We are beginning to feel the effects of Ike. Been windy since I got up at 7:00 AM and we got out first shower about 12:30 PM. The effects will be rather lite on us as we are on the back side of the storm - winds are out of the North.
Reports from Joan Tregre in Pearland, a suburb of Dallas and I might mention on the South side of Houston about half way down to Galveston, was that they are all okay, roof is still on but all the fences are down. So they rode it out and did not suffer very much. For that, we thank God.
Tyler, Texas is right in the middle of it. The storm will pass right over them and I am sure the North East quadrant will extend over to Shreveport, Louisiana. They will get tropical storm like winds and lots and lots of rain. We may get a few more showers here and a bit more wind but nothing to worry about. We will get cooled off by the front coming and from the unseasonal rains. And we can always use the rain though it interferes with my Radio Control flying.
Reports from New Roads is that they got some moderate winds and not much rain at all. This time they were sort of out of it. I am sure that all the crews that were restoring power in Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee will now head to Galveston/Houston area to pick up the pieces there. So I guess things will slow down there due to Ike.
Aunt Bobbie came out of surgery okay. She is on the road to recovery. Pity, the storm will hit Austin with a hard blow. They will be on the good side but very close to the center of the storm so can expect a go of it.
Now on to LSU football. Poor University of North Texas, in for a beating and then return though the night with the storm all around them. I hope they stay overnight at LSU and go back Sunday morning. Travelling through the night in midst of a storm is no fun.
I will be at the Fox & Hound watching the game with the rest of the LSU alumni and friends. We will also get to see some of the USC OSU game on a side TV. We can only hope that OSU will anillate USC but that probably will not happen. PAC 10 does not look so good, Washington lost to Baylor. While Baylor has shown marked improvement th is year, they are not really in the upper classes of the conference.
Until next time . . .
Geaux Tigers
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Politics . . .
Politics, you can not avoid it at the moment, campaigns have reached new highs (or lows) after the conventions. It is pretty apparent that the Democratic convention failed to juice up the Democrats but boy oh boy, the Republicans have really juiced up everybody.
Frankly, I think Senator Obama made a very bad mistake in not taking Senator Hillary R. Clinton on as a Vice Presidential candidate. I mean she got almost as many delegates as he did, roughly half of the Democratic delegates and gets snubbed. It made the women angry and it surely made a lot of Democrats angry too. Bad judgement. Yeah, I know, he was trying to avoid the Clinton's mystic but I think he has screwed up badly. And he got almost no bounce, maybe one percent bounce out of his grand speech.
Senator McCain, on the other hand, has played it up very correctly. He has embraced the conservatives with his selection of Sara Palin as a running mate. He has chosen a women which has got to please a lot of female voters. And the polls now show an awesome bounce coming out of the convention. Bad news for the Democrats.
The press has taken a beating, too much support for Obama and NBC's ratings plunged. NBC has more or less rebuked two of their talking heads - both obviously slanted toward Obama. They are at the bottom of pile now vis-a-vis ratings and that's big bucks not matter how they feel. Money comes first in business, then you can rant and rave about your candidates. But until then, you can reverse the role. Others are watching too.
The Sara Palin comes out the line about "soccer mom and a pit bull" that goes over big. That "lip stick" comment that has been repeated again and again. Senator Obama, in his poor extemporaneously speaking ability to speak, made a bad reference to "lipstick on a pig." Boy that has really backfired. So the Senator from Illinois has really stepped into again, inadvertently comparing Sara Palin to a pig. He may not have meant that but he said it and is stuck with it.
Are the Democrats self destructing - - again? Looks bad for them. But fortunately for Democrats there is a long time to go, so they may well recover. But they are not going to do that with unscripted comments from Senator Obama. The conservative talk show hosts are beating up on him but then that is expected since there does not seem to be any successful liberal talk show hosts around. Those two avowed liberals on NBC TV just got whacked by their bosses, so . . .
