Saturdee fun

Well, my plans to take flight in the mighty Champ this morning did not come to fruition. CPJ and I headed to Bob White Airfield this morning and prepared to take the Champ out for some exercise one lat time before her annual maintenance inspection scheduled for Monday.

When the fuel valve was opened some fuel started leaking from a device called a Gascolator in the engine compartment. This is a sort of crude fuel filter/examination device which is installed at a low point in the fuel system, below the fuel tank. It traps any water and fuel contaminants that may accumulate so it can be drained.

Anyway, CPJ used a thumbscrew on the Gascolator to tighten up the sealing gasket and this greatly diminished the leaking fuel. However, a wee bit of fuel seepage persisted. We took this as a sign that we should not fly but rather wait until after the Champ undergoes her full annual inspection on Monday.

So I headed home and worked on the even mightier Moto Guzzi Breva for a while. She has 19,150 miles on the clock since I got her in mid December 2006. I have a few bits of maintenance to perform before I leave for California in less than 3 weeks. So, I set the valve clearances and checked/adjusted the Throttle position sensor (TPS) voltage. The Breva was close to spec on all counts with just some minor tweaking required. Have a look at these plugs (click to enlarge). PERHAPS showing signs of running a bit too lean, but the flash of the camera makes them appear slightly whiter than they actually are. I think they look dang good!!

New co-piloting footwear

As I continue to take to the air in the mighty 46 Aeronca Champ with Champ Pilot Jim (CPJ), I am gradually being allowed to actually control, the plane a little bit in flight. This requires controlling the wing ailerons and the elevators in the tail area via the control stick. It also requires controlling the rudder of the plane with my feet.

The rudder controls from the back seat are not easy to manipulate if you have big feet and big shoes. So I could at least try to control the big shoes part (I take a size 12) by buying shoes which are as narrow as possible.

So.....off to Kohl's I go! I found a pretty nerdy pair of shoes which appear to be track (running) shoes but they are very narrow! Perfect for executing rudder control in the Champ!

I will report tomorrow as to how they work since I get to fly in the a.m.






If I ever get my pilot license and fly on my own, it would likely be in something like a Cessna 150 (below).

Luke battles the lawnmower....

My brother Luke apparently got into a good scrap with a lawnmower the other day. It appears the lawnmower won.....

Selling my Griso

I have put my 2006 Moto Guzzi Griso up for sale. There are a couple reasons for this. First, I just do not have the time to ride two bikes and I like my bikes to get ridden. My Breva gets the bulk of the riding time. Second, I have developed an interest in flight and I just cannot afford two bikes AND be able to pursue the flight interest.

So, if you know of anyone interested in the Griso, gimme a holler!

2006 Moto Guzzi Griso
Excellent condition cosmetically and mechanically
~4200 miles
Tires both have good mileage left in them
Engine oil, gearbox and rear drive fluids just changed

Back from Savannah

The baton has been passed from the Guzzi Florida folk to Guzzi South Carolina folk. About 12:20 today Jim and Lesley Casey and I arrived in Savannah, GA to meet Tony (screamday) and two of this Guzzi riding brethren (George and Joe?...my memory is bad). Great guys!

We started out in Daytona this morning at 6:15. We stopped in St Augustine along the way for some pics and also at Atlantic Moto Sports in Jacksonville to visit long time Guzzi dealer Kirt Lynch.

Pretty long day as I just got home at 7:15 p.m. 540 more miles on the Breva and she performed perfectly. Fuel mileage was great as well at 45 mpg on the first tankful and 48 mpg on the second tankful!!

Heading to Savannah, Georgia

As I type this (Sunday evening ~ 7:00 p.m.) the antique Moto Guzzi flywheel is on it's way from Miami, FL to Cocoa Beach, FL. There it will be transferred at ~ 9:30 tonight. After that transfer it will head further north where I anticipate picking it up somewhere between 11:00 p.m. and midnight tonight.

Tomorrow a.m. I will leave at around 5:45 a.m. and head north to Daytona where I will meet a couple folks and the flywheel will continue it's journey north. I expect to stop a couple times along the way for some photo opportunities and make it to Savannah (near the SC border) at about noon.

In Savannah I will meet up with the next group and transfer the flywheel to them then head back home to Deland. Should be a fun, exciting and full day of riding tomorrow. :)

Saturdeeeeee

Fun Saturday planned....I am riding up to St Augustine with a couple chums to the Riding Into History motorcycle event. Last night I went to the airport and CPJ and I throughly washed the mighty Champ. More pics n such later today....gotta ride!!!

*****UPDATE*****



Here's a link to some pics of the mighty Champ I took Friday night after Champ Pilot Jim (CPJ) and I gave it a good warshing. By the way, I defeated CPJ in our XM radio name that band contest 4-3!! YEAH!!!

CHAMP PICS!!


Below is a link to lots of pictures from my visit to the Riding into History motorcycle show in St. Augustine, FL. What a great show!

CYCLE SHOW PICS!

National Moto Guzzi Relay

I am involved in the National Moto Guzzi Relay. This is an event that started back in March I guess.

The idea behind this is to relay a "baton" (in the form of a flywheel from a vintage 1950's era Moto Guzzi) from state to state all around the country. The flywheel must be transported on a Moto Guzzi.

The flywheel started off in Malibu, CA (site of the National Moto Guzzi Rally in late June) and has made it along through the southern states and is now in Florida.

Sometime later this weekend or early next week looks to be my turn to take the flywheel north out of Florida into maybe South Carolina. The goal is to get the flywheel back to Malibu in time for the National Rally on June 24th.

Anyway, kind of a neat event. You can follow the progress at the Guzzi Relay website (clicky)

Hoofin' 4 Loot wins again!

Our team in the Fiserv pedometer contest won again! After being waaay down early on in the 8 week walking contest, we forged ahead with a strong late run and took first place again.

Each of our team members won a TomTom XL 100 GPS unit. Nice little unit! I sold mine to a fella in my department since I already have a GPS.

New gauges for the Breva

Today I am installing an entirely new gauge set on the Guzzi Breva. The set that came with the bike started to develop a fogging condition so Guzzi sent me a whole new set under warranty :=)

Well, that did not take long! Here are some pics of the installation. Boy oh boy those new gauges do look pretty!!!

MORE PICS HERE (clicky clicky)

Champ propping duties

This morning I headed over to Bob White Airfield with my friends the Steadmans...Andrew, his wife Jayne and their daughter Alex.

Andrew, Jayne and Alex all went up for 20 minutes rides with CPJ in the mighty Champ. I got to practice my propping skills as I got to prop-start the Champ 3 times today! Woohoo!

Another night of Champ flight!

I had another great night of flight with Champ pilot Jim in his 1946 Aeronca Champ tonight. Man what a blast!! Here's a video of a "touch and go". This is at a neighboring airfield and it is where you come in for a landing, touch down and then power up again and take flight without stopping. CPJ executed it to perfection.