McBlog – Page 18 – The latest news & views

Learning to sew…

Spent some time on Saturday with Darren from TroubleChute Rigging learning how to make repairs to parachute/balloon material. Basically, it involves using an industrial strength sewing machine, strong materials, lots of measuring/marking/cutting and some funky ways of folding bits of material around other bits. The end result is a strong patch that covers the area where rips/burns/etc were made in the fabric.

To say that my first one was a dog’s breakfast is being kinda nasty to dog food. The second one, though, was pretty good and, although not up to Darren’s high standards, would have passed inspection if done as a real balloon repair. It’s a good start but there’s still so much more to learn.

This is all part of my studies towards my Maintenance Authority for balloons, an official certification from CASA that will allow me to make, and sign-off on, repairs to balloons. More on that in another posting.

Some Fast, Some Slow

Amazing how two days so close together can be so radically different. Two days ago, things appear to be cruising along for me but Andrew’s laptop frags itself, the c2o server gets a crazy failure and crashes and a tram breaks down, causing massive inconvenience. At the end of the day I’m wondering where that cruisy feeling went.

Then yesterday I’m racing around taking Nykolai to stay with friends, picking up a new laptop for Bill and getting it ready to go (installed, configured, setup for him and handed over), sorting out computer issues at Crumpler and getting Andrew’s laptop working again (without loss of data).

Wound up handing over Andrew’s laptop in a carpark near where we both work and on the way to a focus group meeting I was part of.

Two days ago, cruisy but things going wrong. Yesterday, flat out hectic but successful. Who knows what fun today will bring :)

It’s all gone to the birds

Had a very crazy time this afternoon – we went to help Andrew and JC select a few birds for their new house – it’s got an enormous aviary near the pool and JC suggested that Nykolai might like to come and help them. We arrived and checked out the place then headed off to Vic Markets where we fought through the ambling crowds to get some great food for lunch and then went to a pet store to seek out birds.

While Nykolai was busy chatting up the staff, I checked out the mice but, sadly, there were no females available. Hopefully we can find some new ones soon as our current pair are coming up on 1.5 years (life expectancy is usually 1.5 to 2 years).

They did have some *very* cute female rats and one of the staff had an enormous cream male draped over her shoulders (he was hiding in her long hair). Guess we can think about upgrading to rats in another couple of years.

JC and Nykolai had decided that a pair of lovebirds and a pair of quails. Staff took a while to eventually isolate a pair of lovebirds, moving birds from cage to cage until a pair was eventually located. Once all four birds were in boxes, we returned to the house to start the next part of the epic adventure – preparing the aviary.

The aviary appeared to have been used previously to house large birds, like Cockatoos or Parrots. This meant there were holes, gaps and overlaps that lovebirds, apparently being veritable escape artists, would exploit to leave the area.

A bunch of us descended on the house and began work within the aviary, leading to many calls of “See the wildlife within the cages” and “Ugly looking beasts, aren’t they!” After a number of hours of fiddling, cursing, nailing, cable-tying and self-destruction via tiny bits of sharp, annoying wire, we had managed to seal off a section of the aviary and the new occupants were released, with much squarking, confusion and racing about the place. They eventually settled down and began to get on with life.

After a refreshing beer, we took our leave. As far as I know, the birds are all fine and enjoying their new space.

Wouldn’t you like to fly…

One of the benefits of working with Balloon Sunrise is that occasionally you get a chance to go up and fly over Melbourne in a balloon. If there’s a spare place on board, we try to get a crew member that’s not working to have a go. In addition to being a bonus for the crew, it’s also good for them to see what it’s like up there.

My turn came around again today – what a hoot! We flew from a set of ovals in Kensington to Moorabbin airport. A great flight and lots of fun.

I managed to get a few photos and will load them on the site soon(ish).

Another Tae Kwon Do Grading

Nykolai and I both passed our latest Tae Kwon Do grading and are now “Yellow Belt, Three Stripes.” Next grading is at the end of the year and we can go for our blue belts. John (our instructor at Prahran TKD) thinks Nykolai may need to skip a grading as he needs a bit of time to consolidate before going to Blue. Not sure if I’ll be ready but I’m planning to do a weekly adult class as well as Nykolai’s kids/adult class so maybe I’ll be ready… :)

Car is back

I’ve had the car back for about two weeks now and it’s so good to have wheels once again (even if petrol has sky-rocketed up to AU$1.30 a litre). Fortunately the RX-7 only needs regular unleaded petrol, not super-high-octane stuff – that’s saving me about $0.10 per litre :) Repairs wound up costing $2.5k, not … Continue reading “Car is back”

Repairs wound up costing $2.5k, not the $3k+ I was expecting, so that’s even more of a bonus. Plus they replaced the water pump which died during testing – good timing, eh? :)

I’m still taking public transport about one or two days per week, despite living on the worst train line in Melbourne (most delays, cancellations and late-running trains of all the lines – joy!) I’m also still cycling into the balloons in the morning (good for exercise, not just saving the car for “real” runs, etc :)

Lots of entries to catch up on here – been slack, yes I know. Photos to load, stories to tell and major overhaul on the Fly Me Friendly section but no idea when I’ll get around to all this.

Have you ever blown a seal?

Got the news yesterday – the seals are blown on the front rotor of the RX-7. Bugger. Will cost around $3k to fix as it involves pulling the motor apart, fixing what needs to be done inside and putting it all back together again. Similar concept to stuffed rings on a piston in a “normal” … Continue reading “Have you ever blown a seal?”

I have great luck with vehicles, no? :)

A replacement 12A engine will cost about $1,500 plus about $500 to install, so it’s cheaper but then you don’t know when that motor will stuff up. At least if they pull apart the current one and fix it, it’s going to last (yeah, right :)

Greg from Holdies did some calling around and found a turbo charged, fuel injected 12A motor for $1,600 – bit tempting but it’d cost another $800 or so to install it and change the rest of the systems to work with it. Then you’d still wonder how long it’d last (has a 6 month warranty which is a plus).

Decided that I’ll go ahead and get it fixed so I called Brad at Rank Rotaries and he’s going to pull it apart, figure what’s wrong with it and give me a better quote to get it all sorted out.

Could be a couple of very lean months coming up…

I must be crazy!

I’ve stepped back to part time at the AWU – still doing geek work with them but now mostly afternoons. This gives me more time to get my shit together and do some consulting here and there. I’m also working more with the balloons in the morning (as will eventually be documented over in the Fly me Friendly section of this site – one day :)

Of course, it means a bit of a drop in income but it’s good for my headspace…

Poor as Dirt

Camper English, one of the crazy party club kids from my days back in Boston, has turned his ability to party hard while spending as little as possible into a book called Party Like a Rock Star, Even When You’re as Poor as Dirt. In his words, he’s thrilled to have turned a lifestyle of … Continue reading “Poor as Dirt”

Camper English, one of the crazy party club kids from my days back in Boston, has turned his ability to party hard while spending as little as possible into a book called Party Like a Rock Star, Even When You’re as Poor as Dirt. In his words, he’s thrilled to have turned a lifestyle of partying into a lifestyle guide on partying. I can now write off the last 20 years of drinking, dancing, and deviance as “research.”

Go Camper! :)

Car Still Sick

Still no joy with the car – got more parts (leads, rotor and distributor cap) but they had no effect. Took the air filter off and did what checking I could around the carby but nope – nothing obvious. It’s now well out of my depth, so I’ll just have to wait until I get … Continue reading “Car Still Sick”

Damn :(