Bad Jim

Jim is sad he has not been flying, and therefore blogging has come to a halt. Opportunity knocked the other day, but timing declined.

Bad Jim, Bad.

-jBj

The Haikus are good, but fly I must

The previous barrage of haiku's make me want to keep the silence, for they are very entertaining. But alas, I must move forward with the voyage. The heli was not built to be a dust collector, and it saddens me to see it hanging unused on the wall. So move forward I shall. As of now it has not flown for many months due to many reasons, but first and foremost it has not flown due to laziness and slightly because of a broken part that can not be fixed with toothpicks and glue. So be it, I shall drill it and get some long screws and back in the air it will be.

So I pulled it off the wall and blew off the dust. I plan on having it operational in the next day or two. First I must purchase a bit small enough to drill out the front mounting holes for the landing gear. After that I will have to locate all of the parts required to reassemble it. That may prove to be a bit more challenging, but not a show stopper.

Fear not faithfull readers, this bird will fly again.

-JbJ

The Camera Phone - What a Buffoon

So I am really disappointed in my phones camera quality. I mean, it is a camera phone so I wasn't expecting much, but geez, these images look like total crap. The color is really dull. I swore when I first got it the pictures were a lot better, but thought that maybe I just imagined that. I have messed with the white balance, and the picture quality settings, but nothing. Oh well, it is just a camera phone after all, and as I said earlier, I did not expect much from it. Well, last week I was out of town and wanted to take a picture of something and did not have a regular camera, all I had was my crummy camera phone. I took it out and snapped a couple of pictures, only to be disappointed as expected and immediately put it back in to its holster, not to touch it again for a while. Then I got to thinking, what if, NO, why didn't I think of this earlier. What if the lens is actually dirty? Yeah, you were all probably thinking of this already, "check the lens, check the lens". I can hear you all chirping already. Well, there it is, the lens is filled with lint and garbage. By design the lens is recessed a couple of millimeters, making for a perfect lint trap. So I cleaned it out and what do you know, this thing takes decent pictures. Yeah, it is only 2 mega pickels, but what the hell, when you have nothing else it is not to bad. I can't believe I didn't think of that damn lens right away. Oh well, where is that box it came in?

For your reference, here are two different pictures that were taken with in a few minutes from each other. You will notice one is dull and dreary, where the other one is crisp and clear.














I am such a dummy :(

Oh well, until my next woops,

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Dissappointment

Wow, it has been a while since I have taken the heli out. I sure hope I remember how the controls work when I finally do. Hopefully it will be just like flying a bike.

I stopped by the hobby store a few days ago to get the spare parts for my heli, hoping to get it out soon. I really needed new landing gear so I grabbed them. I figured it would be nice to have a new battery hanger as well, half of mine is missing. I figure it is out in the yard somewhere. Unfortunately the hobby shop did not have a battery hanger. I figured I would get along with out it. I got home with my shiny new landing gear, stripped the heli down and started the repair. Turns out, there is a small hub on each side of the main chassis that the front section that the landing gear mounts to. It was broken off on both sides, so unfortunately, it is still grounded. I have most of the parts, and I will get the rest shortly, so in the mean time I will half to pass the time playing catch with the dog.

Until the parts arrive,

-JbJ

Travel Fun - Lake of the Woods

It is Sunday night, and we arrived here at Sportman's Lodge a few hours ago. Tom, my father in-law, has brought me up for a few days to do a little fishing.

Tomorrow we head out to fish. The launch leaves at 8:00 a.m. Followed by a shore lunch, cooked up of every thing we catch in the morning, and then a few more hours of fishing. I hope we do not go hungry. Oh hell, with our with out fish, I am fishing and not working. That is not a bad thing.

Any how, I have left a pic of the bay where we are staying. It is at the south end of Lake of the Woods. Across the way is Canadian soil. If we catch a big string of Walleye I will post that later. If not I will be scouring the web for pictures of impressive walleye and super imposing them in to pictures that make it look like I have caught them. I will leave it up to you to figure out which .

Catch you all later, I hope I do not fall over board.

