False River -the Lake . . .

False River, an ox-bow lake along the Mississippi River is located in Pointe Coupee Parish and the county seat, New Roads, resides on its banks.  The lake was formed when the Mississippi closed the loop and cut through a new channel cutting the lake.  This cut off was discovered around 1700 when Bienville was exploring the Mississippi River.  The name "Pointe Coupee" literally means cut off.  A quick Internet search on Pointe Coupee will reveal the location and lots of information on the locality.

The lake today is several miles from the Mississippi River and is a stand alone body of water.  It is about 20 miles long and while its width varies is about a mile wide.  The lake is part and parcel of the parish drainage system and so when it rains the water generally flows into the lake.  Around 1904 Bayou Cirie was cleared and the lake drain excess water off via that tributary.  Today there is drainage canal with a weir and it flows into Bayou Grosse Tete.

The lake is kept generally at an elevation just below 16 feet sea level.  The weir sets the level and there are flood gates that can lower the lake further if needed.  A weir is a low level dam of sorts, so it allows excess water to overflow out, keeping the lake around 15.9 feet above sea level or as the locals say above the Gulf of Mexico.  The lake is located about 200 miles from the Gulf of Mexico as the crow flies and gives you an idea of how low and flat Louisiana really is.

The recent deluge rains as result of a tropical disturbance, once a hurricane, flooded the region.  True East Baton Rouge Parish, across the river and east and slightly south of Pointe Coupee Parish. got the brunt of the rains but Pointe Coupe got perhaps 15 or 16 inches of rain.

With hours False River began to rise and went to roughly 22 feet about sea level.  That is a six foot rise of a large body of water that mostly occurred over night.  The entire region is flooded and the run off is occurring all over the place.  Water may have even flowed back into the lake from Bayou Grosse Tete.  So one has to wait for the bayou to drain off, and the drain off goes into the Great Atchafalaya Swamp south of the region.  So it takes while as Bayou Grosse Tete, small river of sorts drains a large area, has a lot of water to move.  And False River is at the top of that elevation, almost the source of Bayou Grosse Tete today.  That makes False River the last place to drain off.

The family owns a camp, a nice three bedroom manufactured home on the lake.  It is on about an acre of land with a frontage that is a little over three hundred feet across.  Today it is one of the larger plots on the whole lake, most all the other areas have been subdivided and subdivided again to narrow 60 foot or so lots.  We all use the camp and the family share the expenses on upkeep.  So we are very protective of the place at all times.

Fortunately we have flood insurance and while the camp came with in inches of flooding, water did get underneath the structure and there is some damage but nothing like many others have suffered.  There are literally thousands of folks that are worse off than we are so we are sort of low priority but we will make sure the place is restored back to its normal self.  So I expect it will take a while before we can use it again.  And when we return we will all have our work cut out for us.

So we, as a family, were on the edge of the cusp but not totally in it.  Our furniture, appliances, etc. survived with no damage.  But we will have to fight mold and mildew and gradually watch the water receded to the normal elevation.  And it will smell to high heaven for a while as there is a ton of new rotting detritus all over the place.

I did not mention it, the lake was about to be lowered for ecological repairs.  Farm run off has silted up the lake and parts of it are to be dredged.  The project has already gone though one stage with a new island man made at the south end of the lake.  So more work was going to be done to reduce the inflow of silt and the changing of the water levels every so many years is good for the fish population.  So now the lake has to go from 22 feet down to 13 or so feet instead of the normal 15.9 feet, that will take a while to do.  That is 9 feet or so of water, that is many thousands of acre feet of water that has to be removed from the lake via normal drainage routes.  Those routes are inundated and will be for more than a month, it will take a while.

So we watch and we wait.

I Got The Tool . . .

I got the tool, a special screw driver used to adjust modern 2 cycle carburetors used in weed eaters, blowers, etc.  The typical carb has two adjustments, one for the high speed jet and one for idle.  I do not mean the idle setting which is a throttle adjustment, I mean the jet on the carb itself.

The carbs come factory set at as lean a position as they can get the engine to run.  They put the unusual screw heads on to keep the layman from adjusting the needles and the over all performance of the engine.  It is an EPA thing and a scheme to sell ever increasing numbers of weed eater power heads.

The new, normal engine runs fast okay but does not accelerate and sometimes will not idle very well.  The high speed is most noticeable in that the engine tends to stall when accelerated from the idle position to full throttle.  That kills the engine and results in a cranking situation.  This is hard on the starting mechanism, the pull cord and wears it our prematurely.  And it is very frustrating when you  keep trying to keep the engine running.

