Well I've finally come to the realization that I can't get any decent amount of aeromodeling done until I get that mess of a man cave cleaned up and organized. I'm a slob, I admit it, and I hereby resolve to correct this character flaw. I'm getting motivated in one way by using creative visualization. I'm seeing the upstairs loft all clean and with plenty of rack and shelf space to put all those parts of airplanes and gliders that I am having trouble letting go of.

"Hey, don't toss that wing out! I can use that someday!"

Uh huh. Yeah, right, if I haven't used it by now, what makes me think I ever will? I will instead build a nice work table, and get my hot wire tools up and running. I'll have wings the size I want with the airfoils I want. Throwing out these Chinese made wings and stuff will actually free me up to finally having a flying apparatus I can be proud of. Making something that flies well with the old parts is possible, I know, but much more time consuming than starting from scratch will be, I believe.

I wonder if modern tools like laser cutters, 3D printers, and the like are something I should strive for. I get the impression that the guys with good computer skills probably profit from the stuff, but it does seem like there's a lot of pretty pictures being created and not a lot of flying machines being made, and a lot of keyboard time invested. I think I'll stick to the tried and true old school methods, and maybe just get the computer geeks to do that stuff for me. We'll see how it goes.

Sure is a lot more fun writing this than it will be cleaning up the loft, I guess that's why I'm so long-winded.

I've never had a blog before. I got to thinking that I needed a place to air my thoughts, and realized I had this one, so here I go!

I've been building and flying for most of my life, ever since I was knee-high, I reckon. For the past 41 years I've been hang gliding, but I'm 65 years young and have decided to go on Sabbatical from HG. That activity took precedent over my model flying, so I'm really rusty.

I first got into RC flying in 1975, prior to then I had been flying mostly free flight models, and they were all sport models, with the exception of a 1/2A (.049) Orbiteer, a big floater, and a 1/2A Mini Pearle, a smaller hot climbing airplane. They were both equipped with Cox rotary valve engines and a Tatone fuel shut off timer. I used the simple fuse type of dethermalizer.

I flew in one contest only. On my third flight the dethermalizer didn't dethermalize. I chased the plane through fields, woods, over and under fences for close to 5 miles. It flew at an almost constant altitude, I think around 250 to 350 feet, and finally landed right smack dab in the middle of a large pond. I stripped and went swimming, got the plane back, and then just sat there and air-dried for 20 minutes or so.

By the time I got back to the field everyone was gone, the day was over. I haven't competed, in a formal way, since then.