home aircraft books history links old news quotes soft sounds weather
News 2002.01.06 (Sunday) | 12 hits this week. 548 total.
2002. Back to the normal red site. The snow can stay until spring shows itself though. Back to work Wednesday. It still seems a bit holiday period. Saturday took the tree down. We went to town as usual. Found a new book in Waterstones on nothing in particular. There is now a web site for the LMSA. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.01.13 (Sunday) | 23 hits this week. 571 total.
Tuesday 1st trip to the Long Mynd. Not very promising forecast, but we went anyway. Over to Ashes Hollow through the fog. Visibility was about 100m with hardly any wind. I took the stiletto and siesta over but decided not to risk flying in those conditions. Lee persuaded me to fly his aircraft. I managed to lose sight of it when turnng away from the slope to get what lift there was - it survived. Later on the fog lifted and the wind dropped even further. I had a go with the siesta. It seemed a bit tail heavy, and I ran out of down trim - could be because everything was extremely damp, including the water droplets on the tail. I soon got fed up with fetching it from further down the slope. The new LMSA site used some of my pictures to illustrate the flying sites. Friday we saw the 1st episode of Black Books, which we missed last time - excellent. New Smack the Pony is also good. Saturday was indoor flight at the Coventry sports centre again. Jes brought his new pico stick and competed in the pylon racing. Dad had his newly completed pico stick too. And Lee with pico stick #2. Maybe I should get 1. Fair amount of carnage with 3 aircraft at a time trying to use the same airspace. I flew the hornet through 3 charges with no crashes. Started zooming about a bit, using more air, but still not flying it nose in. Back at work we've had a reorganisation. I seem to have been dragged back to my old hardware job. Oh well, at least it is still with Marconi. A few more hits on the site than usual this week. Could be because of the pics being used for the LMSA site, or could be because I mentioned it in a newsgroup at work. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.01.20 (Sunday) | 15 hits this week. 586 total.
Monday went out and bought a pico stick. Couldn't get an Rx xtal for my normal power channel, so I had to buy a new Tx xtal. Now almost ready to go. Only mods done were: swapped the servos round to get correct control sense without flipping the switches from my normal Tx setup, rotated the Rx so that the antenna exits more naturally to the rear, trimmed most of the lead length off the speed controller, used 3mm carbon rod in place of the wooden wing dowels. The next set of CADMAC events has been published. It seems there are to be 3 more indoor flight sessions at the Coventry sports centre, presumably due to their success. So I should get plenty of use out of the new pico stick this year. Marconi announced more dodgy financial results and yet more job losses. Saturday we went to Stratford. Sunday we went swimming at the university. Despite the blustery, rainy weather, Lee talked me into going flying zagis at Bradgate park. Southwest/west winds. We tried a couple of slopes, having most success flying from the monument. A bit of a shallow slope, but there was enough wind to keep a zagi up, but not enough for zooming about. We both had more than 30mins in the air. 1 other aircraft over there. As the light was going I started to get trouble with my radio, slight jitters and strange offsets. At home it cleared up after a while, before I had time to decide Tx or Rx by using another aircraft. I think it was probably damp getting in, most likely into the Tx pulse generation area. Reviewed the links, updating a few pointers and logos. Split up the history into several separate pages. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.01.27 (Sunday) | 10 hits this week. 596 total.
Monday morning my Final Fantasy DVD arrived from play247. This was on the day it was released, and cheaper than in the shops - excellent. Watching it again shows the weaknesses of the plot, but it is still an important, ground breaking film. Repeated watching is really required, as the 1st few times you tend to be admiring the quality of the animation. The DVD (2 actually) is stuffed full of extras. Friday we went to the CADMAC extra indoor
flight session at Coundon Court school. I really wanted to fly the new
pico stick for the 1st time, but the sports hall there
is very small and there were a lot of people and aircraft, so I didn't
risk it. Really need to get it trimmed before the next Coventry sports
centre racing session - may have to fly it outdoor. The weather is
rather less than ideal, so I may not get the chance. I have now
soldered an extra bit of piano wire across the undercarriage, making an
A frame. This should help with the rather ungainly collapse that
usually results from heavy landings. I gave up with the thread dihedral
string, as it was just too stretchy, replacing it with a bit of single
core bell wire. Sunday we went swimming again at the university. Reviewed a few more links, updating pointers and logos. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.02.03 (Sunday) | 15 hits this week. 611 total.
February. Got my Smack The Pony DVD from play247. Shame it's not the whole 2 series. Also, you would think you would be able to turn off the canned laughter with DVD technology, but no. Power went off (again) in the week. Decided to go for it and buy a generator. Bought a Clarke 2.5KVA unit from Machine Mart. Power came back on after about 2 hours, so we didn't get around to actually using it. Had a bit of a look at it today. It was supposed to need oil, but it looks like it has plenty. The paperwork seems to cover the engine and the alternator separately, but not the overall operation. There is presumably some sort of demand feedback loop. Saturday was indoor flight again. 1st opportunity to actually fly
the pico stick. Got there reasonably early. It flew
pretty well straight away, but I needed to tighten the wing string even
more to get a decently tight turn out of it. Unfortunately the 2 wing
panels in my kit seem to have come from diferent material, with the
left being weaker, and so bending more than the right. Entered the
pylon racing. In the 1st round, I waited a couple of seconds at the
start line to get some clear air for the takeoff. Managed a fairly
clean 10 laps in 70 seconds, which put me in 3rd place. 2nd round I
tried the same strategy, but after a couple of laps 1 of the others
descended onto me and it fell out of the air. Analysis revealed that
the prop had run across the back end of the centre of the wings,
leaving a dent/scar and separating the wings. It had also pulled out
the lead from the speed controller to the Rx, removing all power from
the control system. The main fuselage plastic frame partially broke
away from the stick, probably on impact with the ground. The servos had
popped out of their mountings blocks, as they're supposed to. Stick
itself was still intact. 10mins fiddling with it, and an extra cable
tie had it back together. Carol had a bit of a quick go with it, but
definitely some more simulator time required. I think I might make up a
buddy box trainer lead, since I have 2 Txs. I'm convinced that the pico
stick needs some downthrust on the motor, as it drops its nose horribly
when the power is cut. Need some proper air time outdoors to properly
trim it. A freewheel on the prop would help. Looks like there will be a CADMAC open glider competition at Warwick Racecourse this year Sunday 12th May. Sunday we went swimming again at the university. Long Mynd again next Tuesday. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.02.10 (Sunday) | 15 hits this week. 626 total.
Monday was the CADMAC Concours d'Elegance. After last year's poor showing I thought it might be quite easy to win something just by bringing anything along. Took my siesta glider along. thinking along the same lines I took the hornet and some paper planes. As it turned out, there actually were some other gliders there. The siesta, hornet and paper planes came 5th, 6th and 7th out of about 8 or 9. In fact there were no individual categories to win as such, points being allocated on the basis of attention to detail and difficulty in the build process - oh well. The Tuesday trip to the Long Mynd was cancelled, mainly because of
the horrible wet weather, but also because the availability of the van
was suspect. I had booked the day off already, and spent a fairly lazy
day tidying up. Started looking at boarding the loft to make a home for
more of my stuff. Thursday got my Classic Rock Legends Hawkwind DVD from play247. A much better effort this, originally filmed to be shown on TV, the visuals and sound reproduction are quite good. Could have done without the fire eaters dancing out of time though. Saturday finally got around to firing up the generator. Despite what they said in the shop, the oil level was just fine. It started quite easily on full choke, but coughed and spluttered a bit. Turned the choke off pretty well straight away and it was much happier. Tried the electrics with a table lamp, but nothing heavier yet. This month's RCME has an article on the FMS flight sim and its various control options including Tx to serial port interface. The circuit looked very familiar ie. the same as the IPACS flight sim. I downloaded the free FMS thing some time ago and had a go with the keyboard, but hadn't looked at inteface options. I never thought to just try it with my existing interface - doh. It has much better graphics and frame rate, but lacks the other's more realistic flight modelling. Sunday we went slope soaring at Burton Dassett county park, partly due to missing out on the Long Mynd in the week. Decided to miss swimming and went early to get in some time before the weather turned. The site suffers from its usual problems of being too popular because of its convenience, meaning rather congested airspace and risks to walkers and kite flyers, along with turbulent air from the trees at the bottom of the slope and a lack of a decent landing area. £1.30 to park too ! Still, Lee and I had a lot of air time with the zagis, even managing a bit of combat contact, Lee managing to knock us both out of the air at 1 point. Got the stiletto out too, but decided against risking it. The solarfilm elevon hinges are breaking away again on the zagi. Think I might put some mylar in there. Found out about the South Midlands Soaring Association and their www.smsa.co.uk. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.02.17 (Sunday) | 15 hits this week. 641 total.
