Maukaonyx's "Life is GOOD!": March 2016

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!!!

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Goblins day

Could not pass up the good weather today so I flew my G500 and G630. 4 flights and 3 respectively. Good conditions of calm wind, mostly sunny skies, and about 50F at first. I got fooled into busting out a hand warmer at home, then did not even need it at the field as the temp rose to 60F fast. I got to do many flips to inverted and practiced keeping it level, moderating the speed doing, pyros, and pulling out with different flips.

Finished up with 3 flights of the Aerostar 40. Decided to decrease timer time on the xmitter to 8 minutes from 9. Seem to be coming down with under 15% battery, too low.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Another sunny sonny day!

Tad and I were the only ones at the field today, a very cool morning at first, but soon the sun made us comfortable. Flew about two hours. Tad had his G500 and G570 for four flights each. Flew with his usual smoothness and skill including inverted and backwards flight. I had my X5 for 4, and 7HV for 3 flights. Followed that up with 3 flights on my repaired Aerostar40 (the ESC overheated and caught fire last time, but I averted fire to the whole airframe by running to the plane and tossing the flaming ESC out of the plane, whew.) Also had a new (third) battery for the Aerostar today.

It was great fun flying the helis and progressing in comfort level with inverted situations. I can feel good progress coming this year in inverted flight! It is all thanks to being able to see so well now after cataract surgeries.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Fun in the sun with a son!

Oh boy, a glorious day finally with no rain or wind or cold. Tad and I flew yesterday for a couple hours at the field. I went earlier than him since I had all my packs for helis, plus two for the Aerostar 40. I got in 4 flights each on the X5 and G500, plus 2 on the 7HV! Actually forgot to charge one of the packs at home, so I did not get another flight with the 7HV as planned. Tad had 4 nice flights with his G500, looking as solid as ever. His last flight was a long speed run, and it was fun to watch it fly more like a plane than a heli, with long swooping dives and passes. I have never pushed my heli that fast with almost full collective.

Tad doing low inverted hover!

Ended the flying with one partial flight of the Aerostar 40. After a few minutes in the sky on the first flight, the engine screeched. I cut throttle and reapplied like normal. It did not come back on, so I landed flat in the grass of the north field. No harm done I thought. Then Tad said the plane is smoking! I ran to it and the esc was flaming and smoking. I thought the battery was afire, nope. Yanked the esc out, wow it was hot and totally blackened! Stomped it and it was really just ashes, lol. A hole was burned in the covering on the side of the fuselage, and there is still a light carbon stain in the fuse up front, but otherwise no real harm done. Shopping for a new esc now!

Was pleased to have a call from Tad later in the day that he just wanted to compliment me on how well I flew my helis today! Lol, made me happy to hear.