Credit Dave North with this Baylands Cold Weather Survival Technique: Between flights, treat your hands to a quick warming session under the hand dryer in the public restroom.
Gloves blunt the chill, but they blur the feel of your transmitter sticks. And handwarmers, such as those used by Crazy Ted, require forethought and a small investment.
But the blower is free, always waiting for another pair of cold mitts.
Using a $30 disposable camera, a 65-cent pic chip, a resistor, some wire and a servo cable, Ben Levitt upgraded his Easy Star with aerial video capability.
See two sample movies.
Learn how he did it, see more videos and get his pic code here.
Bob Schleimer is telling me how he got involved in boats. “I moved to Fremont in 1980,” he says. “I had a garage full of planes because I’d been flying since I was 12 years old.
“A neighbor comes by one day, sees the planes and says, ‘Hey, man. You’ve got to get a boat so we can race!’
“He was building a boat at the time. I say, ‘No—I’m just interested in planes.’ But he persists, and he drags me to the hobby store where he bought his boat.
“Next thing I know, I’ve spent about a thousand dollars and I own all the stuff you need to race boats, including a monohull boat with a .21 engine.
Some guys like speed. Their idea of a good time is a flash in the sky, a roar between the ears, a rush of adrenalin, a high number.
When they crash, they come down hard.
Their flights are short but they don’t care. They’re in love with the hurry.
Others like it slow. Their flights are quiet. They last a while.
Some weave patterns in the sky, getting off on precision. Their lines don’t rise, droop or sag. Their squares and circles are pure Plato.
The temperature in Amherst, New Hampshire, is about 20 degrees cooler than it is in San Jose as I open an email from our East Coast Correspondent, Norman McInstry.
“The bake-a-plane project was complete late summer,” he writes. “First flight was a bad landing, which broke the right wing. I made new ones & added tape where needed. A pusher motor configuration proved better than tractor, so I made a pylon to be used both ways & attached by one sheetrock screw.
This is why you don’t...