Mark's old news

I've just finished Tomb Raider 5. Bit of a stuggle even with lots of help from stella. I must have run up and down that corridor about 50 times trying to get that stupid cyborg to follow me. Not helped by "save" bugs. My fingers ache. I was expecting the format to be a bit tedious by now, but it's just as compulsive as ever. Lara looks particularly good in the shiny black cat suit in the later levels, which have a mission impossible feel. Hints of Lara returning next year. Have you seen the trailer for the upcoming film?

Managed to video and see the 2nd and 5th xmas lectures on robotics. Better than some of the others, but still disappointing. The demo of neural networks was a waste of time (even if had actually worked, which it didn't), and the Turing test seemed to be using a rather less than state of the art contender. The point of the Chinese room seemed to be completley missed.

Back to work blues only seemed to last a couple of days.

The new BBC2 series on the Greeks seems a bit ambitious. Surely, it can only scratch the surface of Greek history. The music is extremely annoying. The academics talking about it is bound to turn some people off. Better than nothing I suppose.

The tiles are up in the kitchen, apart from the 10% that we were under supplied and reordered. About 30% of the grouting done, although most of that has cracked from shrinkage, and will have to be gone over again.

Just to avoid confusion, the A in DAM CD stands for automatic, not audio as I suggested. So now you know.

The Siesta has progressed a little. I've fitted the wing fixing dowel and nylon screw arrangement. Still the V tail, controls, top sheeting, hatch, covering to do.

Tuesday was a lunar eclipse. Had a good view of it, but it didn't go very red.

The new C4 series The Armstrong and Miller Show was better than expected. The british training the Japanese to "give less of a shit" had us laughing.

Ordered some stuff from hawkshead.com.

Bought the latest Yes CD Live from House of Blues last week. Nice to know that they are still doing it.

The Siesta has progressed qite a bit. I've made the V tail, the hatch. Currently dropping the control snakes in. Still the V tail fixing, covering to do. Need to finish building the mixer too.

A bit brief this week as Carol is hogging the PC.

The stuff from hawkshead.com arrived promptly.

The Siesta has progressed. I've stuck the V tail on. Had a bit of a game with the mixer. I've slimmed down the fuselage quite a lot, planning to save weight and make a sleeker thing of it. The original had space for 2 standard servos side by side. I've put 2x HS81MGs in line, with "plenty" of space behind for the Rx and mixer. What I missed was the servo connectors, which are quite large themselves. In the end, I soldered the servos direct to the mixer. Looks quite neat now. Next the rear top sheet can go on. Then ready for covering. Still the ruddervators to make.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday on a training course in Newbury. Strange place. Small city centre where every 3rd building appears to belong to Vodaphone, surrounded by industrial estates.

I've been listening to a CD I picked up in Spain on the way back from Portugal. Minage by Monica Naranjo. There is certainly some dreadful europop on there, but other tracks are excellent. The web site has some ra clips of videos. Sobrevivire.

The Armstrong and Miller Show was inspired this week. The welcome return of "Nude Practice" and a sketch based on the film Contact where the decoded message from the stars turns out to be "w***ker".

The Siesta is almost finished. I've covered the wing panels. I've never seen anything use up so much solarfilm. It's all wing area. Still the ruddervators to make. Then controls to connect, balance. Ready to go.

Next Saturday the Coventry flying club have a room booked in the city sports centre for indoor flying. I'm planning on taking the helicopter along.

The problem with downloading mp3 files from my virgin site seems to have gone away. Probably I just needed to configure the PC/browser correctly. I seemed to have lost the ftp connection details. It took me ages to get connected, including a support phone call. Anyway, I've ditched the wav files to make the most of the 10M available, and put 2 new files up. See the sounds page.

Added a few more logos to the links page.

The Siesta is finished. Had to buy another roll of solarfilm (2 and a bit total). Looks good fully assembled with its 100" span and V tail. This makes it a bit unmanageable - I keep banging the tips on the ceiling. Needed 3oz/85g of lead in the nose to get the balance right. Waiting for some decent weather to test glide it. Next Tuesday is a Long Mynd day.

Saturday evening was the Coventry flying club indoor flying do at Coventry sports centre. It was a success, actually making a profit from the charges to visiting flyers. I took the helicopter along and flew it once. I was sharing the frequency with 3 other people. It's much easier to fly indoors, with no unpredictable wind to disturb things. I just hovered it close by. The number of people and models whizzing about was rather worrying. I was just waiting for the shower of confetti, but it never happened. There were about 5 mid air collisions that I saw, and at least 1 electric powered crash into someone, but the mass and energy available didn't do any damage. Traditionally indoor flying is a very restful thing with extremely fragile looking things winding through the air at walking pace. These days about half of the aircarft are electric radio. There were about10 mini helicopters buzzing about. Piccolo and Hornet. These have a reputation for being unstable/difficult to fly. I have seen a wobbly Piccolo before, but these were very smooth, especially the Hornet. I want 1. They seem to have got a lot cheaper since I last looked. All happening again March 3rd (last this winter).

Finished reading Galileo's daughter , at last. It's been a long job, sitting on my desk at work. the idea of using Suor Maria Celeste's letters to Galileo (without the opposite correspondence) seems a strange way of telling his story. The letters mostly go on about health and various small birds and material supplies. The best bits are the story of his work and persecution by the church. The last page contains a revelation that gives some meaning to the approach, though.

Monday went and bought a Hornet helicopter kit from Midland Helicopter. Not quite as cheap as I was expecting, especially including a training undercarriage and xtal to put in the Rx. I had been looking at the less VAT prices. Still good value, considering all the bits you get. As it lacks collective pitch control, I was expecting an easier build, but the box seemed to contain almost as many bits as the Eco8. I've counted 11 ball races, compared to the Eco's 14. The lack of collective pitch and in flight gyro gain control mean that it can be flown with a standard 4 channel Tx. I've started building it. Hoping to get it finished for the next (and last this winter) Coventry flying club indoor flying do at Coventry sports centre March 3rd.

Friday took the Siesta to Wolston to test glide it. Horribly muddy. Managed to stall it straight away, and the reduced throw elevator didn't let me recover. Still, survived that OK, and once trimmed out it ws very smooth. Couldn't get a really good idea, as what wind there was coming out of the sun and downhill, so I was flying uphill. Anyway, ready for a calm day at the Long Mynd.

Saturday night we had a 1.5 hour power cut. The joys of living out of town. Got the candles out and the mobile TV.

42 years old today.

Had terrible trouble with toothache this week. Not very specific. Tuesday the dentist and I had a guess at the tooth causing the trouble and drilled the nerve out - ouch. Very little sleep Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Had Thursday off sick. Friday it had calmed down a bit, but got it filled properly together with some other work, which set it off again a bit. Still not entirely right now. Because of this I spent most of the week sitting around feeling sorry for myself, so other projects have hardly moved.

The Hornet helicopter has nevertheless progressed a bit. Most of the bit are super stuck together, including the electronics and servos etc. with double sided tape. This cyano is very unforgiving stuff. I've now got the retaining collet on the main shaft about 0.5mm too high, so that the drive to the tail shaft can skip a bit. This probably won't be a problem in flight as the lift from the rotors will keep it in place. Still, I think I'll have a go with the superglue undoer. I've had the motor running - seems to be plenty of power there. I've had the piezo gyro working too - clearly not the heading lock variety, but seems to work quite well. The only non standardisms I've done are: shorten the front legs a little to make its tail stick up a bit, mount the tail servo onto the main chassis rather than the tail boom. Should manage to get it finished for the next (and last this winter) Coventry flying club indoor flying do at Coventry sports centre March 3rd. I forgot to mention that there were people from as far afield as Sheffield at the last session.

Sunday morning the central heating boiler failed to ignite. No sparks apparently. Freezing outside and we're coping with a small gas fire and a fan heater. Someone coming to look at it tonight.

Sunday didn't get the boiler fixed. Apparently the control board was broken, needing a replacement. Arrived Monday morning. We also had a new fan - much quieter now. Best part of £300 - ouch!

The Hornet helicopter is effectively finished. I haven't painted the canopy, the tail skid/fin is missing. A bit disappointing really. I couldn't get the main shaft collet unstuck, but I solved the propblem by wrapping a staple around the excess shaft that was showing.

I've been trying to fly it off the bed, but there isn't really enough space. I know from the eco8 that ground effect makes things worse, but I dare not get too high in the confined space. Without a heading lock gyro, it's hard work remembering to tweak the tail round (and which way to push the stick) as well as everything else. I had a go in the garden yesterday. Not much better, and several crashes. It's a remarkably rugged little beast. The rudder trim kept drifting. The paddles on the flybar were not as tightly locked as they could be, and any twist effected an air break on the main rotor, requiring more pitch on the tail. Back indoors I discovered that the anti rotation device on the main shaft had broken free (in 1 of the crashes), allowing the cyclic pitch links to trail behind, effectively altering the cyclic pitch trim and rotating the control effect, which might have had something to do with the uncontrollability late in the session.

