It rose gracefully, no longer connected to the Earth; It's flimsy wings carried it further upward and from my sight; But I watched it keenly, like a parent watching protectively over its fledgling...Free and unfettered, unburdened by the pull of gravity, it rose and rose skyward...It Flew.
I've had many hobbies over the years, some have endured for most of my adult life and some have come and gone for various reasons; Lack of enjoyment, funds to support it or through not being good enough at it to continue. Hobbies are how I engage with my life though and I focus a lot of my energy on them
Around 2012 I decided I wanted to learn how to fly - More accurately, how to fly a model plane. I'd seen many YouTube videos of really cool remote control planes and I wanted in on the action.
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It sounded like a legitimate hobby and whilst I knew it could be extremely costly it was also possible to be done in a more affordable manner; This is what I had intended to do.
I headed to the hobby shop and chatted with one of the lads there in a bid to determine the right remote controlled plane to get. There was some very cool models there but those ones had extremely large ticket-prices and the chap suggested I start a little more modestly. I decided upon a not so cool looking one that was more affordable, handed over some of the folding stuff and off I went, the proud owner of a remote controlled plane.
One of the reasons I chose that particular plane was for the fact it came with flight simulator software that matched the planes actual controller which was designed to teach new users to fly. I went home, visions of soaring the skies after a few moments of training on the simulator in my mind, and proceeded to get to work.
It was a bit harder than I had at first thought it would be but I started to get the hang of it, learning to react to the variables they threw in and to the controls which required different input depending on which way the plane was going, away or towards me. It's exactly the same principle as flying a real plane of course, all the same dynamics.
I worked at it for hours and hours over the next couple of weeks and did the small amount of assembly required to get the plane ready for flight. Eventually, feeling confident, I headed down to the park where I would finally put into flight my brand new, and reasonably costly, plane.
I chose a location that was free of prying eyes, just in case I fucked it up completely, and set to work getting the pre-flight checks in place. That done, it was go time.
I started the engine, checked the aileron, flaps, rudder and elevators were all working when commanded and gave the engine some revs...It whirred and the propeller spun faster eager to get going...My glorious moment of flight was at hand.
I intended to do a hand-launch rather than a runway launch the first time and as I revved the engine I cast it forth into the wild blue yonder and...
It rose gracefully, no longer connected to the Earth; It's flimsy wings carried it further upward and from my sight; But I watched it keenly, like a parent watching protectively over its fledgling...Free and unfettered, unburdened by the pull of gravity, it rose and rose skyward...It Flew.
Then things went bad; It stopped flying.
Well, I'll be honest, it was still flying, just in a nose dive directly at the ground at an ever increasing speed.
Of course, not being experienced, I was unable to adjust rapidly enough and arrest the plane from its downward trajectory. I pulled on the levers at the same time as trying to stave off the sickening feeling of doom that was sweeping over me and then...
I walked over to my plane, now a broken mess of wings, fuselage and engine, and observed the catastrophe that once was my beautiful new plane. I picked it up gingerly, thinking I will rebuild you my little winged friend, but ended up taking it home, packing it away and I haven't looked at it since.
Flight had eluded me.
It's now 2020 and my wife Faith asked me about my plane last week.
In truth, she basically said, you remember that time you tried to fly and fucked it up? Something like that.
What she didn't know was that I still had the plane and had, in fact, ordered the parts to rebuild it all those years earlier. I told her as much and she suggested we go and fly it. I looked at her with a healthy degree of scepticism but she insisted on it being something we could do together...Hmm, the last flight lasted about 12 seconds so I'm not sure how satisfying it'll be this time around. 😁
I'm going to get my plane out from my workshop where it's buried on the weekend, take stock of the parts and see what's required to get it fixed; You see, I'm not one to shy away from a challenge and making my wife happy, doing things together with her, is enjoyable for me. We'll rebuild the plane and have another try at flying...It's likely to be a disaster but why not right?
I love having hobbies. Competition shooting, hiking, kayaking, camping, off-roading, reading, blogging, rogaining, writing, researching history, hunting, go-kart racing, Lego, playing American football, furniture and car restoration, antiquing and so on...All things I've done and continue to do at varying levels of skill and success...It's how I engage with life and it's been nothing but rewarding, maybe all except my dream of flight.
How about you?
Comment below, tell me about your hobby, how enjoyable you find it and any funny stories around it like mine above.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209
My apology for not knowing what community to put this into...I don't think there is a hobby community - Someone should start one.
