September 2015 Media
12 September 2015 Notes from Miyazaki, Nippon (Japan). Douga to shashin wa shita desu.
(Last update 17 September 2015 from Ilsan, Korea.)
Thumbnails of interior elements are provided below. Click on a thumbnail to see the media. Portrait oriented media generally loads sideways, alas. As before, though I understand the cause, I can't resolve that problem now due to time constraints. Nor is time available to thoroughly distill the array to a smaller set of just the best images, sorry... There's no 001.jpg file - it was a poor quality and redundant image so I deleted it.
A movie is included as indicated by its mp4 suffix. It's a very large 437.5 MB file. If you wish to watch it please download it to your local storage media first, then run the downloaded file with an application which can play movies. That'll conserve Internet bandwidth should you decide to view the movie more than once. Such conservation is particularly important with large movie files, and also for the AirplaneHome.com site in general because its server is provided without charge by a friend who must pay for excessive bandwidth consumption. Please help keep this relationship tenable by avoiding waste of Internet bandwidth.
The background music is courtesy of ever so charming Yuko Pomily-san, a cherished friend whom I consider a superb young artist, and whose music I absolutely adore and savor very frequently. The songs are from her second CD which I very heartily recommend of course, along with her two others. If you'd like to purchase any of her CDs but can't locate a retailer or distributor, please contact me - I'll try to arrange a purchase for you.
(We hope to provide a "Concert on a Wing" event at my 727 home within about a year. If so, it'll be simple and informal - it'll probably primarily be a logistics exploration effort for a larger ambition later rather than a thoroughly executed effort. A more compelling concert awaits a bigger stage...)
All the media below was very hastily captured under dark conditions at a time when a technical problem rendered my aircraft's main cabin lights inoperable. I plan to correct that problem soon, then, perhaps in early October, capture new images and a movie during daylight hours. Thus the image and movie quality level should be back to normal in my next posts.
The aircraft's interior has advanced a bit:
Both aft lavatory toilets are now fully functional, but hot water still needs to be connected to the wash basins (cold is connected), a light fixture in the right aft lavatory repaired, and the mirror light fixtures in both aft lavatories need to be converted from florescent to LED based illumination. Some wall or door panel structures and their color treatment need to be repaired or refined as well.
In the course of restoration and conversion of the right aft lavatory toilet plumbing a far more elegant architecture was devised utilizing PEX polyethylene pipes, their associated brass couplings, and compression type clamps. I found the result so appealing that I dismantled the left lavatory's toilet plumbing from its original conversion and replaced it with the new method. I have some images of the new plumbing but failed to include them in the set below, sorry. I'll try to rectify that oversight later if time permits...
The annular rinse ring for the right aft lavatory toilet required tenacious removal of debris just as the left one did years ago, a roughly five hour stint of very awkward work with my head often lowered part way into the toilet bowl so I could finesse the cleaning wire repeatedly through the annular ring holes. That wasn't fun, but it's thoroughly clean and fully functional now. However, the forward lavatory, which might require the same effort, awaits...
I also rebuilt the left aft lavatory's pneumatic flush timer because it became intermittent. That turned into a far more time and energy consuming task than I anticipated, though the results are sound and it's been reliable since. However, I won't repeat that effort - ultimately I'll replace the original Boeing pneumatic flush timers with custom designed electronic circuits which should be far more reliable and provide extra functionality such as repeaters so the toilets can be set to automatically flush themselves on a regular cycle as set by a variable control (such as every 20 minutes for example) to prevent plumbing system freezing during deep winter weather.
Numerous additional cabin window panels have been mounted, and some of the original cabin florescent light fixtures have been removed, and methods to cover their portion of the bare area underneath are being explored as you can see in a few of the images. The same conversion will be performed for the rest of the cabin later.
Some new cabin de-cluttering work was accomplished - numerous old personal belongings were discarded and some 727 components were moved to the aft cargo bay, which is now over-packed with material.
I installed custom designed and fabricated precision current regulated LED arrays in the cockpit's three red and three white primary overhead light fixtures, replacing the previous bayonet based LED lamps which were comparatively less bright and less efficient. That was a significant project (about three days total), but I'm very pleased with the results. I repeated the process with a similar though expanded custom design for the red left wing tip position light fixtures, making them far brighter, and partially completed the same work for the green right wing tip position light fixtures (five separate LED arrays await final fabrication for the left wing tip position light fixtures). The wing tip LED arrays were embellished with permanent digital displays of the voltage on their main bus, so now it's trivially easy to check the health of those buses by simply peering at their voltage monitors through the clear acrylic wing tip covers.
