Last year, I finally got around to installing a stereo intercom. This allows for music to be played in both headsets during flight, with an audio mute triggered from the radio for ATC etc. I already had a Lightspeed 3G headset which has a direct music source input, and when flying solo I would use that input (which gives slightly better sound quality). However, for trips with a passenger, a stereo intercom was essential for equitable enjoyment (see the saga of the intercom install here).
I was using a CD player to provide music on long trips. However, last November I finally broke down and bought an iPod for use elsewhere. Currently it has close to 5500 tunes loaded, many of which cannot be purchased in any record store. (For more insight into that form of listening, see my music blog...). Now, with that many tunes instantly available, the CD player has been retired.
I tested the iPod connected to my Lightspeed 3G headset on Sunday and it works perfectly. No more CD changing in flight...less to do while sitting upstairs...I will test the iPod connected to the intercom on the weekend trip to New Mexico.
UPDATE - I am now up to 8200 tunes on the iPod, or more correctly on a second iPod...the first 80Gb iPod has been passed to a lady friend of mine for Christmas, and I now have a shiny new 160Gb iPod.

..by aviation engine behaviour. Once upon a time, I experienced a stuck valve which ended up costing me $11000 (ouch!). This was after the engine had not run for 6 months due to work pressures and some niggling squawks which prevented me from doing any flying. After that incident, I have become more circumspect about engine care and check-overs.
So it was that at the weekend, the time came to perform the interval oil change on an engine that had not turned under its own power since December 31st 2006. After hand-propping the engine for 3 complete revolutions, mainly in order to convince myself that a valve was not sticking, I fired up the O-320 in 131JF at 9.00 pm on Sunday evening. The engine started on the second revolution, caught instantly, and immediately ran like a watch.
Of course, if you read the Lycoming Gospels, they probably say that I violated most known rules of engine preservation for 6 months. Yet, the engine seemed perfectly OK. After a period of running at 1000-1100 rpm to warm up the oil, I performed an oil change, put some Marvel Mystery Oil in the crankcase, and went home to start my paid job.

After a number of stops and starts due to work pressures, I finally finished applying 4 coats of Smooth Prime to the newly-installed gear leg fairings last Sunday. These are the fairings that Klaus
Installing the fairings will be documented here in more detail with photos, once I get this blog properly photo-enabled.
Even though I only had to perform a small amount of sanding, it was tedious enough for me to have acquired a much higher level of admiration for people who have sanded an entire plane (not to mention Jesse who after sanding my plane, went on to sand a Cozy IV...).
More finishing work will be required on the gear legs, particularly where the bottom and top parts of the fairing joined. The fairings are supplied as two moulded carbon components for each gear leg. One longer component is for the top part of the gear leg, and the shorter component is for the bottom half. These moulded parts did not fit together well, which required me to cut away some of the inside gear leg moulding and lay up 2 plies of BID over a carved piece of foam to replace it. That area will require some additional filling and sanding before the gear legs can be painted.
At the moment the tops of the gear legs are faired to flow round the fuselage join, but the bottoms of the gear legs are not faired into a smooth junction to the wheelpants. I intend to build up projections from the wheelpants to meet the new gear leg and create a smooth transition from the legs to the wheelpants. The right side wheelpants will also require some more sanding and preparation before they are re-painted. This was the wheelpant that was left in pieces on the runway at Dallas Executive Airport when I touched down with low right-side tire pressure and the wheelpant hit a piece of loose something-or-other on rollout, which tore it off the plane.
This weekend, however, it is time for some flight-testing of the plane, in the form of a trip to Farmington NM to see Bob Holgate, who just purchased a Subaru engine which he intends to fit to a Long-EZ. More news and views of that trip soon.

I have decided to "go for it" big-time on a bunch of plane improvements, with help from Jesse. I have been trying to work out when to do the work, and decided that there is no time like the present. So, starting this week, 131JF is going to acquire:

gear leg fairings
baggage pods
re-painting of the wheelpants, gear legs, prop spinner and underside of the nose
re-painting of the cowlings

I thought about building new cowlings, and adding pontoons to the forward fuselage aft of the canard a la Paul Tackabury, but there is not enough time to make those modifications.
I need the pods because I am going to be spending time in North Carolina this Summer, and I need the utility of the pods to allow for travel with a GIB (Nova Scotia or the Bahamas are possible destinations for a vacation).
I still have to work out how to add cockpit heating via a nose-mounted oil cooler. That is best done in conjunction with building new cowlings, since putting an oil cooler in the nose will most likely mean that the current cooler on the firewall will become redundant, which will allow for the removal of the air outlet in the top cowling, which will in turn improve cylinder cooling since all of the air entering the lower cowling will go through the cylinders, which may mean that the elbow scoops are not needed any more, which may mean that...isn't aerodynamics a wonderful thing?

James and I both work at EDS...or at least we both used to work at EDS. I spoke to James last week, and he has finally tired of life in corporate America. He left EDS 3 weeks ago, and is going to make canard aviation his full-time life's work.
When I spoke to him, he was engaged in mortal combat with a set of baggage pods, as he tried to complete them in time to use them for Sun'n'Fun. Once he vanquishes the pods, he will be working on completing his hangar-mate's Berkut, which was partly built by the late Steve Drybread, then further built (not very correctly) by some of Drybread's people after Steve's untimely death. After that, he will be working on a project that he cannot tell me about (because if he did, he would have to shoot me).
So...his corporation, Berkut Consulting Services LLC, is now a full-time endeavour. I wish him all of the luck in the world. I may have to consult with him about what words to use when you temporarily tire of assembling and fitting a set of baggage pods...