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Blog Archive2013 Dec

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I had my longest inverted
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 flight yet (10 seconds) 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
. It was a combination of a stable situation and luck.
- This evening I went to Winco Foods for a $100 bill and a $50 bill so I'd have them to show
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
this evening at his house. I gave him the $50 for reaching his goal of losing two pounds per week for nine weeks. That got him slimmed down and through Thanksgiving. Congratulations, Harold!

Mon Dec 2 = Morning Routine. In this morning's
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 session I broke the tail boom socket of the main frame on the second battery flight - not a good thing. I got a little piece of strapping tape from one of the guys and taped the tail on enough to fly out the remaining two batteries.
- For the rest of the day, this afternoon, via
Duet
The organization through which I take Mildred shopping and take other old people to their doctors' appointments
 I took Mildred shopping and then this evening went to the first Beginning Stand-Up Comedy Class session. This is a session I had missed the first time around, because I had not found out a out the classes until the third session.

Tue Dec 3 = Morning Routine. I broke a record today but not until I got my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 fixed this afternoon, waiting for the CA glue to dry. I did get the tail boom socket fixed solidly with the tail boom pushed in all the way. The socket probably would not have broken if I had had it all the way in the first place. The record I broke was 13 seconds of flying inverted, even climbing and in spite of the wind averaging 6 and gusting to 8 mph.
- The rest of the day and evening I prepared for and attended the first session of the Advanced Stand-Up Comedy Workshop - twice. Once at 5:30 and again at 7:30pm. Both sessions were interesting and a little different. The earlier one included more experienced comics, and the later one was mostly aspiring comics who had taken the Beginning Stand-Up Comedy Class with me.

Wed Dec 4 = Morning Routine. Boy did I make a mess this evening! First, this morning I was the only one 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
this morning. Maybe it was the wind gusting to 16 mph. My challenge was mostly to keep the
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 under control, which I did with a few flips and no more than the usual number of grass crashes. I lucked out with no damage when I made a high-speed crash into the concrete side walk.
- This evening, after my heavy legs workout (with light chest presses due to wrist pain) at Fitness 1, I iced my wrists and made the mess, which was getting the cart before the horse. Here on my website, I did the monthly blog rollover with the latest update spanning the old (Nov) and the new (Dec) months. Big mistake! To recover I saved the modified files in a newly created folder and then undid all the rollover changes.

Thu Dec 5 = Morning Routine. I lost a pair of Speedo-style swim trunks today by leaving them hanging on a shower hook after a session in the hot tub.

Fri Dec 6 = Morning Routine. New air compressor. This morning I bought a neat Husky Y1010 compressor on the way home from an inspection of the
Dahlia
my Phoenix rental house located on Dahlia Drive
roof. The 1.75gal, 130psi compressor has a built-in roll-around cart and a LONG air hose. It took a stop by Harbor Freight for a $9 pneumatic kit to complete the set. This afternoon I upped the house thermostat to chilly (70° F) from cold (68° F).
- This evening I drove down to the Tempe Center for the Arts for the TGIF hors d'oeuvres with music and then the Friday evening stand-up comedy show which tonight was, Insane and Sober.

Sat Dec 7 = Got up early and went through my morning routine quickly and headed out for the hour drive to Queen Creek for the Superstition Hamfest. It was worth the drive to see a bunch of my friends and all the stuff for sale. I bought a 12v 2" squirl-cage fan, an LED light strip, a PAR-30 LED spotlight, some patch cords and some X-10 appliance modules.
- This evening I went to the 6:30pm Hamfeast at Chino Bandido on 19th Ave & Greenway Rd.

Sun Dec 8 = My Morning Routine had to be efficient in order to get to the Mesa Baptist Church where
George's
younger brother who lives in Mesa with his wife and family
gave the morning sermon, for the first time as interim head of the church. I thought it was pretty good. After church 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
's two remaining charged batteries in the church's grassy area, had lunch with George & Cindy (no kids or grandkids today) and then worked out at the Fitness Works Gym near their home in Mesa.

