MrBonk's Blog

Catching up

2009-04-13T15:27:00.005+10:00

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

2008-09-26T20:30:00.003+10:00

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

2008-08-05T07:19:00.005+10:00

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

2008-06-03T20:03:00.004+10:00

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

2008-05-26T10:28:00.005+10:00

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

2008-04-28T21:21:00.002+10:00

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!

2008-02-15T08:58:00.003+10:00

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 :-)

Social degeneration?

2008-01-17T09:07:00.000+10:00

Every morning, I go for a walk around the corner to my favourite coffee shop for my daily caffeine hit. In order for me to get to said coffee shop, I have to walk past one of the astoundingly high number of pubs in this town. What's even more astounding, however, is the fact that virtually the same assortment of no-hoper types are invariably there, every day, without fail.

This really does beg a couple of questions. Why on earth does anyone need to be pissed at 08:30 in the morning? Honestly, even if you weren't gainfully employed (as this collection of miscreants clearly aren't), surely there's something more productive you could be doing with your time at that hour of the day?? Of course, that begs another question in that if you weren't pissed at the pub at 08:30 every day, perhaps you may find it easier to become gainfully employed?

Now, don't think I'm only talking about blokes here. Roughly half of the aforementioned group are women. And what a delightful bunch of ladies they are too. I don't think I've even heard sailors swear as much as this lot. Just lovely :-/

Helmet cam buggy footage

2007-12-23T16:02:00.001+10:00

Here's another onboard buggy vid, but this one is shot with the new helmet cam I just got from Launch Helmet Cams. I got to 52.7kmh on this vid, but later in the day (after the camera tape had run out) I clocked 56+kmh :-)

More pain......

2007-12-16T08:36:00.000+10:00

Ok, so there's been 1 day of decent wind here in a whole week or more. The day before had no wind at all, so we took the mountain board out to practice. End result, Michelle crashed and got a mild concussion. Mountain board 3 : Us 0.

On the single windy day, I spent about 5 hours on the water, trying out riding blind and trying to do handle-passes. I also botched a kiteloop, resulting in a reasonably heavy crash. So, I was pretty sore at the end of the day.

Next day, no wind again, so we took the mountain board out again. We went looking for a steeper hill to try to get some more speed happening. Michelle sat this one out though. So, after finding a 'suitably steep' hill (read: too steep for my skill level), I proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes or so falling on the ground in various ways, including one fall that was heavy enough to hurt my back again. Mountain board 4 : MrBonk 0. *sigh*

Mountain boarding

2007-12-13T10:58:00.000+10:00

After finding such a good spot for the buggy, I decided to get hold of a mountain board to use with the kite. I got myself a Dirty Theory Blackhawk "S" and decided to give it a whirl out the back of my house where they're putting in a new road. There's a long, gentle slope there (basically the road they're putting in) which is still just that red volcanic dirt we get around here. So, with helmet, rollerblading knee pads and my wrist guards on, off I went. Not hard at all really, except I didn't expect the board to be so hard to slide. At the bottom of the hill, I leaned back and tried to push my back foot out. Wrong......the board just held its track and I fell on my arse, cutting my hand on the gravel. Mountain Board 1 : MrBonk 0.

There's another area across the road that they're using as a base for all the heavy equipment etc, and also where they're driving the trucks over and back from wherever they're getting all the dirt/soil/gravel/whatever they're using for this road. I could see a steeper hill over the back there, so I wandered over to give it a go. When I got there, the area at the bottom was badly churned up from the trucks, but the hill itself was pretty smooth, so I gave it a go. Half way down, picking up speed......uh oh, should have planned where I was gonna go at the bottom! I aimed for what appeared to be a reasonable flat bit, but when I hit it, it turned out to be a truck wheel rut and had been filled with loose gravel/dirt. The board pretty much stopped, but I didn't and ended up on my arse again. I landed heavily on my left 'cheek' that time, made the cut on my left hand even worse and cut my elbow. Mountain Board 2 : MrBonk 0.

I had a couple more runs and walked home :-)

Notes to self: Get some gloves. Get some elbow pads. Don't wear your work clothes when you go mountain boarding. It's gonna take a lot of soaking to get the red dirt out of my beige shorts....*sigh*

Kite buggy onboard video

2007-12-13T09:47:00.001+10:00

Last Sunday, when the wind was too light to get in the water, we decided to take the kite buggy down to the beach on the Southern side of Woodgate. Turns out this is a great spot for it, so I grabbed the handycam and shot some footage onboard. Unfortunately, I had to hold the camera by hand and fly the kite with the other hand, which wasn't exactly ideal, but it still gives an idea of what it's like cruising along the beach :-)

Busy busy busy!

