Last night Judie and I dined out at St Emillion French restaurant in Fort Worth. We had been chasing around reservations with our neighbors and late in the day, our neighbor developed an allergic reaction to a medicine and had to decline. So we called to make changes in reservations.
So we checked into the restaurant and found all early bird specials were long gone for Tuesday and only an 8:15 PM slot was available. So on a whim we decided to accept the late dinner invitation and go.
We arrived a few minutes early but our table was available and we began our gourmet journey. The place was small cozy and kind of noisy but after awhile we sort of provided us with an insulation from other diners.
We ate on table cloths, used cloth napkins and the wine menu was on a MAC tablet. The menu was of course printed but there was a complete chalk board of specials to go with the menu. We decided to select off the menu, I had the steak and Judie had the Salmon. We had an "Atlantic Salad" that we shared. It was a salad with sea food on it. It had oysters, crab meat and a crab roll of sorts. All served on a bed of greens with a vinaigrette dressing. Very good.
It took about an hour and forty five minutes from beginning to end. And it was worth it. Pricey, yes, but one of a kind in a totally western town where Bar B Que reins.
We are returning next week with our neighbors. And there were no children to bother us. No teenagers anywhere and the average age of the attends was probably over 50. Our kind of place.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
How To Eat a Lobster . . .
Sunday, James and family came over to visit. Chris also showed up.
As customary, we go out to eat somewhere. James Dunn usually determines the destination for dining. He has a ferocious appetite, he is after all a teenager.
He chose Pappadeaux's. We agree with that as it is about a close to Louisiana food as we can get in Texas. Judie and I enjoy the Greek Salad and then move on to entrees. She got fried softshell crab, just one and I got the medium order of fried shrimp, almost more than I can eat and certainly had at least three or four potato's worth of French Fries under the shrimp. Judie on the other had broccoli shoots (as opposed to the more common broccoli florets). I did not eat all those potatoes.
Son James had three or four fried softshell crabs but an appetiser of a dozen raw oysters. Chris had a fried crawfish dinner and ditto on the oysters. Joan had the seafood brochette which is a great dish. It has shrimp, fish and other goodies on a spit and is served on a bed of rice.
James Dunn had a lobster. He requested a two pound lobster but alas had to settle for a two and half pound lobster, the two pounders were gone. He was delivered a big lobster, the tail was not so great but it had two massive claws. He must have a half pint of melted butter on the side to dip his lobster in before eating it. By the end of the lobster there was not a lot of butter left over.
And I can assure you there was no lobster left over. He had a little assistance from his father in fishing out some of the lobster bits as in the knuckles, etc. Of course his father imposed small fee, that is a couple of pieces of the lobster did not make it back to James Dunn's plate but rather grace James, the senior, lips instead.
A photo was taken and it was sent to Armada Grace to gloat over. She sends telephone photos of her soirees into fine dining areas and meals, so it was turn about fair play. She responded appropriately.
In the end, the lobster carcass was stacked on a couple of bread plates and was sort of put back together sans all of its edible innards. Such is the table decorations found on a Sunday afternoon meal.
Bon appetite!
As customary, we go out to eat somewhere. James Dunn usually determines the destination for dining. He has a ferocious appetite, he is after all a teenager.
He chose Pappadeaux's. We agree with that as it is about a close to Louisiana food as we can get in Texas. Judie and I enjoy the Greek Salad and then move on to entrees. She got fried softshell crab, just one and I got the medium order of fried shrimp, almost more than I can eat and certainly had at least three or four potato's worth of French Fries under the shrimp. Judie on the other had broccoli shoots (as opposed to the more common broccoli florets). I did not eat all those potatoes.
Son James had three or four fried softshell crabs but an appetiser of a dozen raw oysters. Chris had a fried crawfish dinner and ditto on the oysters. Joan had the seafood brochette which is a great dish. It has shrimp, fish and other goodies on a spit and is served on a bed of rice.
James Dunn had a lobster. He requested a two pound lobster but alas had to settle for a two and half pound lobster, the two pounders were gone. He was delivered a big lobster, the tail was not so great but it had two massive claws. He must have a half pint of melted butter on the side to dip his lobster in before eating it. By the end of the lobster there was not a lot of butter left over.
And I can assure you there was no lobster left over. He had a little assistance from his father in fishing out some of the lobster bits as in the knuckles, etc. Of course his father imposed small fee, that is a couple of pieces of the lobster did not make it back to James Dunn's plate but rather grace James, the senior, lips instead.