Later,

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Forward Flight (Part Deux)

O.K. Forget that last forward flight post. I fixed 'er up and took 'er out tonight for a little fly time. Yeah, I know I said I was going to work towards nose in hover, but I really could not resist a little try. I did a little forward flight, left to right and right to left. Man it was cool. I hit the shepherds hook, the stairs, the tree, the swing, and the steps. None of them were small collisions at all, but damn it was cool. I definitely need a new set of landing gear now. I might as well pick up a main gear too. I have a few sections where the teeth are not going to last much longer. I think it may be time to graduate to a little bigger field. One with less obstacles. Even though it is a chopper, it would be nice to have some recover room. Although the shepherds hook was more of a depth perception issue than anything.

Any night that renders the chopper unusable with out substantial repair is a good night.

Until the next crash,

-JbJ

Internet - AAAaaaahHHHHHH

My internet is sooooooo sloooooooow right now. AAAaaaaarrrrrgggghhhh. I think Spectre's is faster at the moment.


-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Forward Flight

So I am getting this side in thing down. Cool! I figured I would give it a quick go with some forward flight. I would hover over to my right, say 15' or so, rotate to left side in and do a fly by in front of me. Well, not so fast. As you get further away to the right at left at side in, it turns out to be more like nose in. Woops!. So I have decided to rethink my short term game plan. I wanted to start zipping around left to right, and right to left. That is once I get right side in down. But this new discovery may have changed my thoughts a bit. When flying around, it is easy to get in to a an orientation you are not used too, so I think I may start working nose in hover before I start to fly around. That way I have all my hover orientations covered, so hopefully less situations will suprise me when I start to get in to forward flight.

Until the next calm day,

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Head Scratcher

A new rule was created in Jims book of flight rules:

"Though shall not scratch head during flight"

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here it is.

As you can see, the landing gear has pretty much exploded. I do not completely blame it on this crash alone, for my landing gear has slowly been deteriorating. But this little mishap sure made a mess of it. I think it may be time for a new set.










Oh Well, back to the glue factory,

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - The video is out

As promised, I have taken a little video of me flying. It is interesting to see yourself fly from another angle. I thought I was much more steady than this. Oh well, enjoy.

You can download the full size video here if you so wish.



O.K. I have tried watching this on the blog, I would download the full video.

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - It is just to calm to work

I stepped outside to let the doggy do her duty and noticed that it was all too calm this morning. Really calm. Yeah, I need to get to work, but how can I resist, so I rushed Daisy through her process and tuned up the bird, took her out and set her free. What a beautiful morning. By the end of the battery, the little gusts started up, I was just in time. I even had a couple of really sweet left side in flights. I can feel that break point coming, you know, the point where it changes from frustration, to almost normal.

Yeah, it was a good morning to fly, short, but good. If only I were a morning person, I probably could have run 3 or 4 batteries through the bird.

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Must... get... side... in... hover!!!

So this side in hover thing has been getting the best of me. I really want to get it bad. So I took out the simulator late last week and started to do some careless recoveries from left side and right side in hover positions. It is coming along very nicely on the simulator, but it is amazing how different it is on the real thing. I know, I have said that a hundred times already. But it really is.

All right, time to try it out for real. This weekend was a bit windy with a few spurts of calm. I attempted to take advantage of Sunday mornings calm, unfortunately I was on the tail end of it. The first battery went well. I was even starting to do a couple of decent left side in hovers (That is almost 20 seconds in my world). By the time I got to the second battery, the wind had picked up a bit more, which with my size heli doesn't require a lot. I decided that maybe the wind was a bit much when I had the forward pitch cranked all the way and yet the helicopter was moving in the opposite direction. I could have given more throttle to compensate, but due to past experiences, I have learned that is bad for a person of my experience. So I packed it up and called it quits. Unfortunately I did not get out again. But fear not, I will not give up.

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Wounded Child and a Pile Driver

My bird has been very unruly lately. I have been through two tail motors and much frustration trying to fly it. Turns out, what I really needed was patience. I talked to the mentor today, and got a few pointers. After that, I was determined to tame the bird. I took more care tweaking the gain and proportional, and I'll be dogonned, patience and minor tweaks are better than drastic changes. O.K, so I new that. But sometimes my impatience gets the best of me, and it takes a little talking off the cliff to bring me back to my senses. Thanks Oracle, I needed that.

This evening was perfect for flying. I can not remember a gust of wind during my flight, other than the wash of the blades as it hovered near me. If I had more time, I would attempt that other beast. The yellow one that taunts me every time I near it. Lets me know, it is still in control. I would take it out for another round and show it, I have not given up. For, my goal is to tame the plane before the summer ends. Well, secondary goal that is. First is the heli. I do think the heli flying will help with my plane. It has shown me patience, and how little to correct the stick. So I think the next time out with the plane may be promising. In the mean time, back to the heli.

I learned a couple of valuable lessons today. They are:

• Don't fly over women and children
• How the bird acts 20 feet above ground when the battery is dying out
  

Yeah, unfortunately I learned them at the same time. The wife and youngest were out watching me fly in the back yard, sitting in their patio chairs enjoying the show. All of a sudden, I was about 20 feet in the air and it starts wigging out on me. The tail starts off left, then right, it seems everything I do is either overcompensating, or under compensating. Unfortunately, I am directly above my wife and youngest. My only thought is, don't land on them, and avoid the fence. Mostly, don't land on them. Well, any bets? O.K. so I kind of gave it away already. Yep, right on top of the youngest. The main blade smacked her right in the cheek. All is well, those plastic blades scare more than hurt. I have certainly taken my share of smacks. But then again, I am not 11, and things tend to hurt more at 11 than old age. She is doing much better now.

So that was the wounded child. Now lets talk about the pile driver. Yeah, you thought that was it. Nope. I had a second battery waiting to be discharged, and I so hate to disappoint an eager battery. So I slapped her in and away I went. I am determined to get the left side in and right side in hover. I was working left side in when in a fraction of a second I went nose in. No problem right? I will just turn tail in quick and get control. Sure thing, in the midst of that attempt, the heli went ballistic on me, turned course straight for the garage and stopped. That is when it reached the garage. Garage 1, heli 0. I thought for sure it was going to be down for the count. It was a very similar crash to when I hit the house. Except, when I hit the house it was at more of a downward angle, this was a direct hit, then fall straight to the ground, where soft dirt was awaiting. That little helicopter is a trooper though. I checked her out and sent her off flying once again. Not to be deterred, I went right back to left side in hovers. I think I am slowly getting it. I can just tell, it is going to be a while before my fingers get wired directly to the controls and automatically correct movement. In time, it will come.

Till the next still day,

-JbJ

The Projects - Patio Time

So the wife wants a patio. Yeah, I have been putting this project off for quite some time now, so I finally gave in. This last weekend we didn't have anything going on, so why not build a patio. Saturday I rented the tiller, o.k, attempted to rent a tiller. Turns out someone else also wanted the same tiller. Great, he was going to be done by 3:00. I'll just wait till then. In the mean time we can go pick out the pavers. We wanted to match the sidewalk pavers we put in last summer. Unfortunately, Menards doesn't carry them any more. Strike 2, this project is not starting off well.

We didn't see anything we liked that matched close enough, so we headed to Home Depot and picked out a brick we liked their. We are in business. Problem is, it is getting close to three, and I was supposed to pick up that tiller. Now I have 3 loads of brick and paver base to transport home. Turns out that stuff is a lot heavier than I thought. I am going to need to take 3 loads. I started out with a load of 30 pavers, which is about 1200 pounds, close to the max load of the Suburban. Called Suburban Ace and asked them if my tiller was in? Nope, the previous renter had not returned it yet. "Great" I thought, leaving them to believe that I still wanted it this afternoon, I sounded disappointed, but told them that I would just pick it up the next morning when they open. Knowing darn well I was not going to get the dirt tilled today. I had a lot of pavers and rocks to move. So, 3 loads and ~7000 pounds later all my materials had been procured. For those of you doing the math, thinking what a liar I am, after all, 3 loads @ 1200 pounds a piece is 3600 pounds. Well, the first load I only took 30 pavers. The second and third load I pushed the Suburban a little more and took my 30 pavers, but I also added 35 and 40 bags of paver base each time, this added another 1500 pounds. So There!!! Thanks to the kids for helping unload the pavers and bags of rock.

The next day, I picked up the tiller and my lovely wife and I began to loosen ground and remove dirt. I originally rented the tiller for 2 hours, thankfully, due to the mishap on the previous day, they were very leniant and let me keep it for 4 hours. Worked out great, cause I took most of that.







Well, we laid out the paver base, some sand and started putting down pavers.













Two rows later the tornado sirens start going off. Great, this is going to put a damper on things, I thought. Well, the weather was calm, so we decided to carry on, that is after shooing the kids in to the basement to watch T.V. A few minutes later, the wind was starting to pick up and it started to rain. Guess this is it, lets cover it up. So we found some plastic, coverd up the sand and put most everything away. About the time we picked up the site, the weather calmed down. Great, what do we do now? We were both exhausted, and a break would be great, but we both wanted to finish it. So we decided since it was packed up we would start working on it until the weather drove us back inside. Thankfully enough, the weather held out the rest of the evening and we were able to finish. Sweet, cause I did not want to start laying pavers the next day. I figured I was going to be very sore.

Here it is, my new patio. I am going to enjoy it. Especially not having to move the lawn furniture and grill every time I mow any more. Wooo Hooo. You all need to come over for a little back yard BBQ on the new patio. Maybe we can follow it up by a bon fire.









Catch you all later,

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Bird still bad

DAMN, so I swapped out the tail motor. Those things must be touchy. O.K. moving back in time a bit, I moved my tail boom fin forward, leaving the support post all by it self. Well, this support post does a crucial function, it keeps the tail rotor from dragging on the ground during take off (Not landings, since it really has no affect when the bird approaches the surface at break neck speeds, or sideways). Well, with the fin missing, the support post, having no fin support, eventually broke off. Not a big deal I figured, I am getting this take off thing down any how. WRONG!!! Now I need to take off very carefully, and it is difficult to keep the tail rotor from dragging on the ground. If you know anything about electronics (Yeah, I know all three of you that read this do), you know that a motor that is not in motion provides very little resistance to current, and high current for extended periods of time = bad for motors. This is exactly where I believe I went wrong. I just did not believe it would burn out that quick.

Any how, I flew for almost a complete battery, it was handling so sweet with that new tail motor too. Well, I guess those few times I drug it on the ground were a little much for it to handle. Towards the end of the battery life, it was starting to handle as though the old motor was in it. "Maybe the battery is close to dead", I thought. Nope, put the new battery in, and I can hardly take off (those cement steps are hard). So I need another new tail rotor motor, and this time I will get something to keep the tail blades from dragging on the ground. Maybe this is the right time to get that direct drive kit.

Oh well, live and learn. Flying is still fun, that one battery was like that sweet drive off the tee in front of the clubhouse. That one drive keeps you coming back. I am determined to fly this thing nose in by end of summer.

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Bird gone bad

The chopper has a mind of its own. Flying it is like flying a Boeing 747 without fly by wire technology. As soon as it leaves the ground, it wants to spin, and spin, and spin. It is out of control I tell ya. Any how, I am not sure what is going on, but I think it is time for another major tune up. The last time I did it, it flew like a champ. I fear though, that the tail motor may be on the fritz, it spins up, but it is not holding the tail well. I just hope it is not the gyro unit, it is the most expensive replacement part. I will give it a tune up and see what happens. If not, at least a motor is not difficult to come by.

I'm tired, good night,

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Slow Goin'

This flying thing sure takes a lot of super glue, thread, parts, and most of all... patience. Yeah, it is a lot of fun to learn, but man, I want to fly like an eagle. So far I feel more like that fly that keeps beating his head on the glass just trying to get to the other side.

O.K, now that I have that out of my system, I will quit my whining.

It was a little windy today, but I had the urge to fly. So I flew. That is, after I replaced the broken part. It was a good thing I guessed right last time I ordered parts and ordered extra of the right things. So a few minutes after fixing the bird up, I was flying. I have this hover tail in thing down quite well. But the left side in is getting the best of me. Not to mention that the small gusts of wind today made it a terrible day to practice what I don't know. But this evening, right before the sun dropped below the surface, the wind died down, and it was perfect. What did I learn today, well, I have learned not to practice over concrete surfaces or near hard objects, grills in particular. Thankfully the heli bounced off of the grill without injury. Oh, and I also learned that when a small gust of wind comes around, it can have a tendency to take the heli straight up. Yeah, that hurt too.

All right, I need to get back to doing something else unproductive. So that being said, happy flying.

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - The bird's all tuned up

An RC helicopter sure takes a beating when an inexperienced pilot is behind the controls. Funny how you don't even notice how bad it is flying after a while. This weekend I removed all the gunk out of the gears, rewrapped the landing gear in sewing thread and super glue (cyanoacrylate for you Ray), and fixed the gyro mount (it was kind of hanging by rubber bands and sticky pads and bouncing around in the cabin). What a difference, it feels a new bird, kind of like it did when I took it out of the box. Well, at least I think it does, since I am not real sure. When I took it out of the box I could hardly hang 5 seconds of hover time. Now I can hover all day, or at least a full battery charge, tail in of course. I tried left side in and, well, lets just say I need a new set of main blades. But in the mean time cyanoacrylate and packing tape is doing the trick to keep her in the air. Surprisingly, quite balanced as well. I have even removed the training balls. Now it is time to work on forward flight, side hovers, oh, and landings, they are tough. I am up to about 15 seconds on left side hover before I have to bring the tail back in, hopefully that will improve quickly and I won't have to be so dependent on tail in flight. I also need to work on right side in at the same time, I don't want to be better on one side or the other. It is funny how they are so much more difficult on the real thing than they are in the simulator, even Rays fancy simulator is much easier than the real thing. Oh well, I will get there. Tick tocks by Christmas (2015 maybe).

Oh well, I am out, gotta retune the bird from my previous flight. Oh, and I have some video from a bit ago, I will get it posted soon.

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Parts are in

The heli is no longer grounded due to broken parts. I returned home today to find that sweet little brown package stuffed in the door full of little goodies. I even ordered a few extras, so hopefully if, err, when I break more, I have guessed correctly so I can be flying quickly after.

After replacing the pieces I gave it a quick hover test in the basement. All went well, no more darting left. It seems all of the simulation time I have been putting in has been helping as well. My hover seems much more stable on the heli now. As soon as I get some spare time and a good day I will record some video for all to see. I am going to try and wait for a calm day for this. Since I have experienced the great outdoors, I like flying there better. More room for error. Although with that comes more room for larger crashes.

That is all for now folks,

-JbJ

Bumper Talk

Hah!!! I saw a great bumper sticker today.

Guns kill people in the same way spoons make Rosie Fat.

It may not be a new one, but it sure made me laugh.

O.K. I wanted to get some chatter going on the e-mail sent out by Harq. If you haven't already read it, I have posted it below.

From Joseph Farah's commentary

For president: None of the above

---

Posted: May 01, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

© 2008

It's probably no secret to anyone who reads my column regularly that I will not be voting for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton for president.

But I will also not be voting for John McCain.

I could tell you all the reasons, and have already expressed them myself in a number of columns in recent months. But, this time, I'll let someone with whom I seldom agree express them for me.

His name is Jonathan Chait, senior editor of the New Republic. Here's what he wrote in that magazine:

"Even though it is in the public record, McCain's voting behavior during Bush's first term is almost never mentioned in the press anymore. Yet McCain's secret history is simply astonishing. It is no exaggeration to say that, during this crucial period, McCain was the most effective advocate of the Democratic agenda in Washington.

"In health care, McCain co-sponsored, with John Edwards and Ted Kennedy, a patients' bill of rights. He joined Chuck Schumer to sponsor one bill allowing the re-importation of prescription drugs and another permitting wider sale of generic alternatives. All these measures were fiercely contested by the health care industry and, consequently, by Bush and the GOP leadership. On the environment, he sponsored with John Kerry a bill raising automobile fuel-efficiency standards and another bill with Joe Lieberman imposing a cap-and-trade regime on carbon emissions. He was also one of six Republicans to vote against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. …

(Column continues below)

"McCain voted against the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts. He co-sponsored bills to close the gun-show loophole, expand AmeriCorps, and federal airport security. All these things set him against nearly the entire Republican Party."

It is no wonder McCain actively courted the idea of switching parties before his run for the presidency. He clearly belongs in the Democratic Party – even in these times when there is so little distinction between the two major parties.

No matter who becomes president this year, the White House will become a bully pulpit for the religion of global warming.

No matter who becomes president this year, the White House will support federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

No matter who becomes president this year, the White House will be in the corner of those who want more government regulation of campaign finance, meaning more restrictions on fundamental First Amendment rights.

No matter who becomes president this year, the White House will be firmly in the corner of wildly out-of-control illegal immigration, firmly opposed to building the barriers needed to suppress it and in favor of some form of amnesty for tens of millions of illegal aliens already here.

No matter who becomes president this year, the White House will oppose tax cuts, as McCain did in 2001 and 2003.

No matter who becomes president this year, the White House will name judges and justices more in the mold of American Civil Liberties Union political director Ruth Bader Ginsburg (whom McCain supported) than President Bush's judicial nominees defeated by the Gang of 14 (organized by McCain).

In other words, there is simply no reason for me to support McCain – no matter who his vice presidential nominee might be.

John McCain may indeed win the presidency. But it won't be because he is in tune with the will of the American people. It will be because they don't really know John McCain's record and because the Democratic Party will be split over the schism created between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

But John McCain won't get any help from me. He won't get my vote. In fact, to be honest, if the Republican Party is ever going to recover itself and become the party it was under Ronald Reagan, it will happen faster if John McCain is beaten. It will happen faster if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton gets elected and implement the Big Brother, socialist agenda they both endorse.

Bring it on. I'll do my best to expose it. Maybe the American people will wake up and rediscover the meaning of freedom after tasting elitist, top-down, command-and-control, centralized socialism.

We're all going to experience it in the next four years. It's simply a question of who is going to be force-feeding it to us. I'd rather it come from the Democrats, so the American people know whom to blame.

Flight Chronicles - Simulation

Well, my heli is still down. So, while I am waiting to get new parts, I have been doing some simulated flying. While it is not nearly as enjoyable or satisfying as the real thing, it certainly shows me where I am still lacking in skill. Which in my case includes almost everything from take off to landing. Well, o.k, not quite that bad, but I have a lot of things to learn yet. My hovering is coming along nicely. Unfortunately, it is too easy, and not very realistic on the simulator, but it did help me orient my controls to my heli, so it has been very helpful. To get that unstable hovering simulation, I manually injected some movement in to the system, then learned how to correct for it. Now it is automatic on the real thing.

My buddies that already have heli's have been talking about this nose in hover thing, so I have decided to work on that in the simulator. I always thought to myself, how difficult can this be? You just put yourself in to the perspective of being in the cockpit and control it from there, right? After about my umpteenth simulated crash, I figured out how untrue this is, so I have to give those guys some serious credit for this skill. Heck, as soon as I learned to hover, I realized just how difficult that is as well. So kudos to you two for your skillz you have have. I am inspired and will be working hard to fly like Goose from Top Gun. Until then, I guess I will learn to crawl, walk, then Run. Damn this is hard for an impatient cuss like myself.

Back to the simulator,

-JbJ

Global Control

Isn't global warming great? Yesterday I got in my car, and this is what I saw. This was April 26th, and yes, that is snow on my windshield. As you can see, this wonderful spring day wasn't like normal spring days, nope, it came with cold
and snow. I personally love snow, just not in
April, especially late April. Isn't the saying "April showers bring May flowers"?






A couple weeks ago I looked out the window and saw this. Another beautiful snowy April day. Now, from what I am told, "The Debate is Over", right Al? I couldn't agree more. The climate is continually changing, and we really have very little ability to control it. We are supposed to be warming the earth each year, but this year seams to be a bit different. If it is us causing global warming, how was the earth able to fight back this year? You got me, maybe it is bigger and more powerful than us little humans? Now back to the title of this post "Global Control". Yep, I think that is more what it is about. What light bulbs I can buy and what cars I can drive. Not to mention what fuel I can put in my car because we will not explore and drill for more oil. If you do not want to use oil, how about nuclear. Oh yeah, that is right, we can't build that either. It would be better if we grew corn and put it in our fuel tanks. Now that makes sense. Ethanol from corn uses a bigger footprint, and takes more energy to extract. But hey, it is renewable, isn't that was this is all about? Obviously not viable common sense solutions. Don't get me wrong, if someone has a great idea to remove us from our dependency on oil, I'm all over. But the reason alternatives have not caught on is, they do not work and they are not as efficient as oil. Sucks, but it is the truth. Now please, please please quit screwing with the system and let farmers grow corn to eat so I can quit paying $4.00 a gallon for milk. I would appreciate it.

Have a good one,

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles - Grounded

Well, the heli is down for a count. I attempted repairing the broken pieces, but now it just wants to dart straight to the left on take off, making in house flight nearly impossible for a beginner such as myself. Outside I can hold it for a few seconds, but it swirls out of control eventually. So, unfortunately all of my cobbled up fixes couldn't put my heli back together again. I will have to order me some new pieces online. I wish there were a store near by that carried the parts, but they do not have any for my model. When the new pieces come in, I will get some video and post it for you all to see my krazy new skillz behind the controls.

