Dan and Steven rocketeers

Tomorrow is flashpoint and it is always very very important to reherse beforehand.  Tomorrow we are doing water rockets.  So this morning, dug out the gear.  Went to CBC bearings at Archerfield where the very helpful man put up with my PVC conduit and coke bottle on hos counter while we went through his O rings to find the correct size.  Ended up with 16x2 and 17x2.  Then looked across  the road and watched a couple of helicopters take off.  Then home and we have been bombarding the neighbours ever since.  Neighbour Cory very kindly saved me from having to purchasse and consume several lites of coke.

It's about to blow.
But do you think I could catch a shot just as it lifts off?

Helicopter hovering lesson

Wednesday morning I went for my second lesson on hovering.

It is not physically demanding but it requires more concentration than anything else I can think of. The basic process is to pick a point in the distance and keep the helicopter pointing at it. The foot pedals control the yaw. The rotation. They are akin to the steering wheel in the car. The collective controls power. The throttle controls rpm and the cyclic (joystick) controls direction.

But there is a catch. Everything interacts with everything else. I liken it to a car with massive over steer and that pulls dramatically to the right when you accelerate.

I am very impressed with my instructor - Shane. He seems to sense when my concentration is almost sapped and then gets me to 'fly' rather than hover. We will fly back and forth a few times about 20m off the ground. Then try doing that slowly. Then back to hovering. During the briefing last week, he likened it to trying to sit on one of those big gym balls. Bouncy while you are balanced but once you start to roll off, you roll off in style. The helicopter develops a cushion of air under it (ground effect) that is like the ball and if you roll off you know about it real quick and it is scary. yet he seems to be able to recover us before we become a statistic.

OK so back to the how to.
Looking at the city in the distance and the nose starts to move to the right so its a bit of left pedal. That brings it back but oops too much and I am now pointing left of the city. So its some right pedal. Now all the controls massively interact. Left pedal causes the helicopter to loose height so its up with the collective (leading with the throttle). But there is huge lag and before I know it I have way too much of both collective and throttle and we are heading up. Now more power means yaw to the right and tilt up. So we push forward on the cyclic. Not realising yet that we have pushed too far forward and quick more left pedal needed but we already went too far left and now we are going up so down collective. oops forgot the throttle and the engine's red lining. Back off on the throttle. Glance in which gauge. where is that rpm gauge. Look out again and we are looking toward Ipswich. right pedal to turn right (which incidentally is the opposite of a billy cart). Remember I pushed forward on the cyclic. Well too much too long and the nose is pointed at the ground only 20m below. Cripes pull back pull back and now I can see the sun. Actually that's all I can see. beep beep beep under rev alarm.  Push forward . Strewth more throttle collective down a bit just a bit but oops I know that but too much collective up. Left foot, right foot, Father Abraham.... (this may mean something to those with a religeous background) and now we are pointed at Roachdale, City, Mt Gravatt. Luckily I hear Shane say  "I've got control" and in about 1 second we are hovering stationary 10m off the ground.

Then we try again. This time trying lots of really really small but continual movements of the controls especially the pedals and the cyclic. And about 10min from the end of the lesson, I feel, suddenly in my brain a quantum improvement in stability. Maybe my brain is on board after all.

So lets see.
Left pedal - Turns us left but also decreases RPM and altitude.  Compensate with a tiny amount of throttle and collective.
Right pedal - Turns us right.  RPM increases.  Altitude increases.  Compensate with a tiny amount less throttle and collective.
Cyclic controls direction.

It's a religeous world we live in

	I have been doing a canoe guide course with Queensland Canoeing.  There are some people with kayaks.  On the weekend we went out for the practical and the instructor was explaining the equipment. When you tip over in your kayak, you pull on this strap to rip the black cover called a skirt off the kayak. It is called the "Jesus strap".
	And it appears that Helicopters have a "Jesus Nut" and it's not the guy behind the wheel.  I have been learning to fly a schweizer 300 and yesterday I was shown how to do a "daily inspection".  The pointy thing in the middle of the rotors right on top is a nut that holds the whole thing together.  The instructor explained this was called the "Jesus Nut".