Mon Dec 9 = Morning Routine. This evening I went to the second Beginning Stand-Up Comedy Class that I had missed last time around. Interesting!
- With the last battery this morning I broke the pitch linkage knob on one of the blade holders. With my current schedule I likely will not have time to fix it and fly for several days

Tue Dec 10 = Morning Routine. without flying the
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
. I have been working hard on my own stand-up comedy routine in addition to working on the homework for tonight's advanced class. The class was an idea and writing session. After the class Tony listened to the routine I have been developing, apart from the class. His comments were helpful, explaining that most of the material I had developed would not go over as a routine. His goal is to have the audience laugh hard and a lot.

Wed Dec 11 = Morning Routine. without flying the
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
. This afternoon, under the auspices of
Duet
The organization through which I take Mildred shopping and take other old people to their doctors' appointments
 I took Carol to see the doctor and to the lab for a blood draw. We got gasoline on the way home.
- This evening for our weekly get-together, I picked up
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
at his house. We went down to Gangplank in Chandler for an hour or so. The pinnacle of our visit was seeing a Makerbot in operation. A 10-year-old boy was printing a chess-piece-like column.

Thu Dec 12 = Morning Routine. without flying the
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
. The rest of the day I stayed home, catching up on stuff.

Fri Dec 13 = Morning Routine. At Goodwill this morning I found an expensive ($10) baby comforter I wanted for keeping my feet warm at night, but did not buy it, hoping it will still be there tomorrow for their half-price Saturday.
- I had my first
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 session in about three days, having found time to replace the broken blade holder from my Nano #1. The heli was OK but there was only one flight, since three out of my four flight batteries petered out.
- This evening after washing my van, I drove to the Tempe Center of the Arts to see Ken Kaz for some high-quality CLEAN comedy. Funny! I'm surely putting lots of miles on my van these days

Sat Dec 14 = Morning Routine followed by a full day. I went to Goodwill and bought the baby comforter I saw yesterday for $5.00; half price.
- On to 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
, I had one of the best
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 sessions in a long time. The heli is working well and I had pulled three new flight batteries out of my cold storage in the refrigerator so I had four full 4-minute flights.
- Late this afternoon I went to
Christian and Britt
Christian Canease, my kiteboarding buddy and his wife
's Christmas party in Sunny Slope. They certainly know how to throw a good one. They had good food, music, boos a fire bowl, propane heaters, a drawing and entertainment - me, practicing some stand-up comedy.
- Rushing to Glendale for the
ARA
Arizona Repeater Association (ham radio operators)
Christmas party, I arrived just in time for the fun gift exchange. I got a neat neat flashlight and headlight combination pack (sorry Ed).

Sun Dec 15 = Morning Routine. This morning I broke my previous record with 16 seconds of inverted flight with my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
!
- This afternoon I drove over to the Mesa First Baptist Church to see their Christmas play (I wasn't too impressed), staring, among others,
George
younger brother who lives in Mesa with his wife and family
. I did not get my Fitness 1 gym light & fast legs workout in until about 7pm, followed by a stop across the street for a bunch of grapes on sale from Basha's Grocery store.

Mon Dec 16 = My morning Routine included taking a video the second flight of the little rubber-band airplane that Don converted to electric, replacing the main rotor motor in my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
, doing some inverted, flips (a record of six in a row) and one fairly good banked left circle... and a crash in which I broke a landing skid strut, the tail boom, lost half of the canopy grommets, and lost a top rotor link. The broken tail boom broke off in its frame socket when I attempted to pull it out of the frame socket.
- Later in the morning, under the auspices of
Duet
The organization through which I take people who can not drive to their doctors' appointments
, I took Arlene to see her ophthalmologist and got a lot done on this blog while waiting.
- This evening I mostly worked on revising my stand-up routine.

Tue Dec 17 = Morning Routine. I was not sure I would be able to repair my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 #4 so, this afternoon on the way to the advanced stand-up comedy class I stopped by Action Hobby and bought my Nano #5 - reduced by $50. The class was interesting, with Tony giving us all ideas of how we should improve the routines we developed since last week's writing session - and instructions to rewrite.