Quiero ver ese avión, ojala pueda reconstruirlo pronto, debe ser genial manejarlo, aunque quiza un poco difícil, pero ¿por qué no?
I will do a post on it...The rebuild and flight...Then the crash! Lol.
Jajajajaja ya quiero ver ese post! La verdad me imaginé lo del gifs, aunque de verdad espero que salga bien, sin embargo, lo importante es disfrutar el proceso. Desde aquí envio mi mayor energía. Saludos!
Time will tell if my dreams of flight crash and burn or soar the skies in glorious rapture!
I had one of those Styrofoam jobbers as a kid and LOVED it. It never came back at me like an Australian Boomerang though.. lol.
I had a plane as a kid that was made from balsa wood. It had a propeller with a thick rubber band hooked to it and then attached further back on the fuselage...I'd use a finder to turn the prop and wind up the rubber band until it was under tension, put the plane on the concrete and let the propeller go...It would take off and fly for a bit...It was a great deal of fun. It broke eventually though and I never got another one. I had fun though and at 6 years old it taught me something about construction I guess as it needed a little assembly.
Oh COOL! I made one of those from cad drawings once in school. Used balsa wood. I coated the entire plane with paper dipped in glue and water. The band also ran from the propeller to the fuselage. It flew great for me then I gave it to my grandfather.. not sure what happened to it after that. He probably tossed it at some point. It may not have looked as good as I remember it looking.. lol
I guess I could find some plans online and fashion one for myself. You know, I might give it a go as a little DIY project.
I have never tried model air plane as a hobby.
Is the plane electric or gas?
It's electric...Battery powered. I decided to opt for a cheaper version considering it might have been a disaster...Fortunately I did. Lol.
I think most hobbyist are probably going electric these days, so much cleaner to operate.
Yep, and with battery technology advancing and them getting more lightweight and compact, it seems a good way to go.
WOW, are you sitting in a coffee shop doing hive??
Yes, the new receivers and program-ability are amazing.
I'm in my office
workinghiving. Lol.Still working from home most of the time or office building....
So much easier to build, install, configure...
And, cheaper.
The smallest engines are too small to have a control on the carburator.
And so you get into $100s of dollars for a very tiny, intricate engine. (with power control)
An electric motor is just so easy compared to that.
And with the new batteries, now you don't have to pour kerosene on your pretty little plane.
Just so much easier.
This is what I had in mind...
...Unfortunately my aviation glory was short-lived!
Clink link for awesomeness.
Yes, it is amazing what some people are able to get into the air. Many many hours of practice on small stuff to start though.
I'd like a helicopter but I understand them to be every bit as difficult to fly as a fixed-wing. Maybe one day I'll work up to something cool...For now...I have a cheap version to crash! 😁
I believe that helicopters are much more complex to fly. Now drones are such that most of the flying stability has been automated.
Yeah, I considered the drone thing...Far too easy for me though...It's all pretty much idiot-proof. As a bone fide idiot I need something more idiot-compatible. Lol.
Yep, helo's are way more complicated...It's flying, but was different.
Actually helicopters are made sooooo easy with electronics.
Further, the way to practice with an old, manual helicopter is with long sticks and tennis balls on its skids.
You can do everything with a helicopter a few inches off the ground as you can a hundred feet off the ground. And that is where you practice.
Ah ok, I don't know much about model helicopters I guess. Real ones yes, flown in many and the pilots always made it look easy...RC ones though, I'm clueless.
I had a mate who got one a few years back. He test-flew it in his back yard...It didn't go well, he almost took his own head of with it.
I recently got around to figuring out what was wrong with the carousel on my garage sale 300-CD player. Opened up the shell and dug through the circuit boards on the back and found the small belts that make the carousel spin had just given up and stretched out. Replaced them with a couple random rubber bands I had sitting around, lubed up with some motor oil. Felt good, and I listened to the first two albums it decided to play. But I hope I don't have to dig in there again!
That's a nice bit of MacGuyver-ing right there! It's good to turn your hand to something, get it fixed and working...Unfortunately for my RC plane I turned my hand to flying...Didn't end well clearly. Lol.
Umm...Maybe it should be Macguyverising?
That is one cool picture Tom Cruise!
Back in my fighter pilot days. 😁
Ah you know me.. herbalism, gardening, surfing, Landrovers, travelling, etc. Plus some secrets.
