Twilight

So not only did Emily get a copy of the book Twilight for Christmas, along with the second book for her birthday, but today we all went to see the movie.

An now I see this

What have we done?

Her birthday was completed by watching another teenage angst movie

Happy birthday Emily.

Walk on Colley Hill

We fled the shopping mall today and headed up to Colley Hill. The hat was a new purchase - my ears have been getting cold in the sub zero temperatures.

From Drop Box

More aerial photography

Another beautiful day for photography





An some still pictures

aerialpics

Playing with Xmas presents

Clear blue sky today but icy cold with significant wind chill. I spent last night attaching a gift to my aeroplane in preparation for flying today.

Some still photos 

And looking back toward me. I am the blodge on the edge of the cut strip.

And some video





This was just a proof of concept test drive today to check for vibration and ensure that I could trigger the camera remotely. It finally got to cold and my fingers stopped working.

This is the camera platform - my Fun Fly Cougar 2000

From cougar2000

Boxing day excursion

Annalise and I decided to leave the kids with the Wii fit, left over turkey and plentiful supply of books in order to find some sea. We switched off the nav system and drove almost, but not quite, randomly but tracking towards the midday sun low in the southern sky, knowing that ultimately we would hit the English channel but not caring where or when.

We had a ambling drive, a lazy stroll and frequent stolen meditative moments when sheltered from the wind but exposed to the relative warmth of the sun.

boxingday-08

Careful what you learn

During the last two weeks I have completed a 4 day first aider course and PRINCE2 Practioner project management course.

I used to believe I was indestructable, sliding down the banisters at work,  shooting between cars on my bicycle but now I see broken bones or a snapped neck as the result of everything I do.  I wish I had never done the course.

Is the project management course going to produce a similar effect and reveal those inefficiencies all around me in my work every day - will it make a normal work day insufferable?

 

Edge 540

First flight of the Edge 540 today. The wind died down after several frustrating week-ends of either snow or very high winds.

The first three flights were all dead-stick landings as the engine is not run in properly yet. She really floats in quite fast when gliding but does slow down nicely with the prop. turning. The next three flights were perfect and the landing were under power. It has unlimited vertical performance and just disappears into the clouds.

Getting ready to fly

This is from the Easter week-end, plane all ready to go but notice the snow falling outside.

In the air

Several weeks ago my CAP 21 clipped a tree during the landing approch and fell into the river.

I only managed to retrieve it by stripping off and swimming to get it. In my haste I ran through stinging nettles, plunged into icy cold water and got covered in these leech type things, yuck. Only once my feet and legs started to thaw out did I start to feel the pain. The CAP is flying again after I recovered the wings and dried out the Rx, servos and fuselage.

The Alchemist

I have just finished this book and I am still digesting it. Wow, what a great piece of writting. It deals with following your dream and deciding in life what is important and what isn't. Also the pusuit of the dream is as (more ?) important than its attainment.

A quote of an Arab proverb from the book "Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time".

Read it, at 160 pages, it is a quick read yet begs for a great deal of contemplation.

Reading

I returned to work on Monday and then was back off sick today and now also tomorrow. It is now officially a "virus" - wow medical science has progressed so far since blood letting and vapours. Where is the smart anti-virus with genetic material targeted specifically for this virus and my body ? Instead I get some symptomatic relief and the suggestion to "wait it out".

The silver lining is that I have undertaken to catch up on some the books given to me over Xmas. This list includes

• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  

I am only half way down the list so I am unlikely to complete it before returning to work.

Also while waiting for the Doctor I had half an hour to kill, Annalise had the car, so sat down and had my hair cut. It is short, very short. My head is now very light and very cold. I think I should have waited for the summer.

This evening Stephen and I watched Oceans Thirteen . I am not sure how this got onto our DVD rental list but it was rubbish. I don't make a habit of watching rubbish all the way through but I think I went a little catatonic on the sofa.

Sickness

On Wednesday afternoon, around 3:47pm (approximately), I got sick. Sore throat, high temperature and head-ache. It wasn't the lunch-time soup it was something far more sinister.

I stayed home on Thursday and then Friday - much sleeping, some showering and some reading. Today I feel a little more human - seems I'll pull through.

Annalise feels I have been a little obsessive about radio control flying lately, she may be right as much of the time while in bed I drifted in and out of sleep having numerous hypnopompic hallucinations. These involved fruitless attempts to calculate if a propeller with diameter 10 " and 6" pitch with a rotation speed of 11150 RPM provides a faster maximum speed than one of 11" diameter and 5" pitch rotating at about 10500 RPM. Also which has the lower tip speed and hence is quieter.

No I wouldn't describe myself as obsessed.

This afternoon I did venture out to the flying field. Although the wind was strong (15mph) at least it was straight onto the runway. I took of, flew and landed the CAP 21 after a couple of flight of the Travel Air. It is a big relief that not only does it fly but that I can fly it myself and better yet enjoy flying it.

Outsource

Today it was made official.

The entire IT department is going to be outsourced to Tata Consulting Services (TCS). We, in theory, keep the same terms and conditions but have to move offices.

I wonder if they will have a more relaxed dress code ? Funny everyone is wondering about their pension schemes etc while I think about dress code and if I'll still be able to cycle to work. Does this say anything about me ?

My Cap 21

She finally flew this weekend.

The flying field was part flooded by the river Mole so much of the runway was under water.

It was meant to be ready to fly on Boxing day but family and Christmas all got in the way. Six weeks total build time from ordering the wood, glue and hardware to the maiden flight.

Ok ignore the elastic band - just a temporary at field emergency safety precation.

I had a better pilot than me fly her for the first flight, thanks Geoff. She was very lively for the first 60 long seconds until the trimming was sorted. For a while I really thought I would be swimming in the river to recover the wreckage.

More pictures here