Wed Dec 18 = Morning Routine, but worked on my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 #4 instead of flying it. I used my Dremel to grind out the old broken-off tail boom and hot glue to hold the new boom in place. It worked, as attested by my early-afternoon flight. With the fourth and last flight, I crashed and broke the rear swashplate arm. Time to fix it again.
-
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over this evening and we teched out. Among other things, we discovered that my SkySkan atomic wall clock was ahead.

Thu Dec 19 = Morning Routine, except I did not fly my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 since it is broken and I have not had time to fix it.
    I spent the whole day and accomplished only a few things
  1. Researched and scheduled flying a Cessna 172 tomorrow at the Scottsdale Airport
  2. Updated my pilot's log book #6, showing a total of 2,929.1 hours (boy am I slow)
  3. Went to LA Fitness or a heavy legs workout
- I was so focused - too focused - that I missed the coming rain and failed to apply the preemergence on my granite, which needs to be watered in with a half inch of rain, which we got while I was working out in LA Fitness.
- The SkySkan atomic clock I have on the wall of my office ($2 garage sale model) is off. I reset it manually to the exact time according to my other, correct, atomic clocks. After it coordinated itself with the WWVb signal it jumped ahead by exactly one minute.

Fri Dec 20 = Morning Routine. Right after breakfast I sprayed the preemergence on my granite, hoping that there will be enough rain to activate it. I also re-did (again) my stand-up routine according to Tony's suggestions from Tuesday evening's class.
- After reviewing the performance and parameters for the Cessna 172 and the airspace around Scottsdale airport, I got around to today's trip about 3pm. It included flying my
Nano
fourth RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 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
a trip to Radio Shack for some voltage-dropping diodes, to the E Greenway Goodwill where I bought a pair of black dress shoes and a TI-36X scientific solar calculator and, finally, to LA Fitness for a slow, heavy arms workout.

Sat Dec 21 = Today I lost my
Nano
fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 #4 from 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
over some adjacent houses, set up and flew my new Nano #5, flew a Cessna 172 at Scottsdale Airport with Scott Campbell, bought a blue canopy for my Nano, went to the Saturday night hamfeast at Thee Pitts Again in Glendale, a nearby LA Fitness and then back home to time my comedy routine (3 min so far) where I listened some really good, clean comedy by John DeBoer and Ellen DeGeneres.

Sun Dec 22 = Morning Routine followed by working on four bladder leaks on my 12m Epic Screamer kite. This evening I went to
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
's. The highlight for both of us was his making a video of my magnetically suspended top floating in mid air. Eventually I may get the video up on this website.

Mon Dec 23 = Busy day: First thing this morning I took my van into Auto Tune. It only took them two hours to replace the left axle (half shaft) under warranty - no charge. Thank you, Derek
- This afternoon, under the auspices of
Duet
The organization through which I take Mildred shopping and take other people who cannot drive to their doctors' appointments
 I took Carol to her doctor's appointment.
- This evening I drove down to the Tempe Center For the Arts to sit in on a beginners stand-up comedy class.

Tue Dec 24 = During my Morning Routine I broke my new
Nano
fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 #5 for the first time. I hit a low-hanging tree with it 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
. That didn't do any damage, but the tail boom broke when the heli fell about six feet to the sidewalk. Randy let me use some of his tape, so the heli was flyable for the fourth battery. (This afternoon I had an additional two-battery session with the tape holding the boom on).
- The rest of the day was filled out by a light, fast arms workout at Fitness 1, sunning at solar noon, a quick exercycle session and a shopping trip to Ace for some O rings and to see if Best Buy or Fry's Electronics had 27" computer monitors at closeout prices. They did not.
- Later I washed my van inside and out, wrapped some gifts, took care of a little finance and straightened up the house a little.
- This evening, Christmas Eve, I built a new tail boom for my Nano from a piece of solid carbon fiber rod I had bought for that purpose. The challenges were to get the flat index facets correct and to get the tail motor wires positioned. Previously the wires were threaded through the center of the original boom which was a hollow tube.