Today I found that the gyro gain was almost as low as it goes. I had turned it right down after finding the tail wagging in early efforts, planning to optimise it later. Cranking it back up has made the tail require a lot less attention. When trimmed (ish) the tail blades are at an angle of about 20degrees. I would have thought that would mean a stalled airflow? It's even worse when applying rudder control. Not much can be done about it, as the gear ratios are all fixed. There is obviously a lot of torque reaction from the main blades that needs to be countered. Of course, this means a large lateral force, which in turn, needs to be countered by the main rotor. The swash plate sits at about 15degrees off horizontal which looks rather alarming. The continual riding up and down of the cyclic pitch is probably contributing to the vibration which I can't seem to get rid of.

Tidying up this morning, I managed to drop something heavy off the top of a book case onto the helicopter. I assumed it would be flattened, but in fact, the only visible damage was a bent flybar and a broken training undercarriage. I managed to straighten out the flybar and glue the undercarriage, but this has not helped the vibration at all. I'll replace the bits next week. The NiMH 700mAh power pack is very impressive, giving several minutes of power. 1 hour charge time is a bit of a pain though.

Still planning on taking it to the next (and last this winter) Coventry flying club indoor flying do at Coventry sports centre Saturday March 3rd 18:30 to 21:30.

March and the forecast is for -6 degrees tonight.

Monday went to a free lecture on Optical Networks at Coventry University organised by IEEE and given by 1 of our Marconi lab. It was very good. Shame more people did not see it. The lecture theatre was nearly full though.

The Marconi share price seems to have been in free fall for some time now. The promise of free shares for the employees if it reaches £16.03 (double from when the scheme started - presumably £8.015) looks increasingly unlikely. It's getting horribly close to halving. Been down to £4.315 this week.

Friday went to see the flm Cast Away. Probably the very 1st "film of the screensaver". It also seemed to be full of the most blatant product placement, being 1 long ad for a certain postal/courier service. Overall though, not bad. getting a bit fed up with Tom Hanks' face in so many films. He never did look much like the real Jim Lovell in Apollo 13.

Saturday was the 2nd Coventry indoor flying do. Another has been booked for March 31st. Not so many people this time, but plenty of flying. I took along both helis. They objected to me flying the Eco8 as its blades are rather scary to all these delicate little things. I'm pretty sure that I could have kept it in a small bit of airspace, and done less damage than all of the other mid air collisions that happened - oh well. Probably just as well, as I managed to switch on the Rx before the Tx. All of the other channel interference effects a recalibration of the gyro settings. Anyway, more time to play with the Hornet. I couldn't get a replacement training undercarriage (out of stock) so I had to stck it back together, but bought a couple of main rotor shafts and a 2nd power pack. With more space available I managed to get it up to about 1 foot off the ground, and vaguely under control. There is a tendency to turn anti clockwise when reving up (torque reaction) which needs to be corrected before getting airborne. Also, once it gets light on its feet, it drifts to the left - lateral force from the tail rotor which can't be corrected until it is in the air. This is covered in the tips section at mscomposit.com. The only other heli there was Chris' Hornet which was beautifully smooth. He gave me lots of advice from his experience. he also pointed out that my main rotor shaft was split (apparently very common) and 2 teeth were missing from the main gear tail drive. Should have spotted this. Hope to get it repaired and set up better next time.

Next Tuesday was supposed to be a Long Mynd day, but the farming crisis is keeping everyone out of the countryside.

Bought 2 new main gears for the Hornet. Reassembled it with 1 of the new main shafts. Did a better job of balancing the flybar using the main shaft ball races with the main gear removed. Now seems a lot smoother. I've noticed that part of the trick to good balance is making sure the main blades are properly opposite each other. There doesn't seem to be enough centrifugal force about to settle them in flight. Again not much success indoors with the limited space available. Crashed it into the bedside cabinet at 1 point and thought I had broken the shaft again. It would probably benefit from a metal shaft, despite the weight penalty. I've been trying to buy a metric micrometer all week. Eventually got 1 from Midland Metrology in Coventry. The carbon fibre shaft seems to be about 2.97mm diam. I guess the ball races are 3mm. Need to find some suitable 3mm rod.

Saturday had a go in the garden. I managed to take the gyro gain up to about 70% without noticeable tail wag, but had to increase rudder gain to compensate. After each (admittedly heavy) landing, the rudder trim seems to change. This might be because the tail shaft is moving in the main chassis (it was so tight I thought I'd get away with not gluing it), or the flybar could be twisting, changing the main rotor drag. With the repairs to the undercarriage it was a bit heavy and struggling to maintain height at the end of battery charge, so I took the ping pong balls off. Had my best flights so far - about 1m into the air, and vaguely under control. I found that the best thing to do was throw caution to the wind and put the last 25% throttle in suddenly, leaping out of the ground effect into clean air. There was a bit of wind getting up, and I was trying to fly in the lulls. Not a good idea. Eventually the normal left drift on takeoff was helped by a gust of wind, and the now ping pong less undercarriage to flip it over onto its left side. The main rotor was stopped from full speed by the ground with a sickening crack. The main shaft is broken again and the battery brackets are broken. Tried to put in the 2nd new shaft, but very stupidly managed to lose the top pin on the carpet. I couldn't find anything suitable to replace it so flying over for this weekend.

Saturday went to Coventry for lunch at Browns as usual. Had a look at the archealogical dig site of the even older Coventry Cathedral, as featured by those bodge it and scarper vandals on TV. Of course, it's only being dug up in order to "develop" the area. However, in this case it does actually seem to be an improvement, opening up the view to some other old buildings that were hard to see before, and there should be a lot of trees put in. While we were there I had a bit of nose around the new/latest Cathredral, going in some bits that I probably haven't visited since I was at school.

Sunday went swimming for the 1st time in ages.

Added a link to Simon's freeserve site.

Middle of March and we've had snow this week. As I write, hailstones are falling.

Tuesday went swimming again.

Bought new main shaft pins and training undercarriage for the Hornet. Reassembled ready to fly, but the weather's too rough outside. The trim changes I mentioned were partly due to the tail boom moving in the main chassis. I probably ought to put a dab of superglue on the join. I need to be able to get it out, to change the gear. Also partly due to the ball race in the tail pitch control working free of the bit that connects to the tail blade control horns. I'm struggling for the names of the bits here. Complete failure is preceded by a vicious tail wag as the gyro gradually loses control of the tail pitch. I tried gluing it a couple of times, but ended up getting glue on the tail rotor shaft, making control lumpy if not impossible, and making it more likely to come off again. In the end I stripped down the whole tail rotor assembly and rebuilt it, cleaning and polishing the shaft (apparently 2mm diameter), and scoring the plastic to ensure a good join. It has stayed on since. No success yet in finding 3mm metal stock to make a main shaft from. I think either the motor or tail shaft pinion gear is now badly worn, as it seems noisier than it used to be.

We have some frog spawn in the pond. It may have been killed off by the cold weather though.

Saturday went to see the film Chocolat at the Skydome in Coventry. Managed to sort out the free parking bit this time - excellent. The film I'm afraid was a poor effort. Set in France around 1959 you might expect people to speak Francais (with subtitles for the hard of understanding), but no - just as much as your average Anglophone can manage on holiday in France, and the rest in English with a variety of English, American, Irish and outrageous French accents. Dreadfully miscast too. Juliette Binoche, looking very French was supposed to be half South American! Judi Dench looking as English as ever. Carrie Ann-Moss and various others just looking American. Standard American happy ending of course. Shame really. Had it been made by the French, I suspect it could have been quite good.

Added a couple of pictures and more detail to 1988 holiday.

Almost end of March, clocks have changed. Still cold. Wettest 12 months ever recorded.

Tuesday went swimming again.

Had another go with the Hornet in the garden. Actually managed a few seconds of controlled flight. Now glued the tail boom to the chassis to prevent trim changes. The tail rotor slider arm seems to be holding up now. Routed the antenna along the tail boom (instead of just dangling underneath). Next Saturday is indoor flying at Coventry Sports Centre. I'll probably leave the big Eco8 heli at home this time, as they didn't want me to fly it last time.

Got some books from Amazon. John Otway's autobiography, and 2 Witchblade collections. 1 is just a collection of all the bits that have been included with the Tomb Raider crossover things. The other is a Witchblade/Darkness crossover.

Bought a Suffrajets CD from peoplesound. Disappointed to see only 3 tracks, 2 of which are free mp3s anyway.

The Marconi share price has now gone below half of the starting price (£8.00) of the scheme from whicjh it was supposed to double. It did get up do £12.50. It has now been down to £3.60.

Had a couple of hours with the PC and keyboard today. Starting to get a bit more with it now.

April fools day. Sunny warm weather at last, but not for long, no doubt.

Saturday finished the Otway book in time to go and see him play in Coventry. The usual guitars and acrobatics. The 1st time I've seen the ambidextrous guitar. Theremin too.

Earlier on Saturday was the last Coventry sports centre indoor flying session. I had already flown the Hornet in the garden with some success. Indoor was even easier. I managed to put 2 battery charges through it in good control with no problems. Even managed to walk across the room with it hovering in front of me. Still got the training undecarriage attached. This is making it a bit heavy, meaning it won't climb for the last half of the charge - just floats on the ground effect, about a foot off the ground. Almost ready to take it off now, but maybe I should try some nose in hovering 1st.

Sunday warm weather and the endless motor mowers interrupting the peace. Cleaned the car at last. Took the bike for a ride out.

The new TV comedy Happiness is disappointing. Spaced is probably the coolest thing on at the moment.

Marconi share price has been down to £3.33.