2007-11-12T07:53:00.000+10:00

How time flies! I've been so busy I haven't had time to think about posting here lately.

Decent winds have finally started to crank back in here, so I've been kiting as much as possible. My new Peter Lynn Venom2's are just awesome! I had an absolutely epic weekend, kiting both days. I think I put in about 5 hours on the water yesterday (feels like 10....I'm broken today). Big wind, big jumps and some awesome wave action :-)

I'm just about to do my IKO course (from the 19th of this month), so after that it's full steam ahead with the lessons and the new biz.

Slackness

2007-09-30T21:26:00.000+10:00

Well.....what a slack little blogger I've been of late! I didn't realise it had been so long since I'd posted......I guess time really *does* fly when you're having fun :-)

So, what's been happening? We went on holidays a little while ago. We camped at a few places on our way up the coast to Airlie Beach, before heading over to the Pepper's Palm Bay resort on Long Island for a week.
The camping was absolutely fabbo! We stayed at Cape Hillsborough, then a beautiful little spot on the way into Finch Hatton Gorge called the Platypus Bush Camp. We were going to stay at a camp ground up in the Eungella range, but to cut a long story short, we rescued an injured possum and had to drive him back in to Mackay for medical attention. It was too late at night to head back up the range, so we ended up staying in a caravan park at Bucasia Beach, just outside Mackay (even longer story).
Next stop was Long Island. The Peppers Resort over there is absolutely fantastic. No TVs, no phones and best of all, no kids! The entire week was so relaxing, but we ate way too much food....it was just too good to pass up! We took one kite/board over, just in case, but it was no good for kiting there. Too much reef etc on the shoreline. It wasn't windy enough anyway.

I've started a kitesurf business! It's called Kitesurf Obsession (the website is still in development). I'm booked in to do my IKO instructor's certification towards the end of November, so after that I'll be all set to start doing lessons. I've got a couple of brands on board already (Peter Lynn and Best), as well as pushing my mate's kiteboards (www.cardboarding.com).

I'll pull my finger out and post some photos of the holiday when I get some more time.

Ciao!

The audacity of some people!!

2007-07-15T13:22:00.000+10:00

Yesterday morning, while I was sitting here having my coffee, I heard the water tap on the front of our house go on. "How very odd" I thought, so I went out to have a look. There's a house being built next door and it appears the builders (and everyone else) has just been helping themselves to our water! Fkng thieving bastards. There's the plumber (of all people, he certainly should know better!) with a hose hooked up to our tap and just running, full bore, out onto the dirt.

I said "Uh, what's the story with the hose??"
He said "Oh.....yeah.....you can probably turn that off now."
I said "Yeah, no shit....it's MY fkng water, which we have to PAY for! Make sure it doesn't get turned on again."
He said "Uh....yeah....ok."

So now I've had to buy 'vandal proof' tap tops, at MY expense, to stop the thieving bastards from doing it again. Unfkngblvbl.

Games games games!

2007-07-06T10:29:00.000+10:00

My ageing computer has been unable to keep up with the latest games for some time now. Unfortunately, I'm one of those poor souls who still has pre-PCIe hardware, so in order for me to get the thing up to 'gaming spec' again, I'd have to pretty much replace the innards and start from scratch. With this in mind, I was wandering around the shops a couple of weeks ago and found myself standing in the local EB Games shop. About 30mins later, I walked out with a new Playstation3 :-)

The last console I owned was a one of the original Playstations. I must say, I'm rather impressed with the performance of the new model by comparison! It's got more than enough grunt to put any PC I've built in recent times thoroughly to shame. Add to that the fact that I can sit in the comfort of the lounge and play on the 42" HDTV with 6.1 surround sound.....well.....it's a much more enjoyable gaming experience :-)

The only downfall is I turn into a couch potato every night :-(

Winter doldrums

2007-05-15T06:33:00.000+10:00

Bugger.....looks like the Winter doldrums are upon us :-( I just missed a whole week of 20/25kt SE winds here (for various reasons), but it looks like that might have been the last of the kite-able wind until Spring time. Bollocks to that......

Flying and children

2007-05-03T20:19:00.000+10:00

It's no secret that I don't like kids. However, if there's anything I dislike more than kids, it's whining, screaming, piss poorly behaved kids. So, what do you get if you combine a bunch of those with me and 5 hours stuck in an airplane? Well.....let's just say it's a good thing you're no longer allowed to take sharp objects in your carry-on luggage.

