Liz came with me today for my flight lesson.  When we arrived at the airport the weather looked fair, but I could see on the METAR that airports to the west of us were IFR (Insterment Flight Rules) only.  By the time we had gone over the day's lesson, the airport had gone IFR.  We looked at the METAR and visibility had dropped to 2 miles, but we still had a 3,000 foot ceiling.  So we tried requesting a special VFR clearance from the tower to practice some touch-and-go landings.  However the situation had become worse, and the ceiling had dropped to 500 feet.  There was nothing we could do—we need a ceiling (no clouds below) of at least 1,800 feet.  Below that we might go through a cloud (and be briefly blind) during landing, and since we are using Visual Flight Rules (VFR) not being able to see is a bad thing.  Having only 2 miles of visibility isn't all that bad if you are only flying a circle around the airport.  So if that had been the only problem we could have received a special clearance.

   Did some cleaning in the sleeping box today as it had been awhile since it has been vacuumed out.  It is very dark in the box (by design) and I decided that installing some cleaning illumination might be a good idea.  I had two light fixtures left over from the Cedar Rapids box, and as it turns out enough cord on them to install them in my box here.  I placed them at opposite ends of the box and they do pretty good for providing elimination for cleaning purposes. 
   While I was at it I also decided to install the flat panel heater.  I won't need it until it starts getting cold, but at least the mounting is out of the way.  One of the things I needed to do with the heater was remove the operating lights—not much of a point sealing the box up to light only to bring in light emitting devices.  Also added some chalk in places I had missed during the widening.  There was a strap along the back wall I had put duct tape along because I had not chalked it.  Since that is an air flow source and I want the air to be drawn from the front, chalking it will force the exhaust fan to draw air in from the front of the box.
   Unlike my Cedar Rapids box, this box has a blower mounted in the box that draws air out.  My Cedar Rapids box had the blower outside the box and forced air into the box.  I am of the opinion that forcing the air in is a better system.  First of all the blower fan is outside the box reducing the noise.  Secondly the Cedar Rapids box forced air down across the heater from the rear of the box.  This brought in cool outside air, moved it over the heater and forced the warm air forward making it very comfortable.  I may have to consider redoing the ventilation come winter.
   Pictured is looking down to the end of the box.  In the center you can see the heater, and to the right is the blower fan.  To the left is the outlet used by the blower.  The bedding has not yet been returned so there are just the memory foam pads I use as a mattress.  They are so comfortable that no one ever wants to get out once they get in.

   My flight lesson today was with stalls.  My flight instructor said it would be alright if I had people come along for a ride, and when I mentioned this to the Garage Crowd everyone wanted a turn.  I recommended they skip today because we were going to do stalls, but upon hearing this James insisted this be the day he went up.  So James and Maggie came along for this flight and took pictures and video.
   The winds were 10 knots out of the south with gusts up to 13 knots.  I expected and received clearance for runway 18.  This is an asphalt runway, and a little skinnier then most of the others.  I fount right away the plane handled a little different with 4 people inside.  While the nose came up at the speed I expected we didn't lift off the runway immediately.
   Once in the air we flew just south west of Orfordville and the stall training began.  I was surprised on the slow stalls how quickly it happened.  The stall horn sounded and I left the plane naturalize.  We tried it a couple times, but my reactions were not as automatic as I would have liked.  We then actually put the airplane into a stall letting it shake.  Then it was much more natural to do the correction as soon as the event took place.  The plane—not being stable at all—wanted to yaw.  Then it started to shake.  When this happens it's very natural to want to react.
   The take-off stalls were harder to make happen.  My instructor had me slow the plane down to around 65 knots, then max throttle and a heavy climb.  This time the yaw was really noticeable as the plane became unstable, and when it was time to correct you really wanted to correct.
    After the stalls we did 2 touch-and-goes before coming in for a full landing.  James and Maggie survived although Maggie said there were a few moments were she was holding onto James.
   Picture by James.

   Steve and Jenna at Ren. Faire.

   Went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire today, and this time I worked on my outfit.  We arrived about 11:30 am and left at 7:00pm which surprised me because we went with my 7-year-old goddaughter, and I wasn't expecting her to want to stay that long. 
   Picture by Steve D.  The reason the picture is cut out is that we waited until we were in the parking lot to take the shot, and I had a sea of cars behind me.

   Poor Corey was rear-ended by an undercover officer last night as he was about to turn onto our street.  The officer was typing on his laptop and didn't slow down at all—full speed collision.  Corey is alright, but now the trunk of his car looks kind of like an accordion.

   Went on a dump run to get rid of the old refrigerator, door, sink, and mountains of trash.  After that Steve and I went to Madison to visit Xiphos, and drop off his truck.  I had lent him my car and the battery had died on him.  He had to leave it at the store and walk home.  So I ended up having to buy a new battery.  The one I bought was just a little short.  To compensate we added the first piece of junk we could find—an ice scrapper—and that filled the gap.