Still wet. America having a go at China.

Busy day Monday. After some hasty research I decided the time had come to get a DVD player. I've been holding off buying any more VHS. Chose the Sony dvp-s335 from dvd-magic in Leicester. Left it a bit late phoning them, followed by a mad dash up the M69. Eventually managed to get a very busy chap to sell me 1, and took it home, stopping off at Fosse Park Asda to get something to actually play on it. Settled for Gladiator and Blade Runner (director's cut). Seen Gladiator 2x already, and Blade Runner many times, but they are good.

Back home, Hawkwind were playing Nottingham Rock City that night. Don't get that many chances to see them, so back in the car and up the M69/M1. I didn't think venues like that existed any more. Matt black everywhere, strange metalwork structures and sticky floors. Got there just in time to see the last couple of tracks from Bedouin which were pretty powerful, although I couldn't see much in it. Hawkwind must have been on stage for well over an hour. I was a bit disappointed. No keyboard player, so none of the usual electronic swoopy noises. It was almost like Hawkwind "unplugged". Simon House was guesting, partly filling the keyboard hole with some good violin work. What I presume was Alan Davey was doing his very best Lemmy impression on bass and vocals, but still looked like Bill Bailey to me. Whoever it was doing the main vocals seemed a bit out of his depth. Only when Dave Brock took over did it really do it for me.

Tuesday off to recover. Went into Coventry to get some more DVDs. Ended up with Spaced series 1. Luc Besson's Joan of Arc and Jean de Florette .

Been struggling to get the PC to be a fax machine. My old modem dates back to the days of my 486. Eventually went out to PC World and bought a new 56k thing. Can now fax OK, but can't get it to be a fax and an answer phone at the same time. My ISP connections have gone from an alleged 33.6k to an alleged 49.3k. Does seem a bit faster though.

Changed the logo back to lake from snow. Probably finished snowing for this year, but I expect there will be lots of rain.

Added a link to the paper air force.

Easter Sunday and everything's closed.

Monday the press announced the Marconi redundancies before Marconi did (Tuesday). Still unclear as to what it means. Just have to wait and see. Thursday we decided was a virtual Friday and went down the pub for lunch.

Went to J&S and bought myself a new crash helmet. My old 1 must be almost 10 years/50000 miles old and is getting rather horrible. I found the nearest equivalent to the Shoei I had before, was a TXR, now discontinued for £99. Quite pleasant inside, and the visor is scratch free and seals correctly. Yet to be tested at speed. When are we going to get some decent weather?

Finished watching the Spaced series 1 DVD just in time to see the last episode of the 2nd series. Probably the best thing on TV in recent history. No canned laughter. Great fun spotting the references to other films etc. Bill Bailey too. Compared to some DVDs this seems good value with 7 episodes and extra deleted scenes.

Watched Luc Besson's Joan of Arc . Nicely filmed, but it seems to be lacking something. I didn't feel as though I knew much more about the story from it.

Friday we went to Stow on the Wold. The place seems to be expanding, with new houses and a Tesco supermarket.

Spent most of this week, including Bank holiday Monday, fitting a laminate floor in the hall. All the boards are now down, but still edging to do.

Ordered some more DVDs from Amazon.

Added a link to Heather Nova.

Went to Offenburg Deutschland with work Monday Tuesday Wednesday. Just over the Rhine from Strasbourg, on the edge of the Black Forest. Flew Air France via Paris CDG. Much better than the Italian flying experience, although we didn't get fed on the last flight due to a strike. Found an electronics/music shop. Managed to buy some more CD versions of my old record colection for quite reasonable prices. At Paris CDG found the latest live CD from Mylene Farmer. Yet more over the top CD case extravagance - metal gatefold!

Got the bike out again today. Cleaned it (a bit) and adjusted the chain. New crash helmet is a great improvement. It seals all the wind out. I think the visor had shrunk on the old 1, and it wouldn't close all the way. MOT due next month.

May day bank holiday weekend. Day late updating the site. Been down to see Jes on the bike. He has done some more work on the drainage in the lower field. Steve has treated himself to a Ducati 996. Very nice, if a little extreme. I haven't done such a long trip on the bike for a long time. OK on the way down, but 200 miles back into a head/sidewind was hard work and quite cold. I had plenty of layers on. I think I was losing heat inside the new crash helmet. Although less drafty than the old 1, it is well ventilated. Not much hair there now you know. Took the little helicopter, strapped to the back of the bike (yes, it is that small). It seems to have got its old tail wag back again. Only cause I can see is play in the tail pitch slider ball race, as the control arm seems to be still well glued. Maybe a new part required, or a fin might fix it, as I fitted on the Eco8.

Friday went to see the film of Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Not as bad as I was expecting. A lot of the book is missing, and Corelli himself is miscast, but what there is is done quite well. Not sure what someone not having read the book would make of it. Probably best to avoid Greece for a few years, as it will be full of Americans now.

Finished reading Simon Schama's A History Of Britain (part 1) today. Just in time for the start of part 2 on TV tomorrow.

4 day week at work, but I spent 3 of them in Italia, visiting a site at Marcianise/Caserta near Napoli. Sabena flights all the way change at Brussels. A bit rough arriving at the hotel at 23:00. Still nice to get the scent of Italia again. Drove past Vesuvio (in the distance).

While I was away, some of the stuff I ordered from amazon.co.uk arrived. The only Hawkwind DVD that seems to exist - The Chronicle of the Black Sword and Yes - Keys to Ascension. The Hawkwind is a bit poor to be honest, with some indifferent performance, inadequate lighting, bad camera work and laughable mucking about with the sword. Still, I suppose, it was 1985. The Yes is interesting and embarassing at the same time. The musicianship is great. The live performance giving new insights into tracks very familiar from LP/CD. But the clothes!

Also got the DVD of the CD I bought in Paris CDG on the Germany trip - Mylene Farmer - Mylenium Tour. This is brilliant. Great to actually see a live performance of songs I know from the CDs. The accuracy leads to suspicion of some miming going on here.

Today was supposed to be the CADMAC open glider competition on Warwick racecourse. This and Long Mynd trips are off until FMD finally clears up. Glorious weather this weekend which has just broken down into thunderstorms.

Missed the 1st part of Simon Schama's A History Of Britain while I wa away, but Carol taped it. Not caught up enough to atch it yet.

Moved desks at work. Well, partly. I might get my proper desk on Monday. Did my back in a bit shifting stuff that I'm supposed to get help with, but it's OK now. 1 of the few bits of exercise I get. Not long now before the ownership of the site officially transfers to Jabil. I still work for Marconi though.

I keep forgetting to mention the pond. We have loads of frogs in there now (about 10). We've seen a newt briefly too. A load of frog spawn appeared a couple of months ago. We now have about 200 fat tadpoles on the verge of getting back legs. It's going to be a bit tricky cutting the grass with loads of hopping frogs. Carol took the pump out to stop them getting sucked into the filter. We also have a particularly fat thrush that seems remarkably unconcerned by our presence in the garden.

Having been so impressed by the Mylene Farmer - Mylenium Tour DVD, even though I haven't seen it all yet, I ordered the other DVDs available from amazon.fr - Live a Bercy, Music Videos 1, 2 and 3. They arrived very fast. They even put a box/tin of sweets in with the order for some reason. I know some of the videos from the days when I had MTV. Interesting to see them in full. Some of them cary on where the previous left off. Some of the themes and imagery are very french and striking. Tristana seems to be a Russian (?) telling of the Snow White story. Sans Contrefacon seemsto be Pinnochio. Good to see the authentic foreign languages (including english) being used with (french) sub titles rather than dubbing it. Some of the more adult scenes never made it to MTV.

I've had the CADMAC events list through the post. Apparently FMD is over and the Wolston flying field is now open. Seems too early to me, but there you go. It also says that Long Mynd trips are on, but I had a recent email from LMSA saying that it won't be available for months yet (mid July).

Saturday. Took the bike for an MOT, actually before the old 1 ran out, for a change. No problems. I'm tempted to get the steering head and swinging arm bearings replaced. The back end squeaks when you sit on it, and the steering has developed a tendency to oscillate when slowing down. Also rattles a bit if the brakes are applied at anything other than vertical.

Big changes on the web site this week. I had an email from virgin saying that they're turning their old server off soon, and everyones' accounts will disappear, requiring new accounts to be signed up. Also got myself an account with netscapeonline, mostly for the 20Mb free web space. I've taken advantage of this to get some more of my music up there. See sounds.

Despite the tail end of FMD threatening to turn into something else entirely (hidden by the imminence of the election), CADMAC held its 1st field event of the year at Wolston. I popped over on the bike. It was a scale evening, for fun - no competition. A good evening with lots of interesting models, slightly spoiled by some dangerous flying over the crowd and 1 total.

Marconi announced the end of year bonus this week, the day before the payslip told us anyway. A nice round figure of zero. There are a lot of very unhappy bunnies about. Apparently some other parts did get a bonus.

Lovely hot weather this week. Took the bike to work 2x. Makes such a difference when your'e not worrying about keeping the last bit of draught out. Of course this weekend is a bank holiday, and the weather has broken down. Saturdy was hot though, spent at Leamington Farmers' Market helping Carol with her new venture.

The number of tadpoles seems to be going down. That's nature for you I suppose. I expect there will still be plenty of frogs though. We now seem to have quite a few medium sized, from last year's batch, I suppose (not our pond).

