A few Weeks ago I sold my CX2 and that posed an interesting problem. I had acquired an Mcx and was using the Blade's LP5DSM to fly it so I had to find a new DSM2 Tx to fly my Mcx. I went over to the trader forums and picked up a nice used DX5e for a sweet price. The thing I like the best is that unlike the LP5DSM the rudder has less breakout force than the throttle allowing you to smoothly use the rudder without changing the throttle even a little bit.

HT

Last week we returned from our vacation along the California and Oregon coasts. The weather was perfect and the sun was out every day with no rain. We stayed in Brookings,OR, and did lots of hiking, kite flying and bike riding. Best of all we took a jet boat tour up the Rouge River but sadly I forgot to grab my camera out of the motorhome when we left for the day.

Well this weekend I crashed my parkjet AGAIN. Seeing as how this is only my seccond airplane and before this I had no aileron experience I am very proud of myself and not so sad about the continual crashing.

But anyway here's what happened, the field I fly at, you have to face the sun to fly in the evening (mistake no.1) I thought if I went late enough I would be ok (mistake no.2) Now the sun was just below the trees and it was getting a tad dark, more like dusk though as it wasn't really getting dark. Here's mistake no. 3, I flew it smack dab in front of the super brilliantly bright sun and WHAM I got disoriented, as I was a tad blinded. while I was stunned it flew THROUGH a tree with a spectacular crunch, and once it popped out the other side, major control issues were present by the time I got "control" I was WAY out over a housing tract and freaking out. I BARELY got it back and just crashed it into the field as If I messed up the landing, I'd be back to where if I crashed, I could do some real damage. I know I shouldn't have given up, but I wasn't going to risk it.

I am going to repair and retire this model except if I am going to fly it at a proper club field.

HT

Today was the Downtown Car Show. There we cars from the local area as well as some from a few hours away. All the cars we clean and spotless, except for the Jeep hill climbers. Plus my driving instructor was there with his '72 De Tomaso Pantera. This isn't just a nice cruiser, he actually races this car all over the western US. Also my friends Chevy was there. It is now a bright and shiny red, but not too long ago is was a blazing purple!

Here are some more road trip pictures that I took last week when we went to Tuscon,AZ.

HT

Last week we went on a LONG road trip to Tuscon,AZ. Along the way we saw plenty of interesting things such as really big trucks on I-5, Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, windmills, an RC car track, puffy clouds in Palm Springs, airplanes and huge cranes in Phoenix and finally the desert in Tuscon. We stayed at a golf resort and the condo we had was huge. Over the week we went to the National park, the Sonoran Desert Museum(way more fun than it sounds), and the Pima Air and Space Museum. I took tons of photos, I'll post the rest later but here are the highlights,

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This weekend the sun was out and it was about 70 degrees, today I woke up to snow! Overall we got a inch or so, but it was enough to make everything white and wet. Our Labrador loved it, she went wild the moment we let her out, and just had a blast. I really love the snow so I was pleasantly surprised too.

HT

A while back, my Dad and I fixed our blasting cabinet. Instead of using chemical paint stripper, I was now able to blast all my parts with glass beads, which not only works way better, but also looks a lot nicer too. It leaves them bright and shiny, instead of dull and somewhat greasy.

If you want to see what they looked like before, a couple post back in my blog I showed the control sticks and on the seccond page of my blog, I showed a couple pictures of my rudder pedals.

HT

Earlier this week I acquired a non flyable Blade MCX. Over the course of the week I have fixed it and it is flying great. So far, after about almost 2 years of CX2 flying, I have had more fun with my MCX in the 3 days I have had it than I really have ever had with my CX2! It is so much more stable and PRECISE. I really would never have believed the hype had I not flown one myself. But here is the catch that I couldn't believe, this ultra stable, tiny indoor flier, with all it easiness to fly, has improved my flying!

I flew my CX2 today and It was just amazing how even though it was harder to fly than my MCX, I was way more smooth, much more in control and I could actually do a decent nose in hover! I was so amazed I couldn't believe it.The biggest thing I found in that flying the MCX is that it is just so fun to fly. It is small enough to fly anywhere but still big enough to have an imposing presence in the air. This is now by far my favorite RC model I own.



HT

In a trade with a fellow RCG member I have acquired a BNF Blade MCX. When it arrived it would not fly at all, it had some major issues. After much fiddling and a little luck I have gotten it so it will fly. It still needs much tweaking to fly well but I have it so I can hover and do a tad moving around but it still is a little unstable. I really can't wait until I get this all worked out because this little helicopter looks like it is going to be a sweet flier!

HT

I was bored so I took some pictures.
It was dark and raining outside so I tried to keep busy by taking some pictures. I really couldn't find too much to take pictures of inside so I thought I could show you some of my stuff sitting on my shelves in my room.

Not much really, but I figured it would make for a semi-interesting blog post.

