I’ve had an opportunity to test out my PPG engine primer fix. The primer bulb is just temporarily attached near the carburetor but works very well. It’s not a long term fix but will work until I get some fuel line in to make the rest of the repairs. I did the first test flight at my home base at Oakdale Airport. All seemed well so I went for a longer flight this morning out at New Jerusalem. I blew the first launch but the second went find and I had a real nice flight around the river.
Making contact with other Ham operators are what Ham operators love to do. The code for this is QSL. It has become tradition for operators to send a QSL card as proof of the contact. Whether across the state or across the globe many Hams still do this. It was a privilege of mine to have a dear friend be my first Ham contact. He is a radio engineer and a dear brother in Christ. He doesn’t get on the Ham bands much anymore but made an exception for me. We chatted as he drove home from Modesto to Valley Springs.
I was so excited about my very first Ham contact and conversation I decided to make up a QSL card of my own. Note here that it is tradition to send paper QSL cards, which are very similar in size to a standard postcard. Being in the digital age I decided to email him. Here is what I sent:
A few days later I received the following in the mail:
Anyway it was really fun to carry on this tradition with a very good friend who has been very encouraging of me to get my Ham license.
KM6FDT clear
Just a shout out to anyone who is in the central San Joaquin Valley and likes airplanes…
The Rodeo engine (made by Nirvana) had it’s first maintenance issue this past Friday. It was just bad enough to ground me though a relatively easy fix. I say relatively because I have to take the entire trike apart to make the repair. The problem was my primer bulb. When I tried to prime the engine this past Friday I pulled back a very smelly and wet finger.
*Pauses to let laughter subside*
When I looked at my primer bulb it had developed a pinhole leak. If I tried to start the engine without priming a very fine stream of gasoline would come out of the bulb when the engine was turning. Not a good thing. So I grounded the machine until it could be repaired. And for those who don’t know what a primer bulb is… it’s a small pump basically. You press it with your thumb and it squirts fuel directly into the carb which helps the engine to start.
I said earlier that the repair is ‘relatively’ easy because the repair is a simple matter of replacing a $2.00 primer bulb. It snaps out and back in. The ‘relatively’ part comes into play when you’re trying to gain access to the primer bulb. To get it out you basically have to take the entire machine apart.
First I had to remove the propeller, the propeller cage, and the seat and harness.
Then I had to remove the engine from the trike and dump the fuel back into the gas can. Most of it made it back into the can. After I had the engine up on the workbench I had to carefully remove the fuel tank. This is kind of difficult with one person but can be done with patience. Note that the gas cap was removed when I removed the tank, I put it back on to keep contaminents out of th tank.
With the tank removed I could then get at the back side of the primer bulb. I removed the fuel lines from the primer and labeled them so the would go back on in the correct positions. On the carb end I labeld them L and R for left and right. On the primer end I labeled them S and L for short and long which correspond to the fittings the fuel line was removed from. One is short, one is long.
After that it was a simple matter of squeezing the locking pins together and popping the bulb out.
Once I had the bulb out I could see that the pinhole had quickly become a bigger hole just with vibration and a little bit of manhandling which it got when I removed it. It’s hard to see but the entire middle of the bulb is about to come off.
Apparently this is a fairly common part on chainsaws and similar small engine equipment. I found a box of 5 on Amazon for about $6.00 and it will arrive on Tuesday. I’ll post an update when I put it all back together.
In my last blog entry I talked about taking the Amateur Radio test up in Granite Bay. I didn’t go into much detail on the testing process so I’ll add a little about that here. The local club in Granite Bay gives tests every Saturday at Raley’s. Yes, Raley’s. There is a community conference room at the back of the store and this is where you’ll find the local Amateur Radio club every week. When you first walk in you are given a packet with some forms to fill out. Simple stuff like name and address and FRN number if you have one. The FRN number is how the FCC identifies you in their database.
In the packet is the actual test and answer sheet. If you’ve ever taken standardized tests in school where you fill in the bubble it’s very similar. Don’t write in the test booklet, completely black in the answer number. After you’re done with the test you hand it to the graders. It is a group of three people who are usually “elmers” or older more experienced Hams. They each graded it as a cross check. When the last guy checked my answers he gave me a big smiling “thumb’s up!”
After that they told me it would be a week to 10 days before my license appeared in the FCC database. This can be checked on the FCC’s website. I had the page bookmarked and checked every morning and evening this week. This morning before work, my name was not there. On a whim I checked when I got to work and there I was!
Now that I have a call sign I am legal to talk on Ham radio. I have a good friend who will be in my area this evening and we are going to try to arrange it so that he will be my first radio contact. We are going to communicate via what is called simplex. This means we will be communicating radio to radio not using any repeaters. Repeaters allow to boost your range. We’re going to keep it simple for tonight. He’ll be within a couple miles of me anyway so simplex should work just fine.
One other thing I’ve done is request a vanity call sign from the FCC. This will allow me to use a slightly shorter and more meaningful call sign. Since I’ve been a pilot for years and years I’d really like a call sign that begins with N. I’ve put in the application and will update here when it comes through.
de KM6FDT
After a 2 hour drive up to Granite Bay, CA I took the exam for the Technician Class Amateur Radio license. I was surprised how quickly I blew through the 35 questions and was a little hesitant to hand in my test. However, I got an excited ‘thumbs up’ from the examiners. I was told I only missed one question, a 97%. Not bad at all. Now the waiting game begins. It will still be a week or two before my license shows up in the FCC database. But as soon as I see it there I am good to go!