I've now seen both live Mylene Farmer DVDs and the 1st volume of music videos. There are some very early videos included, where she looks a bit (Kate) Bushy with lots of brunette, before adopting her "trademark" auburn shorter style. In the Bercy show she manages to look like a very spiky statue of liberty. Probably ought to mention that Laurent Boutonnat seems to have been the creative force behind most of her music and video work.

June.

Bank holiday Monday we saw an Italian film Malena at the arts centre.

Bought the Pitch Black DVD. Not bad for a scifi/alien type thing, if a bit Australian.

Reprogrammed the Eco8 helicopter, changing the pitch curve so that it starts at 50% out for 0% in. This means that I can now change the full scale pitch without altering the zero throttle setting of zero pitch. Last week I crashed the Hornet and got the antenna caught in the main rotor and stripped some of the insulation. Now resited and taped to the new transparent fin. Ought to rewire it really. Tomorrow eveing Midland Helicopter are doing a sales /demo visit to the CADMAC club meeting. I'll probably take mine along. 2 new pictures too.

Next weekend is the Coventry Godiva Festival at the Memorial Park. It was good last year. Weather looks a bit doubtful.

Now, just the small matter of a general election to get out of the way.

Monday evening was the Midland Helicopter do at the CADMAC club meeting. Pretty much same as last year, with not much new interest, but quite a few member helis. I flew both of mine. The Eco8 went very nicely, apart from being a bit short on duration. Probably the power pack needs cycling. On the 3rd flight it developed a worrying gear binding type noise. It was still flying OK. I landed it and inspected it, but couldn't see any trouble. The sound was suspiciouly like the noise made by the ping pong balls of the training undercariage spinning. Anyway I decided to take it home to investigate. I managed to reproduce it at low speed on the ground yesterday, with momentary "lock ups" causing the tail to twitch. I thought it might be the tail rotor belt drive slipping, so I tightened it up, with no success (even brought back the tail wag). I planned to isolate the part of the power train giving trouble today after recharching the power pack, but today it's not doing it ! I flew the Hornet too, although it was too windy really, so I crashed it several times. On 1 of these I managed to unstick the anti rotation bar on the main shaft, causing the cyclic pitch control effect to be rotated slightly, making subsequent flying rather tricky, to say the least.

Took Friday as holiday to get some jobs done, and an easy start to the Coventry Godiva Festival at the Memorial Park. We got there in time on Friday to see Dreamgrinder play. They seem as determined as ever not to publicise themselves. I found a web site with a short history and lyrics, but no contact info, events (yet), and no links to where you can get the music. We went again Saturday, but none of the bands are really worth a mention. About the most entertaining thing of the day was someone getting himself out of a straitjacket while riding a unicycle.

My car failed its MOT for a few trivial things. Now sorted.

Oh yes, the general election happened on Thursday. Ho hum.

Bit of a Tomb Raider feature on Film 2001 this week including previously unseen (by me) scenes. Looks good. 3 weeks to go.

Bought theRed Planet DVD. It really is a very silly film, but I remember some bits of it being done quite well, including a zero G fire and the rather bouncy landing.

Marconi share price plumbed new depths this week. New morale boosting initiatives include new car park passes and timesheets.

I've tidied up the logo a bit - black border and dropped the shade. New logo on the sounds page too. My 1st go at an animation.

Proper summer weather this week. Took the bike to work Thursday/Friday.

Forgot to include a link to theRed Planet DVD last week. Here it is now.

Saturday was the village fete. Seemed a bit better than last year. There was a falconry display. We went round the conservation area that the school has set up. Better weather helped too. Saturday evening we went on a bat walk round Abbey Fields Kenilworth. Heard (downconverted) and saw several different types, although they are a bit small and quick.

The pond is very busy now. Various types and sizes of frog. Loads of fat black tadpoles, some with back legs. We also have a few tiny complete froglets. I guess they are a different species that develops quicker.

I've been flying the Eco8 heli a bit this week. I decided that the duration was getting intolerable, so I went out and bought an even bigger battery pack - 10x cell 12V 2400mAh. This an impressive (and heavy) stick of batteries. 1st go it was great to feel the power available, meaning I had to be a bit more careful with the throttle to prevent it rocketing into the sky. After a couple of hops I decided to try to go for duration without landing. After a couple of minutes, it just cut out and flopped to the ground. I realised before it arrived that the fuse had blown, but why? The smells of hot electrics made me think that the motor was fried (it was very hot). The blown 25A fuse, on inspection, revealed a blackened area on 1 of the blades. With a new 30A fuse fitted the heli has flown OK since. I guess that what happened was the bad connection in the fuse holder (as well as losing power) had caused a heat build up that pushed the fuse over the edge, even though it wasn't carrying its rated current. The heli seems to have its tail wagging back again in heading lock mode. I've found that I can now fly it quite successfully with no wags in normal gyro mode. I had to learn to fly normal mode, as that's all that's available on the Hornet.

Also crashed the Hornet a few times. The main shaft is now definitely split, with only the vaguest of connections between the motor and the rotor head. I'm guessing that this vagueness contributes to the tail wagging behaviour. I finally found some metal stock at 3mm diam. Everything in the UK seems to be imperial. It's silver steel. I don't know whether it will be suitable, but it's quite cheap, so I've ordered a couple of bits to play with.

Finally got my Otway video from amazon. The reproduction is not so good (I had to fiddle with the tracking to get it to lock at all), the original recording was bad, the performance indifferent. But hey, it's Otway. Features a very young Jools Holland too.

Interest in the forthcoming Tomb Raider film is hotting up now. 2 weeks to go.

July.

Monday, having got into the DVD revolution, I decided it was time to get a DVD drive for the PC. Got a Creative 12x (40x CD). This sounds like a jet engine when it's up to speed. The installation was quite painless. The DVD playing results are rather disappointing. If I get the sound to be reasonably clean, the video is a bit jerky. This is only to be expected (apparently) with a P2 233 and only software decoding. Oh well. New PC time not far away. Got a Tomb Raider mousepad for work too.

Thursday Carol, Dad and I went to the Oxford University Engineering Department open day. Almost exactly 20 years since I was last in that building. Most of it is unchanged. The paternoster continuous lift was replaced with a more conventional lift many years ago. The reception and lecture theatres have had a makeover with some rather cheap looking plastic paneling in a metal/rivets theme. The control lab had some bits of electronic projects on display, including something that magnetically levitated a steel ball (approx 3in diam). There was some hardware that I recognised too. We sneaked a look in most of the other labs, including the wind tunnels and turbines, material testing machines. Went into the library and took a photo very similar to the 1 on the pictures page. The drawing room seems to have been replaced by a forest of PCs.

Saturday the 3mm silver steel bar arrived from Chronos. It looks like the ideal material for the job. I spent a large part of Sunday making a replacemant steel shaft for the Hornet heli. My 1st attempt at drilling the 1mm pin holes ended with a broken drill, leaving only 1x 1mm drill left. I tried to start with a 0.8mm, but that only put a bit of a shine on the surface. Anyway, with a bit of WD40 lubricant and a lot of care, I managed to make an 80mm shaft with 2x 1mm holes in about the correct place. They were both a bit non perpendicular to the axis, but they did go pretty well through the middle. I managed to use the drill to stretch the hole to perpendicular. There you go - a lovely shiny steel shaft. Fitting it was another story. The fit with the ball races was perfect. The main drive gear and rotor head fittings were a bit tight. The original carbon shaft was measured at about 2.96mm. The steel measured 2.99mm. The inaccuracy of the pin holes meant that I lost the top pin (too loose), and couldn't fit the lower pin. I ended up using some bent bits of fairly large marker pins - a bit undersize, but they will retain the shaft, and the fit is quite tight anyway. I forgot to weigh it before I fitted it - doh ! Based on the original material and the length, it should be about 4.3g. This compares to about 1g for the carbon shaft. the flying weight of the complete Hornet is currently 297g (including steel shaft and training undercarriage). I had a bit of fun getting the anti rotation arm to stick to the shaft (it's a bit shiny). After a bit of trimming I flew it a couple of times in the garden before the wind got up. It was very smooth. A success.

Should see Tomb Raider next week. 1 week to go.

Saw a short clip of the forthcoming film of the game Final Fantasy on Film 2001. The animation makes Shrek and Toy Story etc. look pathetic.

Next week should see the 1st CADMAC slope outing of the year. Long Mymd is still closed. We'll go somewhere else.

Monday, I decided to take the Hornet with its new metal shaft to the CADMAC meeting. As it happened, it was a control line special flying do. There were more electric slow fly and indoor aircraft there than control line, including another hornet. Weather was just about perfect. Had the best flight ever from it, still just tail in hovering though. There was some fuss about certificates for flying at demos. I still haven't taken even the A test. I might have to get myself an IC trainer.

Tuesday was supposed to be the CADMAC slope soaring day trip, but it was cancelled, partly due to lack of organisation, partly due to lack of wind. Spent most of the day fitting the edging strip round the new floor in the hall.

The weather through the week started hot and fine, but slowly degraded into just too hot and humid. Not even any proper thundertorms. Did rain a lot last night though. The air conditioning can't cope at work, and the redirection of what there is has left our office getting up to 29 degrees in the afternoon.