So I broke down and ordered the screwdrivers on Amazon.  There were maybe four or five ads for them in various prices ranging from about $4.5 to as much as $12 for a set of four.  I got the set of  four for about $6 and since I had some credits on Amazon, I actually got them free.  The set of four are for four different end caps on the adjustment needles.

I received them in just a couple of days and promptly began adjusting the high speed needle on the carb.  It took about three days of adjusting but now it runs like a top.  Yes, it does consume more fuel but runs dead reliable now.  No stalling on acceleration, none of that crap at all.

I also took the time to properly set the spark plug gap and that also made a difference too in starting operation.  So now the weed eater starts much easier and runs better.

I am sure the special end caps were designed to prevent the novice from screwing around with the carb settings and to make the user go to a shop to get the engine properly adjusted.  Both are set up to make us either discard the weed eaters prematurely or to result in paying a mechanic to do a good engine set up for you.

Was a time when you could readily get parts, have a user's manuals that really said something on how to take care of the weed eater, etc.  It is all designed now to make you, the user, go to another level to get things repaired and fixed.  They even make it hard to find parts breakdown illustrations to be able to order parts.  The dealers at the local level delight in the additional business but the smart etail guy provides the information and the "how to" to get parts.

Anyway the weed eater is running much better now that it is properly adjusted.  We use it to edge, to blow as well as a string trimmer.  I even have a tiller head that I can use.  There used to be a tree saw but I never got that tool.  Over the years I have gone through perhaps six power heads.  I have noticed that they have gotten cheaper in construction and more common amongst all the different brand names.  Gotten to the point it is no longer feasible to repair an old one, just go buy a new one, it is cheaper than getting a repair shop to fix the old one.  And the manufacturers do not seem to care, especially since they are making more and more of them as replacements.

Denton Swap Meet . . .

There are normally three swap meets I go to.  They all deal with radio control, almost all airplane stuff.  The swap meet is a time that enthusiasts get rid of stuff usually a deep discounts.  So it is a good place to shop around.  There was one at Denton this weekend.

With the on set of electric motors, fueled engines are on the decline.  Manufacturers have generally moved away for glow fueled engines though several of the big name manufactures continue albeit with fewer engines offered for sale.  So the swap meet was replete with lots of used airplanes and engines primarily designed for methanol fuel engines.  Yes, there was a lot of new electric stuff floating around but I was selective and did not pay much attention to them.

The swap meets also provide an outlet for dealers to sell.  Several are known to be and it is always fun to greet them and see what is hot in the market so to speak.  The dealers are also selling on a cash basis and most discount their stock and there is not such thing as sales taxes though I am sure the dealers end up paying the tax to the state anyway.  So there is that little 8.25% discount and the opportunity to bargain a little bit.  I managed to spend $5 on a Y connector that I needed.

So one always needs something and that is the place to get it.  In my case I was looking for a flyable airplane and found one.  Yes, it was quite old but in great condition.  The servos were ancient and the engine has been out of production for probably 20 years, in fact I am sure it is rather old technology but quite functional.  There was no battery or receiver.  One usually puts his own receiver in as there are now so many different conventions on frequency hopping 2.4 Gigahertz systems one has to match his own transmitter.  Batteries on the other hand, die with age and are sometimes moved forward to new applications.  So one gets the airframe, engine, servos which are all somewhat generic.  And of course, the owners labor that went in to assemble the airplane, perhaps even build the airframe.

So I had to scrap up a battery of which I have several floating around.  I charge it up see if if will hold a charge, etc.  And I have to install a receiver.  Then I have to check the weight an balance of the airplane, my battery may be heavier and so one has to check those things.  And once powered up one has to check to see if those old servos are working and that there are no obvious defects.

In this case, I had to use a heat gun to tighten up the covering.  The covering is heat sensitive and generally relaxes over time.  The covering adds some strength to the wings and there was a couple of small dents.  So the heat retightens thing up and takes some of the hangar rash out (storage dings etc.)

I have to run the engine to make sure things are okay.  It is a K&B, an old name though still made by an independent fellow out in California.  He buys brand names, the rights, the drawings, old parts and so on so he keeps the engines alive and going.  This model engine is still available new from him.

I suspect the engine is a old lapped port engine, not a modern ABC engine.  ABC is simpler and more powerful.  However, the power is sufficient for this size airplane, so I do not need a new or more powerful engine to fly it.  I may in time swap out the engine but not for now as I enjoy getting them to run again.  I have some engines that have never been run sitting in boxes ready to be used.

So by Wednesday I will have her ready to go.  It should be fun to fly. 

Oh, yes one final thing.  I got the airplane for $60.  I probably save several hundred dollars and many hours of assembly work.  One man's junk is another man's treasure!