Spent some time this week playing with the FMS flight sim. Downloaded various aircraft and scenery files. Its high resolution and fast frame rate (manages 1280 x 1024 at 25 fps on my PC) make it much better than the Ikarus sim for learning to fly a heli (or fixed wing). I feel a lot more confident with nose in hovering now. The most difficult for me seems to be 90degrees pointing to the right for some reason - probably connected with me liking to do left hand circuits. I found that it is easier with something other than a heli, which has very few identifying features. I spent a lot of time using the thunderbird2 (no pod). The zagi looks and behaves very much like the real thing, although I haven't found a way to slope soar yet. I have to winch launch it. The serial interface that I am using suffers a bit from jitters. I think this is because other processes are making calls on the operating system, which means that a pulse transition may not be noticed exactly when it happens. If this is correct, it should be a lot cleaner with the new PIC version where the PIC does the measuring in real time to 10us resolution, and then transmits byte values repesenting the various pulses over the serial port. These will get buffered, removing the time critical problem. Sunday we went swimming. I washed my car at last. Added a new picture from the Jan Long Mynd trip. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.02.24 (Sunday) | 20 hits this week. 661 total.
Monday I turned 43. Black and white cat died aged 18. I will miss him terribly. I'm missing him now. He had a long comfortable life. His brother black 1 survives him. Didn't feel like doing much for most of the week. Read quite a bit of the nothing book. Friday revamped the zagi a bit. I had hinged the elevons with solarfilm, rather than using more of the reinforced covering tape, because I like to cover things before fitting the control surfaces. The solarfilm doesn't stick very well, and is in itself not very strong, leading to the elevons getting partly disconnected when trying to carry it in strong winds. Decided to use traditional mylar inserts. No problem on the balsa elevon side, but the black epp foam inside the main structure is horribly intractable stuff, tending to just compress when you try to cut it. In the end, at Carol's suggestion I stapled the mylar into the main structure, which looks a bit strange, but seems quite secure. Also remounted the fins. Saturday I downloaded the FMS filght sim version 2.0 beta 7. This seems a bit improved over the older version I had before. I couldn't get to the menu after changing resolution without, escaping out and restarting. Now the menu is always present. A new 32bit dll for serial port access seems to have improved the accuracy of the Tx interface. New thermal lift option. PIC serial Tx interface. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.03.03 (Sunday) | 10 hits this week. 671 total.
March. Got tempted by a 2 DVDs for £25 offer and bought X-men and Aliens. A bit daft really as I've seen X-men 2x and I have Aliens on VHS, but it's nice to have digital copy, and there are a few extras.
Saturday was indoor flying again. Several flights with the hornet, including attempts at figure 8 circuits, but I didn't quite get around to trying nose in. Managed to fly out 2 rounds of pico pylon racing without damage. I even got 3rd best time, qualifying for the flyoff. I should have known something was wrong when no one told me when I had done 10 laps. Turns out 2 of the timers were following 1 of the others so my time was not recorded ! Based on the relative flying speeds they let me have 2nd place though. 1st Black Books of the 2nd series was a bit disappointing. Still worth watching though. Changed back to the lake logo. Added the amazon.fr link. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.03.10 (Sunday) | 11 hits this week. 682 total.
Tuesday was the CADMAC Long Mynd slope soaring trip. The best day flying so far. Fresh sunshine all day, clean medium strength west wind straight onto the Pole Cot slope. Very popular - we had a minibus full plus 3 cars. Got loads of flying in, including all 3 of my gliders. Didn't even go back to the car at lunchtime. Managed sustained inverted flight with the stiletto, up and down the slope. Looped the siesta a few times, rather gently, as I don't think it was designed for that sort of thing. There were 4 zagis including mine, Lee's, Graham's and dad's new 1. Also a zagi thl. We had several goes at combat. Lee managed to knock my left fin off, resulting in a rather inelegant landing. Stuck it back on. Later, Graham managed to knock off the right fin. Took lots of photos, which should be up here soon. Saturday was helping out with Carol's jumble sale at the village hall in aid of the Cats Protection League. Made £98.85. You can actually move about in the garage now. Took advantage of the space and flew the hornet heli in there. 2nd Black Books was rather good, I thought. Got my dvd of the 1st series. Once again, Channel 4 have not bothered to separate out the canned laughter. The pond is full of amorous frogs at the moment. Had another go at updating the links. Finally figured out how to do html targets. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.03.17 (Sunday) | 13 hits this week. 695 total.
Got my dvd of the 2nd series of Spaced. Saturday we went to bike trade show at the NAC Stoneleigh. It was a bit small and expensive. Probably about time I flew the big helicopter some more. Fitted a larger gear with more teeth on the motor to increase the head speed. Realised I can now fast charge aircraft control packs (as opposed to motor power) with the peak detect charger that I now use for the pico stick. The frogs seem to have left the pond (full of potential froglets). Sunday I finished the nothing book. Very good it was too. Added back to the top links to the links. Started adding aircraft. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.03.24 (Sunday) | 11 hits this week. 706 total.
Monday was a visit from overlander at the cadmac meeting. Bought a 300mAh 8.4V nimh pack for the pico stick. Interesting that it is exactly the right size for the hole in the frame, unlike the 250mAh nicad pack that came with the kit. Almost as though it was designed around that pack. Takes ages to charge it using the hornet charger, but goes very well. Now the daylight's lasting a bit longer, I got round to trying the eco8 heli in the garden. Now has a larger motor gear (21 teeth) to increase the head speed. The tail seems a bit more stable now and the duration is quite good. I'm about ready to try nose in, after all the practice on the sim, but I want it a bit further away from me than I can get it in the garden - there's rather a lot of energy stored in those whizzy rotors. Trip to Wolston required. Friday the marconi share price fell from about 20p to about 6p finally coming back up to aboutt 10p. Something to do with the banks. Saturday we did the litter pick along the approach roads around the village. Managed to fill 3 bin bags between us. Didn't happen last year so there was 2 years of it. Sunday I went to work. Did a bit more to aircraft. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.03.31 (Easter Sunday) | 9 hits this week. 715 total.
Monday Carol was driving back into the village following a pickup truck which promptly stopped and reversed into her car, which is now well crumpled. Apparently the driver had seen something in the hedge and reversed up to have a look, without checking 1st of course. Now waiting for insurance to deal with it. Tuesday went swimming in Coventry central. Very warm but a strange plastic smell and cold showers. Read a bit more Herodotus. Now completed book 3/9. Friday supposed to be holiday but went to work. Took the bike, partly to let Carol have the car. Started researching digital cameras. I think they are getting affordable now. Looking at internetcamerasdirect I eventually selected a Fuji FinePix 2600 Zoom. 2M pixel, 3x optical zoom, 16MB smartmedia, usb, 2x AA 1700mAh nimhs and charger all included in the standard package. Also small avi movies (no sound) £238 from internetcamerasdirect (their #2 top seller), but I thought I might try to get some local price matching after seeing it for real. Saturday we went to town and I tried to buy the camera. It seems it is very popular, as all the camera shops had it on offer but no stock, same with Index, Argos. Eventually managed to find 1 in a display case at the smaller Argos for £250. Also got a 64MB smartmedia card for £35. Could do with some spare nimhs though. Got all the software installed. It is extremely well sorted. The camera is pretty well point and click, and merely connecting the usb cable and turning it on starts up the viewing/transfer software. It can also function as a "live" camera/web cam. Did a bit more to aircraft. Added 3 more Long Mynd pics from the excellent March trip. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.04.07 (Sunday) | 10 hits this week. 725 total.
