A quick night ride up in the foothills tonight. Up the Water Tank road, up Betty, went up past the Altar 20 yards then took a left on the new, roughed-in trail that goes west and generally follows Lament (very fun ride!), up Crank then took 051 (Lament) west/north, down Dry Canyon then back on BST. I had sunlight until Betty then turned on the bike lights. Dry Canyon in the dark looks scarier - over the edges it appears bottomless due to the ink-black shadows.
(Hey Sham-wow, why do I forget you live so close to me? We need to get together for some night rides, unless my slowness would drive you nuts.)
OK, on to the new stuff (sorry, no new bike stuff).
Last week I watched a 5 minute presentation about remote control flight on the cheap (presentation slides). I got so pumped I ordered the parts the next day. I picked up the airplane kit locally and built it Sunday (while I stayed home with my son who was acutely constipated, but I won't go there). I'm waiting for the radio, motor, batteries, servos and other bits to be shipped from a discount hobby store in Hong Kong.
The airplane I bought is a GWS Slow Stick. It's a cheap beginner plane that flies slow and steady. Years ago I flew R/C gliders at The Point. This plane is powered by an electric motor and it's docile and quiet enough I can fly it at the local park. I'll let the kids fly it too.
It was pretty easy to build - most of the parts are ready to go, just needed some assembly. I put the stickers only on the right side so when it's far away you can tell which way it's facing (trust me, it can be hard to tell from the ground sometimes).
CD in photo to show scale
Here's a Slow Stick (outfitted with pontoons) taking off from Lake Powell with a camera attached to show the bird's-eye-view:
Once I get comfortable flying this plane I'd be happy to let people take it for a spin. Let me know if you're interested.
This should make Mark happy:
I'm guessing I'll be eating In-N-Out burgers in November. This store is on State Street just north of 123rd South.
Finally, my old Moab sticker was dying.
So out with the old, in with the new Watcher sticker.
Will people think I belong to some new-age mason cult? I hope so.
The End
2 years ago
5 comments:
Did you get Lipo batteries for the plane? They make it pretty fast. I had one of those a few years ago. I totaled it in a dogfight with my nephew and never rebuilt it. Hope you enjoy it. They are kind of fun.
J. Thomas - I bought (2) 1000mAh Lipo battery packs.
Now that's a cool-looking sticker! How do I get one? :^)
BTW, Vicente bought your lighting system, tried it out down in Fruita this past weekend. We were all way impressed. I'm getting one of the lights to replace me helmet-mounted light.
It is a good-looking sticker. I think we need a secret handshake to go with it.
Those lights have worked pretty well for me. I'm happy with the balance of cost, run-time, light output and weight. But if you want 3 times the light check out this helmet light:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.29489
Here's the bar mount version:
http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149
My "more power is better" manliness instinct is tempted to get one or both of those lights.
i would like a remote control for my remote control so i don't have to reach for it all the time.
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