The Man, Myth, Legend

Busy month, but here’s an update on the Man:

I’ve been down to L.A. every weekend this month, first for the AMA convention in Ontario, then to help my dad cleanup/repair the house, then for a family friend’s birthday party (I was the surprise). This weekend, the wife is headed down & I get to stay home and relax. Life seems to be moving at me pretty fast this year. I can’t believe it is almost February! I read a book called “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” by Tucker Max on the recommendation of Justin - hilarious read- reminded me of some of the (mis)adventures I had in my youth, which has prompted me to start documenting some of them. Also, some friends just had their first child (Braiden) this month. He was born premature and weighed only 3 lbs and 8 oz, but he is doing well from the reports I have been getting. I’m not going to say that I’m ready to start a family, but I have noticed an increase in the amount of baby references lately. (Do Not Read Into Anything By This Comment)

Justin and I are planning a Vegas trip in March and hopefully some of our “old” friends will also join us in that wonderful “den of iniquity.” Other than that, just pluggin along at work, and trying to find time to finish the Corsair. I have all the parts & pieces I need, I just need to finish the installation, adjust the cowl, and find the center of gravity and she should be ready to fly. I was hoping to have her done by the end of this month, but I’m going to push back the completion date to February so I don’t feel rushed and forget something important. This version has a .91cu 4-stroke engine and an on-board glow-driver to prevent low idle engine stalls, so hopefully it will last longer than 7 flights. My hangar now consists of : a P-51 Mustang, a Hobbico Nexstar, an older .25cu high wing trainer, and the Corsair. I think I’ve reached my limit for the time being, but will eventually add to the collectino once the garage gets cleaned up and there is a little more room. Hey, maybe I’ll be able to park the truck in there this year!

OK, enough rambling….

-End of Update

Yeah, yeah, I know…. So here’s the update in a nutshell. Good Christmas at home (first time), Good New Year’s (also at home), making rapid progress on the Corsair 2.0 (bigger engine)… oh yeah, and enjoying life in general. Maybe my resolution will be to make a pointed effort to keep this up to date.

I’ve been trying to pace myself in building this plane, but it is just so much fun to get all the pieces working properly that I have made large strides towards completion. To date, I have completed the following tasks in preparation for a maiden flight:
Joined wing sections
Installed aileron, rudder and elevator control surfaces and servos
Installed engine mount and engine
Main landing gear has been installed and adjusted (they retract- it’s very cool)

All that is left is:
Install throttle assembly and servo
Install fuel tank
Attach cowl over engine
Attach canopy and misc details
Break in engine

After pouring over the instructions all last week, I finally started on actual construction this past weekend. The aileron servos and control surfaces are now installed, the wing sections have been glued together, and the retracting gear and servo are operating smoothly. I hope to work on the rudder and elevator controls and possibly the engine mounting next week. I’ll post some pictures of all this when I get a chance. I’m guessing (optimistically) I’ll have it all completed in a month. The only concern I’ve had so far is whether the servo control arms on the ailerons are long enough, or if I’ll need to find some a little longer. Stay tuned….
~Dave

As you can see, I’ve finally changed the website over to a new design. I’ll be tweaking it here and there in the next few weeks, but the basic design will stay the same. It took me two days to transfer all my old posts into the new format, but I can scratch that task off my list. The old photo album is gone. I’ll be looking into a new one, maybe using Flickr, but that will be at some later date. For now, The man, myth, legend will be primarily text posts, with multimedia in the future. Hope you like it.

~Dave

It has been way too long since I’ve done anything with this website, so I figure that sometime this month, or January, I will completely revamp/re-structure the whole thing. I’ll try to keep all the posts and most of the pictures, but I want to try something more multimedia, where I can post pictures more easily with my posts. I doubt many people are actually reading this anymore, but if you are, be prepared for a New and Improved site in the coming month(s). Any suggestions from the outside would be appreciated.The Man

***This is an Update***I am still here, but have not had anything worthwhile to post since August. Life is good, still working, loving and living. rnThat is all.***End of Update***

Last weekend, Frank, Jason and I went to Vegas. It was a joint-venture on my part, because Jen and Alex were also in town. Jen had arranged for some of Alex’s friends to surprise him for his birthday. It went off without a hitch. He was speechless. It was a pretty good trip… I got to see some “old” friends I haven’t seen in 5 or more years, and I got to play craps some more. I didn’t win any money, but Frank came out ahead for the weekend. Jason spent most of his time playing Poker, but didn’t make it to the WSOP yet. As for the heading of this post… My birthday is next weekend, and lately I have been mulling over many aspects of my life: what I’ve accomplished, what I have failed to do, what I still want to do, what could have been different, etc. All these thoughts have kind of put me in a dark/less than happy attitude. Not that I have many regrets, but I’m looking at what I still want to accomplish in my life, and the list just seems to be getting longer, without checking anything off. I’m sure I’ll get over it, it’s just one of those things… The wife and I just pruchased new couches, which should be delivered on the 22nd. Also, the mother-in-law (MIL) offered to buy us a new king-sized mattress for my birthday/xmas present. Next on the wife’s list is new bedroom furniture. I’m happy with what we’ve got now, but I guess part of being married is making sure your spouse is happy too. So, I guess we’ll be getting new bedroom furniture sometime in the future. Eh, as long as I don’t have to sleep on the couch I guess its OK. Anyhoo, I think I may take the Street bike down to LA on Friday night so that I can ride Asuza Canyon Highway with some members of the bike forum. should be interesting, but I’m still not decided if I really want to ride down or not. Mebbe I can truck the bike down, and just ride from my dad’s. We’ll see.~The Man (who’s getting older)

Plumbers came Monday morning and re-snaked the drain from the front access. Didn’t hit any type of blockage whatsoever, and ran a total of 75 feet into the pipe. THat put them out in the street close to the city main, so I am hopefull that whatever was blocking the pipe is gone, and that they only go stuck because of the length they has in the pipe. OH happy day… no $1900 repair bill!!!!!! No dug up yard!!!!! Woooo Hoooo!!!!!~The Joyous Man

Spent the day lounging and doing as little as possible. Took the wife out to dinner, and when we got back, I figured I’d try one last time to locate the sewer cleanout in the front yard. Well, after digging out about 3 feet in front of the guest room with no luck, I tried in front of the dining room window. But first, I had to dig up two rose bushes blocking my way. Sure enough, I found the damn thing about 2 inches down and an inch away from a sprinkler head. At least now I can have the plumbers come re-snake the line and *Hopefully* find out if I actually have a collapsed pipe, or just a lot of crap in there (heh). Anyways, now I’ve got to figure out what to do about the landscaping I’ve tore up in the process of all this. ~The Man (who accomplished a small personal achiement)