Lately I was cruising around Flickr.com and I found this guy's photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/madphysicist/sets/

I was so inspired I decided to give it a try. I spent about ten hours and a lot of brain power on this model. It isn't perfect by any means but for not having played with Legos in a long time I think I did alright.

The tail rotor was my favorite part of the build because there were so many ways I could have done it. I tried at least five different ways but I eventually settled on this version which looked the best. The cockpit was my least favorite because it was very tricky to get it to look realistic but not be downright ugly.

This past Saturday my friend took me and my dad to his friends warehouse full of WW2 Airplane parts. Most of his collection is of T-6/SNJ stuff but he had parts/wrecks of P-47's,P-51's including an A model, Spitfires, and he even has has a real SE5A minus an engine as the only ones he has been able to locate are on display and the owners are unwilling to part with them. He literally has TONS of parts, if you think it might have been on a T-6, he had at least one of them.

Our main goal was to get a majority of his warehouse clean so he could start building another SNJ. After 6 hours we probably had a third of it all tucked away, but there was still a lot to be done.

For all our work, my friend got a center section with the addition of a right wing to work on, and I received a set of T-6 control sticks, one for the front cockpit and one for the rear.

The sad part was, that if the weather had been better, it was foggy all day, he would have taken us for a ride in "his" SNJ. It really belongs to the Commemorative Air Force, but since he heads the chapter, he gets to baby sit if for them....Continue Reading

Double Post

Ok, I have a few things to post, because it has been a while.

First I RE-maidened my Steve Shumate F\A-18 and It flew beautify and crashed well too. You can read about it here at post #4267
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...59325&page=285

Secondly, The other day I was cruising around the sailplane forums here on RCG thinking, I really should buy a sailplane kit. Then it dawned on me I had one started down in the garage so I went and spent some time sanding the wing and then covering it. I had every thing covered except the wing so I had a go at it. It is the wing to a Carl Goldberg Electra.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Calaveras Big Trees for our annual visit. It was a little cold but when you were in the sun it wasn't bad at all. We picnicked for lunch and took lots of photos between my mom with her Nikon, my brother with his new DSLR Canon, me with my brothers old Digital Canon Rebel, and my sister with her Olympus. Every time you looked around someone was taking a picture. After our lunch, my brothers and I had fun jumping over stumps, fallen trees, picnic tables and running on the sides of the logs. It was a long day, but I think we all had a lot of fun.

I finished my FA-18 designed by Jetset44,
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=359325

I finished it up this morning, and got the controls working and moving in the right directions, and am now working on some final touching up and painting.

Hopefully I will/can fly it tomorrow, but the weather here right now is overcast and threatening to rain, but at least it isn't foggy anymore.

HT

This weekend there was a fly in and static show up at my local airport.
There were quite a few airplanes and surprisingly even some RC ones too.
Even with the stiff breeze, there were about 5 airplanes ranging from new Beechcraft and composite Diamond aircraft to some old Cessna tail draggers offering rides. Some lucky person even won a ride in the Calstar (California Shock Trauma Air Rescue) Bo-105.

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Since I live less than 45minutes from some of the best skiing in California, I have the pleasure of owning some snowboards.
Actually the K2 board is one I just picked up last weekend. And best of all, I only paid $15 for it! I was taking my dog for a walk and I saw this little yard sale tucked away on a side street and I walked over thinking it was going to be some old lady stuff, but there was actually some pretty neat stuff, including 3 almost new snowboards. I mean besides some scratches and some annoying stickers, which I promptly removed, this board was a steal! Once I waxed it, and tuned the edges, oh man, I really can't wait. And even better, tomorrow I am going to pick up some, believe it or not, K2 bindings from my friend for $20.

The Silence board, an el cheapo, on sale for $98 snowboard, is surprisingly a really nice board! Last season I tested it thoroughly and it is one of the best I have ridden,even against some Burton boards. Those bindings on it may look heavy and they are, that is a solid hunk of metal on it but boy are they solid. but after at least 3-4 years they still look brand new.

The K2 is a 149 Fatbob and the Silence board is a 159 City model

I may not ride the best stuff, but for a $35 complete setup like my K2, it sure beats my friends boards which alone cost 10X what I pay for a board binding package.

Cheers,
HT

Well today we went to the air races in Reno, and despite coming back a little crispy, I think we all had a great time.

Some of the photos are a little blurry, but my little 4 megapixel point and shoot type camera did superbly for what I was trying to do. None of the photos are edited except for some which are cropped to cut out people/heads/feet/hats/fences/other airplanes, all the annoying bits that can ruin a picture.

As a side note out in the Jet class pit area, there was a pilot who also had a big 4 engined RC model and he wasn't flying it but just running it around demonstrating it to all those who took notice.

Over all it was FANTASTIC, I know I went over board on the pictures but oh well,

Cheers,
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