The Nissan Leaf Gets a New Rear Axle

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Well, I finally have a salvage title for the 2013 Nissan LEAF (Actually I dont have the title yet, but I think they mail it to me. We are far from settled with the insurance company for sure. It has been six months since Angie was rear ended. The following chart shows a very sad and disturbing trend. Insurance companies aren't paying out. It should be criminal. I went shopping for a new rear axle so I can get the car driving again. The rear ended axle was so bent, the car couldn't move. The new one with no connecting bits was over a thousand dollars. The cheapest used ones I could find on ebay were over 500 dollars. I finally scored at a local used parts place for 95 dollars (removed) and with associated bits such as bearings, bushings, parts of the brakes. It took me a concentrated day with cancelled and moved meetings to get the axle replaced and the car running again. The accomplishment felt good. I am now configuring the car with tractor tires and other modifications t...

The station is at or near maximum capacity now. There have still been no trips to the pole and all the folks for the pole are here. It is crowded. You have to plan when you do things to make sure you can get them done such as laundry. I hear that we are getting at least 3 trips to pole tomorrow. That will be good. It has been unseasonably cool at pole. The rule is that the LC-130s don't land when it is colder than -50 F. It has been -60F at the pole all last week. Cool indeed.

Here is a picture of me struggling with the Antarctica climate at Gallager's at McMurdo. It is a non-smoking bar. The folks who tend bar are moonlighters. They have regular station jobs but also tend bar for minimum wage. The other picture is after the halloween party at about 11:30 PM. This is sea ice on the Ross Sea. This ice will break up and ships will come in this area in February. Right now they are landing C-17s LC-130s, Twin Otters and Baslers (turbine powered DC-3s) on the ice runway. The runway will move to Wiley field in a couple of months. Wiley is on the "Permanent" Ice Shelf. It is all pretty impressive especially when you realize we have a Microwave Landing System out there for ultra precision approaches. Better equipment than almost every airport in the US.

I got on the air (40 meters and 20 Meters) a couple of hours ago (0300 UTC). I did not make any contacts. However, 20 sounded like it might be opening up. I am going to go back up there in a little bit and try again. We have established a Ham Radio club. We had our first meeting this morning.

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