Not just the hobby. When we first came out here in 85 from Michigan via N.Y., I decided to paint a bathroom. I wanted an oil based paint as that was what I use in both Mich and NY. Well I got a gallon and painted the bath. It was almost two weeks before we could touch any of the paint without leaving finger prints. I complained to the pain store and was told "welcome to CA, we can''t sell any of the ''good stuff'' you were used to back east".

The only way to get dope here is to go to an aircraft supply and buy it by the gallon. One of our guys is quite a scale builder and he was complaining about some of his plastic work coming unglued while in the hanger. His complaint was that you couldn''t get any plastic cement with MEK in it. You can go to the hardware store and buy it by the gallon though.

I''ve thought about a weekend in Reno to pick up paint, but the axulary cost are to high.[8D]

We were out here in 75 for a year tempory assignment. We were in San Jose and I remember one day seeing Mt Hamilton. That was the only day in almost a year that it was visible because of the smog. Today, there are maybe a dozen days a year that you can''t see it because of the smog. The air is cleaner. We are spoiled here on the central coast though as we almost always have an onshore wind of clean air. Brown skies are never seen here.

I guess waiting for a couple days for paint or varnish to dry is a small price to pay for year around flying.

Don