Status update

[Westcliffe01]

I have not viewed or posted in this forum for some time...  Life is full of twists and turns.

In late 2012, early 2013 my ex wife filed for divorce and got me evicted from my house.  The divorce proceedings got drug out over several years, eventually going to trial after it was clear the plaintiff was not going to agree to any settlement.  The ex wife made no mortgage payments while living in the house and basically squatted until a week before the foreclosure sale as due to occur.  Using the house like a credit card, effectively.  The house, and its associated new debt due to default, was awarded to me as part of the settlement. 

The judge stayed the foreclosure sale for a couple of weeks so that I could apply for a loan against my 401K account so that I could settle with the mortgage company.  I ended up having about 25% of my 401k balance seized by the court, since the ex had spent all the money in her own 401K after she got herself purposely fired from the very good job that she had at the local hospital.  She thought that being unemployed or under employed would help her get a better settlement from the court.  I ended up having to pay her spousal support for the next 2 years, in addition to paying what was essentially a double mortgage (regular mortgage payment + repayment of the 401K loan to settle the arrears balance.  This was despite the fact that I paid off about $90k of her pre-marital debt and I honestly forget how much it cost to pay for both her bachelors and masters degrees in nursing, in fact she graduated with her NP license mere weeks prior to the final judgement in the case.

Following this whole mess, I had to renovate my house because of the deliberate damage done to all the flooring and appliances.  I had to acquire new furniture because she seized all the furniture that was left when I was evicted. For 2 years my finances were dominated by the extra payments to the pay off the 401k loan and spousal support.  It took a 3rd year to pay off the last of the 401k loan after spousal support ended.  During much of this time I was assigned to a new factory in Dayton OH, and I commuted on a weekly basis from Michigan to Dayton, leaving on Monday morning at 6am and returning on Friday afternoon by 5-6pm.  So I was only home on weekends.   Finally in 2017 I more or less gave my manager an ultimatum saying that being assigned to a distant facility for 4 years was more than anyone could reasonably expect and that I needed to return to my local office or I would quit.    Fortunately for me, he agreed.

Since 2017 I have courted and married a considerably younger woman who is smart, thrifty and very pretty.  We came up with an economic recovery plan which involved downsizing.  We bought an abandoned home in town for $30k and have extensively renovated it, all on a cash basis.  This coincided with a very strong uptick in home prices in SE Michigan, which had been depressed for nearly 12 years.  Neighboring homes have since sold for up to $130k next to the home we bought for $30k.  So it is likely that we may be able to sell the fixer upper house for a price that would allow us to come close to paying off the mortgage on my original house.  Arriving at the same goal (debt free) just by a different path than what we had anticipated (we were going to sell my original house).   

I have at this stage given up on my plans to move to Colorado.  The state is now becoming a California 2 and is politically dominated by Denver/Boulder and the other front range cities which now have large Federal government worker populations given the EPA offices and data centers for the NSA.  All of the items I had gathered for a life in hay growing Custer County now needed to be disposed of.  I could no longer justify hoarding out my garage with shop tools for an unknown period while my cars stood outside in the snow and ice.  I still want to move out of the state due to the cost of property taxes, the price of car insurance and overall poor future prospects of work on the combustion engine side of the automotive supplier industry.  We have not yet decided on a new location, but considering Tennessee.  I liked Flagstaff AZ but it seems to be too close to California, thus property prices sky high unless you live in the desert with its associated problems.

I just recently bought a small 2 seat airplane and my wife is currently taking lessons.  Now having a hangar I have finally moved my diesel genset to the hangar while I get the garage cleared out... Other than running the generator during a few 1-2 week power outages following ice or wind storms, I have not even touched it...  So much for all those plans...  I do now own a nice multi process inverter welder and one of those fancy low speed cold saws for cutting steel, so with the garage cleared out I do look forward to some slick fabrication projects, including a tiny trailer with integral fuel tank for the Deutz generator.  I did find an open air storage lot that allows people to store vehicles, RV,s and shipping containers, charged by the foot on an annual basis, so I bought a 20 foot container and moved some equipment I really didnt want to sell over there (15" swing lathe, solar panels etc).  Also my 55hp Kubota utility tractor,  In the last year I have gone through somewhat of a vehicle apocalypse.  The clutch on my Subaru Forester went out, which was a pretty major repair job and not long after the engine in my 2008 Ford F250 crapped itself at 120k miles (a familiar story with the Navistar 6.4).   So I am in the process or rebuilding a 2001 Cummins 5.9 which I am fitting a VE injection pump to so that it will be a fully mechanical engine.  That is then going into the F250 together with a custom 1200rpm low stall torque converter.  I might then finally have a reliable truck....

I am looking into a side job of rebuilding VE injection pumps, I currently have a batch of 16 of them that I will be converting from Onan generator style pumps into the sort of pump used on pickup trucks.  I was able to obtain new old stock Onan generator injection pumps for the Cummins 6BT engine running at 1800 rpm.  Many of the internal parts need to be changed for the truck application including the rotary vane feed pump, the cam plate and the hydraulic unit itself and of course the operating levers and governor.  They can also be converted into 4 cylinder or 3 cylinder units by ordering the right parts.  If anyone needs a VE injection pump, let me know, especially if it is for a generator application....