Marconi has spectacularly hit the headlines this week, with the share price (after a 24hour suspension of trading) hitting a low of about £1.06. They have announced the closure of the Poole site and further redundancies elsewhere. Heads rolling at the top too. Lots of people examining the lifeboats.

Thursday went to the earliest possible showing of Tomb Raider. I thought it was an excellent adaptation, making a good balance between reality and the confines of the game. Lots of reviews have complained about Lara's apparent invulnerability, but I think they're missing the point. I missed the underwater swimming from the game, but I expect that will feature in the likely sequels. It seems the film was heavily cut to get a 12 certificate. A lot of UK humour was removed to avoid confusing the USA. The DVD is going to be quite a different thing. Gone are the days of a definitive cut of a film. I expect 1 day we will all end up with a kit of parts and have to assemble our own version.

I weakened and got my credit dard out again to buy some more DVDs. The Pretenders is just a historical collection of a load of videos we've seen before, many of them obviously cheaply produced. The Sarah McLachlan is a bit hard work, all in 1 go, but there is some good stuff on there. Sheryl Crow is good. Got these from play247 - considerably cheaper than amazon,and "signed for" (free) postage too.

Marconi shares actually went down to a low of 96.5p last week. The redundancies are gradually getting more detailed. Now that the site where I work is owned by Jabil, security has tightened up. Much crashing into doors that never used to need a swipe card. Getting harder to park/gain access to the site at all.

Saturday was spent helping Carol at the Coventry food festival. Weather held out, with sunshine rather than the predicted rain.

Sunday we went and had a look at Newbold quarry, which has been turned into 1 of these landscaped lake things. The water level showed just how much rain we've had this year, with the peripheral path underwater in places.

Tomorrow Monday is the CADMAC powered glider do at Wolston. Also, had an email from the LMSA to say that most of the Long Mynd is now open. Managed to fly the helicopter simulator up and down the runway quite successfully.

Added a dvd page.

Monday was the CADMAC powered glider do at Wolston. Weather was good, if a bit cold. I took the electric glider thing. Had a long wait for the 73 peg, as someone had disappeared to the horizon in pursuit of a wayward aircraft, and taken the peg with them. Anyway, managed to get 2 flights in, including the "all up last down" competition. I managed to come down 1st, several minutes before anyone else. Well, it is a bit heavy.

Marconi shares hit a new record low this week of 92.0p. A stressful week. Much doom and gloom.

Thursday morning about 6.00 we saw a heron in the garden. Saw it again Saturday morning. This might have something to do with the reduced number of frogs that are visible. Lots of tiny froglets around the edge now.

Saturday we went to see Les Enfants du Siecle at the Arts Centre. Ho hum.

Got myPIC project board this week. Spent some of Sunday building it. Now to try to program a PIC with the rather simple serial port circuit that I found. Hoping to do some avionics.

Last days of July and we have a bit of heatwave happening.

Marconi shares hit a new record low this week of 85.75p.

Saturday filmed the Eco8 heli flying in the garden. If I can get it from VHS to something digital, I might put it up here. The sampling of the camera has frozen the rotor blades, meaning that they actually appear to be rotating slowly, in the wrong direction. The real speed is betrayed by the whir on the sound. I originally planned to start with the Hornet, but that seems to have died - no control sytem at all. Power to the servos, but no control pulses. I think it might be the Rx crystal. Unfortunately, all the other Rxs I have are dual conversion, so I can't try a replacement. A trip to the shop required.

Saturday evening we watched (and listened to with the converter) the various bats flying through the garden. The hot and wet weather this year seems to have been good for almost everything. Cats were quite impressed too.

Spent a lot of this week trying to program a 16F84A PIC to do something useful in myPIC project board this week. I tried to mod the board to support the serial programming circuit that I found. The software showed a blank chip (correctly), but I could not get any data bits to go in. Looking at the programming spec. I found the minimum voltage to enter this mode is 12V, where my serial port could only manage about 11.2V. I rigged up a separate supply and 2 transistors to switch it, but no better. I then stripped out most of the project circuitry, so that all was left was the programmer. Still no good. Without a scope I couldn't check data and clock signals. I found out that we have the official Microchip programmer at work, so I used that to program a couple of chips. When in the project board - no sign of intelligent life ! Reading through the paperwork, I eventually found the problem - although most of the myriad chips in the family support the same instructions, there are some important differences. The project board was originally desgned for the 16C54 chip, where I am using the more advanced flash 16F84A. The reset vector has been shifted from the end of memory to the beginning ie. org 0h. Thus changed, the board burst into life as a simple countdown timer. I was so chuffed, I left it running all afternoon. Encouraged by this I went out to Maplin and bought the full Microchip development system. A bit expensive, but I now have a reliable programmer, lots of paper documentation, and a HI-TECH Ansi C compiler for the 16F84A. I also have the option of moving to more powerful chips.

Saw a preview of the forthcoming Philips DVD-RW video recorder. I hadn't appreciated that there are (at least) 3 competing formats. I can't remember all of the details, but it looks like it would be best to wait for the Panasonic offering (also called DVD-RW). Another thing, most commercial DVDs are 2 layer. These are produced separately, then stuck together, so any single sided blank recordable media is only going to have half the capacity of a prerecorded.

August.

Marconi shares recovered a bit. Now hovering around 100p.

Took the Hornet to the heli shop. It was just a dead Rx crystal.

Spent a lot of this week learning to program the 16F84A PIC. Took some time to set up and read the timer correctly, eventually getting things to happen at the calculated rate. To see something happening, I set up a loop incrementing a file register byte and putting that byte to port b connected to some leds - very pretty. Then I set up to generate a servo control pulse/frame, controlled by the value in a register. - successfully. Still programming it in assembler/machine code at the moment. On Friday I received my sonar modules, but too late to do anything with them yet.

Got the Eco8 garden fling video converted to digital (thanks Mike). Now to find some web space for it.

At the weekend I went up north to see Richard and Jes, and attend the annual Woodvale rally. Ideal weather. Got rather too much sun. This has lots of stuff going on, but mainly it is a large model flying display with lots of trade stands. I did spend rather a lot of money, but it is cheaper at the shows. I bought a Chris Foss Uno Wot kit. This is basically a fairly nice looking 4 channel trainer. I need something with a "real" engine in it to take my A certificate test. Yet to decide on a motor. I will probably put a V tail on it, so it will be barely recognisable by the time I've finished.

Marconi shares back down again. New record low of 85.5p.

Monday my nephew Steven is over here from Portugal for a few weeks.

Tuesday the 1st CADMAC slope soaring trip to the Long Mynd this year due to the farming crisis. Steven came with us. I took all 3 gliders, hoping to fly the Siesta properly for the 1st time. We drove through rain most of the way there, stopped at the supermarket in Church Stretton for some lunch stuff, then ascended into the clouds. We headed for the west facing slope for the forecast west wind. After about an hour the cloud lifted a bit, and a few people got some aircraft out and headed for the slope, despite the wind clearly coming more from the south. We soon gave that up and went over to Ashes Hollow. This only really works cleanly when the wind is more south east. Anythng else and the air is disturbed by the hills in front. Anyway, I had a good 10min flight with the Zagi, finding time to try to straighten out the rolls with some down elevator. The strong wind made it a bit difficult to land. Several aircraft disappeared up the hill at an alarming rate, but amazingly enough, nothing was broken. Then the wind got even stronger and a rain cloud moved in. We ran away and sat watching the weather for a while. Eventually it cleared up, but we couldn't be bothered to walk all the way back to the slope, deciding to join the M6 queue instead. We could see a couple of aircraft flying. Someone had parked in 1 of the passing places closest to the slope - naughty.

Friday saw the earliest possible showing of Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within. Well, I thought it was excellent. The finest piece of CG animation yet. Aki is gorgeous. Rather derivative from films such as Aliens and Star Wars. Now where's the DVD ? Some critics have complained about a lack of plot. To those people I say, pay attention. The same people are happy to give favourable reviews to things like Jurassic Park n, which are among the most plotless things I have ever seen. Also saw trailers for Planet of the Apes, Spiderman (takes a couple of minutes to realise), Lord of the Rings.

Saturday in Coventry, we saw an ad for a free show put on by the Belgrade theatre in the car park round the back. A french company doing a fairly free interpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream - Le Songe - The Dream. I'm not familiar with the original, I couldn't understand what was supposed to be going on most of the time, but it was pretty amazing anyway, and very French. There were 4 towers with sound equipment, from which some overhead wires were strung in an X pattern. The players regulary crossed the area suspended from these. Also, there were various "floats" which were pulled around the area. Live music from (at least) mandolin, bass guitar, violin. Lots of lights, pops and bangs, and flying tisue paper.

Got the Eco8 garden flying mpeg chopped up into reasonably sized chunks. Here is the 1st 7secs of the best flight. Also on the pictures page.

Marconi shares plummeting to a new record low of 65.0p. It's a long way down from 1250p.

Wednesday/Thursday I managed to squeeze in a couple of days holiday. Didn't do much other than catching up with paperwork etc. Did find time to do some work on the PIC. Dad and Steven came over Wednesday evening. We had a walk round the village.

Friday went to see Planet of the Apes, which rather disappointingly was utter rubbish (not the word I had in mind as I was watching it).