Mrs Obama seems to be a detriment too. Their charitable contributions are next to nil. And she has put her foot in her mouth too. On the other hand, Cindy McCain stands out as a mother, business woman and one who does give a lot of time and money to charity. But then she does not have a social ladder to climb, she is already at the top.
I don't really like John McCain, but he seems to be the lessor to two evils. McCain voted incorrectly on tax cuts and got on the wrong side of the immigration issue. He seems to have learned his lesson in both cases. But McCain Fiengold Act stinks and his close ties with Joe Lieberman begs questions. Perhaps he is right to waver here and there but I don't like it. Sara Palin selection is certainly a step in the right direction. He is certainly right on the energy picture, the Democrats don't seem to get it.
Even the new Congressman from New Roads, Don Cazayoux, an alleged "Conservative Democrat" is for drilling off shore. Of course, young Don does not have a problem because Louisiana, his home turf, is the leading off shore state around. So the Democrats have their hands full, they just don't know when to quit and join the crowd.
Don's grandmother, whom he never knew, was my God mother. His mother and I are about two weeks apart in age, she being the elder. And we share some common ancestors and cousins but are not related to each other.
He has selected the term "Conservative Democrat" to disassociate himself from the liberals but if it walks like a horse, well it must be a horse, right? There is no such thing as a Conservative Democrat. My father was one way back when, but before he died he became an avowed Republican. When I was but a young boy in Pointe Coupee Parish, there were enough Republicans to counted on one's hands - maybe nine or ten of them. Today, there are many Republicans in Pointe Coupee Parish, yet there remains more Democrats. As a friend said, "You can not get elected in Pointe Coupee unless you are a Democrat." Ergo, the alleged "Conservative Democrat" title.
Young Don can not buck Nancy Pelosi, she is far to powerful. The Democrats are enthralled that he was elected in a Republican district but he faces another race this fall. Part of me wants to see him successful and part of me wants to see a Republican Congressional Majority again. Young Don may be one of the shortest lived US Representations in a long time.
What ever you do folks, vote. Vote your heart, head and loyalties but vote please. I spent a life time devoted to the rights of Americans to be free. Voting is exercising your freedom!
Frankly, I think Senator Obama made a very bad mistake in not taking Senator Hillary R. Clinton on as a Vice Presidential candidate. I mean she got almost as many delegates as he did, roughly half of the Democratic delegates and gets snubbed. It made the women angry and it surely made a lot of Democrats angry too. Bad judgement. Yeah, I know, he was trying to avoid the Clinton's mystic but I think he has screwed up badly. And he got almost no bounce, maybe one percent bounce out of his grand speech.
Senator McCain, on the other hand, has played it up very correctly. He has embraced the conservatives with his selection of Sara Palin as a running mate. He has chosen a women which has got to please a lot of female voters. And the polls now show an awesome bounce coming out of the convention. Bad news for the Democrats.
The press has taken a beating, too much support for Obama and NBC's ratings plunged. NBC has more or less rebuked two of their talking heads - both obviously slanted toward Obama. They are at the bottom of pile now vis-a-vis ratings and that's big bucks not matter how they feel. Money comes first in business, then you can rant and rave about your candidates. But until then, you can reverse the role. Others are watching too.
The Sara Palin comes out the line about "soccer mom and a pit bull" that goes over big. That "lip stick" comment that has been repeated again and again. Senator Obama, in his poor extemporaneously speaking ability to speak, made a bad reference to "lipstick on a pig." Boy that has really backfired. So the Senator from Illinois has really stepped into again, inadvertently comparing Sara Palin to a pig. He may not have meant that but he said it and is stuck with it.
Are the Democrats self destructing - - again? Looks bad for them. But fortunately for Democrats there is a long time to go, so they may well recover. But they are not going to do that with unscripted comments from Senator Obama. The conservative talk show hosts are beating up on him but then that is expected since there does not seem to be any successful liberal talk show hosts around. Those two avowed liberals on NBC TV just got whacked by their bosses, so . . .