Christmas Day = What a wonderful day to spend with family! I got up at 7am and went over to
George & Cindy
younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
's for Cindy's usually delicious breakfast pizza and other goodies. There were about a dozen other guests there that George had invited, mostly from his church - and
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who is a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS
who flew in from Hutchinson, KS for the holidays. After the company left us three brothers, Cindy and
Stacie
my brother George's youngest
opened gifts and played my electronic version of Catch-Phrase. It was fun and a little bit educational. Then we went over to see Stacie and Dave's lovely apartment.
- Back home, I got the kitchen table, counters etc. all cleared of any clutter, straightened up my desk some, dusted, vacuumed the whole house, reset all my non-automatic clocks, put new batteries in the ones that needed it, straightened up the guest (hall) bathroom and got everything ready for Scott (my son). I picked him up at PHX at almost midnight. What a delight to see Scott.

Thu Dec 26 = We slept in this morning and hung until our trip, which was to 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
, (where I demonstrated my skill at crashing my
Nano
fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
), Squaw Peak (which we climbed up to an elevation gain of 145 feet), to the Bell Rd Enerprise (where Scott rented a Kia), DQ (where he treated me to lunch), then back home (where we hung some more).
- About 4pm Scott left for
George & Cindy
younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
's to visit cousins etc. and I headed for my advanced Stand-up Comedy class at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Tony did a productive critique on our latest routines. More tweaking is in order! Next week is our dress rehearsal then, on the following Friday our performances.

Fri Dec 27 = Today was a full, busy and fun day with family. After my Morning Routine., including flying my
Nano
fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 I fixed a vegi tray and headed to
Harold and Bernadette
my X-brother-in-law and his wife
's for our annual Hayes Christmas Party. Four generations from three states were there. Fun!
- After the fun, I brought Stan home before we headed out to for some stand-up comedy at the Tempe Center of the Arts. With the help of my living room couch, Stan, Scott and I all bunked up for the night here at my house.

Sat Dec 28 = Stan and I hung today, gathering instructions manuals from the Internet for his Motorola smart phone, his Kindle Model D00901 e-reader, his Archos 7.0 tablet and his Franklin 950 Bible. We put the manuals on all his devices that would accept them. Now, all he needs is a PDF reader on his Archos.

Sun Dec 29 =
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who is a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS
's and my modified Morning Routine included my flying my
Nano
fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 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
. There were about four other guys out there who were glad to meet my brother.
- Later we worked out at Fitness 1 and did a little grocery shopping.
- This evening
Harold
Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over on his side-car Harley. The three of us had a good tech-filled time. The highlights were probably watching shoplifting security tags arc in the microwave oven, watching some Youtube videos from Harold New Zealand Airlines and Stan going for a short ride in Harold's side car.

Mon Dec 30 = After the Morning Routine Stan got organized and packed for his departure while I flew my
Nano
fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 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
. Then I took him to Sky Harbor.
- Around noon I lay in the sun for 20 minutes and then took care of some finance, cleaned most of the oak leaves from my back yard and patio (neighbor's tree - ugh!) and washed seven windows and the five mirrors in my great room and master bedroom.
- After supper I went to LA Fitness to sit in the spa, take a shower and for my heavy arms workout.

Tue Dec 31 = My Morning Routine included flying my
Nano
fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
 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
- three of the four flights were hand to hand (take-off to landing) without the heli touching the ground at any time during those flights. The flights included flips and inverted hovering. Then I put in two loads of laundry - sheets and stuff from Stan's visit in preparation for Scott's return tomorrow.
- This afternoon I washed off and dried all my patio furniture and arranged things neatly out there, made my computerized grocery shopping list, went to LA Fitness for an abbreviated but heavy torso workout and then did my semi-monthly grocery shopping.
- I rang in the new year by catching up on my blog, going through my emails, practicing my stand-up comedy routine and heading to bed about midnight.

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