Like the inductrix before it, I think the brushes are shot in the SC28.

Not much on the rc front this year.

kid[0] got tours of DCA and PCT.

We got a dog.

It occurs to me that I failed to write a recap for 2022. Despite three loved ones passing away in the last three years, 2022 was a turning point personally. The health and wellness journey continues.

As threatened, I modified the SC28 to take a 1s lipo. Split it, excised the stock battery, and drilled a hole to reroute the leads to the top.
Sadly, the 4 pack of cells had self-discharged and died of neglect in the two years since I bought them. Picked up a couple of new ones and a WhoopStor so I could properly charge them for storage in the future.

The lipo conversion of the stampede was uneventful; Turnigy 2s 4000 mAh dropped right in. 11yo enjoyed driving it, even with it governed at 50%.

I finally unboxed the umx timber and was happy to discover that it mostly worked with the tx from my blade nano s2, albeit without flaps. The 11yo will be flying that soon. I was also happy to discover that its lipos had not died. Hooked ye olde cellpro 10s to my trusty ATX power supply and brought them up to a storage charge. I flew the blade nano s2 just for old time's sake.

The 11yo also wanted to drive the stampede, but we discovered that the 7 cell nimh was kaput. That will need to be replaced with a lipo. We dug out the mini-t instead and charged that up, and off he went. I also remembered that the cellpro could charge through the balance taps, so we did that for the second run.

The SC28 is still going strong and the 6yo quickly learned to drive it. I am tempted to modify it so we can swap batteries.

It was great seeing both kids driving their respective rc cars and having fun together.

My older son soloed the umx sport cub s2 today. Envelope protection helped with the wind. He'll be ready for the umx turbo timber soon.

My older son got a little stick time with the umx whipit a few days ago, but conditions were less than ideal. We had a better opportunity with the umx radian, and he successfully soloed it from launch to landing. He'd been practicing a little with the "absolute" rc sim on the ipad; no control reversal issues and managed not to let it get away from him.

Urge to scratchbuild... rising.

Kid must have whacked the buggy pretty good, since it tore the servo out of its mount. Added washers to prevent that from happening again. The stock servo saver has always been awful, so I gutted that and replaced it with a plain nylon servo horn. A m2.5x4 dubro screw did the job for holding it in place. There's a little bit of slop and the geometry isn't perfect, but it's better than it was before. At least there's a weak link now. The spring retainer cup thingy on one of the front shocks departed the vehicle, but thankfully compatible aftermarket replacements (latrax 7662) were available at LHS.

took my younger son on his first flights this year, also made a handful of flights up to ny. it was another maintenance-intensive year, but hopefully getting to the end of that.

after a rough year (or 5, or 20, depending on how you count), made some health and wellness improvements.

set up an ipad + xbox controller as a budget RC sim for my older son; i reckon he'll transition to the umx radian and cub quite easily now. got him a losi mini-b for his birthday, which he's been enjoying; he'll probably be ready for the stampede soon.

picked up a sport cub s2, umx whipit, and a blade nano s2.

older son is starting to get into rc, which is fun. got him an associated sc28.

resumed fullscale flying with my older son after a break, explored some local grass fields. many adventures in 70 year old brake system maintenance. paid off my plane, exited the 182 club. maybe i can start taking the younger one flying next year.

i ended up getting a umx radian, cute little thing. i will need to set up a sim at some point for my son. we took a few memorable flights together this year. i managed to eke out the commercial written exam.

started the new year with a new job. rebooted the quest for the commercial ticket. after a few years out of the hobby, i've started to ease back in. keeping things on the low end for now with a stampede and an inductrix, umx whipit and/or radian to follow.

started the year training for the commercial but ended up buying a fullscale plane. so it goes.

came up with a nifty-to-me sdr application. spent a weekend implementing a software prototype and proving it out with a simulation.

our second son was born. he's been a joy.