Mrs Obama seems to be a detriment too. Their charitable contributions are next to nil. And she has put her foot in her mouth too. On the other hand, Cindy McCain stands out as a mother, business woman and one who does give a lot of time and money to charity. But then she does not have a social ladder to climb, she is already at the top.
I don't really like John McCain, but he seems to be the lessor to two evils. McCain voted incorrectly on tax cuts and got on the wrong side of the immigration issue. He seems to have learned his lesson in both cases. But McCain Fiengold Act stinks and his close ties with Joe Lieberman begs questions. Perhaps he is right to waver here and there but I don't like it. Sara Palin selection is certainly a step in the right direction. He is certainly right on the energy picture, the Democrats don't seem to get it.
Even the new Congressman from New Roads, Don Cazayoux, an alleged "Conservative Democrat" is for drilling off shore. Of course, young Don does not have a problem because Louisiana, his home turf, is the leading off shore state around. So the Democrats have their hands full, they just don't know when to quit and join the crowd.
Don's grandmother, whom he never knew, was my God mother. His mother and I are about two weeks apart in age, she being the elder. And we share some common ancestors and cousins but are not related to each other.
He has selected the term "Conservative Democrat" to disassociate himself from the liberals but if it walks like a horse, well it must be a horse, right? There is no such thing as a Conservative Democrat. My father was one way back when, but before he died he became an avowed Republican. When I was but a young boy in Pointe Coupee Parish, there were enough Republicans to counted on one's hands - maybe nine or ten of them. Today, there are many Republicans in Pointe Coupee Parish, yet there remains more Democrats. As a friend said, "You can not get elected in Pointe Coupee unless you are a Democrat." Ergo, the alleged "Conservative Democrat" title.
Young Don can not buck Nancy Pelosi, she is far to powerful. The Democrats are enthralled that he was elected in a Republican district but he faces another race this fall. Part of me wants to see him successful and part of me wants to see a Republican Congressional Majority again. Young Don may be one of the shortest lived US Representations in a long time.
What ever you do folks, vote. Vote your heart, head and loyalties but vote please. I spent a life time devoted to the rights of Americans to be free. Voting is exercising your freedom!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Its Been Flown . . .
I have gotten a number of sorties on the Big Stik 60 now, enough to rip the main landing gear off. That was a conversion error, my eror. I had installed a quarter inch thick plywood block to mount the landdnig gearinside the fueslage. When I glued it in place, I failed to tie it into the plywood longerons, so it was just supported by the balsa skin. The balsa did not last too long. So it broke out on landing. Not pretty.
But I put it back into place, and fiber glass the patch from the out side. I then added a couple of gussets on the inside using epoxy cement to glue it together. It is well tied into the structure now and should hold up for a long time. I had to add a bit of lead in the back end to compensate for the added weight up front, the fiber glass, extra epoxy and gussets. It is nice and balanced and flies quiet well. I also pushed the tank up a little further, so there was a shift of weight forward and thus the lead is necessary to compensate.
The new 2.4 GigaHertz equipment is glitch free, not hits now. And a new battery insures a lot of power and reserve. I had some trouble getting the battery to perform, but after several cycles, it came up and is doing just well. So new battery, super switch, new receiver set and transmitter module and I was ready to go.
The new receiver has really two separate receivers, you locate one on the floor of the model with its two antennas facing the sides of the model and the secondary receiver on the side of the model and its two antennas facing fore and aft. That covers the spectrum for reception. The 2.4 stuff can be highly directional and thats why the orientation must be different. The two receivers are tied together and that ensures a positive signal catch under all the potential directions.
I had a bit of trouble getting everything working. The Spektrum instructions were a little lacking. One has to "bind" the receiver set to the transmitter. When that is done, the receiver only recognizes the tranmitter to which it is "bound." That means no one else can send a signal to your airplane except only except your transmitter. So frequency control is a thing of the past.
