{"id":9309,"date":"2015-09-07T22:24:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T21:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=9309"},"modified":"2015-09-07T22:32:42","modified_gmt":"2015-09-07T21:32:42","slug":"decision-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/decision-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weather forecast gets better and better this week right up to Sunday when the temperature could be back up at 30 degrees, but with the possibility of thunderstorms. So I’ll fit in a flight at some time between now and then and with that in mind, I thought I’d go across to Galinat today and adjust the new brake cables that I fitted a couple of weeks or so ago. They’ve now bedded in and when I last flew, I found that I couldn’t press the toe brake pedals far enough to hold the aircraft at takeoff power and although this isn’t too big a problem at Galinat with its nice long runway, it would matter should I fly into somewhere with less grass to play with.<\/p>\n

The job didn’t take very long as it was really only a matter of loosening the bolts gripping the cables at the hub ends, pulling a bit more cable through and then tightening them again, but what struck me was how chilly it was while I was doing it. I was working in the shade of the trees, but to start off with I had to put a long-sleeve top on, so summer really is petering out!<\/p>\n

Afterwards I took a few shots showing Galinat as it is now, a few days after I finished mowing it. To be honest, it was looking pretty seedy before, covered as it was in stringy weeds. To my knowledge, we haven’t had that many visitors flying in this year and this could have something to do with it, so I hope that the work I did will be worth it and encourage a few more to drop in.<\/p>\n

I did it the way I think that it should be done and not totally as it was before. The main difference is that I’ve expanded the cut area at the top end on both sides of the runway so if a few aircraft land at the same time, there’s room for the ones that have already landed and taxied to the top to pull across to the right to clear the runway. Then, when they’ve all landed, I’ve made a large parking area that was never there before, on the other side of the runway, and you can see both of these in the following two pics.<\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just for now, because the grass was so long before I cut it and I’ve only had the time to do one pass of its length, I’ve cut a length of about 150 metres much shorter at the take off end to make it easier for aircraft taking off to reach takeoff speed a bit quicker, and you can see that in the next shot.<\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s not very clear in the next shot, but I’ve also cut an area in front of 56NE that’s connected to the cut area at the top of the runway so I can taxy across and back on short grass. I haven’t yet cleared the area where I park 56NE which has become a bit overgrown in the weeks since I last did it, so I’ll have to go back again with my ‘d\u00e9broussailleuse’ (brush cutter) and give it another good going over.<\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This will then present me with a bit of a dilemma, although I’ve already decided what I’m going to do. As the next two shots show, because the airfield hasn’t been getting the attention that it really needs for the last few months, it’s become generally pretty overgrown. This is especially visible in the hangar area, as the next two shots show.<\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s such a shame to see Galinat in its current state, so clearly something needs to be done. The only aircraft now in the hangar is Andr\u00e9’s Ball\u00e9rit but at 91 years of age with failing eyesight, it’s doubtful that he’ll ever fly again. This explains why the hangar doors have remained unopened for so long. Clearly he’s in no physical state to tackle the physical work involved in tidying the place up and for some reason, Christian has been unable to do very much this year. The result is that Galinat is looking a pale shadow of its former self.<\/p>\n

So I’ve decided that in the next few days, when I take my d\u00e9broussailleuse over to clear 56NE’s parking place, I’ll do what’s necessary to give the whole airfield a bit of a tidy up. And in the coming weeks, now that I’ve got my new ride-on mower, I’ll also keep the runway trimmed and tidy too. The current small, tatty windsock is pretty hopeless, but I’ve already donated a new one so it’s just a matter of waiting for Christian to fit it, but I think that he’s probably leaving that until next season, after the coming winter winds. So if I keep the place looking good and under control in the meantime, when he does put it up, hopefully Galinat will be right back to its former glory and, who knows, possibly even better \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

I had a quick lunch when I got back home again and then sat out in the sun for a while as it seemed a shame to miss it now the summer is drawing to a close. But I thought that unless I stirred myself, I’ll never get cracking on my new tool store, so then got going and cleared all of the wood and branches that were hanging over the area that I’ve got earmarked for it from the surrounding trees.<\/p>\n

I want the tool store to look as though it’s standing in a small clearing in a wood as not only will this effectively screen it, but it’ll also look more appropriate for my garden. Here are three shots taken afterwards from the front and each side of what will be its position.<\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"null\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve got my second builder coming in tomorrow morning to look at the building work I want to do on my house. Once he’s been and gone, then I really will get my old togs on and do some real work on the tool store. I promise!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather forecast gets better and better this week right up to Sunday when the temperature could be back up at 30 degrees, but with the possibility of thunderstorms. So I’ll fit in a flight at some time between now and then and with that in mind, I thought I’d go across to Galinat today … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9309"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9337,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9309\/revisions\/9337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}