I had to fly to Canberra for work this week. Because there's no direct flights from here (surprise surprise....), I have to do it in 2 legs......here to Brisbane on a Dash8, then Brisbane to Canberra on a 737.

When I got to the airport here for leg 1 of my trip down, there was a woman with a screaming child sitting in the departure lounge. Excellent. So I went outside, where there was a guy with his daughter, who appeared to be hyperactive. She spent the entire time I was out there (some 30mins) running around and around and announcing, very loudly, "THERE'S A PLANE! THERE'S A TRUCK! THERE'S A.....". You get the idea. The guy seemed completely nonplussed by this and made no attempt to control this behaviour in any way, even though the other people (who had also presumably vacated the departure lounge on account of the woman with the screaming child) were clearly becoming as annoyed by this as I was. Unfortunately, they were getting on my flight (as opposed to waiting for someone to arrive on another flight, as I had originally hoped). Even more unfortunately for me, they sat right behind me, whereupon the child kicked the back of my seat for the entire 50 minute flight. The woman with the screaming child from the departure lounge was also on the flight, but thankfully at the other end of the plane. I managed to keep my cool, thinking to myself "It's only a short flight....just ignore it and you'll be rid of them soon."

I changed to the 737 in Brisbane for the second leg of the trip, only to spot the guy and his daughter getting on the same flight as me again!! Not only that, but they sat right in front of me! As if that wasn't bad enough, the woman with the screaming child from the first flight sat right behind me.....I kid you not. I briefly attempted to read my book, but gave up and resorted to using my MP3 player to drown out the screams from behind me.

That was on Monday. Today I flew home.
I boarded the Canberra to Brisbane flight, only to spot a woman with 2 kids, who were already crying, walking down the isle. You guessed it.....right behind me. Fkng brilliant. Then a couple with 2 young kids arrived and started getting organised to sit in the same row as me, but on the other side of the plane. The youngest child was put in the window seat, whereupon the older one immediately started whinging and crying because she wanted the window seat. This eventually became screaming and ranting that lasted for almost 20 minutes. Basically right up until we were about to take off and the hostess eventually came and politely told them to shut the fkng kid up and buckle her into the seat. Then the kicking from behind started again. Fkng unbelievable. Their mother made absolutely no attempt to stop them from kicking my seat, jumping up and down and thumping the window and all manner of other generally irritating behaviour. Then, when the hostess told her to sit them down for landing, they started pissing and moaning, which eventually became screaming and ranting (complete with kicking once more) when they *had* been sat down and buckled in, which lasted until we had stopped at the terminal.
Fortunately, my flight from Brisbane to home was completely uneventful.

I'm seriously considering lodging a submission with Qantas, outlining the utterly piss poor experience I had to endure on their flights and suggesting that all children under the age of 12 should be tranquilized (read: comatose) if they are to travel on aircraft. I wonder how that would be received.......

Big kite weather

2007-04-26T20:02:00.000+10:00

Looks like the kite season is all but over here. The wind dropped off just after easter and there hasn't been a decent kiteable day since then :-( Of course, it's 'round about now that I normally resort to dragging out the big guns (my 16M monster) when I get desperate enough to go for a kite. Oddly enough, as soon as I get on the water with it, I immediately remember why I invariably decide to never fly it again......until the next time I get desperate enough ;-)

Living in a place like this, it's easy to forget just how slow these big kites are in light wind. The biggest thing I've flown since I moved here at xmas time is my 12, although I could count the number of times I've had it out on one hand. The rest of the time, I've been on the 10 or the 8. Anyway, yesterday was one of those days when I got desperate enough to get the 16 out. Man oh man, talk about going from a Ferrari to a semi trailer......it's like everything happens in slow motion. But, at least I got out. Better than sitting on the couch or in front of the computer :-)

Kites ain't kites....

2007-04-13T20:45:00.000+10:00

Just before Easter, I managed to get my hands on a Peter Lynn Venom2 kite to try (thanks to Lachy at Kiteworks, who kindly offered to send it to me) while I was off on holidays. I'd been keen to try the 'foil' style kites for ages, but no-one around here flies them and there's no kite shop here.
So, when Lachy offered me a 13M to demo for a while, I wasn't about to refuse :-) Man...what an awesome bit of gear! I did the highest jumps I've ever done, with huge hangtime and the most floaty landings ever. The first couple of really high ones (after I got the timing sorted out) were downright scary! It also made for big, floaty front-roll transitions with very little effort. It soaks up the gusts like a sponge and has fantastic wind range too.

