Aloha and Welcome to my small speck of cyberspace! Dec 8, 2010 is the birth date of my blog. Never had one before, but my son encouraged me to have one, and it seemed like a good way to at least keep a log of my RC airplane building and flying. With the initial design kicked off by my son, I'll carry on from here and have fun with it. Now that I have it, I will use it to also keep track of my oil painting efforts, and any other ideas, hobbies, travels, or whatever else that come up. LIFE IS GOOD!

Update on 02/25/2011. It's been a few months since I began this blog, and I am enjoying creating and having it! I like documenting the things I have done in my hobbies, and sharing with my small family. I think Jer and Tad actually view it fairly regularly, as a means to see what I've been up to lately. At worst, it serves as a reference for my own use.

Update on 12/22/2011. This blog stuff is habit forming. My blog is a year old now, and I make an entry about every other day or so as that seems to be the frequency of doing something in one of my hobbies. Like my hobbies, this blog is a lot of fun, and it has become in itself another hobby that I enjoy.

Years are flying by...update on 01/11/2013. Still enjoying maintaining this blog even though hardly anyone sees it. I don't advertise it anywhere or to anyone, and it is mainly just a way for me to keep my own notes and thoughts on my flying, painting, and cars. If a stranger happens upon it, I think it is by pressing NEXT at the top of the current blog they are visiting, lol. It's a great device for me.

August 2014: still here! Took up flying RC helicopters one year ago and got hooked. Had flown micro Helis up to then, but got serious with 450 size for a couple months, then bought the Goblin 500 and Gaui X5 . Also got my Boxster in April 2013. Most importantly, Ariel was born 12/02/12 followed by Skylar 07/20/13, and they are little beacons of joy in our lives. Life is indeed good!!!
March 2025: we’re up to five grandkids! Jack born 11/15/2016, Carter 01/14/2017, and Noah 04/22/2019. And Alex and Robin married on 09/25/2021!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Dumb Thumb!

Well, either I dumb thumbed the Toledo Special today, or I got hit by a sudden crosswind on takeoff.  Almost up to take off speed, in fact maybe I was lifting off, and something happened so fast that I can't even recall exactly other than the plane was jostling from one wing tip to another, to a main gear to another, and soon the engine was dead and the plane was upright with the left wing tip hanging and crushed, and the left main gear arched downward, not upward.  The prop did not even hit, the firewall is intact, and I was embarassed.  How do I mess up a takeoff after probably hundreds with this plane?  Well, I had one great flight with it today before then.  Flew the SNAFU 5 times today, in practice for the funfly.  It only died once.  BUT all it takes is one dead engine for a zero score on an event, and there goes any chances to place.  Other than that, the plane flew well and I am ready for the funfly.  I do have to make sure the plane does not take off on the fast taxi event though!

Rudy flew his newly re-covered electric stik (looks great), and Quang flew a 40 size Seagull Ultimate with a Magnum 91 four stroke powering it!  Rudy and I had fun practicing lots of landings for the funfly coming up.

Update:  Here are the repairs I made to the wing tip.  Too bad, I should have taken a before pic of the damaged wing tip hanging down!
Some braces and gussets can be seen, but this doesn't capture how many
broken or bent pieces there were!  CA is a wondrous thing!

I used the best color match in my Monokote scraps that I could find.

NOT BAD!  Most folks won't even notice from 10' away.
I CA'd both wheel pants in a few places...damage was not bad there.  Also I bent the aluminum LG back into shape so the wing and stab sit pretty level with the ground.  She is ready to take to the air again!



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