Blog Archive 2014 Jan
Nowadays my morning routine seems to keep me busy until noon, or a little later. It typically includes:
- Back exercses in bed, shaving, a short, fast exercycle session, dressing etc.
- Fixing and eating a nutritious breakfast
- Charging up heli batteries
- Headiing out 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
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
or Blade mCPx helicopter
- Going to a gym
- Fixing a heli if break it
- Keeping track of charge conditions and levels of the Lipo flight batteries to determine if leaving them at storage voltage is better than leaving them fully charged.
- Thinking about a possible tropical kiteboarding trip
- Flying my
- simulator
- PhoenixRC flight simulator that contains my Nano nCPX and uses my DX7s controller
- Keeping up with emails
- Working on Stand-up Comedy
- Keeping this website updated
- Keeping up with my finances
- Maintaining the semblance of a social life
Wed Jan 1 = HAPPY NEW YEAR! I got the house straightened up from Stan's visit in time for the arrival of
- Scott
- my son, here for the holidays
.
They had rented an Enterprise car and driven to California and Disneyland for a couple of days. We had a good visit and I got to practice my comedy routine for them.
Thu Jan 2 = I wanted Scott to meet some of my RC friends so we went out 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
this morning. None of the RC guys were out there due to a 6 mph breeze. I showed Scott a few flips, some inverted flying - and a few more crashes by losing orientation after getting the heli too far away.
- Around noon I took Scott and down to Sky Harbor for his return flights to KY.
- For the stand-up comedy class this evening, we had the
dress rehearsal
for tomorrow's show. Tony suggested few changes in our routines.
Fri Jan 3 = During the
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
-flying
portion of my
Morning Routine
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
,
One-eyed Ron couldn't believe what he saw me do with my helicopter - fly upside down. He had never seen a heli do that before. That made me feel good and talented until I crashed it again.
- The rest of today was mostly filled with minor tweaks of my comedy routine, finalizing the trigger outline and practicing. I decided that I
am going to take my trigger outline on stage - just put it on the stool. I'd rather be relaxed and fluid than pausing while trying to remember the next setup and worrying about forgetting parts.
- Tonight at 7:30 the Tempe Center for the Arts was the location of my stand-up comedy debut as part of the
Class Clowns Comedy Showcase. The show included about 12 comics - the first time for about five of us. The audience was very supportive and seemed to laugh a lot (no wonder, we all had invited our friends). In my five minutes, I got 26 laughs (nine big ones) and six applauses. It was fun! After the show we all greeted the audience as they left. Later, Randy and I went out for some greasy chicken fingers.
- What a night!
Sat Jan 4 = No
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
flying this morning. I have been pretty hard on it recently: have broken two of the four canopy pins and tweaked the tail rotor motor mount. In addition the main rotor motor is losing power and needs to be replaced - not a big job. At first I thought it was a bad flight battery, but there is low power with all four of my batteries and also the motor does not always start itself.
- Lately I have been watching comics on the Internet. You'll have some good laughs if you search for Brian Regan, Mitch Hedberg, John DeBoer and Jim Gaffigan.
- I got caught up on some finance and have been trying to use some of the organizational techniques in
Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen.
Sun Jan 5 = The
Morning Routine did not include 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
because the main rotor motor is weak and needs to be replaced - after only 50 flights. I had broken in the old, original, motor five minutes at 1v. Also the tail rotor motor holder is coming off the end of the boom and I broke off a couple of the canopy posts.
- Got to bed late after repairing my Nano, analyzing the TCA comedians and catching up on this blog through yesterday.
Mon Jan 6 =
Morning Routine included attempting to fly 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
.
It appears to need the main circuit board replaced, as it is now unbinding.
- I ordered a new
CC Witness Plus and got the twist out of the leading-edge bladder of my 12m Epic Screamer kite. I think I'll say the main bladder is good enough, as it ook 12 hours for it to become soft, but still flyable. The first strut to the left of center is still leaking.
Tue Jan 7 = Today's
Morning Routine included buying a Blade mCPx (10" main rotor vs 8" for my Nano) helicopter from Steve Peterson 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
.
I was susceptible since my Nano is not working - and Steve
did give me a good price. I found that the mCPx is not very good at flips (too slow) and crashed it in the process, bending the feathering spindle. The heli still flies but has an intolerable vibration.
- Later I bought new heli
(
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
#6)
from Frank's Hobby House. It was actually the RTF version, but they gave me a trade-in on the transmitter and the battery charger. Frank's certainly treat their customers well, although they do not always know all the answers to my heli questions.
- This evening for the Advanced Stand-up Comedy Class Kevin O'Day gave us practice doing introductions etc. while Tony gave individual critiques to Friday's performers. He gave me more helpful comments.
Wed Jan 8 = Today's
Morning Routine included no heli flights, since both of 'em are broken. At 10:00 I took the van in to C&R Tire for an oil change. Good folks there. On the way home I shopped at Savers where I bought a 30x40" baby comforter for my feet, three loose-leaf notebooks and two paper trays that stack with the two I already have. The latter items are for my new campaign related to a book I am reading,
Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen.
- This afternoon I took the main rotor blades off the Blade mCPx heli, removed and straightened the feathering spindle. When it came to putting everything back together, one of the special blade bolts was missing and nowhere to be found, so the heli is still out of comission. Also none of the hoby shops I phoned had the feathering spindle or the special bolt.
Thu Jan 9 = As part of today's
Morning Routine, I switched the blades on 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
from the original black to fluorescent orange blades with my phone number on them and then gave it its maden flight 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
.