April. Tuesday was supposed to be a Long Mynd slope soaring trip, but with the wind in the SE and Ashes Hollow out of action during the nesting season, we decided not to go. Maybe next week. Went to work instead. Lovely sunny warm weather this week. Took the bike to work. New photo with the new camera. Carol's car has gone off to be repaired. Saturday found a book to keep me away from the rather hard work of Herodotus. Scientific Blunders. How even famous scientists held fast to outrageous ideas in the face of the evidence. Saturday was the last cadmac indoor flight session of this winter. Not quite as many as last time. I guess the sunny evenings really do make it inappropriate in the summer. Test flew the pico stick with what charge was left in the nimhs. It was not pulling very well, which is not surprising considering most of the power was already gone, but I decided to stick with the trusty nicads for the racing. Managed 71secs in the 1st round which put me 3rd (of about 8). Meanwhile the hornet had been charging up. Strange that it had still not peaked out (later realised that I had the charger set to the 300mAh setting for the pico stick). Decided to fly it anyway. A quick check out with normal tail in flight, then I decided to go for it and fly it nose in. The time on the simulator has helped a lot. I quickly managed a few 10sec hovers before it got a bit dodgy. It did get a bit bashed at 1st, including the tail boom breaking loose in the housing, but that doesn't stop it flying. By the time the charge was gone I was getting quite reasonable at it. 2nd round I managed 70secs and was still 3rd. Chris' stick got destroyed in the 2nd round which I think left me and the 2 Grahams for the flyoff. Just before the flyoff Lee managed to fly his stick straight into mine, which was sitting against the wall trickle charging, ripping the rudder from the fin - eek ! A bit of sellotape got it working again. I think I managed about 5 laps before the mid air at the far pylon. Wings pulled out, but otherwise ok. I dashed over and put it back together and finished 2nd (again). I started a bit too late in the season to do well overall though. I took the new camera and took a few videos of Chris' hornet. This worked reasonably well although the low light level shows. After the flying we dashed over to see Otway (with big band) do the usual set. Bought 2 CDs Premature Adulation and Under the Covers and Over the Top. Sunday was Daffodil Sunday and we went over to see the local estate on the 1 day each year that it is open to the public. Didn't happen last year. Took lots of photos in the clean spring sunlight. Last week I actually ran out of space at reeserve, although I managed to get a bit back by deleting some old/unused files. With the new camera, I want to put a lot more stuff up here so I've been looking at alternatives. I found 50M at freewire and I may move the site to there. For a little while it will probably exist at both. The netscape space is going soon too. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.04.14 (Sunday) | 10 hits this week. 735 total.
Tuesday was the Long Mynd slope soaring trip postponed from last week. Forecast NE 10-15mph wind meaning the reservoir slope. I'd never flown there before. A pretty site with some trees on the sheltered far hill, and overlooking the reservoir. Nice to have the sun behind us lighting up the aircraft. The wind was a bit marginal, and kept coming and going as thermal bubbles went through. After a couple of treks down the slope to fetch the zagi and stiletto, I decided to stick to the siesta. This was flying well. I got Lee to take a couple of videos of it with the new camera. Lee had an accidental mid air with Graham who managed to land successfully despite the hole in the leading edge. Lee's wing came off and spun gently to the ground, while the fuselage took the express route, burying its nose in the slope - no significant damage. The siesta probably had more airtime than it had had so far. Unfortunately, zipping along the slope, It met Graham's dad's aircraft coming the other way. I could see that the siesta was still intact and desperately wanted to to free it to fly it away, but the other was well wrapped around it and they slowly spun to earth in a sickening dance of death. Somehow, it managed to hit the ground nose 1st, with the wings reasonably level, getting no further damage. The 2 wings had impacted head on, burying themselves in each other. This went on up to my spruce spars, which won the battle - the other wing was totally sheared off - oops. This was rather embarassing. I had been making sure I had plenty of space out from the slope when looping it, but hadn't checked in front when crossing the slope. There must have been about 7 aircraft in the air at the time. The damage to the siesta is pretty well limited to a single cell of the d box in front of the spars on the right wing just beyond the central ply sheet, which should be easy to repair. The nylon wing screw stayed intact and the wing twisted around it, taking the front wing dowel out of the ply former. The left wing leading edge got slightly crushed against the former, but that can stay as it is. John had his zagi thl which performed well in the light winds. I want 1 of those. Frosty mornings this week, but carried on taking the bike to work. Carol's car is going to be out of action for a few weeks yet, although they are making noises about a courtesy car. Spent a lot of time uploading the site to freewire. I'll keep the freeserve site going, but there may be a few holes in it. Added 2 videos of siesta and stiletto in flight. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.04.21 (Sunday) | 17 hits this week. 752 total.
The siesta is now repaired. Not perfect but quite smooth. I've ordered a zagi thl, but it hasn't turned up yet. Had to do a lot of phoning around before finding 1 in stock. Hoping to get it ready before the next Long Mynd trip. It turns out Carol is not going to get a courtesy car. Something to do with the specialist insurance company. I'm putting a few miles on the bike. Could be weeks yet. Forgot to mention that there are a lot of tadpoles in the pond. Apparently there is a newt too, although I haven't seen it. Sunday went swimming. In the afternoon we went on a pond walk, as part of some ecology course that Carol's doing. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.04.28 (Sunday) | 20 hits this week. 772 total.
Monday the zagi thl kit arrived. £35 for a couple of foam blanks/cores, plastic fins, a roll of arbitrarily coloured tape (yellow this time), badly warped balsa elevons, and a bag of control linkage bits. Also bought a 110mAh Rx pack. This seems to be the same size cells as the 300mAh pico stick pack. A few of those would be better. Hope to get it finished for the next Long Mynd trip. I didn't want to use the yellow tape. I found some reasonably strong, neutrally coloured, transparent packing tape in Office World. I started using it but couldn't get enough stick, even with spray mount on the wing cores. Ended up using the standard reinforced tape left over from the other zagi. This will add to the weight, but it should end up light with appropriate radio gear. Tuesday Lee had finished his new twinstar electric thing, and the weather was excellent so we went over to Wolston in the evening. It flew very well, despite having some trouble with the power connectors. I flew the aerojet 2x. This now has plenty of power and reasonable duration, although still rather heavy and a bit sensitive to control input. Later on when the wind eased off, I flew the eco8 heli. Managed quite a bit of nose in hovering, just taking off and landing in the same orientation. Hope to do some circuits soon. Quite a few people over there. Some rubble has arrived to fill in the worst dips. Sunday we went swimmimng at the university - new showers with hand waving sensors. Started levelling the ground ready for the new shed. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.05.05 (Sunday) | 12 hits this week. 784 total.
2 CDs arrived from townsend records. Otway - The set remains the same and Blue Oyster Cult - On your feet or on your knees. A studio recording of Otway's live set mostly as it has been for 25 years and a live double from BOC from the days when I was at school.
Progressed the zagi thl. Made my own elevon mixer using a 16f84a pic. As I could program it exactly how I wanted it, I didn't need any switches. Also ditched the connectors, wiring the servos directly to the vero board. Only 2 other components required - the 4M resonator and a decoupling capacitor. The mixer is adding about 8g to the all up weight. Now mostly covered. Only elevons to be done and control linkages. Friday Carol's car returned. The repair looks very good. Finally did get a courtesy car (Land Rover) for a few days. Saturday met up with Jes at Steve's ready for the show on Sunday. Sunday we went to the Sandown model show. Horribly expensive to attend, and the usual crowded stands, but a chance to buy some of those hard to find goodies. Bought some 1,2,3,4mm carbon rod. I'm thinking of using 2mm carbon rod for the control linkage on the zagi to save weight. Got my 1st sight of the MW44 gas turbine. There was a nice demo of a scale gas turbine powered heli, and some (different aircraft) very impressive 3D heli flying, even ending up with some 3D during autorotation after cutting the engine at great height. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.05.12 (Sunday) | 8 hits this week. 792 total.