It is nice to know these people know in whom to put their faith
:)

Flashpoint SUN 27-NOV-2011 - I give thanks for you

Bible Readings
Isiah 64:1-9 - The almighty Power of God
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 - Restore us
Mark 13:24-37 God is forever
1-COR 1:3-9 - I Give thanks for you

We will go for the Corinthians reading because it is pretty positive and as it happens we made that choice 3 years ago.

THEME = I Give Thanks For You

1-COR 1:3-9

³ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  ⁴ I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. ⁵ For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— ⁶ God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. ⁷ Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸ He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Things I take from this reading and also bear in mind last flashpoint of the year, Christmas is coming. 

Use every 'spiritual gift' - use everything you have while you wait for God.
God has enriched us.
God is faithful to us.
We are called to move into a state of fellowship / friendship? with God.
God has given us much - Jesus


Songs
C3. Creator                                                              (The Lads – photocopy)
D3. Awesome God                                                   (R.Mullins)

D6. Rejoice in the Lord                                            (Praise; Worship Vol D:854)
P1. I Walk By Faith                                                     ( photocopy)
C5. 10, 9, 8, God is Great                                        (Colin Buchanan – photocopy)

 ORDER OF SERVICE
9:20 
Walk over from Church
SONGS                                                      Nick (Song leader), Paul(drum), Bob(Guitar), Sean?(Drum)
 C3. Creator                                                              (The Lads – photocopy)
 D6. Rejoice in the Lord                                            (Praise; Worship Vol D:854)
Prayer - Praise & Thanks, bigness awesomeness greatness....
D3. Awesome God                                                   (R.Mullins)
P1. I Walk By Faith                                                     ( photocopy)
Intro Theme       I Give Thanks For You                                              Frank
Bible Reading  1-COR 1:3-9                           
Story                                                                           Paul
Offering
SONG

C5. 10, 9, 8, God is Great                                        (Colin Buchanan – photocopy)
Prayer - For others and for God's help for us and others.
Memory verse in hall.
Kids were sent last weekend a reminder with the whole years memory verses.
As a big challnge, they get one prize per memory verse they can recite.
(The Colour change pens are worth 2 months.)
Water rocket outside                                                   James & Frank
(As most kids will want to have a go, this can get a bit drawn out.  So we will go outside and watch the water rocket and each kid can have a go.  While we are doing that, other kids can do the memory verse in the hall and then come out and have their go.)

TO DO LIST
Fix water rocket.
Buy some large bottles of coke and drink them in order to get the empty bottles.




 

Whipper Snipper re gifted

I (Frank) arrived home a few days ago to find a brand spanking new whipper snipper in the workshop.  Ian and Fay were visiting and Ian had purchased it for me as an early Christmas present.  Luckily, Chris was away that day at a sleepover at his friend Caelumn's.  So a quick re-gift to Chris and I am once again no longer the owner of a whipper snipper and Chris is making great use of it.

Interesting Thoughts

If everyone had 'slow cookers', we would get rid of the evening peak in the electricity demand.

P1 Ice blocking 2011

 Chris in black

Asus 1005 Reinstall Windows 7 in one partition

The dam netbook caught a virus and even after disinfecting it with AVG, "localhost" would not point to the WAMP server.  The virus had set the browsers to connect via a proxy.  Fixed that.  Wasted time looking for a solution on the net. Went searching on the computer and fixed the hosts file and LMhosts but still no joy.
Gave up.

WIN7 REINSTALL PROCEDURE
1  Find Asus1005 recovery DVD.
2  Place in USB DVD drive and connect to computer
3  Power on, Press F? to get to the bios.  Set DVD drive as the first boot device.
4  "Press any key to boot from CD / DVD" -> Pressed Enter.
    (This was the only time I pressed the key.  It will reboot its self several times during the installation process.  I need to leave the DVD in the drive as it seems to extract drivers etc on subsequent boots but do not press a key in response to this question or the whole boot process starts again"
5   Selected the option to install to partition 1 (Partition 2 has XP on it)
6   Let it go.  Took a while.  Chose Australia, no administrator password, GMT+10
7   Now it has loaded all the drivers and wants me to accept the Trend Micro Security Free trial. -> No
8   Delete Trend
     Start>Control panel>uninstall a program>  Choose Trend.  Click Uninstall. Restart Now.
9  CONNECT TO WIRELESS LAN
     Function F2 turn on wireless.  Click the icon on the bottom right side of the screen.  Enter wep key.
     Trusted work network
     (Gee I wish for the XP version of start>Connect to>show all connections.  It was so much clearer)
10 INSTALL EXPLORER 8
     It wanted to do that and who am I to argue.