Spektrum failed to be explicit about turn on and off procedures. One has to turn on the transmitter first, then the receiver. The binding process requires that one press a button on the RF module down, turn on the transmitter, then the receiver set. The receivers each have a light emitting diode, and the diode begins flashing. That indicates it is receiving the signal. After a few seconds, the diodes stop flashing and go solid in color (in this case red). The solid color indicates the receiver set is bound to the transmitter. You can release the button and things are all locked up to your transmitter.
After that, general use, preparation to fly one must always turn on the tranmitter first, then the receiver set. Do it backwards, and the receiver set forgets and loses its binding to the transmitter. Spektrun fails to point out this to the user - pretty bad in my mind.
But once you get all that down, it is super duper. I get all the neat bells and whistles that comes with the 8UAP transmitter. At one time the 8 channel 8UAP was the top of the line. No so anymore but it is still one powerful device. 8 channels is more than enough for me at any time and its powerful, albeit dated, programming process allows all kinds of things to be done. Besides I know how to program it now so it is okay by me.
So I have the best of the best and works. No more hits, no more interference from microwave signals over running my 72 MegaHertz systems. I dont' know if that was the real problem, but I am not having any problems any more. Hummm.
Cheers. Keep your heads down, Ike is coming.
But I put it back into place, and fiber glass the patch from the out side. I then added a couple of gussets on the inside using epoxy cement to glue it together. It is well tied into the structure now and should hold up for a long time. I had to add a bit of lead in the back end to compensate for the added weight up front, the fiber glass, extra epoxy and gussets. It is nice and balanced and flies quiet well. I also pushed the tank up a little further, so there was a shift of weight forward and thus the lead is necessary to compensate.
The new 2.4 GigaHertz equipment is glitch free, not hits now. And a new battery insures a lot of power and reserve. I had some trouble getting the battery to perform, but after several cycles, it came up and is doing just well. So new battery, super switch, new receiver set and transmitter module and I was ready to go.
The new receiver has really two separate receivers, you locate one on the floor of the model with its two antennas facing the sides of the model and the secondary receiver on the side of the model and its two antennas facing fore and aft. That covers the spectrum for reception. The 2.4 stuff can be highly directional and thats why the orientation must be different. The two receivers are tied together and that ensures a positive signal catch under all the potential directions.
I had a bit of trouble getting everything working. The Spektrum instructions were a little lacking. One has to "bind" the receiver set to the transmitter. When that is done, the receiver only recognizes the tranmitter to which it is "bound." That means no one else can send a signal to your airplane except only except your transmitter. So frequency control is a thing of the past.
Spektrum failed to be explicit about turn on and off procedures. One has to turn on the transmitter first, then the receiver. The binding process requires that one press a button on the RF module down, turn on the transmitter, then the receiver set. The receivers each have a light emitting diode, and the diode begins flashing. That indicates it is receiving the signal. After a few seconds, the diodes stop flashing and go solid in color (in this case red). The solid color indicates the receiver set is bound to the transmitter. You can release the button and things are all locked up to your transmitter.
After that, general use, preparation to fly one must always turn on the tranmitter first, then the receiver set. Do it backwards, and the receiver set forgets and loses its binding to the transmitter. Spektrun fails to point out this to the user - pretty bad in my mind.
But once you get all that down, it is super duper. I get all the neat bells and whistles that comes with the 8UAP transmitter. At one time the 8 channel 8UAP was the top of the line. No so anymore but it is still one powerful device. 8 channels is more than enough for me at any time and its powerful, albeit dated, programming process allows all kinds of things to be done. Besides I know how to program it now so it is okay by me.
So I have the best of the best and works. No more hits, no more interference from microwave signals over running my 72 MegaHertz systems. I dont' know if that was the real problem, but I am not having any problems any more. Hummm.
Cheers. Keep your heads down, Ike is coming.
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