I watched a YouTube once about model aeroplanes crashing. Massively entertaining!!
It's a good job no one filmed my massive RC airplane fail...Wold have been hilarious though. I was like what the actual fuck. In my defence it was a bit windy to be flying that type of plane...An element I failed to calculate into my decision-making process prior to take off.
Hahaha have to chuckle at this one. I think there are many of us that had a similar experience with our first attempted flights. Loving the drone though! Although still risk of crash, It's a lot less finicky and more forgiving. Be sure to grab some pictures BEFORE you take off this time!
Haha...Yeah I was planning on doing before and after flight images because...Well, it's likely to end in a fiery crash. Lol.
I've been wanting a drone for ages and to be honest I see it as a better purchase, more uses and all. I'm sure I'll get one someday and will have a lot of fun.
The building / re-building of it will be half the fun, I'm sure. Especially if you have the parts already lying about. Will be good to get you hooked on the flight again! Looking forward to seeing the build!
It's the wing section that needs replacing and I bought one online back when I crashed initially. I just got lazy and never fixed it. (I was protesting in disgust of having crashed it!) Lol.
We're shooting Sunday (see The Pew) but I'll have a look Saturday and see what's required. It's a very basic plane, more of a motor and propeller with wings really. I did that on purpose fortunately. I wanted something more interesting by the guy talked me out of it thankfully.
I'd like to learn the skill though, I'm not one to enjoy defeat and rarely do I let failure go unanswered.
Wow you also fly G.? You never cease to amaze me, it is like the bag of skills never gets empty with you. Admirable! I hope that you will get it fixed so Faith and you could fly! It would be so cute and romantic!
The boy has skillz...Some better than others. :)
I keep posting about my hobby so not much more to tell. And funny stories around it, well there's almost always something dodgy looking happening and I never intend it really XD
Your plane story sounds like what happened to eldest's rc helicopter when he let his then 5yo brother have a go. It went up and up and up and eldest said DON'T FLY IT INTO THE TREE and youngest just let go of the up stick and down it came in a hurry.
Good luck with the repairs :)
Things that fly tend to come back to ground fairly quickly when they cease to fly. Something called gravity I think. I didn't factor that in I guess, neither did your youngest son.
My grandfather built and test flew planes for Piper.. mostly the Cub. He also flew for the military. He had many stories for us kids, some cool, some happy and others tragic. My uncle and cousin also fly and they love it. Now as far as model air planes go, I went to a really cool Model Air Show in Lock Haven Pennsylvania years back. I was skeptical at first then after we got there and had walked around for a while, I was really impressed. I especially liked the mini jet powered stuff.
My hobbies include painting, photography, Jeep building and repairs, collect buy sell jewelry, Hiving of course and most recently getting involved in growing orchids. Nothing too dangerous.. costly? hmm.. possibly.
The coolest hobby I've seen over the years is a buddy of mine that races mostly vintage stuff. We have a pretty large road course track close to our house where you can buy a condo and garage, keep you cars there and race on the track. I want to get into that, but waiting on a few investments to pay off first! hehe. I can almost hear the wife saying no.
New Jersey Motorsports Park -- https://njmp.com/
I'm sure he would have had some great stories for you being a test pilot and all. Balls of steel for that job, that's for sure.
Some of the RC models are huge and perfectly detailed...I've never been to a model show but have seen them on YouTube...Pretty incredible I think. I'd like one, but would have to get better at flying first, and find some more money!
I know someone who has been an orchid grower for ages...Gets right into it, enters shows and all. It keeps him busy. It seems you've got a fairly broad spectrum of hobbies which is good I think -No point being one-dimensional. Also, just on the race car thing...We have track like that here too where people with enough money can but a townhouse thing, a very large on, right over pitlane and have their workshop and garage below. It's pretty cool. It's not something I'll ever be able to do, even if my investments come good, as I'd rather not have so fixed a location. Travel is my thing. I can see the attraction though.
Haha.. yes.. balls of steel for sure. He once cut his own finger off when it got stuck in a garage door opener chain. He said he was starting to pass out and thought it would look better if it were cut off clean rather being torn off. He was a great man, husband, father and grandfather. I miss his big bear hugs. He would still lift us off of the ground at 85, when hugging us grand kids in our 30's. haha. good memories.
He sounds like my sort of dude and I bet he was an awesome grandfather.
I like these old photos...They have character.