Catching up

Well.....it's certainly been a *loong* time between posts on here, but I have an excuse! I'm lazy.

There, now that we have that out of the way, I can actually explain what's been going on. You see, I've been having so much fun working for myself in the hobby shop, I've hardly thought about any of the things I used to do when I worked for CentreFlunk. I used to blog at least semi-regularly then, but I've got so many other things to do now. So many toys, but so little time :-)

I've been doing a little bit of RC flying again recently. I've put another nitro helicopter together (since I sold my old Ergo50), but I still have my electric TRex450SE V2. I've also become rather keen on electric flying for my planes. I converted my World Models Super Sports Senior over to electric and haven't looked back since (apart from the minor crash that is....). I just electrified a 120 sized Ultimate Biplane too, which is 'kn awesome!

I finally got around to test flying my Faser glider a couple of days ago and all I can say is 'wow'. Being a fully composite moulded plane, it's incredibly strong but light too. I was hoping to get some onboard footage today but it hasn't stopped raining since early this morning, so I guess that's out. I'm competing in the QLD thermal championships with it next weekend, so some practice would have been nice :-)

I haven't had much of a chance to kitesurf since I got the hobby shop. It's a bit hard finishing at 17:00 when you're used to bailing out at 15:00!! Never mind.....eventually I'll work out a way to get more kiting time in. We *did* go for a drive to Middle Creek yesterday, but it wasn't windy enough for me to get going (so all I got was cranky....). At least Michelle got to kite......

Shop lifting scumbags

I've decided that I'll never understand what motivates some people. So far, I've had 2 cases (that I know of) of shoplifting in the new hobby shop. The first one I only found out about by accident, when I went looking for an item I knew was there a week ago, but had mysteriously vanished without having been sold. Sneaky bastards got away clean on that one!
The second one was committed by one of two blokes who I'd bent over backwards to help. To summarise events, they came in and purchased 2 indoor electric helicopters, but managed to lose one outside in the wind (after being told not to fly them outside in the wind......) at an altitude of about 60 meters and some 6 blocks away from themselves. I gave them a replacement the next day at cost price. When I ducked out the back to see if I had some spare blades that I was going to give them, free of charge, one of them decided to rip open a box and steal the spare blades out of a new one! Another customer who was in the shop at the time told me what had happened, but only after the thieving bastards had left (probably a good thing anyway, or I'd be speaking to the police for entirely different reasons, ie assault charges) :-( Now, I can accept that some random someone might come into the shop with the intention of stealing, but after the help I'd given them, it was the last thing I expected them to do!

Career changes

Well....it's amazing what happens when I don't drop in here for a while. Since my last post, I've managed to move house, quit my job and bought a local business! That's right folks....I no longer work for the Federal Government! It's a long story, but to provide a very brief summary of the reasons why, I got sick of working for wankers. Clueless nobs the lot of them, so I decided it was time for a change. So what did I do? I bought a hobby shop called Bundaberg Hobbyworld and I'm having a ball :-) I'm still trying to get the website domain transferred into my name, but the URL is HERE.

I moved house because the neighbourhood had turned to crap. Redneck neighbours living on both sides and a bloody cane train and major road being built right behind my back fence. The noise was ridiculous. So, now I'm living by the seaside where all I can hear at night is the waves and the crickets. Noice :-)

R/C heli flying

I took my newly acquired Align Trex 450SE V2 out today for its first proper flight (other than hovering in the back yard to make sure everything was working properly). Man.....I'm certainly rusty! But, I suppose that's to be expected, having not flown a heli in over 2 years. It's definitely going to be a long road back to where my skill level was at before I quit :-(

Mechanical abuse

Or....how to waste about $600 in a week.

Recently, after having replaced the piston/liner/rod in my off-road buggy engine (OS.21VZB V-Spec), I went to the track to do a spot of tuning. After having some real trouble trying to get a consistent run out of it, I started to attack the track with a little too much enthusiasm (read: hitting all the jumps at full noise). At some point, most likely during one of the rather heavy landings, the air filter popped off the engine (that's bad, mmmkay?) and I did around 6 or so laps sucking all manner of dirt/grit into my nice new piston/liner :-( Scratch $125 worth of parts right there.

Not to be dissuaded from my current addiction to all things R/C, I put a new piston/liner/rod (which I had on hand for just such an occasion) in the engine and ran it in. Now, it should be noted at this point that it seemed to run faultlessly throughout the entire running in procedure. Revved out exceptionally well after run in and idled like a dream. All good, right? Wrong.

I put the car away until race day on Sunday, at which point I couldn't get it to run. It would start ok, but then wouldn't rev out. Then, after it got hot, it wouldn't idle. Then, it wouldn't start at all. So, after missing the start of my heat, I went back to my pits and pulled the engine out to have a closer look at it. After blowing it off with the compressor, I found a nice crack running along the entire bottom of the crankcase :-( That's also bad, mmmkay? Scratch another $125 worth of piston/liner/rod, plus a crankcase. Basically, that means a replacement engine, at around $400 or so.

Turns out when I replaced the first piston/liner/rod, I neglected to check the crank pin on the bottom end. A fellow racer gave me the tip after I displayed my newly destroyed crankcase to all and sundry in an attempt to share the grief. When I got it home, I stripped the engine down completely and checked the crank pin with another V-Spec engine I have. Sure enough, it's nowhere near the right size/shape anymore. Looks like it's been letting the bottom of the rod contact the case and....well....the rest is history :-(

Bugger.

Inappropriateness

A few days ago, I got an email from a fellow called Jack Widal, telling me how unimpressed he was with one of my blog posts. I took a look at the post again myself and thought "Whoa....you're not kidding....". It was somewhat profane, to put it mildly. Upon reflection, I realise it's not at all the image I'd like other people to have of me. So, I've resolved to keep my blog posts much more socially palatable from here on in.

If you're out there Mr Widal and you're reading this, give yourself a pat on the back sir. I thank you.

Fast toys!

Considering how shit the kite season has been so far, I decided to find something else to do while there's no wind. Years ago, I used to race 1/10th scale nitro powered radio controlled road cars. Lots of fun, but not very well organised, so when the engine in my one and only car finally died, I gave it away. I recently sold my R/C helicopter and one of my large R/C planes, so I had some spare cash kicking around and decided I might like to try my hand at 1/8th scale off-road buggies this time.

I popped in to one of the local hobby shops to see what was around and there was a second hand car in there, complete with absolutely everything I needed to get going. Turns out it was a Hobao Hyper 8 Pro with an O.S. .21 VZB V-Spec engine in it. The guy had spared no expense and had a ton of extra bits and pieces with it (including a whole, near new V-Spec engine that he had blown up on its very first run!), so it ended up being a steal :-)

I'm still struggling with the fact that the car spends half of its time off the ground.....it's a lot different to on-road racing, that's for sure! I'm slowly getting a handle in it though. It *is* a hell of a lot of fun too :-)