Saturday spent some time programming the PIC. Succeeded in making a 2 channel V tail mixer. Doesn't yet have the gain and inversion options of the Ken Hewitt kit, but it does work. About 2 pages of scratch written machine code, which could probably be tidied up a bit.

Sunday we had an extended family outing with dad, Steven, Adrian and family to Gulliver's Kigdom at Matlock Bath. It didn't rain too much. A bit steep at £6.50 entrance fee, but free parking and free rides make it reasonable. Usual collection of bikes there.

Tomorrow Monday is the CADMAC electric flight evening at Wolston. Weather looks a bit doubtful.

Bank holiday weekend.

Marconi shares still plummeting. A new record low of 59.5p. Got a very round figure pay rise this month, which was rather easy to backdate 2 months. Rather more concerned about the future, with rumours of hostile takeovers in the news. Lots of people on holiday at the moment. Friday we went down the pub for lunch. Took the bike to work Thursday/Friday.

Monday was the CADMAC electric flight evening at Wolston. Weather was just about perfect. Got there a bit late to find everyone established upwind of the flyng circle, meaning launches had to be cross or downwind - crazy. There wasn't much wind, but it was still daft. Probably the biggest turn out ever of electric models, and fewer crashes. Electric has lost some of its novelty, and is now firmly established. There was a rocket powered glider too (electrically ignited). Unfortunately, it wasted about half its charge stuck on the pad. A bit of a fire risk ? I took both electric aircraft and the 2 helis, plus the Siesta. I had quite a long flight with the Eco8, after snagging the tail rotor initially in the long grass. Had time to sweep it side to side a bit, but didn't attempt any heading changes. When I noticed the charge going off a bit, I started to walk it back. Gradually increasing the stick, the fuse blew again, settling nicely to ground. Another 5A to add to the fuse rating.

Made a standalone circuit for the 2 channel V tail mixer PIC on a bit of veroboard. Only really needs the PIC, a resonator to clock it, and a decoupling capacitor - very small.

Saturday Steven went back to Portugal. We went to the Town and Country Festival at the NAC. More interesting than I was expecting. A bit expensive at £9 just to get in. Saw 1 of the Marconi sponsored Benetton Formula 1 cars (less engine). There was a bmfa display.

Sunday we went swimming.

Garden is now full of tiny froglets, making it too risky to cut the grass.

September.

Bank holiday Monday we went to Ufton village nature reserve. Another worked out site landscaped and left to go a bit wild. Not that special though.

Wednesday went swimming.

Marconi shares still plummeting. A new record low of 51.0p. Much doom and gloom. Friday we went down the pub for lunch again.

Had a closer look at the Eco8. It had blown a 30A fuse. It should be flying at about 20A, so it was surprising. I noticed that the flybar control arms were not very well attached to the flybar. Tightening attempts just revealed the 2mm screws stripped in the captive nuts. Not really up to the job. I replaced these with some 2.5mm screws, nuts and lock washers. I'm hoping that this will make the cyclic pitch control more positive. Also, any misalignment of the flybar affects the main rotor drag and hence the required tail pitch control ie. the slipping flybar might have been contributing to the tail wag. Anyway, I put another 30A fuse in to try this out. It didn't even get up to take off speed before it blew again. It was dusk, and I saw the blue flash, standing behind it. Probably the motor now has a few shorted turns in it. The Ikarus Sport motor seems to be a rather cheap entry level device with no ball races. I decided to miss out all the intermediate motors and go straight for the latest technology ie. a brushless/sensorless motor and controller. Decided on the Jeti Phasor 30/3 motor and JES 40-3P Opto controller. Despite being manufactured in eastern Europe at jetimodel.cz, these seem to be cheaper in the USA. Eventually ordered the horribly expensive units from West London Models.

Dug out my old OS 25 engine to use in the Uno Wot. It was horribly greasy, so I soaked it in gunk overnight. Now I can't get rid of the smell on it, although it has cleaned up a lot.

Sunday we went swimming again.

Garden still full of froglets. Carol cutting the grass carefully with a pair of shears.

Next Tuesday is CADMAC Long mynd slope soaring trip.

Added a few new links and pictures.

Monday was a CADMAC control line special evening. I helped out teaching someone to fly a little trainer thing. Haven't flown a control line aircraft for probably about 25 years. Not something you forget though. It is a bit 1 dimensional ie. only elevator control. After that Carol and I went off to the bat group meeting in Kenilworth.

Tuesday was the CADMAC Long Mynd slope soaring trip. Only about 5 of us this time. We lost a bit of time getting the van door closure sensors to not beep, finally getting onto the M6 north well after 10:00 - not a good time. There was a contraflow section further west. Once we got to the M54, all was clear, but we didn't get onto the hill until about 13:00. The wind was in the north so we went to the Darnford slope. The conditions were just about perfect. A north wind means you don't get the sun in your eyes too. I flew the zagi and stiletto for probably 10-15mins each. Even managed a few seconds of inverted flight with the stiletto, although I don't think anyone noticed. I walked back down the hill to fetch the siesta. 1st time off the slope, I got my dad to launch it. I was initially horrified at the lack of rudder control, thinking I had overdone it in reducing the dihedral to what I thought looked nice/sensible. Anyway, I soon got it under control. I think things just happen more slowly with an aircraft that size. Also rudder type controls need to swing the tail round 1st to get aileron effect out of the dihedral. Equal rates on the mixer left the elevator a bit sensitive, but OK with the transmitter rate swith on. Needed almost full down trim, a side effect of me not putting enough angle on the tail when I fitted it. It might benefit from more weight in the nose. Looked very nice in the air, lit up from behind with the rib structure of the wings showing. Dad fetched his vampire and flew it to much critical acclaim. I had another go with the zagi. We decided to pack up about 16:00 to get back at a reasonable time. Excellent day with no breakages (again), spoilt slightly by the traffic and the news about Marconi on the radio. The new motor and controller for the heli arrived too.

Wednesday bought a 5mm pinion gear for the Jeti Phasor motor. Lowest I could find was 17 teeth (there has to be some metal left). This is a lot more than the 10 recommended for the standard sport motor (3mm shaft). Probably OK though, as the motor is designed to be used ungeared driving a propellor directly. Fitted it that evening. I had to turn the brake feature off. It was like someone threw a spanner into the works, with a massive torque reaction as the motor goes from fast to a dead stop in ms. Too windy to try it properly, so I ran it up a bit indoors. There seems to be a bit of a sharp turn on, no matter how slowly I moved the stick. Even tried changing the throttle curve on the transmitter. I had to tighten up the blade fittings to stop them slewing back on start up. Still, very smooth in operation. Looks like it should do the job nicely.

Marconi shares still plummeting. A new record low of 27.0p. 2 top heads rolled on Tuesday. Much concern about the possibility of complete demise of the company. Time to get the CV updated. I started to get seriously worried.

Friday I was told that I am to be transferred as a wage slave to Marconi's manufacturing partner. Probably in November. The end of an era. I have been there for almost exactly 20 years. I don't want to go. I expected to stay indefinitely. I am now very stressed and finding it hard to sleep. Friday night weather was very stormy too. The (not very) funny thing is, if Marconi folds, there won't be any work for the partner to do.

Sunday we went swimming again. There was a craft fair in the village church. We had a walk up the bell tower to the roof. Good view of the surrounding countryside from up there.

Monday back at work and I have appealed against the transfer. I thought I made a good case, and it does seem to be being considered. However, I am looking at all of my options. Underlying all this is the concern for the future of Marconi. The slide in the share price seems to have stopped, and recovered a little.

Tuesday 11th September 2001. 1 of those days when you remember where you were, what you were doing etc. I was at work trying to avoid being transferred, when the news started to leak in over the internet. Some hijacked aircraft crashed into some highly symbolic buildings in the US. Not exactly incredible, but a surprise. They seem to be intent on hitting back at someone, even though they are not sure who did it. Very worrying, what it will escalate into. I don't think this was actually the beginning of the story.

Saturday was mostly spent looking at bits for a new bathroom. I don't think this is a particularly good time to be spending money, but Carol is very keen.

I've booked a 1 week holiday for next week. I was hoping to get some jobs done, but I am feeling rather stressed and ill at the moment.

A week off work. Mostly spent rationalising my hoard of junk, involving many trips down the tip.

The 30th anniversary special on The Old Grey Whistle Test was a bit of a waste of time, because of the clips selected. Why not just repeat the whole thing?

Friday lunchtime I went down the pub to see people from work, and worry about the future in company. Jes came to visit.

Marconi share price hit new record low of 19.00p.

2 new Long Mynd pictures. Siesta 1st flight.

Last day of September. A storm coming (maybe in several senses).

Marconi share price hit new record low of 15.75p. It went through the psychologically important 16.03p which exactly 1/100th of the trigger point for us getting 1000 free shares. It may soon reach 1/100th of its highest point ie. 12.50p. Still no news on my appeal.

Friday John (my manager for the last few years) left Marconi. We all went down the pub at lunchtime. A strange day.

Saturday Carol and I took Maxine down to Stratford to collect her new(ish) 125 bike from where she has been doing CBT. Set out on the bikes in pouring rain, but it brightened up nicely later. Carol's bike not charging again.

Sunday we had a clear out of the cupboards, ready for the new bathroom which is coming soon. Found several things that have been missing for months.

Next Tuesday is the CADMAC Long Mynd trip, but the weather looks doubtful.