Bank holiday Monday we went to have a look at Stanford Hall, despite the wet weather. Not really a lot of it, but an interesting reproduction of a very early hang glider - the hawk, in which Percy Pilcher managed to kill himself there in 1899, just when he was starting to experiment with powered flight. Still, he was only following up on the German Lilienthal. Late night after the cadmac club meeting getting the new zagi thl finished. Used some 2mm carbon rod for the control linkages. Tuesday was a misty damp day on the Long Mynd. Unfortunately we were a few hours ahead of the better weather blowing in from the east. Still, Graham, Lee and I managed to get some flying in with the zagis. 1st flight for the new pink zagi thl. The balance point was too far back as usual, so I taped all of the weight I had brought along on the nose. It was just about flyable. Lee had some more, and with another big lump taped on it started to handle reasonably well. I had used the warped elevons from the kit, trying to straighten them with heat, but the twist came back. I'm sure this is making it fly inefficiently. I'll make a new set. I managed to lose it 2x in the low visibilty mist. I just had to spiral it in, to stand any chance of finding it in the mist. Fortunately, zagis bounce well. There were some plaintive noises from lost sheep coming through the mist. Later on, it did actually clear a bit, and we could actually see the reservoir. We nearly managed to run out of fuel on the way back, prompting a quick diversion off the M6. 1st time I had been in the minibus. I managed a nice nap in both directions. When we got back (a bit late), our cars had been locked up overnight in the car park which had been leased to someone else, without our knowledge, eventually forcing us to find alternative transport home for us and the aircraft. We won't do that again. A very long day. Back home, I ripped out the 110mAh nicad (32g) from the zagi, and replaced it with a 1000mAh nimh (92g) which nicely replaces the 60g of lead that I taped to the nose to get it to balance correctly. Next to make up some clean/unwarped elevons. Added a new page for the zagi thl in aircraft. Saturday we put the shed up. Rather embarrassingly, when we came to fit the roof, it was nowhere to be seen. Turns out it was supplied nailed to the underside of the base ie. the whole shed was currently standing on it. Anyway, with a lot of tilting and pulling, we managed to extract it and fit it in its correct position. Sunday started out excellent flying weather. A shame that the open thermal soaring competition was cancelled. We went over to Wolston in the afternoon, when it clouded over a bit. Flew the aerojet 2x zooming round in smooth figure 8 circuits at 50% throttle. It was showing signs of motor/radio interference at the far point ie. momentary cut outs. Flew the eco8 heli too, including a bit of nose in hovering, but it was a bit too windy to be comfortable. Carol had a go at flying the pico stick through the trainer lead from the other transmitter - not bad for a 1st go. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.05.19 (Sunday) | 19 hits this week. 811 total.
Reworked the zagi thl, making and fitting a new set of elevons. Covered them in black solarfilm, partly due to running out of the pink stuff, but also to improve visibility. Tuesday dropped my bike off to have the swinging arm bearing looked at. Due for an MOT soon. Not got it back yet. Hopefully the handling will improve. While waiting for a lift home, I popped into the model shop and bought a Magnum 25 engine for the uno wot. Only £45 for an ABC engine. Now the new zagi is sorted I can get get on with it. Wednesday took the day off. We started putting up Carol's polytunnel on the allotment. Got most of the main structure up, including the ground post holes, the steel tube hoops and the door lintels. Sunday we fitted the polytunnel doorframe uprights. Ready for the polythene sheeting now, but the weather looks doubtful. We went to Ryton Gardens for lunch. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.05.26 (Sunday) | 9 hits this week. 820 total.
Monday was the cadmac scale themed evening at Wolston. The weather was a bit horrid with a fairly strong wind and showers. Only a few aircraft there and everyone ran away from the rain before a winner was decided. Also got my bike back with new swinging arm and steering head bearings. Not entirely sure that it has improved - it still shakes it head when I decelerate with a light touch on the bars, and it still sqeaks when I depress the rear suspension hard. Despite the marconi debt mountain we got paid a (reduced) end of year bonus. No progress on the polytunnel due to the wind and rain. Saturday we went to Oxford for the eights week Exeter College boat club lunch. I'm not that interested in the rowing, but it's a good excuse to go and see the old college. Last time it was held in the main dining hall, but this time it was in the Rector's Lodgings. The 1st time I had seen inside, other than the quick chat we had at the end of every term. Very opulent with nice gardens backing onto the Sheldonian Theatre and Bodleian Library area. The weather was showery, but the sun came out some of the time, and we walked down to the river to see some of the racing. Ordered my voting pack for selecting Otway's 2002 hit. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.06.02 (Sunday) | 10 hits this week. 830 total.
June. Monday we took advantage of the good weather and put the polythene on the polytunnel. A very long day (12 hours) for Carol and me, with some help from dad. Getting the sheet over the top was relatively easy. Most of the work was digging the trench around the edge, and getting the tension right. Once covered, it rapidly got very hot and humid in there. Still need to do the doors. Saturday the start of the jubilee thing and street festival in Coventry. Next weekend is the Godiva free festival in the Memorial park. Sunday Carol put the doors on the polytunnel. I tidied the garage and got a 2nd supporting beam up. Got the bike out and cycled round the village. Still haven't been to see Star Wars 2. There seems to be some football going on. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.06.09 (Sunday) | 7 hits this week. 837 total.
Monday we had some outdoor pico pylon racing on the grounds outside the cadmac club meeting. A moderate wind blowing across the course and takeoff straight into the setting sun. I stood at the far pylon to avoid the sun, which meant a nose in takeoff, but I managed OK. Only 6 entries in 2 lots of 3.in 2 rounds. I won the 1st round by virtue of being the only 1 to actually complete 10 laps. Time was a bit long at over 2 mins, due to the struggle into wind. 2nd round had a few more people completing the course, but the carnage left just Graham and myself for the flyoff. Graham was much faster, but trying a bit too hard to tighten the corners and crashed several times. He completed 10 laps eventually, but by that time 1 had won. Tuesday was an extra bank holiday and a Long Mynd soaring trip. I went in the bus again. We parked in the social club quite successfully, although Carol actually had my car all day to shift plants into the polytunnel. A fairly light SW wind put us on the main Pole Cot slope under a partly cloudy sky with sunny breaks blowing thermals up. Lots of flying, including all 4 of my aircraft, although a bit more wind would have improvd the fun. Mostly a day for the siesta which was flying very nicely with its repaired wing leading edge. managed several consecutive large loops with it. A total of 7 zagis on the slope. Not really enough wind for my heavy zagi, so I mostly flew the zagi thl, which although not actually intended to be a combat aircraft, Lee managed to knock out of the sky, putting a crease in the wing. Graham had a rather neat little telemetry device called a picolario, which transmits synthesised voice announcements to an audio Rx including altitude and voltage readings as well as normal variometer tones. As it was a nice weather bank holiday, the hill was covered in walkers etc. We had a bit of trouble with traffic coming the other way when trying to get off the hill. We expected a busy M6, but it was actually quite clear. Thursday we went to see Star Wars 2 at last. It has its flaws of course, but is impressive and entertaining anyway. Highly derivative from films such as Blade Runner, The 5th Element, Gladiator etc. The droid scenes are squeakily contrived. Yoda his very best impression of Clint Eastwood does - hmm. Saturday Carol was off doing some solar energy/power course. I went to have a look at the Godiva festival. Weather was a bit damp and miserable. Saw 3 bands in the Phoenix tent. Thoria, apparently of Coventry, did some rather shouty, Nirvana type noise. They were having a lot of trouble with guitar tuning - they actually tuned up the bass after arriving on stage, and it was quite a bit out. Kid Galahad seemed to be a late substitution and did some impressive melodic songs. Biffy Clyro did some rather indifferent stuff with lots of alternate quiet and shouty bits. I got fed up after that and went home. Sunday we went over to see the 3rd day of the festival. Never been to the Sunday before. It's a bit different, with an older audience. Saw the Oddsods, Justine and Gordon Giltrap in the Phoenix tent. Bought the Justine CD. Giltrap was very impressive playing an enormous array of acoustic guitars, often with a delay making it seem like there must be more people playing. Also saw some jousting and falconry. Raining most of the day, but the sun came out eventually. This festival is not exactly Glastonbury, but it is excellent value for free. Even the parking is free. Added a bit about the 1987 bike trip to Scotland in history. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.06.16 (Sunday) | 6 hits this week. 843 total.