Hope you all are doing well in these uncertain times.
Keith Olivier

[mobile_bob]

Keith

i went through something similar back in '01-'03

having put my ex through a 4 year degree in biz admin, she tried the same stunt
and was asking for me to pay the house payments, her alimony/extortion @ 1000/mo for 10 years
and child support on the one remaining daughter left at home, and she tried to get me to also pay for
a 4 year university degree for our middle daughter.

all told, i think there might have been enough for a big mac each month for me to live on, and that would have been optimistic.

as it turned out the judge saw through her scheme and while giving her the house, he did not make me make the payments, and he only awarded her $400.00 for 5 months for alimony.

she also had to pay me my share of the house equity after one year, or put the thing on the market immediately and get it sold.  which she did.

about 3 years later i got custody of our youngest daughter.

so i have a pretty good idea what you have gone through.

i have since met and married a somewhat younger gal, we just passed 18 years.

funny how things work out,  me ex and i could not have gone 18 minutes without some sort of bitchfest
fight. so far it has been 18 years and we have yet to have our first fight!

nothing better than a good woman, and nothing worse than a bad one either.... and i suppose it works with the other side of the gender thing too.

glad to see your back up and living again.

bob g

[Westcliffe01]

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An example of one of the Onan cummins 5.9 NOS injection pumps.

[Westcliffe01]

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The Arion Lightning that we just bought.  I figure at age 54, if I ever want to do any flying, better get started soon... 

[playdiesel]

Glad yout getting back on your feet. I have 4 buddies that married a nut case first time around, 3 are doing OK, one will likely never fully recover financially. Me, I lucked out and got a keeper the first go around 40 years ago come December.

[Westcliffe01]

Im trying to establish some income streams independent of my automotive job, because I will gave to give that up when leaving MI.  Last winter I had a bad slip and fall and came very close to breaking my hip and its just another reminder that the northern climate is not health friendly.   I was in pain for weeks following that incident.

In addition to the potential injection pump sideline, Im also looking at developing a low cost engine conversion for airplane use.  For now the target engine is the Honda R18 (1.8 4 cylinder found in many models good for 150hp).   Anyone following the situation with general aviation will know that the least expensive 118hp Lycoming is now $37k for the carb and magneto version and it goes up from there.  The Rotax 100hp is about $22k + all of the firewall forward parts to complete the install.  And lead times for engines are now up to a year.   I need a geared reduction drive for the prop, I'm not going to make my own.  I'm waiting for a company by the name of Aeromomentum to finish development of their new gearbox, then I have a source where to buy them...

I got my proof of concept Honda R18 engine for $600 locally with 9000 miles on it from a wrecked Honda HR-V.  I figure $3500 for the reduction drive, then I still need an engine mount, an appropriate controller (I am picking up a very good project done earlier by a professional embedded controls engineer that uses 2 CPU's 2 sets of inputs and outputs and relay logic to switch between the 2 different systems.  The software needs to be changed to support the different timing wheels on the R18 engine compared to the Honda fit 1.5L engine.  and ultimately I want to change the connectors from the DB style to circular millspec type connectors, even if it costs some extra money.

I'm still doing home renovations, replacing my AC evaporator and condensing units is just the latest with a 30 year old house and the kitchen is next...   So I am a lot busier than I like and sometimes I'm not sure which iron to pull out the fire....   Cant take it too seriously....

[Henry W]

Keith, it's been a while. Good to hear your fine. Year ago I've had a couple Corvair engines. I guess years back they were sought after for experimental builds.

Tom Osborne from Central Georgia Generator has been looking into building a kit plane. I think he mentioned sport class? He's been flying and instructing for a number of years. I've learned enough about planes and flying to be dangerous if I ever live long enough to build or buy an ultra-light. If it ever happens, I would definitely get class instruction. Tom opened my eyes and it's best not to jump into an ultra-light and go cold Turkey. That move could be the last.

I've always been fascinated with small single engine planes. I used to go to the airport and go up with my friend that was an instructor. I loved it when he allowed me to take control of the 152 once we were at cruising altitude.

Lycoming and Continental engines are too expensive for most. What is TBO on the engines these days. 1800, 2000 hours?

I like your thinking. Some modern automotive engines have been used in experimental planes and had good success. I dont know anything about the Honda R-18 engine. Would be interesting to learn some of the history of the engine.

I've been reading about Hirth 23 series engine. To bad it too large for part 103 certification.

Henry

[Westcliffe01]

Henry, most of the 2 stroke options are gone today.  Hirth are still around and the new kid is Pollini. Water cooled single cylinder engines with a reduction drive.

If you are considering part 103 consider a Kolb or the 1 place Titan.  The Titan is unique in that it has an aluminium cantilever wing, no struts.  Excellent visibility and easy to get into the cockpit.   

I very nearly bought the bigger Titan 2 seater, it had a 4 cylinder Jabiru engine (80hp) and being a 4 stroke, excellent fuel economy and pretty fast too, 120kt helped by the tandem seating and full enclosure (low drag).  Some pictures attached.  One can get one thus configured (light sport configuration) for about $18k and it will be faster than a C150 or C172.

It just happened that my 4'10" 100lb wife had a 6'2" 190lb instructor who probably wouldnt fit in the back seat too good...

[Westcliffe01]

Frontal pic of the Titan

[Henry W]

A while back I was looking at the Klob and Aerolite 103. I'm not sure if Titan still makes a true part 103 single seater.

By the time I get the cash together to purchase one I'll probably be too old to fly. But it sure would be fun if it ever happens.

[Westcliffe01]

Just buy a used one on Barnstormers....  Much cheaper and much faster too.  There were 2 different 2 seaters that I could have bought under the sport pilot rule for $18 - $20k, one with a 4 cylinder Jabiru and the other with the 6 cylinder 120hp Jabiru engine.   Under $20k is definitely possible.  I think there are more Kolb Firefly's than anything else, but remember the Titan has a fully aluminum cantilever wing.  If buying a fabric covered airplane, remember that re-covering can be very expensive, both the materials and painting.  A lot of the fabric covered planes the fabric is in poor condition.