picked up a thinkpad for netbsd for when the time comes to migrate from osx. even less time for tinkering remains; each day is a 16 hour marathon.

i've been taking my older son flying in the right seat. 5 is a great age.

no opportunities to use the part 107 cert presented themselves. i did finally get my instrument rating; maybe i will pursue the commercial next year.

after 40 laps around the sun, despite further lifestyle and diet improvements, the deterioration continues.

while the rc hangar remains empty, i did pick up a part 107 remote pilot cert. there may or may not be opportunities to use it.

sold off the sdr stuff. learned a bit about aero models, gnc, and meteorology.

bought in to a full scale 182 club. fewer total hours flown, but longer trips. 4yo son beginning to express an interest in flying. 4 is a great age.

there will be another child in the new year, so the next little while will be busy.

Sold the dji quad after not really flying it at all. Sold my trusty 7C tx. Failed to renew AMA and local club memberships. The rc hangar is empty for now, but I expect I will repopulate it when my son is old enough to get in to the hobby.

Finally pulled the trigger on an rpi2. Married it with an RTL-SDR and tossed stratux on it. Dug into the code a bit and made some improvements. Stood up netbsd, for the first time in over a decade. It's still neat and clean.

On the other hand, on track for 40 hours of fullscale flying this year. Took my mom flying, took my son flying, took my wife on a lunch date, made another trip from dc to ny. Considering further training in the new year.

two years of parenthood and two years at the new job went by quickly.

barely any rc flying this year. gave away the vector 850, picking up a dji quad just to have something to fly with minimal space/time requirements.

less fullscale flying than last year, but made a couple of noteworthy flights from dc to ny. learned more about airplanes themselves than about flying them. lots of numerology about the care and feeding of antique engines and old wives tales about how to clean acrylic windshields.

house and taxes and childcare consumed all time and money. free time is measured in hours per month.

more driving and less activity is beginning to take its toll on the body, although bp has improved, likely due to improvements to diet.

After a 9 month hiatus from rc, I finally maidened the Vector today.

Its first flight was almost its last due to making the amateurish mistake of reversed ailerons. I missed it on the preflight, but thankfully I was able to recover and ditch it in the weeds. I came in hot and downwind for my second landing, resulting in a minor cartwheel. No damage in either case aside from foam rash.

It flew fine on 2s 800mAh and it seemed like it would have decent endurance; 5 minutes of mixed flying only drained about 1/3 of the pack.

Like the Solo 1500, it wants you to keep up the airspeed, otherwise it will tuck under and spin. It felt like it could use a little more weight up front. WOT climbs were respectable and 50% cruise was plenty.

Vaguely considering standing up a cheap quad and/or another inverted v scratchbuild.

Between a new child and a new job, there hasn't been much free time for rc. With the time I do have, I've been opting to fly fullscale when the weather permits. So, some further downsizing is in order; I ordered a Vector 850 as a beater foamie that I can throw in the trunk. I had its big brother, the Solo 1500, last year, so I'm not expecting any surprises.

Ordered a long ez 46 from raidentech. The plan is to transplant the power system from the rv8.

After getting back into rc in 2007, I'd gone through five planes and five helicopters and sold them all in working order. This was not to be for the rv8. It threw a prop during a spin recovery. Too high for a normal upwind landing, but probably too low for a 360, I turned downwind to put it in the tall weeds. Things were looking good right up until a previously unseen PVC post jumped up and hit my plane, impacting the right wing at the root. The airframe is a goner but the electronics can be salvaged.

Put a few more packs through the rv8. Grass takeoffs were a non-event, even without flaps. Tried some slow flight, power off and power on stalls, and attempts at spin entries. Did some mild aerobatics just to keep the rust off. Tried an accelerated stall to the left and it snapped to the right, which was weird.

It flew fine with 4s 4000 and 4s 5000. Still need to calibrate the flight times and do some landings on pavement and some touch & gos.