Tuesday the 106 passed its MOT with just 2x new front tyres. Thursday Maxine has passed her bike test and insisted on coming over in the rain to show us her new bike - some Suzuki 650 traily thing. Saturday we went over to theLeamingtom peace festival on the bikes. A bit of a different atmosphere to the Coventry Godiva festival. Saw a quite good folk rock band The Fold. Added a bit about the tyro major to aircraft. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.06.23 (Sunday) | 6 hits this week. 849 total.
Mid summer. Monday was the cadmac vintage evening at Wolston. Almost ideal weather and a large turnout made a good evening. Dad actually flew his quaker flash diesel thing. After the main competition flying was over, Lee and I got the pico sticks out. Tuesday I went swimming at city centre. Only 2 lanes available making it rather busy, but I managed 20 full widths in about 20mins. Wednesday I went to the 16:30 Spiderman at Showcase. I was the only 1 in there. Really a very good adaptation overall. Special effects are adequate, the lead is excellently cast, and the story is suitably dark. The opposition is rather ridiculous. Of course the basic idea, changed from radioactivity to genetic engineering, is very stupid. Thursday I went swimming again. Another 20 full widths. Saturday Adrian's lot and dad came over for the village fete. The weather held up OK, with just the odd shower. Finished reading Scientific Blunders. In places it is badly/hastily written with some factual errors eg. at 1 point it says absolute zero is -275.15 degrees C, although it gets it right elsewhere. Still I learned some new stuff. Sunday morning I got the push bike out and rode around the village. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.06.30 (Sunday) | 5 hits this week. 854 total.
Monday Carol at last managed to sell the MGF. A nice car, but it was rather expensive to run. Now down to 1 car and 2 bikes, which puts me on the bike a lot more. Got my Otway hit voting form and CD. 11 tracks to choose from. It's quite easy to eliminate a few, but getting down to 1 is going to be tricky. Glastonbury after a year out is a bit disappointing. Only artists of interest so far being Garbage and No Doubt. Otway was there, but no coverage on BBC2. A quick interview on R4. I didn't manage any swimming this week, but cycled the village circuit Saturday and Sunday morning. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.07.08 (Monday) | 13 hits this week. 867 total.
A day late updating the site due to a busy Sunday. Tuesday Long Mynd got off to a bad start when I closed the 106 hatchback and broke the siesta right tail in half. I shoved some glue in the bag, but as it turned out, it was too windy for it anyway, and later inspection showed the control horn had broken too. M6 was a bit busy, arriving at 11:40. Nice to have enough wind to fly the full fat zagi for a change. Lee and I got a lot of flying in, including lots of knocking each other out of the air. I managed quite a bit of inverted flight - several complete figure 8 circuits along the slope. I got dad to video the 2 zagis in the air. I flew the stiletto too. For what it's worth, here is my analysis of the tracks for Otway's 2nd hit. In reverse order, of course...
I cycled the village circuit Saturday and Sunday morning. Sunday we went to Charlecote Park at Stratford to see the Pretenders... except that it had been cancelled. Came home again and went to the Brinklow Folk Festival instead. The unofficial stuff in the bar was at least as entertaining as the paid. Added an aircraft bit about the aerojet and new divx encoded Long Mynd videos. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.07.14 (Sunday) | 13 hits this week. 880 total.
Posted my voting form for Otway's 2nd hit. Following others at work I bought a mini racer radio control car from iwantoneofthose.com. I went for the 49MHz version - it is red. Plan is to do some racing on conference room desktops. Just 4 function, but an amazing bit of miniaturisation for the price. Thursday I went to see the remake of Rollerball, only to confirm the bad reviews. With next Monday being cadmac powered glider evening at Wolston, I decided to revamp my powered glider thing. Bought a graupner speedgear 400 motor/inline gearbox combination and 12x10 prop to go with it. Also replaced the soft start switch with a proper speed controller (the 1 from the eco8 heli). This meant much musical chairs inside the fuselage to separate the Rx from the speed controller. Interestingly, 1 of the chocolate block connectors to the motor had melted, indicating a bad connection. Gave it a go Sunday morning. Initially very pitch unstable due to the lighter motor up front. I moved the Rx pack forward of the wing front bulkhead. I think the power duration has improved, although I wouldn't say it is climbing any better. Following others in the air, I think I managed a bit of power off thermalling, in ideal conditions, but it didn't last long - it is still rather heavy. I'll probably invest in a purpose built thing eventually. I again cycled the village circuit Saturday and Sunday morning. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.07.21 (Sunday) | 11 hits this week. 891 total.
Monday was the cadmac powered glider evening at Wolston. Weather clouded over a bit, but there was a good turn out. Electric seems to have taken over here. No sign of the usual little diesels. I didn't bother with my rather uncompetitive powered glider thing. I flew the pico stick though, just before the start. Several Highlight ARF powered gliders, including the winner which was the Unlimited variant, I think, with brushless motor and 4Ah nimhs. I quite fancy 1 of those. Not much of a spectator sport, watching small gliders thermalling high in the sky for an hour. They tried to make it more interesting by insisting that they come down below 3m a couple of times, but It didn't make much difference - they just turned the power back on and went up again. Apparently the winner was only about half discharged at the end, but it was getting dark. Just to remind myself what a good film the original Rollerball was, I bought the DVD. Very much a 70s view of the future, but a far more thoughtful film, with better visuals. I again cycled the village circuit Saturday and Sunday morning. Carol has joined us up with the National Trust. Sunday we went to Coughton Court. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.07.28 (Sunday) | 10 hits this week. 901 total.
Saturday evening we went over to Warwick on the bikes for a free concert in the square as part of the folk festival. Meet on the ledge were the headline. Wonderful hot sunny weather, and a starry night gave it an almost european feel. Saturday the Otway hit voting results were announced, with Bunsen Burner winning. A shame it steals most of the music from another song, but I suppose it will do quite well in a quirky sort of way. Here's how the real vote compared with my assessment.
I again cycled the village circuit Saturday and Sunday morning. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.08.04 (Sunday) | 8 hits this week. 909 total.
Monday the weather broke down into dramatic summer storms with lots of lightning, thunder and rain. Several short power cuts. Friday evening went up to Richard's for the Woodvale rally on Saturday. Despite the forecasts, we had perfect sunny weather all day. Carol has dug another pond. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.08.11 (Sunday) | 7 hits this week. 916 total.
Busy week. Monday was cadmac fly anything electric at the club meeting. Intermittent rain, but not much wind. I flew the eco8 heli, including nose in hover, although I still can't quite rotate it between the 2 in the air. Also flew the hornet, despite its broken tail boom which I presume it picked up in some crash into the wall at the last indoor session. Also flew the pico stick. There was a timed spot landing competition ie. guess 60 secs after takeoff and land as close to the spot as possible. I managed less than 2 secs over and 2 paces, and just won it. There was a lot of fuss about swapping to a peg on frequency control system. Sounds like a good idea to me. I've done some web pages on slope soaring for the club site. Let's see how long they take to arrive. Tuesday was Long Mynd slope soaring again. The light north wind put us on the Darnford slope. Sitting behind another hill in front means the lift is confined to a small area. With the sun emerging from behind clouds, thermal lift and sink came through in turn and alternately helped and then didn't. Managed to fly the light zagi, the siesta and the stiletto. I was launching the stiletto from sitting down with just an overarm throw. I mounted the camera onto the siesta and attempted to fly it. Unfortunately, the marginal lift and extra weight meant that it barely managed to stay away from the slope on the way down, and I stuffed it into the slope quickly to avoid going too far to fetch it. managed a couple of photos on the the way, but not the overhead views I wanted. It needs a lighter camera really, or some better lift. Lee managed to pull the wing off his aircraft by looping it, and lost the fuselage in the deep heather at the bottom of the slope. It's still there now, as far as we know. Wednesday was the meeting at Rugby about the proposed new airport. Quite well attended - we had to stand outside. Let's hope it doesn't happen. Posters are going up everywhere, but it will probably take more than that to stop it. Thursday was dad's birthday, so we went out to dinner. Saturday I went to see the film Minority Report. Some nice ideas in there, presumably from the original short story. Sunday was cadmac inter club competition at Wolston. I was planning on taking some aircraft over, but carol was using the car, so I ended up going over on the bike. rather overcast, but otherwise a good day. Lee took and passed his A test with the electric twinstar. I was persuaded to do the same. I don't think I had flown it before, but it was no trouble. So I now have an A certificate on the way. Added a weather page. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.08.19 (Monday) | 12 hits this week. 928 total.