A photo was taken and it was sent to Armada Grace to gloat over. She sends telephone photos of her soirees into fine dining areas and meals, so it was turn about fair play. She responded appropriately.
In the end, the lobster carcass was stacked on a couple of bread plates and was sort of put back together sans all of its edible innards. Such is the table decorations found on a Sunday afternoon meal.
Bon appetite!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tail Feathers . . .
"Tail feathers" is the common term used for the tail section of a model airplane. The proper French term is Empanage. The tail feathers are composed of the elevator and the rudder.
I have finally finished reconstruction of the fuselage (another French term) where the empanage mounts. The rudder, the vertical part was not in play, it was just fine. But the structure where the elevator would be glue on had several cracks, on one side it was completely apart where the control rod comes out of the fuselage that attaches to control surface of the elevator. I got the pieces back together using CA glue. CA is not sufficiently strong enough to counter the large loads experienced by the empanage.
So I covered over the cracks with fibreglass treatment. Now it is quite strong, stronger than original construction, it will not break in that area again. I had to do work on both sides of the fuselage and along the top next to the rudder. All finished now.
And I have covered one side, a difficult location to replace covering as control rods stick and it is hard to get the Monokote iron in place to activate the glue to hold the covering in place. So I removed one rod, the elevator rod.
Well getting the rod back in place is quite a problem. The rod travels through a tube and tube is no longer held in place and drifts around inside the fuselage. It is close but not exactly correct and since it is floating is hard to get it back out the hole. Just a task that takes time and patience to get done. Frustrating as it takes multiple attempts to get it done. That is the down side of model building.
Once I get the rod out and back where it should be, I will take on the rudder rod. It is in place but I will remove it to get at the covering in that area. Since the tube is still held in place where it should be it should be quite easy to do.
After the covering in that area is finished and the rods are back in place I will tackle gluing on the new (actually an old one off a long since salvage aircraft) elevator. I will have to deal with the tail wheel which has to travel through the elevator and attach to the rudder. So as the rudder moves, the tail wheel moves. Simple but sometimes a real pain in the butt to get set up and in place. It has to be done along with the gluing. It can get to be tedious.
Well I will go out and try to fish out the control rod.
I have finally finished reconstruction of the fuselage (another French term) where the empanage mounts. The rudder, the vertical part was not in play, it was just fine. But the structure where the elevator would be glue on had several cracks, on one side it was completely apart where the control rod comes out of the fuselage that attaches to control surface of the elevator. I got the pieces back together using CA glue. CA is not sufficiently strong enough to counter the large loads experienced by the empanage.
So I covered over the cracks with fibreglass treatment. Now it is quite strong, stronger than original construction, it will not break in that area again. I had to do work on both sides of the fuselage and along the top next to the rudder. All finished now.
And I have covered one side, a difficult location to replace covering as control rods stick and it is hard to get the Monokote iron in place to activate the glue to hold the covering in place. So I removed one rod, the elevator rod.
Well getting the rod back in place is quite a problem. The rod travels through a tube and tube is no longer held in place and drifts around inside the fuselage. It is close but not exactly correct and since it is floating is hard to get it back out the hole. Just a task that takes time and patience to get done. Frustrating as it takes multiple attempts to get it done. That is the down side of model building.
Once I get the rod out and back where it should be, I will take on the rudder rod. It is in place but I will remove it to get at the covering in that area. Since the tube is still held in place where it should be it should be quite easy to do.
After the covering in that area is finished and the rods are back in place I will tackle gluing on the new (actually an old one off a long since salvage aircraft) elevator. I will have to deal with the tail wheel which has to travel through the elevator and attach to the rudder. So as the rudder moves, the tail wheel moves. Simple but sometimes a real pain in the butt to get set up and in place. It has to be done along with the gluing. It can get to be tedious.
Well I will go out and try to fish out the control rod.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Flying, now Repairing . . .
Finally got an airplane to cooperate, flew three times Saturday, but banged up the airplane. Basically, I am rusty, did a stupid thing, Tried to take off without refueling. I guess I thought I had done that but did not. So the engine did not get enough fuel for take and I did some damage to the airplane.
I do like to repair airplanes and have often said, "It is not a good model until it has been repaired at least once. The damages usually reveal the weakness in the structure, so that the next time the airplane does a better job of survival." This one was on its second go round. The wing had the major repair last time and it sustained no damage at all.
