For the easter, the parachuters had a PAC P-750. That 750 HP PT6 would be something in an RV (or maybe not...)






Wednesday, March 27, 2013

More oil

When the oil dried it didn't look all that bad. It evens out and look like concrete, only glossy and slightly darker tan. I decided I will just use the floor with the oil, that's good enough. In the pictures there is the dried oil from a couple of days back, and the new oil from today.



Monday, March 25, 2013

Toy or tool?

I have used old fashion paper maps earlier, and for flight planning I have used paper maps, Excel, protractor etc. Time to enter the new age, so I got a Nexus 7 (Android pad) and PocketFMS. PocketFMS is nice because it works on a PC, and any other device you may have (Android, Apple or the old Windows Mobile), and it works all places at once with one single license. I can use may PC for planning, and save the flight plans in the "sky". When I fly, I only need my Nexus, and download a previously saved flight plan, appending real time weather etc and so on. I can also use the Nexus for point and drag planning, but it is faster and more practical with a PC. For Norway ICAO maps can be used as background maps together with elevation maps (3D view).

PocketFMS also works seamlessly with MGL Avionics EFIS (Enigma, Odyssey and so on), meaning a map license on PocketFMS also works on MGL EFIS (same maps, same flight plans etc). It seemingly work with Dynon and AFS.

I got this only a couple of days ago, so I don't know how well it works for real flying (will the batteries last etc). Impressive software this PocketFMS even though it is a bit rough around the edges.

Oiling the shop floor

The floor was dry enough to oil. Did the "plastic test" over night, and no moisture seen. The function of the oil is apparently to penetrate and bind the concrete to make it less brittle, and to withstand water and oils. Unlike paint, the wear will be on the concrete itself, but since the oil make the surface much less brittle, it doesn't shed particles (dust) so the surface will last forever. The surface becomes very hard and ductile, and this is what is used in parking houses amongst other things.

This is all fine, but the oil also makes the floor look very ugly! I'll let it dry until tomorrow and decide if I also put some paint on it (the oil also function as a primer).



Sunday, March 24, 2013

Maintenance

A couple of weekends ago I attended a course in maintenance at EAA Norway at Kjeller airport. This course is required to do 100h/yearly maintenance on an experimental aircraft that you have built yourself. It was an interesting course and I also met several other builders (not many around where I live).

Painted the half of the walls in the shop. Then I have to move stuff around to paint the other half. On the floor I will simply use something called concrete oil, but I have to wait another month or two until the concrete floor is fully dry. Wondering about using the lower half of IKEA kitchen furniture as building bench along the one of the walls.