A day late due to a busy Sunday (and Monday) Steven and Sarah are over from Portugal. My web pages on slope soaring have been put up on the cadmac site. pretty well unedited, although the high res photos are missing. Tuesday went swimming in the centre. 80p for the car park. Thursday was our village meeting in the church about the proposed new airport. Well attended - we even made the evening paper. Sunday we all went to Matlock Bath, Gulliver's Kingdom for the kids. For the 1st time, we actually took the cable car up to the Heights of Abraham. Rather expensive but worth the trip. Usual collection of bikes there. Monday was the cadmac electric evening. Ever more popular. Difficult to get the peg for a flight. Flew the eco8 heli at the end when it was getting dark. Lee and I, and 2 others, got our temporary A certificates. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.08.28 (Wednesday) | 13 hits this week. 941 total.
3 days late due to long weekend at Woolacombe. After the last abortive/ground seeking attempt at hanging the camera off the siesta glider, I decided to try something a bit lighter. Selected the Oregon Scientific DSot III from internetcamerasdirect. £68, 1.3Mpixel, smartmedia (none supplied), USB, no display, 162g including batteries. Saturday I went down to Devon with dad, Adrian, Claire, Jonathan, Joshua, Steven and Sarah. Proper B+B holiday by the seaside. Went to Ilfracombe, Woolacombe beach, Combe Martin bay, Saunton beach, Croyde. Bought a kite. We were planning a bit of slope soaring from Morte Point, but the wind was in the N all the time I was there. While I was away, Carol was looking after the cat and managed to fall off the bike in a gravelly farm car park and hurt her foot. Still just about mobile though. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.09.04 (Wednesday) | 9 hits this week. 950 total.
September. 3 days late again due to a busy weekend. Saturday and Sunday cycled 2x round the village circuit. Saturday I pre ordered Otway's 3x Bunsen Burner singles from Virgin. Still not actually on the system yet. Sunday we went to the Church Lawford village fete. This is 1 of the villages that would disappear under the proposed new airport. They are understandably a bit miffed. The fete fundraising was given over to the campaign. Later we had the family over to tea. Monday was the cadmac control line evening. Not many control line aircraft, but plenty of pico sticks and helis. New members too. Tuesday was Long Mynd. Steven and Sarah came along. Got off to a bad start as it seems the minibus had not been booked, and was not there. It eventually turned up, they let us have it, and we set off about 45mins late. A good run put us only about 30mins late on the slope. A NE wind gradually swung around to the E putting us on the reservoir slope. Lee, Mike and I went straight down to the rocky gully to the right and managed to fly zagis quite successfully. The others insisted on staying by the tree where the light wind would only support really light aircraft. As the wind strength reduced I was left flying the siesta. I wasn't too sure about it staying up with the new camera attached, but decided to give it a go anyway. Much better than before. A bit marginal in the light wind, but it more or less maintained height. I fitted it in line with the wind initially to reduce drag, getting pictures full of the right wing. Then I rotated it forward about 45 degrees. The elastic band technology holding the servo on left a bit to be desired, as it could slip so that servo body held the shutter release down all the time. We could tell when this happened, as we could normally hear the beep of a successful shot. The results were a bit disappointing as I couldn't get much height and had to keep turning to stay in the lift. Promising though. The heather in places was about as tall as I am, which sometimes made retrieving the aircraft a bit of a battle. Got an email from Andy Sparrow of bloodrunners. He found my link to the site. I have changed this, as requested, to use a logo direct from the site to improve search engine results. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.09.08 (Sunday) | 8 hits this week. 958 total.
Actually up to date this week. Saturday and Sunday cycled 2x round the village circuit again. Saturday Steven and Sarah went back to Portugal. Sunday I finally got around to putting some castors on the generator. Went over to Wolston with the aerojet and eco8. A bit windy and thermal. Flew the aerojet on a full charge and got quite a long flight out of it. It's a bit fast and needs a lot of concentration. Managed a roll. A rather heavy landing broke off the tail (again) just behind the wing. My fault really - not a long enough approach, should have gone round again. When I went to disconnect the battery, the connector was extremely hot, and the pack itself. Had quite a job separating it from the aircraft. Pulled the fuse to be safe. Eventually got them apart. The connector was a bit melted. I think it was just heat from a long flight with no cooling ie. no short. That left me with the eco8 heli to fly. Had a bit of trouble getting the motor controller to start, eventually traced to a bad chocolate block connection. Managed a couple of complete pack hover sessions including nose in, despite the variable wind. The car battery gave up at this point. Must get something better. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.09.15 (Sunday) | 14 hits this week. 972 total.
Bought a usb hub to connect the dshot III camera to the PC. For some reason, its mini usb connector is different/incompatible with the fuji. Saturday and Sunday cycled 2x round the village circuit again. Saturday we put a new chain and sprockets on Carol's bike ready for her CAT course. Started looking at leisure batteries and chargers to get a few more charges on the flying field. Standard car battery not really up it. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.09.22 (Sunday) | 22 hits this week. 992 total.
Monday/Tuesday Carol went over to CAT to sign up for the course. Wednesday we went to the arts centre to see the film Le Roi danse about Louis 14. Not very entertaining or informative. Doing a bit of googling, I found out Gianna Nannini released another CD this year Aria. Ordered it from amazon. Friday holiday I improved the elastic band technology holding the servo onto the dshot III camera. Made a bracket out of the corner of a tesco card video case, and double side taped the servo to that. That should stop it migrating to depress the switch. Took the tail stiffener and training undercarriage off the eco8 heli and flew it in the garden. Also changed the throttle curve to get more head speed. It flys quite nicely now, for a reasonably long time. I might put the undercarriage back on before attempting circuits though. With the cadmac winter indoor flight sessions starting soon I decided to get another aircraft. The swift from mscomposit. A small zagi style wing using the same cells, speed controller and similar motor to the hornet heli. In fact I bought a 5 channel Rx and uprated speed controller with a view to swap/upgrading the hornet to collective pitch eventually. Saturday and Sunday cycled 2x round the village circuit again. Sunday we went to Baddesley Clinton. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.09.29 (Sunday) | 15 hits this week 1007 total.
1000+ hits. Sometime between Monday evening and Wednesday morning the CD player went out of the car. No damage. I guess it was left unlocked somewhere. Probably really shouldn't leave the fascia in the glove box. Bought a replacement as similar as I could find - a Sony CDX-L410. Slightly less fussy display, CD load through the fascia, no tricky pivot pin to find, supports cd-rw. The swift has gone together quite nicely. Decided
to cover the elevons in white solarfilm to avoid the colour clash from
the blue foam. For a change, all of the holes cut in the foam are just
the right size. before I put the fins and the nose balance weight on, I
fired up the motor. Thrust to weight ratio greater than 1. Not after
those bits added though. The drive was rather horribly noisy. I
balanced the prop, but not much different. It seems the prop shaft is a
not very good fit in a plain bearing. I was expecting ball races. Saturday and Sunday cycled 2x round the village circuit again. Otway Bunsen Burner CD is released tomorrow. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.10.06 (Sunday) | 15 hits this week 1022 total.
October. Monday I went and bought my 3x Otway Bunsen Burner CDs. All 3x for £7.50.