The upfront repairs on the fuselage held up well. Ripped out the landing gear but that was easy to put back in and re-glue. Yes, I will have some recovering to do, but I am getting good at that. Put a little lightweight spackling in the cracks and will sand that down smooth.
The back, the empanage (that is a French term for the tail feathers, the combined rudder and elevator structure) did not survive so well. It had breaks before and did not break at the repair points but it did tear up the elevator. Fortunately, I had a salvaged elevator so that is not a big deal to install. But the structure holding the elevator took a severe hit. And then I managed to drop the fuselage so that the vertical took a good hit. That finished off the weak spots. I will glue those back quickly with CA glue. That will hold structure in place and then I will (and have started to) cover over the area with a fibreglass patch.
I have tons of fibreglass picked up at Radio Control swap meet. I got about 10 yards of the stuff. It is like any fabric one would buy at a sewing store, comes about a yard wide. Since I am using pieces about a half a square inch here and there, maybe a patch on the wing splice that is 3 or 4 square inches in area. That means I have maybe 7 or 8 years of supply. And I also picked at a swap meet the epoxy for doing that kind of work. My last buy of that kind of epoxy is almost running out. So I am set up for repairs for quite a while.
I am also getting good at those kinds of patches too. Put a tad bit of epoxy under the area to be patched, lay the fibreglass cloth on top, and spread the remainder of the epoxy the top. Now depending on the bonding of the epoxy to the balsa the patch will be stronger than a glue joint. Sand it a little bit and recover with Monokote. Good as new, well maybe a bit stronger and not so pretty as new.
So I will have this bird back into the air by the weekend. I may put a bigger gas tank in it. I have a host of those from former aircraft.
The engine in this bird is a Magnum four stroke .91 cubic inch engine. It swings a 14 inch prop with a 6 inch pitch. That is referred to as a 14 X 6 prop. That is pretty much the standard for that engine. I may go down to a 13 X 8 prop, roughly the same thrust but gives me more ground clearance for the prop. The engine will turn a bit faster but not much as prop loading is about the same. It has a lot of power.
Now back to work.
I do like to repair airplanes and have often said, "It is not a good model until it has been repaired at least once. The damages usually reveal the weakness in the structure, so that the next time the airplane does a better job of survival." This one was on its second go round. The wing had the major repair last time and it sustained no damage at all.
The upfront repairs on the fuselage held up well. Ripped out the landing gear but that was easy to put back in and re-glue. Yes, I will have some recovering to do, but I am getting good at that. Put a little lightweight spackling in the cracks and will sand that down smooth.
The back, the empanage (that is a French term for the tail feathers, the combined rudder and elevator structure) did not survive so well. It had breaks before and did not break at the repair points but it did tear up the elevator. Fortunately, I had a salvaged elevator so that is not a big deal to install. But the structure holding the elevator took a severe hit. And then I managed to drop the fuselage so that the vertical took a good hit. That finished off the weak spots. I will glue those back quickly with CA glue. That will hold structure in place and then I will (and have started to) cover over the area with a fibreglass patch.
I have tons of fibreglass picked up at Radio Control swap meet. I got about 10 yards of the stuff. It is like any fabric one would buy at a sewing store, comes about a yard wide. Since I am using pieces about a half a square inch here and there, maybe a patch on the wing splice that is 3 or 4 square inches in area. That means I have maybe 7 or 8 years of supply. And I also picked at a swap meet the epoxy for doing that kind of work. My last buy of that kind of epoxy is almost running out. So I am set up for repairs for quite a while.
I am also getting good at those kinds of patches too. Put a tad bit of epoxy under the area to be patched, lay the fibreglass cloth on top, and spread the remainder of the epoxy the top. Now depending on the bonding of the epoxy to the balsa the patch will be stronger than a glue joint. Sand it a little bit and recover with Monokote. Good as new, well maybe a bit stronger and not so pretty as new.
So I will have this bird back into the air by the weekend. I may put a bigger gas tank in it. I have a host of those from former aircraft.
The engine in this bird is a Magnum four stroke .91 cubic inch engine. It swings a 14 inch prop with a 6 inch pitch. That is referred to as a 14 X 6 prop. That is pretty much the standard for that engine. I may go down to a 13 X 8 prop, roughly the same thrust but gives me more ground clearance for the prop. The engine will turn a bit faster but not much as prop loading is about the same. It has a lot of power.