There's only one drawback.....I had to give it back :-( I went out for a session on my own kites this afternoon and, well, they suck by comparison. I didn't realise just how bad they are (twitchy, poor gust handling and woeful depower) compared to the Venom2. I know what I'll be buying when I can afford to replace my kites now!

Yeah baby!

2007-04-03T20:42:00.000+10:00

Holidays and already 3 solid days of kiting.......now that's what I'm talkin' about :-)

Holy windy batman!!

2007-02-10T07:47:00.000+10:00

Seems I spoke too soon about the wind. Yesterday afternoon, I thought I was finally going to get out for a decent kite......forecast looked good, BOM observations looked good, so I raced home and headed down the beach. When I got there, it was averaging about 20kts, gusting to 26 or so. Ok, fine. Forecast was for 20/25kts, dropping to 15/20.

Unfortunately, as I was laying out my lines and pumping up my kite, the wind kept getting stronger and stronger. Eventually, it was averaging 25 and gusting to 30+kts! Even on my smallest kite, I'm still too light to hold down that much wind, so all I could do was stand there getting sandblasted, waiting for it to drop off (which it didn't do). I gave it 45 minutes and packed up.

One thing though.....at those wind speeds, the huge drifts of sand being blown across the beach and the sand flats out the back look just like moving water in a long exposure photo. It's very cool to watch actually.

Moving house.

2007-02-08T13:46:00.000+10:00

I've moved! I finally got to move to Bundaberg, which puts me nice and close to Elliott Heads for when I want to go for a kite :-) Not that I've been doing a lot of that.....the wind has been rubbish since I moved here :-(

Here's a tip....don't move over xmas/new year. What a drama. None of the regular moving companies work over that time, so we had to do it outselves. I've sworn that I'll never do it again. No matter how much it costs, I'll be paying a removalist next time. Multiple trips in my Patrol (towing a trailer) *with* Michelle following in her car, plus 2 trips in the pantec we hired to move the 'big' stuff. How the hell can you possibly fit that much stuff in a 4 bedroom house??

Anyway, it's done now. Now all I gotta do is work out a way to bring the south east winds back and I'll be set :-)

Clipless pedals rock!

2006-12-07T10:19:00.000+10:00

I've been doing quite a bit of biking of late, trying to get back into shape after the winter woes of my sore joints etc. Yesterday afternoon, I finally got around to trying 'clipless' pedals (the sort you have to 'click' into with special cleated shoes). All I can say is, I don't know why I didn't do this sooner.....these things are absolutely awesome!

I went for a set of Shimano M520 SPDs and a pair of Specialized Sport MTB shoes. My bike (Giant VT3) actually came with a set of cheaper SPDs, but after a bit of research online I decided not to use them (bit dangerous....can be hard to get out of apparently).

On my first ride yesterday, I couldn't believe how much more power I can make. I can easily hold one gear higher than before, although one thing I noticed is how much more it allows you to thrash your legs....my quads were demolished when I got home :-)

If you haven't tried SPDs before, give it a whirl.....it's definitely worth it!

The mysteries of urinary accuracy.

2006-11-10T09:22:00.000+10:00

RANT

There's not many things that annoy me, (actually, who am I trying to kid here? Lots of things annoy me, but this one is a real pet peeve.....) but WTF is it with guys who can't manage to urinate without pissing on the floor/seat of the fkng toilet??? Our urinals at work are broken at present, so we're having to use the stalls. Every single one of them has a puddle of piss in front of it that you could just about fkng drown in! How the fk can you *possibly* miss a hole *that big*, while you're standing *right on top of it*?!??!

Is it just the fat bastards who can't see their own penis who are at fault here? Surely you don't need to be able to see it to know which way it's pointing?? I mean, *I* can manage to take a piss in pitch darkness in the middle of the night without hosing the place down and I don't think that makes me extraordinarily talented in any way, so that can't be it.

Perhaps it's the 'gotta shake the fk out of it like I'm being electrocuted' types? A tip for those guys.......did you not notice that roll of paper on the wall right next to you??

Public loos are even worse.....it's like everyone who uses them has a fkng lawn sprinkler attached to the end of their dick.

Maybe I need to get some signs made up and surreptitiously installed on the walls in there. "Don't Boast, Stand Close" or "If You Can't Slam Dunk It, Sit This One Out" would be a good start I reckon......fkng grubs......

/RANT