Wednesday Otway did his last ever gig as a 1 hit wonder on his 50th birthday in Coventry. Unusually, it was sold out. Earlier he and Richard had played live in Virgin Records - a small crowd of fans and a few bemused shoppers. The evening had a great atmosphere, with the crowd breaking into happy birthday serveral times. In place of the usual encore(s) we had the whole band disco dancing on stage to the hit. Thursday I popped over to Wolston after work with the swift now fitted with a GWS ducted fan unit in place of the original larger motor and 8x6 prop. The lighter weight meaning I could get rid of all the nose weight, bringing it down to about 265g. On 7 cells the ducted fan unit screams horribly, but pushed it along quite nicely for a couple of minutes before the motor burned out. Oh well, think again. Saturday we went to Oxford to buy a book for
Carol's course from the Oxford University Press shop in High Street. A
bit small, but very nicely done out in there. Had lunch in Blackwells.
Bought an OUP copy of Herodotus to read instead of
Carol's old version. I'm at book 6/9 now. Returned reasonably early,
ready for the evening. 2x village circuit. Otway managed #9 in the charts. That should get him on TOTP. I was listening to the chart on radio 1, watching the chart, and reading the forum on the web. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.10.13 (Sunday) | 18 hits this week 1040 total.
Tuesday was cadmac Long Mynd. We very nearly had a bus full at 11 of us. Rather crowded for the aircraft, but I think we managed no damage. A cool SE wind put us on Ashes Hollow. The 1st time I had been there with the wind blowing straight up the groove. Normally it's a bit off to the side, making the air a bit unpredictable. The stength of it meant heavy zagis and wild things, with most of the lighter aircraft staying in the bus. The sky was a bit grey, but when the sun came through it was annoyingly in the flight line. Anyway, lots of combat flying, eventually ending up with Lee knocking my zagi out of the air with his. It all happened a bit quick to know exactly, but after a serious bounce my zagi was in 3 bits across the slope, having lost a fin and elevon. Main structure intact though - it will fly again. See photo in aircraft. Lee had a new phoenix epp aerobatic thing (synergy, I think) which flew quite nicely. I also flew the stiletto. Aerial photo session left for a calmer more sunny day. Friday Otway was on TOTP. It is (and always has been) a very strange program. They now insist on a "live" vocal, but everything else is as on the record, and they seem no fade up prerecorded crowd noises whenever the producer feels it's appropriate. Anyway, it went quite well and must have increased the number of people who have now at least heard of him. He has been in the news quite a bit, moaning about Woolworths not stocking his record. Even got a mention in new scientist this week. There can't be many songs about chemistry. Greatest hits CD on the way. What - all 2 of them? Saturday I went to work before going into town as usual. Bought the Amelie DVD at only £10. Sunday 2x village circuit. Otway managed #23 for his 2nd week in the charts. Added a page about the eco8 heli in aircraft. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.10.20 (Sunday) | 15 hits this week 1055 total.
Monday my Gianna Nannini CD Aria arrived from amazon. Once again introducing new sounds to the usual Italian vocal melody. Tuesday went to the NIA to see Motorhead. Hawkwind were supposed be 2nd support, but were replaced quite late. A horribly windy rainy dark night. Fortunately the NIA is well signposted. £5 for the car park. £18.50 for a ticket, but it seems I did manage to avoid the £2 booking fee. 1st band up were Skew Siskin. I only caught the last 3 tracks. Fairly competent with a female singer who seemed to we singing "WAAAGH" most of the time. Support were Anthrax. They seemed to be quite impressed with playing in the original home of heavy metal. The bassist spent a lot of time waving at the crowd ie. not actually playing - not that you would notice with the twin bass drums banging away. Not very impressed, other than by the potential damage to my ears. Motorhead showed how to fill the place with sound with just guitar, bass and drums. Lemmy's bass sound is unique. I think there are only so many things you can do with that sound, and the stuff from the new CD was rather indifferent. They saved the more popular stuff to the end. The encore began with the air raid siren into Bomber. I was genuinely surprised when the lighting rig I had barely noticed earlier descended and proceeded to fly around the stage - "It's a bomber, It's a bomber". Ace of Spades and a suitably over the top version of Overkill of course. Good stuff. Still stormy driving home, with leaves and branches all over the roads. I think my ears are still working. Wednesday off. My Budgie CDs Never turn your back on a friend and In for the kill arrived from amazon.de. I think I now have just about every CD.
Thursday evening we went to anti airport discussion/meeting at Rugby Benn Hall. This was broadcast live by BBC local radio. It was well managed and covered of lot of interesting ground, only let down by some of the poor comments/questions from the audience. Attendance was well down from the 1st meeting there, when the airport proposal had just been announced. Friday evening we went to another anti airport meeting in the Temple speech rooms attached to Rugby school. The area on a cold starry night was atmospheric. The room was quite nice in a school sort of way. The actual meeting was a waste of time, with mostly self congratulatory statements about how well the campaign is going. Went down the pub after. Saturday 2x village circuit. About 19:00 in the evening the power went off in the village. Actually, not completely off - just low voltage. Several things were valiantly trying to carry on working - the high efficiency flourescent light in the bathroom doing very well. Anyway, an opportunity to use the generator in anger. Easy to move on it's new castors. Started quite easily once I put the choke on. Connected a couple of table lamps and the 3 freezers, 1 at a time. Later I removed 2 of the freezers while I boiled a kettle. That really made the motor try harder, but it coped OK. Carol did some toast on the gas fire. Managed to get the TV and video on too. Power came back on about 21:30. Sunday we went on the Church Lawford airport march, despite the rainy weather. A good turnout, which blocked the roads for a while, but at the end was a quick gathering in the field in front of the church which seemed a bit aimless. It was over before the whole crowd got into the field. Then we all queued up to go back to the car. Otway down to #43 which I suppose is technically out of the charts in week 3. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.10.27 (Sunday) | 12 hits this week 1067 total.
Friday I finally sold my flat. Took the day off to read the meters etc. Took my gorilla out. Apparently things happened a bit late in the day, so I should get the money on Monday. In the evening we went to Stretton on Dunsmore to eat. This is probably the village worst affected by the proposed airport, apart from the 2 that would be completely flattened. Sunday morning and we switch back to GMT. Stormy winds in the night gaining strength in the morning. Power went off about 08:00. As it was likely to be off for a while, we went to a Little Chef in Coventry for breakfast. Roads littered with vaiously sized bits of tree. A bit of shopping and back home to find the power still off. Got the generator going and managed to used the kettle and microwave oven (not at the same time). It's now 21:00 and the power is still off - I'm using the generator to power the PC. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.11.03 (Sunday) | 23 hits this week 1090 total.
November. Monday morning the power was still off. Came back on at 15:50. Went off again about 20:15. Tuesday power still off. Came back on about 08:20. Money from flat completion appeared. Tuesday evening we went to the airport consultation display in Church Lawford, and the anti airport tent next door. Bought the Queen of the Damned DVD unseen. Not very good really. Akasha badly miscast. Australian rock seems inappropriate. The new cadmac web site has gone live. Much improved now it is managed by Lee. Saturday was indoor flight. Better attended this time. I flew the swift successfully, when there was some clear air. With Graham back we had some pico pylon. 10 entries meant a round of 4 which is a bit crowded. My 1st time was 77 secs - a bit slow. 2nd go managed 68 secs which put me 3rd and in the fly off. After the success of 4 at a time, it was decided to have 4 in the fly off too. I managed a couple of laps before clipping the far pylon and taking the left wing off, and breaking the fin. No points then. Lee took 2nd place. I had 2 flights with the hornet. Mostly nose in for the practice. I think I got noticeably better at it during the evening. I eventually managed a turn round to tail in hover. Tried for another flight with the swift just before we left. The prop fell off when I throttled up, but it still managed 2 lengths of the hall from Lee's hand launch. Saturday and Sunday 2x village circuit. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.11.10 (Sunday) | 46 hits this week 1136 total.
A lot of hits this week - maybe due to the link on the cadmac site. Tuesday was cadmac Long Mynd. 8 in the bus plus 3 in cars. We went through some nice sunny weather on the way, but on arrival the visibility was done to some 100m on the hill. S wind put us on Ashes Hollow. After about 30mins the mist lifted and we got quite a bit of flying in before the mist returned about 14:30. The opposite slope makes the lift a bit marginal and unpredictable. I didn't want to risk the stilleto. I flew the light zagi quite successfully, including inverted for the 1st time. I think the balance point is quite far back on this, with pitch control being fast and neutral. When the wind got up I flew the red zagi, now with real pinned hinges. Still heavy and imprecise compared with Lee's. I took half the nose weight out and it improved considerably. Thursday evening a couple of 2 min power cuts. I suspect we now have some new cable somewhere as the toaster is now burning the toast. Saturday 2x village circuit. Sunday we went to the village pub folk music meeting. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.11.17 (Sunday) | 52 hits this week 1188 total.
