Chronic's Research and Aeronautics Project (C.R.A.P.)

[TheChronicOne]

Right, you both are!! I did consider the moral implications briefly then decided I wouldn't lose any sleep what so ever and hell I might even be responsible for kicking in some over-time pay or something. I imagine them people are happy just to be working right now. Millions of people are out of work either temporarily or permanently.

[zenrat]

When they trim the trees around the power lines down our street the trees fellers often knock on the door to tell us which ones they are trimming and to ask if we want any others done while they are there (free of charge to us - the council is paying for their time), and to see if we want any free mulch.  They don't sell the mulch (it's not of commercial quality - often having rather large branches in it) but are charged to get rid of it at the tip and so would rather give it away.
When they have to bring down a larger bough they chop it up into lengths and leave them on the nature strip (verge/roadside) for collection.  However most get purloined for firewood before collection occurs.

[NARSES2]

You would appear to have an eminently sensible set of contractors mate  Over here they would be totally bogged down by red tape and health and safety.

[TheChronicOne]

That's awesome. I imagine it goes down like that sometimes here, as well. I remember once my pops told me that he had them cut down a few things that weren't on the schedule. This time around no one asked me anything and I even walked right past them and said hello.   


I tell ya... if they don't come mulch this stuff up soon I'm going to wind up adding to it again. I could drive my truck around the backyard and stand on it to reach yet another tier of things to be trimmed. 

In other news... I've finally gotten the computer hooked up. I still have things to do like cord management and final placement (then silly things like making the lights on the keyboard the colors I want, etc.) but I got right into DCS World and been flying a Frogfoot. Crashed the damn thing on taxi at one point but learned how to turn it on, get the engines running, close the canopy, extend and retract flaps and gear, trim it whilst in flight, work various modes of the auto pilot.... and.... fly it (throttle, etc.)  Having problems with navigation, however.... and been lost a few times. Got REALLY lost during a night flight and had to give up.... never did find the airport and the colors of some of the needles changed to all red when I turn on the instrument lights (whereas they are yellow and white respectively during daytime flying). That totally messed me up.

[Nick]

Wish I could have done the same with the trees I cut down this year.

Only last week the neighbours had a tree removal firm take over our driveway while they sorted a very large shrub in their garden. Noisy but the whole thing got taken down.
And then on Saturday Mum decided we needed to take down an big branch in our garden. If she'd said so last week I wouldn't be faced with the hassle of cutting said 18ft tree trunk into pieces short enough for the car 

All the minor branches and leaves go into the green recycling bin so that is no issue. One year I took down a short willow tree approx. 6ft high by trimming all the branches into the wheelie bin (totally filled it) and just had the trunk and root to dispose of.

[TheChronicOne]

Ha!!!    We're spirit brothers or something.  That malformed timing is very familiar.  I swear it seems like sometimes people are oblivious to the things happening around them.  The day after you haul a ton of stuff to the dump, "Oh, we need to throw this away. Take it to the dump."   Why didn't you say something yesterday when I was literally already there? 

[Pellson]

Wish I could have done the same with the trees I cut down this year.

Only last week the neighbours had a tree removal firm take over our driveway while they sorted a very large shrub in their garden. Noisy but the whole thing got taken down.
And then on Saturday Mum decided we needed to take down an big branch in our garden. If she'd said so last week I wouldn't be faced with the hassle of cutting said 18ft tree trunk into pieces short enough for the car 

All the minor branches and leaves go into the green recycling bin so that is no issue. One year I took down a short willow tree approx. 6ft high by trimming all the branches into the wheelie bin (totally filled it) and just had the trunk and root to dispose of.

I have found that not having to rent trailers etc for all of these unplanned/badly timed/dirty transports actually pays the extra running costs of my old Defender vs a boring std car.. 

[TheChronicOne]

Updates! Back to work on the MiG-8. Fuselage is together but the rear end of it didn't want to close together fully without mad clampage and this caused one half to dip and throw off the shape. I decided to just break it off and position it properly and just fix it all up smooth again in PSR. If I don't get this area correctly, the propeller and stuff back there might be crooked and we can't be having that. Anyway.... I'll fix that today and try to get the wings on.