October. The predicted storm wasn't that strong. The Americans haven't started bombing yet. Er... stop press, they just have.

Marconi share price hit new record low of 12.25p, crossing the 1/100th of the highest point of £12.50 as I expected/predicted. Seems to have gone back up to about 18p now. Have we seen the turn round yet?

Tuesday was the CADMACLong Mynd trip. We decided to go despite the wind and rain. I took Lee along. We had an accidental trip to Stafford after I missed the M54 turn off, but still made good time, getting on the hill about 11:00. Started off at Ashes Hollow for the supposed south wind. I managed to walk into 1 of the wooden bollards at the edge of the car park, leaving a bit of a bruised shin. Anyway, the wind was actually coming more from the west, so we took all the aircraft to bits again and headed over to the main slope. The wind was far too strong for my liking, but I flew the Zagi quite successfully. Very difficult to get penetration on the more level part of the slope, with much nicer air further out. We had an aircraft blow away across the hill which took some finding (Lee found it). This turned out to be due to a coiled up Rx antenna. Lee had a go with my Zagi, doing quite well until it got blown back acros the hill. More trekking across the heather searching for it. I thought we might have to leave it there, but Lee eventually found it. I didn't want to risk my other aircarft in those conditions. Lee flew his (diesel engine ballasted) aerojet. I flew it at 1st. A bit tricky with 2 channels on different sticks. Lee had quite a long flight with it before the (almost inevitable) crunch bent the wing root (again). Still, quite a successful day out. Most people looking forward to the CADMACindoor flying due to start in 2 weeks.

Carol fixed her bike (got it charging). problem was just a corroded connector.

Last thing Friday at work they announced the latest version of the transfer list. I'm not on it. It seems that my appeal has succeeded, although this probably has more to do with other people volunteering to go, than with me wanting to stay. The future of Marconi itself is a bit of an unknown.

Saturday we went to see Otway. Apparently 3 days after his actual 49th birthday, but the nearest weekend. I'm used to seeing just him and Richard, but here was a full band. I'm not sure it actually helped much. Just the 2 of them helps to highlight the pathetic desperation of his career. He seems quite convinced about next year's 2nd hit. It seems the London Palladium is already booked. There were also 2.5 verses of a new song (no tune yet), called "bunsen burner" which I thought was quite good. I had meant to buy the Premature Adulation CD, but there was a bit too much of a rush for the exit going on.

Sunday we've been getting the bathroom ready for the new installation starting Monday. We now have most of the bits in the garage, but some still missing. We also had to do a bit of quick reselection of taps, when we couldn't get a matching set of the type we wanted.

Bathroom install week. Still not actually finished - probably next Tuesday. The room was cleared except for the loo on the 1st day. Even now, the only thing in there is the new 1. All that tiling is taking a long time. Also, the pipes are being dropped into the walls, which will make a nice clean effect. We managed to gain a little space by moving the cistern back the other side of the wall, into a cupboard. Very pleased with the standard of work. Horribly expensive.

Serviced the hornet heli, ready for the CADMAC indoor flying next week. Put a new pinion gear on the front of the tail shaft drive. Replaced the Rx antenna which had been chewed and lost some insulation when it got wrapped around the main shaft. Reworked the power pack fixing from the horrid dangly thing to something more attached to the horizontal beams of the undercarriage. This might cause them to break in a heavy landing (alright - crash) though. Flew it in the drive (the grass is still too long and full of frogs). Nice and smooth, but a bit underpowered. I really ought to remove the (rather heavy) training undercarriage. I'm slightly tempted to buy a fixed wing thing to fly as well. Not sure I want to spend the money, but it is only once a year...

My IEEE membership stuff eventually arrived.

Last week Jes' dad died. Friday I took the day off work and went to the funeral. Dad and Adrian went too.

Added a bit (quite a lot) about the 1987 holiday in history.

Bathroom installation 2nd week. Should have finished on Tuesday, but inadequate provision of spare floor tiles for breakages left us with some missing tiles. Finally sorted late Thursday. Still, a nice job. Minor problems include the fact that the gravity fed shower is now even more pathetic than it was before, probably due to the new pipes in the wall and the new isolation valves. Yet to fit an extractor fan into the 100mm hole that the fitter made for us.

Thursday we went to see Heather Nova at the Birmingham Academy (horribly expensive tickets and drinks). Curiously, something started rattling badly on the car and eventually fell off. Can't find anything missing though? Anyway, it was a very intimate do, with Heather on guitar and vocals, another guitar (part time keyboard) and drums. We missed the cello. I missed the heavy rock guitar. Still, the performance was excellent. Didn't play my favourite Sugar, although it wouldn't sound right with that lineup. On Wednesday I bought the new CD South. I'm not entirely convinced by this - it seems to be increasingly aimed at commercial success, when compared with the earlier stuff. Early days yet though.

Friday I had the day off work (originaly to see the bathroom finished). Went to see the french film Le Pacte des Loupes (Brotherhood of the Wolves). Apparently based on a true story. Despite some nice touches and excellent photography, it was ultimately a bit silly. Oh yes, and everyone was Kung Fu fighting (ludicrous). It was only showing at the Odeon Skydome which is stupidly expensive and painfully loud.

Saturday was the 1st CADMACindoor flying session of the winter. Not really enough people there to break even on the finances. I was the last of 14 RC flyers to sign in. having said that, the pressure for airspace/time was just right. Jes was up this way so came along (still nothing to fly though). Adrian and the kids too. Lee and Jo came along. Lee had already finished his Pico Stick and flew it successfully (lost a wheel tyre though). There were a lot of the next (just released) offering from GWS - a yellow biplane sharing a lot of technology with the stick. I flew the hornet heli through 3 charges. After an initial check out, I removed the training undercarriage. It now climbs easily until the last few seconds of charge. It seems to have lost some of the steadiness, probably due to the reduced mass in general and the moment of inertia of those long sticks in particular. I got increasingly confident, and eventually made a mistake I have made before. Rather than try to do a circuit, fixed wing style, I decided to try to just spin it quickly on its axis and recover when pointing the right way again. Unfortunately, the current setting of the tail gyro won't allow very rapid rates of turn. By the time it got round to pointing at me it was tilted forward. I should have pulled back, but instead I stuck with plan A, waiting for it to go right round. It hit the wall quite hard and took the main rotor head off, splitting the molding where it fits to the main shaft. If it was still a carbon shaft it might have just broken that, but the steel replacement wasn't about to let go. Oh well, I don't suppose it will cost much. At least I've proved I can fly it without the sticks. later inspection showed that there had been a tail boom strike, breaking off the pushrod guide and half slicing through the Rx antenna.

Finally got the shower sorted. We had been supplied with a narrow bore shower hose. Fitting a wide bore version, suitable for gravity fed mixer taps, got it back to normal. Still to get power to the extractor fan.

Put the hornet heli back together again. A new head pivot was £4.99. Bit of a long job dismantling and reassembling most of the main rotor head. I couldn't get the tail pushrod guide to stick back on with superglue - surface too uneven. Used epoxy instead. Running it up in the kitchen, I found I had no tail control. The control horn takeoff had broken away from the slider (again). A dab of superglue fixed that. Now ready to go again. The next CADMAC indoor flying session 10th Nov has been cancelled due to a double booking. It may be rescheduled.

Sunday went round on the bike to see dad. While I was there, we felt something happen about 16:30. At 1st we thought there had been an explosion or something. Apparently there was an earth tremor somewhere in Leicestershire.

November.

Saturday afternoon we went to see Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain (Amelie from Montmartre). This was excellent, and very french. I was slightly annoyed by the colour which seemed rather dark, no doubt done for effect.

Started on building the uno wot trainer aircraft. Having thought about it quite a lot, decided to slim down the fuselage to just enough to take the tank and servos. This should save a bit of weight and make it cleaner in the air. Also replace the rubber band wing fixing with a dowel and nylon screw arrangement like the gliders.

Next Tuesday is CADMACLong Mynd slope soaring. The next CADMAC indoor flying session 10th Nov is back on again at an alternative venue - where? New excellent picture of the hornet flying at the last session.

Had some fun and games with the bathroom extractor fan (Greenwood Airvac). When we (Carol actually) had installed and powered it, we tried turning it on. The motor started, but the slats remained closed. Of course we turned it off quickly, not wanting to burn out a stalled motor. I dismantled the solenoid that actuates the slats. Mysterious white sticky/foamy stuff all round the metal actuator itself which was getting quite hot. Anyway we decided it was just faulty and having lost the receipt, bought another - excatly the same. Thinking it might be a high resistance supply leading to a low voltage, we made up a test harness - still the same. I left it running, and after about a minute the slats gradually opened over about 15secs. Itseems that the actuator is not a solenoid at all, but a heat activated hydraulic pump! The foam stuff is there to keep it hot. It takes a similar time to close too. Oh well.

Tuesday was CADMAC Long Mynd slope soaring. Almost a complete minibus full. M6 was almost stationary, so we went down the A5. Wind was slightly north of west, so on the main slope again. A bit strong, so I only took the zagi out at 1st. The wind dropped a bit at lunchtime, and I got the stiletto in the air. I haven't flown it for a couple of months. It was wonderfully smooth and positive compared to the rather mushy zagi. I think my flying has improved a bit. I can sometimes land within a reasonable walking distance. There was a Phoenix Model Products pzazz flying, which I initially mistook for a stiletto. Laying them on top of each other revealed only a few differences - slightly longer nose, wingspan and thicker section (on the pzazz). Shame the bit of sun we could see in the distance didn't make over to where we were. Still, lots of flying.