I'll replace both the upper and lower red anti-collision beacons, which are now xenon strobe light based, with LED beacons modestly similar to the style used on the Boeing 787 - they'll flash at a 1 Hz frequency with a 50% duty cycle, meaning they'll be on for 500 mS, then off for 500 mS, repeating indefinitely. This will provide more compelling beacons, resolve the xenon flash tube's annoying life limit problem, and conserve electrical power. I have all the necessary materials, including robust (for better heat dissipation) mirror quality polished stainless steel bowls which will serve as the heat dissipating mounting surface for the individual LEDs, and expect to complete this task before the end of 2015 (and hopefully much sooner).
I also upgraded, twice, a 14 Vdc (more precisely 13.62 Vdc) power converter in the electronics bay which powers numerous illumination and other systems in the aircraft on what was originally a primary 28 Vdc electrical bus which I converted years earlier to a 13.62 Vdc bus. (Boeing would refer to it as a 14 Vdc bus, but others commonly refer to it as a 12 Vdc bus. But in fact it's a 13.62 Vdc bus under battery fully charged operating conditions to match the charge maintenance requirements of legacy lead acid batteries.) The original power converter, which failed during a media production due to overload, alas, was replaced with a new power converter with much greater power capacity. However, that power converter suffered an infant failure so I then replaced it with yet another new power converter, an only slightly different model, which has been reliable thus far. However, it's electrical conversion efficiency, particularly at low power levels, is significantly lower than the second power converter for reasons unknown. So I'll attempt to repair the second power converter and reinstall it if time permits, or consider trying yet another new one (they're rather inexpensive).
I also cleaned and reorganized all the cables in a central equipment and wiring alcove which was left in badly damaged and very chaotic condition by the salvage work of almost 16 years ago. And, in the same alcove, I located the connections for a few isolated banks of the main cabin lights and rerouted them to the power bus for the main cabin lights. So now all banks of the main cabin lights are wired to the same power bus, so when the cabin lights are turned on every bank illuminates.
Exterior work included fabrication of a simple structure rendered from surplus computer room floor tiles which provides stair like access to the top of the right wing tip. The same tiles were also used to fabricate a simple porch over the turf the air stairs rest upon when extended, plus an elongated landing surface for the aft drain mast which disperses the gray water which exits that mast so no soil erosion occurs. In addition to functional benefits, these simple improvements significantly enhanced the visual appeal of the grounds.
Additional substantial de-cluttering work occurred in the three gray storage vans located behind the right wing and in front of the aircraft. The two vans in front now contain only a modest amount of material to be recycled or given away. And the vans themselves are ready to be disposed of. My hope is that they'll be acquired by a friend as soon as possible. If that proves impractical, they'll be sold or given away by other means so as to clear the area to help beautify the aircraft's surroundings. However, if both aren't taken by a friend soon, the south one may be cut into two sections, with the shorter roughly three meter section moved to a position under the left wing stub to facilitate support of the aircraft during construction of a permanent left landing gear pillar (with a bowl shaped top). I'm eager to complete these tasks before wet winter weather arrives. If possible...
The third van, located behind the right wing, has been cleared of most material which was obsolete or unlikely to ever be utilized and thus is significantly lighter. I plan to move the entire van to a new location near the west border of my property where it'll be essentially out of sight of the aircraft, immersed in mature Douglas Fir trees. This will be a big task since, even though significantly lighter now, the van is still massive and thus nontrivial to move. An old truck trailer will probably be required, and material will likely be cleared from the van in preparation for the move, then material moved back into the van after the move. (A material swap will likely be involved at that time - personal domestic items will probably be moved into my aircraft, and currently unused aircraft components then moved into the van.) The van will likely permanently remain on whatever wheel structure is utilized in part to provide improved earthquake resistance, but also to facilitate any future repositioning which might be desired. Although success seems unlikely, I hope to complete this task before winter weather arrives too.
Once all three vans are out of sight of the aircraft, the grounds will look much cleaner and far more appealing. But further beautification will occur later with completion of the very long delayed permanent landing gear pillar construction work, mounting of the left wing's inboard flaps, restructuring of the water well system (the current external pressure tank will be replaced with a new pressure tank located inside the aircraft, in the aft cargo bay), and further aircraft restoration work. I'm very eager to complete all this work of course, but they're substantial tasks with minimal funding (because Airplane Home v2.0 has funding priority), so patience is required. But once complete the grounds should look thoroughly clean and natural, and thus the aircraft itself should look far more elegant and appealing. If my current pace can be maintained, these tasks might be complete within about two years. But I can't promise such a schedule of course...