Found out one major problem of why I couldn't navigate in the night flight training thing I'm doing on DCS world. Turns out I was using my instruments pretty good and actually was flying right past the damned airfield (well, I would always be about 100 meters left of the runway but that's close enough normally)......  turns out... the airport didn't have the runway lights on. No wonder I couldn't find it! It's pitch black and raining and stormy and cloudy and I'm trying to land on a runway that is basically invisible. Google to the rescue... the tutorial completely fails to mention having to contact ATC and tell them you're inbound. I figured out how to do that and .... voila... the turned on the runway lights and I was able to land finally. I'm doing weapons training now. CCIP yesterday (dive bombing) and we're moving into more complicated crap today.

[TheChronicOne]

Last night I made it through the training missions in DCS world. Took about a week to get through it all. I still have a few grey areas here and there on weapons systems (damn, talk about tedious) but I'm at the point where I can fire 'er up, become airborne, navigate, communicate, destroy things, yadda yadda yadda. I figure a few more hours of just playing around and re-inforcing what I've learned will help then maybe I can get into some campaigns.

Model stuff is moving along nicely.... the Duck is a proper airplane now and soon I'll have the imperfections smoothed out and the main gear on then it's time to paint!



In other news, I stopped at a store called "Ollie's" and it's basically an overstock and "we're selling the crap you couldn't" store and they have a ton of spray paint for good prices! Problem is a lot of it is oddball colors and having oddball applications (you know, like, marker paint, chalk pain, weird types of primer, etc). But, by golly, I might go back when I have more time so I can dig through it all and get a bunch. This time around I found these things. Galvanizing paint....    curious! Can't wait to see what it looks like on a model.

Can says, "Tru galv silver plus is a sacrificial coating that inhibits rust and corrosion to ferrous metals. An excellent touchup for repair of  galvanized substrates, this dry coating has the bright finish of hot-dip galvanized coating." 



At $2 a can, why not?


Also.... it's been awhile since I did any funnies, so here's a model building meme:




Welcome to hell! 

[zenrat]

Finish might be a bit rough with that galv paint.  It's intended to protect not look decorative.  Might be OK though and as you say, $2.

[NARSES2]

Finish might be a bit rough with that galv paint.  It's intended to protect not look decorative.  Might be OK though and as you say, $2.

Totally agree. Plus I'd try it out on a sacrificial lamb first in order to see if there's any nasty reaction with the plastic.

Also.... it's been awhile since I did any funnies, so here's a model building meme:




Welcome to hell! 

Looks very much in the style of The Farside, one of my all time favourite cartoon series.

[TheChronicOne]

Judging on things like galvanized nails, it's definitely a possibility. Speaking of.... I stepped on one of them damn things abount a month ago and it punctured the bottom of my foot! Hurt like hell. 


Anyway....  I tell ya what, we'll run an expirment today. I just happen to have a bunch of white plastic spoons so I'll spray one up and see what happens!



OH WAIT, I found this rather amusing. The side of the can lists applications:   "Automotive, Damaged galvanized surfaces, Refineries, Highway maintenance, Fences, Nuclear facilities, Gutters, Transmission towers, Bridges, Structural steel, Marine, Wrought iron, Power plants, Farm equipment."   lmao   That's a hell of a spread and imagine some dude standing there spray painting the side of a nuclear reactor some thing.

[TheChronicOne]

Well, here we are! This stuff is pretty neat but wouldn't work well on 99% of aircraft..... BUT.......     this stuff would be great on armor! Mud splatter or some such..... paint over it to get the color right, etc.



I'm going to have to go back to Ollie's and see what other interesting rattle cans I can find.

[NARSES2]

OH WAIT, I found this rather amusing. The side of the can lists applications:   "Automotive, Damaged galvanized surfaces, Refineries, Highway maintenance, Fences, Nuclear facilities, Gutters, Transmission towers, Bridges, Structural steel, Marine, Wrought iron, Power plants, Farm equipment."   lmao   That's a hell of a spread and imagine some dude standing there spray painting the side of a nuclear reactor some thing.

I now have this image of some firm having spent billions of dollars constructing a nuclear power plant sending some guy down to Ollies so as to save a couple of dollars on paint costs  . And if I'm honest it wouldn't surprise me if it had actually happened 

[TheChronicOne]

Yeah! I can understand a road sign but a nuke plant?  Like....  I think they would remove the failed part and have it properly re-galvanized and reinstalled instead of Joe the Flunkie spraying it down with a rattle can. Pretty funny stuff....

Put some sprue goo on the wing seams on the Duck yesterday. I gotta get that sanded smooth but once I do I can get the main gear on and prime this bad boy. Then we be painting.