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We could use some substantial rain to fill up the reservoirs.

The little bit of moisture received so far left a sprinkling of snow on the highest mountains.

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I attended a Light Sport Repairman course near Seattle for the purpose of obtaining an airplane inspection rating. This allows Light Sport and Experimental Amateur-built airplane owners to perform and sign off their airplane’s condition inspection. Once you have this rating, you do not need a mechanic anymore to do this.

The course (provided by Rainbow Aviation) has to be approved by the FAA, and it is required to attend it and pass a test to get this rating. It was for beginners, which I am not. But it is a good introduction on what to look for during the inspection. Test test was easy and everyone passed it.

Mount Rainier is in the background.

I also visited the composite shop (Common Fibers) where the first parts of an airplane I designed for my customer in Seattle were built.

They can machine the molds or plugs for small production runs.

Some carbon fiber parts, work in progress.

The surface finish is excellent.

An example of a layup mold. They can use wet layup, resin infusion or prepreg, as required.

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Finally caught up with a lot of work, I can enjoy a morning flight in the foot hills in Caro 1.

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I have returned home after the fire was essentially extinguished. Fortunately the fire was stopped 4 mi from the Calaveras airport after a major effort from the firefighters. My hometown was also spared.

The Davis / University airport was my home for a week, and I want to thank the flight school “Flying Farmers” for their hospitality and help.

There I met the owner of this cool Aeroprakt AP-32 and we went flying together. With full span flaperons, it can fly very slow, and the visibility from the cockpit is great. One can almost look straight down. It has the most headroom of any LSA I know, even very tall people fit in it.

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