Category → Hobbies
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a plane and a Shuttle!
Ran down to Tallman Mountain to watch the shuttle fly up the Hudson river on its way to JFK airport and ultimately the Intrepid. Pity I didn’t find out about it sooner, I would have brought a camera along. All I had was my phone. The flyby was at about 1000 feet, so there was plenty to see:
Makes me wonder what seeing a launch must be like.
Flying!
In college I flew a Kyosho Concept 30 helictopter for a number of years, until I sold it to to buy a plane. What I discovered is that you need a lot of room, and the area I used in Harriman was too small for my limited flying skills.
Anyway, I haven’t flown in years, and in the mean time, miniaturization of electronics, motor technology, and battery technology have come a long way. So much so that a capable R/C helicopter with all that’s needed to fly can be had for about $150.
After a bit of research, I settled on the E-Sky Belt CP. It’s the least expensive collective pitch helicopter with a belt driven tail and a brushless motor.
Here’s a video of me flying last night:
Unfortunately, shortly after the video was taken, a gust of wind took the helicopter quite a bit higher than I wanted to be, and I panicked dropped throttle more than a should have, and hit the ground pretty hard. Hopefully the replacement parts I ordered will arrive early next week.
Under the sea….
I did a fairly major rework of the aquarium last Thursday. I tried my hand at terracing in the back right corner, and moved all my Bacopa and Ludwigia over there. I added a Red Crypt and a Pygmy Chain Sword as foreground plants, and a piece of Sawhala wood in the center rear. What do you think? Click on the image below to see a larger version:
I used Picasa and Hello to generate the image and link to the larger image. Picasa is much nicer than the Casio photo loader we’ve been using up until now, and Hello makes publishing images a breeze. I then came back and cleaned up a bit with wBloggar. So many tools!
Saw the Venus transit
Saw the Venus Transit today with my Meade ETX90-RA. I projected the sun onto the telescope manual:
More flying
Mom and Dad are visiting, so the five of us went up to Harriman to go flying for the fourth time (links to the first 3 times: 1/25/04, 1/11/04, 1/04/04):
Like last time (video), I circled a few times and got stuck in a tree about 30 feet off the ground. Dad and I managed to shake the tree until the plane fell down a bit farther, then we pulled it out:
I really need to join a club with a bigger field. Or I need to learn how to fly. Or both.
New fish picture
The picture is new, not the fish. Here’s my one remaining Praecox Rainbow:
Flying and Sledding
We tried flying today, but at 20 degrees, the plane engine wouldn’t start:
I found some tips on how to fly in cold weather, so hopefully we’ll do better next time.
On our way out of Silvermine, I took Mechel sledding down the abandoned ski run while doing my best Howard Dean impersonation. You can either watch the video, or download it and then watch it.
Let there be (more) light!
I added a 55 watt light kit to my aquarium tonight. Here are before and after pictures. Both pictures are taken at 1/15th of a second at F2:
Before: Stock 36 watt (2 x 18w T-8 bulbs) lighting.
After: 36 watts + new 55 watt kit = 91 watts!
Come fly the friendly skies
We took the plane out today, despite the 20 degree weather. The first flight was in pretty high wind and ended badly – I had to replace the propeller and spinner. On the last flight, we discovered that the plane will actually take off from the ground, and does not have to be thrown – probably due to the wheel I added to the back of the plane.
Anyway, the last flight went pretty well until I got a little too close to the trees. A 1000 x 1000 foot field isn’t all that big when you’re going 30 miles an hour! If you like, you can watch the video, or download it and watch it later.
As you’ll hear in the video, the engine noise made Mechel upset. He also cried when the plane crashed. Its OK Mechel!
I realized I was in trouble when I saw the left wing go behind a tree branch (below). I tightened up the turn, but I was too far into the trees and hit another tree 25 frames (0.8 seconds) later.
 |
 |
Living up to it’s name, the DuraPlane survived the 40 foot fall unscathed.
Mechel helped me clean up the plane and posed with me for a victory shot:
 |
 |
I’m looking forward to next Sunday!
Saw the ISS
When I went out to the car yesterday at 6:30am, I saw a bright object moving across the northern sky. It years past it could have been the Shuttle or Mir, but nowadays it had to be the International Space Station. Using NASA’s J-Pass webpage, I verified it was the ISS:
