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Blog Archive 2013 Oct

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Tue 10/1 through Sat 10/5 = To have more time for other things and since I am so slow at blogging, I am going to try updating the blog here about once a week. I'll still be tweaking or adding things to my website almost daily. That will keep it fresh, useful for visitors and high in search engine results. You can comment here if you like.
- I have settled into a routine that takes care of the necessary things. Mornings include checking the latest news, a kite-harness hanging to keep conditioned to not get sores on my next kiteboarding trip, a 2-minute, fast, exercycle session to keep my heart tickin' and, usually, a trip out to fly my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
. Sometime later in the day I try to get in a session on my PhoenixRC simulator to practice skills for the next flight. M, W & F I go to various gyms for workouts.
- Well, what has happened since the first of the month? Most mornings I go out to the Coyote Basin Park and fly my Nano over the large grassy area. There are typically two to six other RC enthusiasts flying there also - mostly fixed wing planes, from fancy scale models to home-designed ones. With today's high-powered brushless electric motors powered by light-weight Lithium batteries, they can do almost anything, including hanging vertically on the prop. There was a mid-air collision between two airplanes. Styrofoam won over balsa/film construction. You'll see an occasional helicopter (besides mine). - This week out there I showed off two new toys I received Wednesday. First, the iCharger is awesome here, with my three weeks research results. Second, the Vaavud anemometer graphs the wind on your smart phone without a connection. Wednesday evening I skipped Gangplank and instead drove to Duncan's RC on West Greenway Rd to show off my new goodies and to buy a parallel battery charging board to use with the iCharger. I went to a Goodwill Half-Off Sale on Saturday and, among other things, bought a 12v power supply which I repaired and adapted to power my new iCharger here at home.
- Tuesday I bought new 50,000-mile Cooper tires, my third set of the biggest tires that will fit on the van. I also got an alignment. Boy, it's a quiet ride now!
- My new Sony Vaio Duo 11 is a fantastic computer, but not without problems. I had been putting up without sound on my new computer for several weeks. I found no help online. I did not want to start changing the many audio configurations on the computer, figuring I'd probably mess things up. I noticed that a few videos had sound as well as some of the computer's beeps & bongs. I finally determined that it was Google and found my way to a little mute button in the corner of YouTube windows. Clicking that button fixed the videos as well as audio for my Google Voice.
- I have been getting some phantom windows: windows for programs and folders (sometimes showing empty when they are not) that will not respond, close and do not show up on the task manager. I have not been able to find a solution on the Internet. Also my 1 & 2 Terrabyte hard drives, once plugged into the USB port become part of the system and can not be ejected.
- I have had my Sleep Number bed set on 35 this week and find the best thing is, while lying still in bed, to flex my back several times on my side before getting up.

Sun 10/6 - Sat 10/13 = Had a good week. I flew my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 almost every morniing out with the group of RC guys at Coyote Basin Park. Two different days I cut the motor when the heli got too far away and out of sight. I developed a high-tech way of looking for it, using my
GPS
Garmin foretrex 201
 to orgaize my search pattern without overlapping or missing places. The second time was with the brand new Nano that I had bought [my Nano #4 (#3 was too far gone, needing a new main rotor motor, man circuit board and had two broken canopy posts)] the day before from Hobby Action in Tempe. Jim found the heli on the far gravel berm to the west, 576 feet from where I had launched it. I had already walked a mile looking for the little tyke. That night I replaced the black main rotor blades with fluorescent pink - too scary looking for a hard-to-see heli with black blades.
- I am trying to practice on specific skills with my PhoenixRC Simulator. Tuesday I tried cranking up the wind - got to the point that the heli would blow over if I did not take off immediately. I did accomplish one landing on the lakeside grassy area, but the heli immediately blew over and tumbled across the grass.
- Sleep Number bed, set on on 80 this week.
- Monday evening I went over to
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
's where we teched out: him showing off some of his programs in a Visual BASIC and me talking about Alice.
- In the more domestic department I did a load of laundry (whites in hot water), applied for the Global Entry and Trusted Traveller pass, projected my budget through November and resolved my checking account for Sep 10th. This was a big job and took so long because I had to rework all three spreadsheets I use in the process, adapting them from the old Microsoft DOS 6 WKS format to XLS.
- There were about eleven at Jason's Deli in Scottsdale for Saturday night's Hamfeast.

Sun 10/13 - Sat 10/19 = Here's some of what has gone on this week:
-
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 - Flew every day (28 flights in seven sessions), mostly at the
RC Park
Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the Phoenix Costco at the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd
. I also got in three sessions on my Phoenix RC simulator, flying the huge Align T-rex 700E 3G and my little Nano, practising banked turns, trying some flips and landings without crashing.
- Batteries, Batteries, Batteries! I did a detailed study of the flight batteries I use with my Nano, including mAh, voltages and their IR (internal resistance) at various states of charge. The 25C, 150mAh, 3.7v cells weigh in at only 4.3g (.15oz) each. Conclusion: The four cells I am currently flying (E F G H) are doing quite well after around 182 charge cycles and showing an IR of around 300 mO. The 12 new, unused, cells (I J K L M N O P Q R S T) that I am storing in the refrigerator at 3.8 v have an IR of about 160 mO. From what I understand, an IR from 200-600 is a good range. That means my cells are exceptionally good!
- For Nano visibility and to make the heli easier to find when it goes down, I painted four sets of the stock black blades fluorescent pink on the tips. The primer and fluorescent paint only added .3g to the weight each blade. That's 15%, or 2% to the gross weight of the entire helicopter).
- Stuff: At a garage sale for $2 I found the neatest atomic LCD alarm wall clock. It has selectable automatic daylight savings shift, large display which includes the time, month, date, day, MOON PHASE and either the seconds or the temperature.
- My Remington electric shaver battery lasted 15 days before needing a recharge.
- GOES: I applied for the Homeland Security Trusted Treveler Program, which theoritically will allow me to sail through airport security and customs lines. At the same time I could have applied for the SENTRI program to sail through the boarder crossings, but did not, due to incorrect and conflicting information supplied by the US government on their websites. As a result, if I decide to do it, SENTRI registration will take additional time and money. Thanks' Uncle Sam!!
- Socializing: Monday
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over and we teched out for our weekly get-together. Tuesday I visited Mildred in a rehab center. She fell and fractured her pelvis on Saturday. She was sitting in a chair reading and happy to see me. Friday
George
younger brother who lives in Mesa
and I went to see Captain Phillips in Tempe. No Hamfeast Saturday. I never got an email saying where.
- Van: Wednesday I took my van to Auto Tune to have the new struts and shocks installed after 13 years and 119,126 miles on the old Monroe lifetime ones. Margaret, of Monroe had shipped them to me directly under warranty. It probably didn't hurt that in my email to her I included a little about the van and and a link of my use of it for kiteboarding. C & R Tire redid the alignment due to the new shocks so I am sure my new tires will have a happy long life. Thanks, Craig!
- Website: I added several things this week for the RC enthusiasts, including, on my home and Definitions web pages, an improved hourly forecast link and a link to my Coyote Basin Park Dimensions map. Using my Foretrex GPS receiver, I had walked all around the park, then used the track log for the measurements. On my Technology web page I added a link to smart phone software so others can use my Vaavud wind meter (see above).
- Health: I had my Sleep Number bed set on on 60 this week - my back seemed to do pretty well, so I'll keep the bed at 60. Wednesday I significantly tweaked my left wrist picking up a 45 lb dumbbell here at home. For three days I iced it about three times a day then, after the fourth day, Saturday, started heating it, doing some light stretches and exercises with it and icing it. For a while I thought I might have ruined it, but the wrist is slowly improving.

Sun 10/20 - Sat 10/26 = Mornings again found me out at the
RC Park
Coyote Basin Park where guys fly electric RC airplanes and an occasional helicopter - east of the 101 Pima Freeway and Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix
flying my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 with the congenial group that gathers there. So far I have a little over four hours and 70 flights on this, my fourth Nano CPx, with no damage from crashes etc. I have had to hunt it down a few times after I let it get out of sight and did a precautionary powerdown. Tuesday it took John to locate it 455 feet to the NE nestled down beside a sidewalk. I had spent about 20 minutes looking to no avail. Thanks, John! Sunday I saw Chris Ostring, a student of mine from about 13 years ago at Greenway Middle School. It was neat to see him doing well in the electronics field. Thursday I took detergent, a scrub brush, a towel and a gallon of water to wash off our picnic table. Several days previous someone made a mess by dumping an ice cream cone there and letting it dry. Some people and their kids! In the evenings, or some time later in the day I practiced flying with my PhoenixRC Simulator.
- Monday I took Kathleen to the doctors under the auspices of Duet. Speaking of doctors, Wednesday morning on the way home from the RC Park I got my annual flu shot.
- I was so proud of myself, getting my emails (Gmail) under control so efficiently, until I realized that the reason I was spending so little time on emails was that I had not been getting anything but reminders and notices that came through Google. As a result, I missed Thursday night's monthly
ARA
Arizona Repeater Association - ham radio
meeting and also their Saturday Night Hamfeast.
- Wednesday I was really careful with my left wrist during my legs workout at the Chandler 24 Hour Fitness on my way to Gangplank. The experts say one worries about the right amount but about the wrong things. I should have been concerned about my RIGHT wrist. Since then, I have been icing both wrists!
- speaking of the gym, as of Wednesday I have switched from a relatively heavy workout THREE times a week to working out SIX days a week - three light; three heavy and one day off. It surely feels good to be back in the gym more often.
- Computer stuff included deciding to dump the Kapersky anti-virus that came on my Sony Vaio computer and to go with Microsoft Defender instead, saving about $50 a year. Also I projected my budget until the end of the year.
- I have been checking into developing a smart phone app for tracking the tread wear on my new van tires. Saturday I used an XLS spreadsheet to organize some of the data that would need to be contained in the app. After getting feedback from several people about the difficulty of developing an app and seeing how functional the spreadsheet was, I decided to simply forget the app and to use the spreadsheet instead.

- Sunday I phoned in to the national Leo Laporte, the Tech Guy radio show about why I have not been receiving emails.
- Around the house I trimmed my shrubs, raked the granite, sprayed the few small weeds in my front yard and passed out about three pounds of Halloween candy in a little over two hours.
- Friday I had my annual allergy/asthma followup with Dr. Fadia Habib, way over at her Avondale office. While in that part of the valley, I stopped by Gangplank, Avondale where David gave me a tour of their facility, which started life a a bank, then became a city hall, then the headquarters for a non-profit organization... and now Gangplank, Avondale.

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