Another lot of hits this week - even more. Monday I went off to buy the new Otway Greatest Hit2 CD. At £13.99 for a load of tracks that I already have on other CDs, there seemed little point. I expect it will get cheaper later Thursday off to use up holiday. I weakened and bought the Otway CD. Also Shakira Washed and Dried CD at £12.99 including free mini DVD.
Bought myself a capo. I've always thought that these are cheating a bit. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.11.24 (Sunday) | 46 hits this week 1234 total.
Tuesday we went to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which was very entertaining, although the plot seemed to have some annoying solutions to problems. The academic architecture is lovely. Thursday off to use up holiday. We went to Coventry University for lunch. Saturday we went on the coach trip to London for the anti airport expansion march. We arrived a bit late, but there was still lots of hanging about before setting out. We got fed up with waiting inside the barriers and wandered off for a bit. Heavy rain left us a bit damp for the rest of the day, even though it brightened up a bit later. Back at the front it seems we were waiting for Jamie Oliver to turn up (pursued by TV cameras) - he would apparently be affected by 1 of the schemes. We marched down Whitehall to Trafalgar square where there were a few speeches. The 1st time I had been there. Not as big as I had expected, and Nelson's column seems (literally) pointless, as you can't see the statue very well. The Stansted lot were the best represented - they've had a lot of practice. We had about 2 hours to have a look round. We headed up Haymarket past the theatres to Picadilly, then down the smaller streets for the shops. Carol spotted Fresh and Wild, the organic shop. We also saw an Oscar Wilde memorial with that quote reworked on the Pretenders 2nd album. The coach was waiting on the embankment in front of the new London Eye. Sunday 2x village circuit. Tidied up pictures. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.12.01 (Sunday) | 38 hits this week 1272 total.
December. Bought Shakira MTV Unplugged DVD and Spiderman DVD.
Friday was the cadmac games night. Sunday put the xmas tree up. Swapped to the snow logo for xmas. Added some bookmarks/targets to dvd. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.12.08 (Sunday) | 42 hits this week 1314 total.
Monday was the cadmac agm. We decided to change from the traditional peg off system for frequency control at Wolston. I would have preferred the simple peg on system, but instead we ended up with a peg on and peg off system, as recommended by the bmfa. I suppose it may be slightly more secure, but this is largely at the expense of there being more ways to end up in a state where you can not fly. Tuesday was the cadmac Long Mynd. 8 in the bus and 2 in car, plus 3 locals. For a change the bbc forecast was accurate at W 5mph. This put us on Pole Cot slope. A very grey day with occasional sunshine poking through the clouds. On arrival we had the usual frequency check, including using the monitor. We found 3 on the same frequency and set about changing xtals and writing down what everyone was using. No peg board though. Definitely a day for light aircraft, I managed to fly the pink zagi. Lee had the most airtime with the champion. We even managed to fly it inverted for a few secs, despite its strong dihedral. I also flew the siesta for a while, eventually managing enough height for a loop. I fitted the camera to it, but there really wasn't enough lift for the extra weight/drag. I did capture a low res video, but the grey conditions ended up with almost nothing but white sky and black horizon wobbling about. Graham had his 1st flight with his new "glass ship" scale glider, captured on video - very nice flight with accurate landing helped by air brakes. Tony was flying his similar scale glider well, when it suddenly became uncontrollable. Everyone new immediately what was going on, and shouted for whoever it was to turn off the Tx. Too late to save £600 of aircraft. 1 of the locals apparently. I suspect we will take a peg board next time. Later on the wind died away so much, that at times it was just completely calm. We packed up and went home. Somewhere on the M6 some part of the exhaust fell off the bus, and we went home accompanied by an extremely loud motor. Bought myself an optical mouse from office world for £12.00. Seems to work perfectly even on a blank sheet of white paper. I guess the brilliant led shows up imperfections. Lighter too. Friday I got my 21 years at work certificate and £200 vouchers. 3 months late. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.12.15 (Sunday) | 43 hits this week 1357 total.
Monday I bought a pro-peak supernova charger. This is a relatively intelligent thing that can probe the cells to determine the actual capacity. Tuesday off as holiday. Lots of shopping. Spent a lot of time looking for an electric violin, including a trip to nuneaton to look at 1. The shop was on the site of the shop where I bought my bike. Anyway, I ended up ordering an Antoni electralin, of which more next week, when it should have arrived. Looking for something to spend my vouchers on in the few shops that accept them, I spotted GoGos Live in Central Park andMotorhead 25 and Alive DVDs.
In maplin getting some connectors for the charger I spotted a small multitool thing for £5. This should be ideal for those little jobs on the slope. Thursday off as holiday. The power was scheduled to go off during the day, but it didn't. I repaired the pico stick ready for the coming cadmac indoor session. A balsa brace across the split in the fin. A wire brace epoxied across the rear wing joiner. I've also modified this by removing the lower part of the stick tube, so that I can jack it up to reduce the wing incidence. Maybe this will increase the airspeed a little. Now held on by elastic band of course. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.12.22 (Sunday) | 39 hits this week 1396 total.
Monday off as my last holiday this year. Feeling a bit ill with a cold. Into town for some lunch and last minute shopping. My violin arrived and I went over to Earlsdon to pick it up. I had been told that the body was metal, but no, it's plastic, as I expected. Despite the Italian sounding name Antoni, made in China. Nicely put together though, and quite neat to look at. Almost 44 and never picked up a violin before. I had to ask what to tune it to - EAGB down. Once you hear it though, it is very familiar from concert tune ups. Finding the notes with no frets is a bit of a nightmare - I've fitted a marker where the 5th fret would be. Rubbing a string into singing is a bit new and tricky. The electronics (beyond the pickup) is a bit superfluous really. It makes plenty of noise on its own, even without a soundbox, without needing headphones for practice. Could be useful in conjunction with the line in for something to play along to. The reverb has 2 settings on/off, but sounds OK - not sure whether it is digital. Alternating between wanting to have another go and abandoning it at the moment. Saturday was the last cadmac indoor flight session of this year. I flew the hornet heli quite successfully including nose in to tail in transitions. Gareth flew his new collective pitch hornet. Very smooth. He has modified the tail pitch slider with an extra control horn and push rod, effectively making it a closed loop system, and avoiding the off axis binding forces on the tail shaft. Works well. As a bit of a change from pylon racing we had a pico limbo event, involving flying under a paper tape strung between the usual pylons as many times as possible in 60secs. In fact it was open to any fixed wing aircraft, but they wouldn't let me use the heli. I managed 11 on my 1st go. 2nd go I managed 14 which put me in 1st place, with Lee 2nd at 13, and Graham 3rd. My 1st trophy. Flew the swift just before we left, when the air was clear and I could use the whole hall.
Changed to snow background for xmas. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News 2002.12.29 (Sunday) | 35 hits this week 1431 total.
Xmas eve left work at 11:45. Carol picked me up and we did the traditional last minute shop for presents in town. Xmas day we went round to Adrian's for lunch. A phone call to Portugal. Boxing day we went for a walk around the village in relatively dry warm weather. Friday we went into Coventry for the sales, but only bought a couple more plates and paid £2.50 for the car park. Saturday we went to Rugby and Leamington. I'd like to think that my violin playing is improving. I can play a couple of octaves of a C scale fairly convincingly. The Royal Institution xmas lectures have been the usual disappointment. Another presenter with an irritating voice, skimming over very wide ranging topics, illustrating how things work with the usual pops and bangs that actually work by some other effect than the 1 in question - quite the worst explanation of how a transistor works I have ever seen. Anyway, I thought this was supposed to be about science, not technology. My success in the pico limbo event has now been recorded on the cadmac site. Changed back to normal red background. Removed a few dead links. |