The most attentive of you may have noticed from the images below or my text above that the right wing's inboard flaps have been mounted, no small achievement in my modest world. Many thanks to good friends, including Mark, Jason, and Abigail without whom the task would have been impossible. (Jason and Abigail, among the most charming, intelligent, and admirable of my many inspiring visitors, volunteered hard sweat labor in the course of their visit, providing both the brains and the brawn required to mount the very heavy outboard flap track for the right wing's inboard flaps.) This task isn't quite complete - a reassembly sequencing mistake necessitates extension of these flaps, some repositioning work, then a final retraction. But that should be relatively easy - probably no more than a one day task. In the meantime these flaps are mounted and mostly retracted, making the right wing's useable area larger, safer, and visually more appealing. And of course the grounds behind the right wing, now free of the flap components, are safer and look more attractive too.
We won't mount the left wing's inboard flaps until the permanent left landing gear support pillar is complete. The inboard flaps are quite heavy, so mounting the left wing's inboard flaps now would complicate the construction of the left support pillar.
Returning to interior work, the initial working model of a well water based climate control system was built and is crudely operational. My well water is always 13 ¡C irrespective of the season or weather. So it provides a very economical medium to sink or source heat. In the current assembly the well water circulates through an old Mazda RX-7 aluminum radiator with a box fan simply strapped to its aft side. Upon exit the water is simply dumped overboard (currently simply through a condensation drain valve, but later through a drain mast). The system cools or heats the cabin air toward the 13 ¡C temperature of the well water. Obviously during cold weather an adjunct heat pump or other ancillary heating will be required. But during hot weather no additional cooling equipment will be required if the well water based system provides sufficient capacity.
The initial working model's box fan is a substantial limiting factor - it can't force enough air through the radiator to make the system sufficiently effective. But I have a far higher capacity squirrel cage fan which I'll install as soon as practical. When the system seems sufficiently useful I'll add automatic electronic thermostat control (the components are already on hand).
Though it's been sooooo long, shower stall construction still hasn't begun even though the materials are in the forward cabin and construction should be relatively quick and easy. In large measure because exterior work was my primary focus for the first half of 2015. But eventually a real shower stall will be built. It'll be rather large, connecting to the wall of the right aft lavatory and the cabin windows from that wall to the right aft service door.
A great deal of additional work, both associated with my 727 and the grounds, and other materials and matters, was accomplished in the first half of 2015 too - it was a very productive period. But it was also a long period of absence from my dear friends and loved ones in Miyazaki, and Miyazaki itself, and thus uncomfortable at times. That's not likely to be repeated in the second half of 2015.
Though it's a significant nuisance, I'll continue to try to keep as much mass as far aft and right as possible until permanent landing pillars are constructed for the left main and nose gear.
As usual my last will, revoking all previous versions, is appended to the side of my refrigerator. Please honor only that document after I draw my last breath. (A task which won't require attention anytime soon I hope.)
The front of the refrigerator is still adorned with popular Nihon-jin (Japanese) actress and occasional product pitch gal Arimura Kasumi-san, who will remain there for the foreseeable future.
The futon sofa, which I recently repaired, easily flattens to a bed suitable for two (or is comfortable for one in sofa position as shown). Many thanks to a very dear friend for her excellent taste and a truly delightful day of shopping. And so much more...
A personal note:
It's been over five years since my GIST cancer surgery. No hint of recurrence has appeared in my twice yearly ECT and MRI scans, so my medication regime is over - I'm free of its stress, and feel better as a result. But I'll continue to be watched carefully by my absolutely superb Miyazaki surgeon and his absolutely superb team, a regime which includes enhanced CT or MRI scans every six months for the rest of my reasonably healthy life. Continued life is a great gift and no small miracle of science and civilization, both of which exist here in Miyazaki in abundance. And I'm genuinely happy from the heart...
A revised version of these notes is on a public catalog page of media at 2015ExteriorMediaCatalog.html.
O genki de ite kudasai (Go in health and, by implication, happiness), Bruce
Copyright 8 July 2015, Howard Bruce Campbell, AirplaneHome.com.
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