Now back to work.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Flying Or the Lack Of It . . .
Not getting much Radio Control flying in now days. First it is hot outside and second most of the spring was to windy for me.
Now the air plane will not cooperate. I have some kind of fuel supply problem. I found a bunch of holes in the fuel lines so have replaced them. Next I bought some clips to put over the ends of the fuel lines as they slip on the fuel tank feeders. The feeders are usually brass or aluminum tubes about an eight of an inch in diameter that go through the stopper. The stopper is compressed by a central screw that keeps the tank from leaking.
The set up is fairly simple. There are two lines. One line to feed the engine carburettor and the other is a pressure input line from the muffler. As the engine runs, the pressure tap keeps positive pressure on the fuel in the tank which enhances fuel feed. This pressure line is also the vent line when you pump fuel into the tank, it is the over flow line.
The over flow line is set up so that it is at the highest vertical spot inside the tank. One usually bends the tube to do this. Sometimes I add a piece of fuel line to the end and it rests on the very inside top of the tank. In this case I have done so.
The fuel feed line extends in the tank almost to the rear of the tank and has a weight on it. The weight is called a clunck. It clunks around in the tank and uses gravity to be always at the bottom of the tank where the fuel is.
The fuel feed lines out of the tank are supposed to be set about the height of the carburettor input nipple, if to high, the fuel will siphon out and the engine will be rich. If to low then one has a fuel feed problem. Some engines have no problem sucking up the fuel with the privided tank pressure but newer high performance engines do not have carburettors that have good draft characteristics. They are large diameter carbs for increased performance. So one scarifces the performance of the engine for fuel feed.
I have that problem. The tank is to low. So I have resulted in using a modified pressure system. I put a check valve in the muffler pressure feed line. So only pressure goes in and it builds up in the tank and pushes the fuel up to the engine. That works but it makes the adjustment of the engine very sensitive. So I am going through the cycle of adjusting the engine.
It ain't cooperating. Runs well at idle. Accelerates well in the chocks (actually a table that restrains the airplane). Place on the runway, and start the take off and it gets about a hundred feet and the engine stops running. My thinking is the pressure is too high and I need to crank the high speed needle in some more.
I'll get there - sooner or later.
Now the air plane will not cooperate. I have some kind of fuel supply problem. I found a bunch of holes in the fuel lines so have replaced them. Next I bought some clips to put over the ends of the fuel lines as they slip on the fuel tank feeders. The feeders are usually brass or aluminum tubes about an eight of an inch in diameter that go through the stopper. The stopper is compressed by a central screw that keeps the tank from leaking.
The set up is fairly simple. There are two lines. One line to feed the engine carburettor and the other is a pressure input line from the muffler. As the engine runs, the pressure tap keeps positive pressure on the fuel in the tank which enhances fuel feed. This pressure line is also the vent line when you pump fuel into the tank, it is the over flow line.
The over flow line is set up so that it is at the highest vertical spot inside the tank. One usually bends the tube to do this. Sometimes I add a piece of fuel line to the end and it rests on the very inside top of the tank. In this case I have done so.
The fuel feed line extends in the tank almost to the rear of the tank and has a weight on it. The weight is called a clunck. It clunks around in the tank and uses gravity to be always at the bottom of the tank where the fuel is.
The fuel feed lines out of the tank are supposed to be set about the height of the carburettor input nipple, if to high, the fuel will siphon out and the engine will be rich. If to low then one has a fuel feed problem. Some engines have no problem sucking up the fuel with the privided tank pressure but newer high performance engines do not have carburettors that have good draft characteristics. They are large diameter carbs for increased performance. So one scarifces the performance of the engine for fuel feed.
I have that problem. The tank is to low. So I have resulted in using a modified pressure system. I put a check valve in the muffler pressure feed line. So only pressure goes in and it builds up in the tank and pushes the fuel up to the engine. That works but it makes the adjustment of the engine very sensitive. So I am going through the cycle of adjusting the engine.
It ain't cooperating. Runs well at idle. Accelerates well in the chocks (actually a table that restrains the airplane). Place on the runway, and start the take off and it gets about a hundred feet and the engine stops running. My thinking is the pressure is too high and I need to crank the high speed needle in some more.
I'll get there - sooner or later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)