My new routine is to get up early on Fridays and try to fly before going into work. They don’t mind me showing up late and working late on Friday because they all want to clear out. But I think I am experiencing a sea change as far as documenting my flights. I used to have to take pictures and video and share them with everyone. I would put those pictures and video up on every social media network to which I belonged. It was bragging. And I found I was losing sight of the whole purpose of flying; pure enjoyment. I guess I found that at some point you have to stop trying to share all the moments and just start living in those moments. Savor each moment. Experience each moment.
So this morning I arrived at New Jerusalem to find the honey wagon servicing the lone port-a-potty we have. Thank you sir whoever you are. There was a distinct smell of garbage dump on the wind. It wasn’t the rural smells I had hoped for but after some minutes my nose adjusted and ignored the aroma of freshly tilled garbage. Even the unpleasant moments should be experienced.
I laid out my wing and then warmed up my engine. After I drove my trike over to where I had laid my wing out I noted the wind had shifted. I re-laid out my wing and hooked it up to my trike. Leg straps – check. Torso strap – check. Anti-torque strap – check. Reserve ‘chute – check. Now secure strapped in I strapped the throttle to my left hand. With the brake toggles in each hand I press the starter button. The engine pops to life and mutters behind me. I flip my thumbs under the two A lines and check the wind sock sitting on top of my van one last time. It’s limp. I could turn and take off down the runway. Too late, I’m set up pointing directly across the runway towards my van. I probably won’t hit it.
I take one deep breath… let it out slowly, starting between my van and the airport windsock about 70 feet behind it. I squeeze the throttle and my trike starts to run, the wing starts to rise off the ground. My trike strains against it like a eager dog on a leash pulling it’s reluctant owner along. As my wing rises over my head I stop looking forward and start looking up. It’s almost overhead so I release the As and pull on the brakes just enough to keep the wing not quite vertical. It’s leaning behind me just slight and it’s not moving side to side at all. I squeeze the throttle all the way and slowly release my pressure on the brake toggles. The wing does what it does best and lifts my trike and I up by the harness. My wheels clear the 7 foot tall weeds by 3 feet or so and we are slowly rising into the still morning air.
(The sensation of taking off in a powered paraglider is much different to me than taking off in an airplane. In an airplane, you feel the airplane lifting you off the ground. In a PPG it feels more like someone is holding your harness and picking you up. It’s a sensation that’s hard to explain.)
The weeds in the field fall away and I climb into the crisp air. There are wisps of fog hugging some of the alfalfa fields and orchards. It seems much more like Fall than Summer this morning. I make some lazy figure eights over the airport as I climb. There is no wind at all. I fly over two farm workers walking back to their cars. I fly over commuters taking back roads to avoid the freeway. I’m gliding along in silky smoothness. The only disturbance is my engine growling on my back. I fly back to the airport and do three touch and goes. I then turn and land the wrong way so I can shut down next to my van.
I kill the engine and roll to a stop. The wing softly rustles to the ground and then there is only silence. I again stare toward my van and take in another deep breath and then slowly let it out. I sit for a few moments listening to the “clinks” as the engine cools down. Then I unstrap in reverse order; reserve ‘chute, anti-torque strap, torso strap, leg straps. I shimmy out of the shoulder straps, doff my helmet and then drop it in the seat. The garbage smell is gone. I smell alfalfa now. The sun is warmer now. I take my jacket off and gather up my wing. I didn’t realize I was smiling until I got back to my van and saw my reflection in the window. The look of a man who had been living in the moment.
One of the facets of my last job that I DO NOT miss was being on-call. Basically on one week out of six I had to live with my phone waiting for someone to call with a network or server problem. The calls almost always came near midnight or near 4am my time. It really stank. What was worse was that I was salaried so did not get paid any overtime for these late nights on the phone. At least twice a year I would spend an entire weekend on the phone. Literally.
One of the joys of leaving that job and starting my new job was not being on-call. I actually have learned to forget my phone sometimes. I went to church last week without my phone and didn’t panic once! That all being said, our CIO announced this week that we would now have to be on-call. (Booooo!) But that we would be compensated for being on-call. (Yaaaayyyy!)
Apparently if a county employee is on call, during the time that they are on-call they get paid 20% of their base hourly rate in addition to their normal pay. If we actually have to call in and work on something then we get to charge 3 hours of overtime. Awesome! This is effectively a 6% raise in my pay. Yeah, I’ll take it.
Um… I mean more on Ham radio. Why Ham radio? I’ve never really been interested in it up until now. Most of my friends who fly PPG use Ham radio to communicate with each other. I could be like a lot of guys and just use the Ham bands ilegally but that’s not who I am. I’ve been studying for the Technician license which will get me the privileges I need to legally use the same frequencies my buddies use.
I’ve selected the Yaesu VX-6R as the radio I want to use. The features I like are the small size and the fact that it has about a zillion features. One of the features I really like is it’s dual watch feature. I can input two frequencies, a main frequency and then a frequqncy that it will monitor every 5 seconds. If it senses a transmission on the second frequency it will switch over to that other frequency until the transmission is complete and then it will switch back to the main frequency you are monitoring. I plan to set the Ham frequency the other guys use as the main frequency, and then set the aircraft frequency our local airfield uses (MULTICOM) as the secondary frequency. As far as what frequencies it can pick up, well, almost any radio frequency. From AM/FM, to weather, to police and fire bands, aviation bands, and most of the Ham bands.
I’ve also been listening to a local repeater in the area. They have a group or “net” that meets most mornings and radio out traffic and weather and talk about what their plans are for the day. So after I’m licensed I’ll probably hook up with them and maybe learn a little more about Ham radio. I’ve got a friend who is a broadcast radio engineer who will also be MORE than eager to answer any questions I have.
So this isn’t a blog post so much as a bookmark. I’ve been studying to get my Amateur or Ham Radio license. This is a pretty good “in a nutshell” video with all the info someone needs to know to pass the entry level or Technician license.
Air Prayer 