Saturday was CADMAC indoor flying moved from the sports centre to a nearby school hall. Although it was smaller, there was enough space for the people that turned up. There was even a pylon race for pico-sticks. In true grand prix fashion only 1 (of 4) actually managed to complete the 10 lap course. Lee (pico-stick), Jo and Mike were there. I flew the Eco8 for the 1st time with its new Jeti Phasor motor/controller. There is now plenty of power and duration, although the head speed seems a bit low - probably needs a bigger gear on the motor. It actually flew for so long, it started to get boring - I couldn't really move it about much because of safety in the confined space. I put several charges through the hornet, even managing to trim it out a bit. Chris had a go with it and thought it a bit more positive with the metal shaft, but that it was tail heavy. I started to fly it up and down the hall a bit later, eventually managing to crash it into the wall (again). Unstuck the tail in the main chassis and the tail control slider (again). Had a look at the mscomposit site - the collective pitch head is due out early next year - there are pictures of it flying inverted.

Progress on the uno wot is a bit slow.

Monday night saw the welcome return to our screens of Steve Coogan in Dr Terrible's House of Horrible. Didn't quite understand where it was coming from at 1st, but watching closer revealed the art.

Friday would have been my last day with Marconi, had I been transferred. It will still be a bit strange next week, with a large part of the department gone. The BBC2 Money Programme featured the breathtaking fall in the fortunes of Marconi, but it didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know.

A bit of progress on the uno wot. Fabricated the formers and stuck the doublers, longerons onto the ply fuselage sides. Considering getting a carbon composite undercarriage from ats-mayneline. Starting to think about how to drop servos into the wing.

Updated projects a bit. Added 2 pictures from the CADMAC November indoor flight session.

Monday after the split and I'm still with Marconi.

A bit more progress on the uno wot. Finally found someone with some Hitec HS81MG servos and control snakes other than the horrid things with yellow fluted inners - phoenixmp. They even arrived just 16hours later. So now I can drill the holes in the formers and stick the sides to them.

Very disappointed with the carbon composite undercarriage from ats-mayneline. Still sticky from the release agent, and unfinished on 3 sides. I think I expected something up the standard of the heli rotor blades. I think I'll now stick to the wire undercarriage that came in the kit.

Stuck the Hornet heli tail slider control arm back on with superglue (again). Unfortunately got some in the ball race. Thought I'd better keep it moving till it went off, so I assembled it and ran the motor up. Too late - it was tsuck fast and just tore 2 teeth off the tail drive gear. Replaced that with my last spare and freed of the slider manually. Now ready for the CADMAC December indoor flight session.

Sunday Lee persuaded me to go flying, despite the rain. Flew the electric glider thing 3x. Just as heavy as ever, but easy to fly.

Decided to treat myself to an in car CD player. After some research decided on a Sony CDX-L450. Somehow managed to persuade Halfords to match internet prices. I didn't know about ISO standardisation of connectors - at last an outbreak of common sense. Needed an adapter for my old car though.

December. xmas is coming.

The Rick Wakeman 2000 DVD arrived at last. Not very impressed. Just him playing various keyboards live with no backup. A lot of it seems too fast and over fussy. The actual keyboard sounds don't seem that good, even on the CD.

Tuesday we went to see the Harry Potter film. I thought it was quite good, much better than I was expecting. Managed to avoid the dreadful american influence that normally happens. There seems to be some derivation going on here - the climax even has music that sounds a bit like that from Star Wars. I suspect we are going to find out something interesting about Harry's parents in the future.
I became an uncle (again) when my sister Amanda had another daughter - Sophie.

Friday was the CADMAC annual social/games evening, which was well attended. Despite doing well in the games, I didn't win any chocolates.

Saturday was the CADMAC indoor flight session.back in the Coventry sports centre. Best attendance so far, I think, with 24 RC flyers. Of course the extra density led to more carnage in the air with several aircraft getting shredded. The Pico Stick pylon racing had its best showing so far with about 10 competitors. Lee managed to come 3rd. I flew the Hornet. The tail pitch slider control arm fell off again almost straight away even without any serious stress. Fortunately I had invested in a spare preassembled unit ready. Bit of a game fitting it, but then had a couple of good flights. Even managed a bit of left side in flying.

Sunday. Put the xmas tree up. Changed the home page logo to the falling snow version.

Next Tuesday is the last Saturday was the CADMAC Long Mynd slope soaring session this year.

Monday was the CADMAC AGM. Lee joined up.

Tuesday was the CADMAC Long Mynd trip. A good bus full, and nice sunny weather, but a bit too windy. Probably the windiest I've ever flown the zagi - great fun with lots of radical flying losing lots of height, then get back on the elevator for some more. Low stress flying when you know it will bounce, and didn't take much building anyway. Even managed a bit of inverted flight, although it went a bit wrong when I tried to fly it across the slope inverted. Graham and I eventually managed a contact in the air while cooperating in a bit of combat. I didn't want to risk anything else in that wind. Some people with fewer aircraft did and regretted it. Lee trashed his aerojet (again). Mike of the LMSA was there flying something called a pike very impressively. Massive queue on the M6 going home, all the way back up the M54 - just people looking at an accident on the other side.

Wednesday had my odd half day holiday off. Bought a couple of DVDs in a multi deal. Run Lola Run and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. This by recommendation, but yet to see it.

Thursday my Tomb Raider DVD finally arrived from play247 after 9 days in the post.

Sunday. Bought a network starter kit to get the 2nd PC connected. Much fun and games getting it working.

Still haven't got to the end ofCroching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Tuesday got the car serviced. Most of £500 - ouch! Probably not too bad, considering it hasn't been done for about 3 years.

Wednesday off, using up leftover holiday.

The network starter kit has defeated me. I can get the 2 PCs pinging to each other nicely, typically at 1ms, but any large file movements over the network take a very long time, and usually timeout, locking up the connection. There are so many adapters, clients, protocols, services, that there are an enormous number of combinations to try. I must have tried most of them by now. Also no success with sharing printers - it always complains about them being offline, although the share itself is visible. It seems that win98 is known to be a bit funny as far as networks are concerned (different to win95). May need to phone for support.

Nearly xmas - ho ho ho. We're actually getting an extra free day off work this year (xmas eve), even though the reason for it has gone away (the factory was supposed to be empty).

No new Tomb Raider game this year. May have to do something useful with all this time off. Still, at least we had the film this year.

Now seen all ofCrouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I can see that it is well made, and there is more to it than just the fighting, but I still don't think that it is 1 of the best films. I suppose that the wire work is state of the art, but it still looks like people swinging about on wires that have been painted out later. It also conforms to the hollywood standard of using lethal weapons with minimal consequences.

Wednesday off again, using up leftover holiday.

Lee came round to help get the network working. After removing most of the other hardware it finally started working after I disabled "browse master" on the file and printer sharing service. This may not be significant though as enabling it again didn't bring the problem back. It seems that I need the 2nd edition of win98 on at least 1 of the PCs to share the modem with ICS.

New xmas snow scene background on the home page - just for xmas.

A day late updating the site. We went to see Lord of the Rings last night. There was rather a lot of it. The effects are of course very special, but it suffers from the usual problem of transferring a book (which I have not read) with loads of characters to the screen. I get the impression that it was developed as it was written ie. without any grand plan. Interesting to see the parallels with Star Wars. It's fun looking at Middle Earth in the context of early 20th century Europe. The bad guys look pretty ferocious, but considering the head count of them to the good guys, they are absolutely rubbish at fighting. Of course, it ends 1/3 of the way through the story. Can we bothered with the other 2 bits? Saw trailers for Spiderman (good) and Star Wars 2, which looks like the usual nonsense.

A bit of a quiet xmas at home. Went round to Dad's boxing day.

Rented Beautiful Creatures and Ginger Snaps DVDs. Both rather good.

Finally found time to play with my PIC chips again. Got the C compiler working. This makes life a lot easier than trying to work in machine code. Managed to use the interrupt facility to make more efficient use of the processor. Got the ultrasonic ranging module triggered and reporting to an 8bit led display, and playing a note out of the speaker representing the range. It seems that it may be pushing it a bit to achieve a height maintaining module for a heli out of the 16F84A. Probably be better off with a higher end chip with built in PCM modules.

Found I can load a midi file into a piano roll editor, and print screen. This is almost as good as tab for the guitar.

Moved the uno wot on a bit. Fitted the undercarriage retaining bits to the fuselage. Modded 2 of the servos so that the lead exits the base rather than the side, to make them easier to lose inside the wing. The original wing has a straight leading edge and swept forward trailing. I think I might lose a bit in the join and make a more traditional swept back arrangement.

We went to Oxford today. Lovely sunny day. Blackwells bookshop has a very civilised coffee/sandwich bar with sofas etc. Interestingly, Waterstones at the other end of the road now has 1 too. Excellent park and ride experience. If only all public transport was that good. Frosty drive back with stars and an almost full moon in the sky.

Dug out all my leftover foreign money before it becomes obsolete. Almost £200!

Now, bring on the Euro...