11  ANTIVIRUS - Ah better install very early.  This time we will try the microsoft offering.
     Searched for "Microsoft security essentials"  mseinstall.exe  8MB.  Ran, installed, restart.

Oreo comes home from the vet

Oreo got shaved at the vet so that they could cut into his leg to fix the bone.

Chris is off to Canberra

Chris is traveling to Canberra with his school's grade 6-7 excursion to our nations capital.

4:00am rise and shine
5:00am Take photo.  Collect forgotton stuff.
5:15am Depart
5:45am Arrive airport.
5:50am Walk to terminal


Chris (Green) Jai (Pink) Sam (Orange)


6:00am Meet in departure area.  Brisbane air port.

Nick, Marianne, Chris

Oreo Flat Cat

Last night after the street party, Megan drove into the carport and, unseen, Oreo walked under the Vito.  Megan moved forward to park on the driveway so I could put the ute in the carport.  Unfortunately Oreo got under one of the wheels and was squashed.  He screamed and ran off.


6am Saturday morning and I go looking for Oreo and I find him in the front yard.  He is obviously in pain and limping.

8am We take him to the vet.
The vet admits Oreo and we take Chris's boat to the Boy's Brigade regatta.

3pm the vet phones and advises that Oreo has a broken femur and that an operation is required and that will have to wait till Monday.  BTW, to scan the ray, I kept the cover of the scanner open and put a white sheet of paper over the x-ray.  Then experimented with amounts of light hitting the paper.

 The vet advised that we should keep Oreo in a place where he will not jump.  Utilising a shower was recommended.  Megan dried the downstairs shower, furnished it and Oreo moved in.  He was not keen on his new 'digs' and escaped at the first opportunity and has spent the evening lying around on the downstairs floor and on an exercise mat.

The following options appear to exist

Option	Recovery	Risks
Operation	TBD	.
euthanize	0	Extreme Sadness	(This is not really an option)
Do nothing	6 weeks in cage	Infection

Chris Boat - Sea Trials

Saturday we met other Boy's brigade people at York's Hollow.  Never heard of it!!  Neither has google maps.

I think it is part of a drainage system invented by the BCC when they built the Inner City Bypass and closed Gilcrest ave.  The biggest challenge was weeds and water lillies.  We experienced some technical challenges.  Initially chris informed me that the boat sounded wrong.  On its first run, it seemed to loose power and got stuck in some water lillies.  After it was salvaged, a scalple was produced and a section of deck removed to provide access to the connection between the motor and the prop shaft.  It appeared that the glue that holds the flexible coupling had let go of the prop shaft.  Some GAF tape fixed that but still we appeared to have low power.  Further inspection revealed two small screws in the bilge.  These screws had fallen out of the motor assembly.  More cutiing was required to gain sufficient access to reinstall the screws.  We had no locktite so we used some more GAF tape.  Finally the boat was operating properly and chris had a great time driving it around.  It was certinly the most sophisticated boat present on the day.

Sherwood Community Festival 2011

Oxley State School Choir performs outside Woolies.

Megan Conducts.
Dan in blue teeshirt video's it on his i-touch.  (Reminder to self - add link to youtube)

See all those parents.

Jacob (Dan's friend)

Smile Children.

This is the video screen I errected outside St Matthews.  Derek's projection surface.  Uniting Church Poles.  The video projector and laptop are all in the special wooden box.  I also had a VGA-Composite converter to feed a TV infront of the stage and foldback video monitor so those on stage could see too.

Paul and Sam

 That would be "Roar" Community Choir on stage and at the bottom of the picture, the two TV monitors that show the video from the screen.  These are fed from a VGA-Composite converter.  The grey monitor has loop through inputs thus negating the need for a VDA

 Note the "toilet" Sign (middle left).  This is one of 3 promenent toilet signs that I made.