- At noon I went to Mildred's 98th birthday party
- This evening I drove over to see some stand-ups at the Comedy Spot in Scottsdale. The best comedians were old Michael Shulo, on for 14 minutes and, of course Adrienne Lapalucci, from New York, the headliner who was on for 48 minutes. I learned to not sit up front when I am likely to get sleepy.
Fri Jan 10 = 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
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
at the tail end of my
Morning Routine. I also took my Blade mCPx out to the park, hoping someone out there might have a main rotor blade bolt. No dice, but I
did find the bolt I had lost at home... stuck to the field magnet of main rotor motor. Yippee! I attached the blade then charged up the mCPx batteries while flying my Nano and then flew the mCPx for all three batteries.
Sat Jan 11 = This morning
- Harold
- Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over on his Harley and we went together in my van to the Thunderbird Hamfest. We both enjoyed it. He bought nothing and I bought a 12v power supply for some of my LED strip lights and some large paper clamps.
- After an early lunch I lay in the sun for 20 minutes and then flew both 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
and mCPx helicopters 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
.
Total of seven four-minute flights! There was an interested and interesting young family out there. During the course of my flights, I launched my Nano off each one's hand. The young boys thought it was pretty neat.
- Later I took advantage of Goodwills half-off sale where I bought another 12v power supply and a 110v Vaio computer cord and then stopped by Fitness 1 for a light, fast, arms workout.
- The day was rounded out with a load of laundry (darks) and catching up on this blog (ugh).
Sun Jan 12 = Late this morning I went to the Comedy Spot in Scottsdale for their weekly noon stand-up comedy class by Sean, the owner. It was a good session of practicing, evaluation and helpful suggestions - a good, enthusiastic and creative group of nine guys. On the way home I stopped by a Scottsdale Radio Shack store for some switches and diodes, 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
to fly my Blade MCPx and
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
toward evening, then to La Fitness for a fast, light torso workout, and finally, another Radio Shack for four stackable banana plugs for my helicopter power project.
- Online this evening I watched some comics online like Janeane Garofalo, Joe Rogan and James Jefferies. I made specialty connectors to charge my Spektrum controller and to power my Nano on a test bench.
Mon Jan 13 = After the
Morning Routine I tried to phone the Clark Howard Show, to no avail. I suspect they're taking some time off. This evening
- Harold
- Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
came over for a computers and tech exchange. The most interesting things we did was to check out different sources of artificial light with his diffraction grating, to look at my low-resolution magnetic imager (which I gave him) and to find out my new Dymo labels are resistant to heat, water and abrasion.
Tue Jan 14 = The
- Nano
- fourth type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
part of my
Morning Routine demonstrated how great the guys are 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
.
Three of them helped me locate my heli after it disappeared out of sight before I shut it off. Like
Captain Ron
says, I should keep it a little closer. I
did break my inverted record of 17 seconds by flying it inverted for 17 seconds.
- This evening I went to a seminar on Social Security. It was interesting, but didn't apply much to me, being already retired.
Wed Jan 15 = As part of my
Morning Routine I did the first reversing flip with 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
)
as the first step working up, eventually, to TIC-TOCs.
Thu Jan 16 = Accomplishing my
Morning Routine, I knocked a carton of 7 eggs out on the floor, broke three of 'em so had an egg omlet. This afternoon I took a gal, Hannea, to her doctor's appointment for Duet. Instead of going to the Comedy Spot to see Pete Davidson, I stayed home and worked on my own routine.
Fri Jan 17 = When I was 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 type of RC micro helicopter: Blade Nano CPx that has a tail rotor, no flybar and true collective positive and negative pitch
as part of my
Morning Routine I mentioned that I had bent the feathering spindle on my Blade mCPx heli and was waiting for a replacement to come in at Frank's Hobby House. Steve dug around a little in his parts box and gave me a main rotor hub assembly that included the spindle. Thanks, Steve!
Sat Jan 18 = As part of my
Morning Routine I installed the main rotor hub on my mCPx and taped up the canopy a little. Then out 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
to fly it. Since it does not have very effective negative collective, I didn't attempt any flips or inverted. Also, since it has a 10" main rotor, I do not launch it from or land it in my hand - always the sidewalk or ground.
- This afternoon I typed out and revised again and again, the comedy routine I plan to use Sunday - an icebreaker introducing me - over five minutes worth that includes about 22 jokes or punch lines. We'll see what Sean and the group think of it tomorrow.
- This evening I updated this blog and worked with the Dymo software on my computer and discovered how to print labels with almost any font or symbol.
- The last few days I have had a mild cold and little sore throat. Not good, considering how fragile my voice is ater my voice surgery. This morning I did not do my usual voice exercises (vocalizing) while driving out 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
,
took a long nap, skipped the gym and went to bed early - all trying to be in good shape for tomorrow's class at the Comedy Spot.
Sun Jan 19 = After this
Morning's Routine I fixed lunch and headed to the Comedy Spot for the stand-up class, which was good. My routine improves every time. This evening: more tweaking and rewriting.
Mon Jan 20 = This morning I flew my
big
helicopter. The two main rotor pitch links must be a weak part of the design because I broke and replaced one or the other four times today.
- This afternoon and evening I did lots of online research and bought airline tickets to Maui for the last part of Feb into Mar. Now I've got my work cut out for me to have me and my equipment all ready to go.
- This evening I went over to
- Harold
- Harold Dean Hayes, my techie X brother-in-law
's
for our weekly tech-out session.
Tue Jan 21 =
(Note: The rest of January's Blog was accidentally erased. Sorry).