Until then, I'll be looking out the window at those still days, waiting for the parts. Oh wait, it snowing outside. I guess there is no hurry after all. April 26th and snow, imagine that. Hey Al, can we turn the thermostat up again. I prefer global warming.

-JbJ

The fun of Travel

So here I am, cruisin' up I35, minding my business, that is until mother nature rears her ugly head. Yeah, it was only rain, so it shouldn't be a big deal right? I even slowed down to 60 for the occasion, I do that now that I am older. The rain was really coming down now. I had just been passed by another car thinking everything was fine. It was until my rear end started to drift to the right, you see, now I am not going straight down the freeway any more. More like driving down the road at a 10 degree angle. So I straightened that out only to end up driving at the opposite angle. As my car spun the other way, I took a quick look in the rear view mirror to see about 4 - 5 cars, not far behind me at that. All I could think was "Well, if none of them hit me, this will be a success". One more spin of the rear end and off to the ditch I go finishing with marvelous 360. I hope those folks behind me enjoyed the show.

So here I am sitting in the median on I35 with one word coming to mind. I won't post the word to keep this kid friendly, but go ahead and use your imagination. All right, you guessed it, the four letter word was "darn" ;-)

What's next? How do I get out. Easy right? Just drive right out. Yeah, that is what I thought too. Problem is, neither forward nor reverse move me anywhere. You see, the median is like a small river during these little down pours. I opened my door to find about 9 inches of water flowing by. What now. Obvious, being a guy, try forward and reverse 15 more times to be sure this is not getting me anywhere and make sure the front tires are fully buried in to the soft ground. So here I am, pondering my predicament for a few minutes when, the phone rings, It's my wife. She has impeccable timing. "How are you doing?" she asks. Do I tell her I am sitting in the median and freak her out, or do I lie to save her. I can tell her later after I have been released from my muddy mess? Since I am not good at lying to my wife, I tell her the truth. "I am sitting in the ditch". At first, disbelief, but eventually she believes I am not joking. You have to understand, I kid a lot, so I understand her skepticism. While talking to her a good citizen stops to offer help. I graciously accept and off we go in his car to find the nearest town in search of a tow. South does not prove promising, so we turn around knowing that Albert Lea is only a mile up the road from my car. As we reach the buried mess we notice it has been discovered by a state trooper. We pull over, and I thank the gentleman, offering him compensation for his kindness, he politely denies. I thank him for the 10th time and head on over to the trooper.

To end this long story, since the rest is pretty mundane, not that the previous wasn't. The trooper calls a tow truck, tow truck arrives, pulls me out. Accepts compensation and away I go.

I am not sure how this happened, only two short months ago I drove all the way from the north end of Iowa to the south end in a blizzard, and not a mark on me. Now I get taken out by rain. Yep, my pride is a bit bruised. Oh well, so is life. You never know what is going to get you in the end.

So be it, that was my excitement for the day, I'm out,

-JbJ

Flight Chronicles

Hey all,

So I got my self a new toy. I have wanted one of these since I was 10, maybe even younger. Problem was, they have always been very expensive. Well, that has all changed, they are now only a $100.00. So, I decided it was time. Well, my RC helicopter arrived over a week ago and I have been practicing my crashing ever since. So far I have only wrecked the landing gear and swash plate. Turns out the higher you start to fly, the greater the consequences. Yes, this is obvious, but sometimes reality doesn't kick in until you have actually broken something.

The helicopter I went with was the Honeybee mark 3. In the beginning it proved very challenging to place controlled distance between the copter and the ground, but finally, I have started to be able to hover with out a crash for up to 30 seconds. I will start to take video of my progress so that you, the reader can enjoy the experience as if you were there. Aren't you excited? Thought so.

Till later,

-JbJ

The bloggin' begins

Hey all,

Here I am blogging. Didn't think I would ever do this. All though I am really doing this to test the blogging waters out for Breck. I am looking to set something up so that he has a place to post video clips. You see, he is very interested in sports , and has an unbelievable memory for sports information. He is continuously talking about this team did that, or that team did this. He is also interested in making movies. I put these together and thought that a video blog would be a great forum for him. When I asked what he thought about this I couldn't believe his excitement as he headed to the T.V. room to watch, well... T.V.

My next phase is to customize a sports template and see if I can post videos to this blog. If so, this just may be my place. If not I will keep looking to find a place where I can post video blogs.'

Well, here we go,

-JbJ