2004.

Tuesday morning a little bit of snow that didn't last long. Went into town to send off my passport renewal. We plan to go away on holiday soon. I might be travelling at work too. Got some proper concealed fixing brackets for the fireplace. In the evening we had the family over for tea. A house full of kids playing with the musical instruments.

New year's eve we went over to Adrian's for tea.

New year's day very quiet, just sorting paperwork.

Sorting my dvds I found I've managed to buy the 2nd series of Spaced 2x. Oh well. Also the 1st X-men dvd was missing. I replaced it, only to have it turn up a few days later.

This year's RI science lectures worse than ever. Lots of flashes and bangs do not education make. More desparately inappropriate analogy and explanation from an ignorant presenter.

Friday 2x round the village circuit. Carol made 1x on her new bike. Adrian and Amanda's birthday. We went to the megabowl, then over to dad's for tea.

Saturday morning into town to see the family onto the flightlink coach for Portugal. Very light snow falling. My freebird rubber powered free flight ornithopter kit arrived from samsmodels.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. Put the xmas tree away.

Added a broadband progress tracker.

Monday back to work.

Tuesday off to the long mynd. Miserable wet weather 1st thing not very promising, but the forecast was for sunshine and 12mph W. Only 5 in the bus. Arriving in Church Stretton to warm(ish) sunshine, we went straight to pole cott slope. There were 4 others from West Mids somewhere with various aircraft including zagi type things. Just as well that we had the peg board. The sunshine stayed and the slightly S of W wind just got stronger. An excellent day's flying with 6 or 7 "zagis" in the air at times. A remarkable sight, with them buzzing around close in, like insects round a light. Some rather unbothered birds of prey hovering about just behind us. The M6 toll does seem to have speeded things up a bit.

Wednesday my new passport arrived.

Thursday the car went through 90000 miles.

Saturday into town for lunch. Got my eyes tested. Slightly stronger prescription, although I can still manage to fly without. Starting to need some for reading. Finished reading witchblade prevailing.

Added a software section soft.

Back to cold and frosty.

Thursday I popped into the helicopter shop and bought an 8 cell 9.6V 700mAh nimh pack for the swift. The extra cell weighs about the same as the nose weight that I had to add anyway, to get the balance right. I measured about 3g over. The extra volts has pushed it over the 1:1 power/thrust to weight, at least when freshly charged. Should be interesting, next time it flies.

Saturday into town for lunch. Picked up my new (and 1st) reading glasses. I got the "free" pair with standard lenses, but the main with the anti reflection coating. Considerably better, with a strange green tint to reflections. I got quite large frames to cover as much as possible of a pc monitor, but already the need to peer over the top when looking away is apparent. Maybe smaller next time.

Also bought another guitar book - It's easy to bluff.... playing guitar. Nicely pared down to the essentials, without so much of the musical theory and the dreaded stave notation.

Started building a lighter version of the pico derived aircraft, after stripping it down to find where the weight was coming from.

Still haven't flown the swift with its new power pack. The indoor thing is progressing. The new central fuselage thing is only 4g compared to 15g for the original. Should save a bit more by using a 3mm stick instead of hollow 5mm. Difficult to get sellotape to stay stuck to this depron foam.

Saturday we went to have a look at the new bullring. A complete waste of time, space and money as far as I could tell. We went up the alien creature's "nose" from the car park, emerging into the 3rd floor of selfridges. they seem to have stopped selling fridges. Everything was laid out in curvy displays that created lots of annoying traffic jams. The rest of the shops were just the usual suspects. Actually they had done quite a nice job of integrating the church, retaining several nice views of it. £8.00 to get out of the car park. Won't be doing that again.

Saturday my hawkwind dvd night of the hawks arrived from play.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. We're still a long way off broadband trigger, but someone has set up a wireless alternative, which is allegedly broader and cheaper. However the 1 off setup of £199 is a bit prohibitive. Currently 155/350 at about 10/month will require about another 20 months.

Wednesday we at last had a bit of snow. About 2" and utter chaos on the roads. It's pathetic really. Possibly distracted by the snow, I managed to wash the mobile phone. Didn't work at all after that. The sim is OK though. Not nice, being without.

Thursday I investigated the phone problem further. I had thought the nokia 3310 obsolete, but it seems you can still get it. I got the dmm out and measured the corroded (green) cell - no volts. However, when I measured the even older cell that I had replaced because it was not lasting as long, it measured 2.66V. I know you are supposed to keep Li ion cells above 3V. Inserting it, it refused to fire up, but it did charge OK. The phone seems to be working fine at the moment, despite various stories of water damage being unfixable. I also managed to revive my older phone hardware. That has nimhs in, nominally 3.6V, but measuring about 1.6V, and refused to charge initially. I got my universal charger suitably programmed and forced a bit of charge in, before finishing it off in the phone.

Friday finished off the indoor thing mk2. All up weight 181g. A saving of 17g.

Saturday evening was cadmac indoor flying. Someone had rather unhelpfully locked the lift from going to the 2nd floor, which meant quite a struggle on the stair swith big batteries. Some of the floor was wet and fenced off with benches. I presume the roof has started leaking ? A good turnout, with some new faces. Lithium polymer is spreading fast. A couple of aircraft in flat foam with carbon spars, doing a full aerobatic schedule. My indoor thing flew better now it is lighter, but could still do with a bit more power. I managed a roll, although the nose dropped and I bashed the ground on the recovery - carried on flying though. Flew the hornet lots. I can now reliably rotate slowly between nose in and tail in. Still no circuits.

Sunday 3x round the village circuit. Yes 3. Went to have a nose at the antenna for the new wireless broadband node.

Monday was cadmac meet on the theme of jets. Interesting mix of large (ish) jets, ranging from expensive, through very expensive to "how much !", including 1 with the mw54. 2 of them run up with a minimum of fuss, illustrating how well sorted these things are now. There was also an mw44, which was handed round. A lovely little piece of engineering, with a not unpleasent jet engine smell. 1 day...

Got the tomb raider 2 dvd the cradle of life. Utter drivel of course, but Angelina does a good Lara.

The long mynd trip was cancelled due to forecast heavy rain all afternoon.

Saturday I ordered some lithium polymer cells and a charger from aurorra.

Sunday 1x+ round the village circuit. Nice and sunny, but a bit cold.

Started building that ornithopter thing.

My lithium polymer cells and charger from aurorra arrived fast. Reading the dire warnings attached all over the place is rather scary. They seem to be mostly portable incendiary devices, rather than a source of power. They need a lot of attention. I replaced the unknown black connector with the standard red thing, being careful to do 1 lead at a time. Not all that sure how charged they were, I had a quick go on the indoor thing. I think the were at about 11.4V. I also replaced the 10x4 prop with an 8x6 to suit the higher revs expected. Very impressive thrust at full throttle, as you might expect, although it may burn out the motor eventually. The weight is 34g for 340mAh at 11.1V (3 x 3.7) nominal compared to 59g for 300mAh at 8.4V for the nimhs, saving 25g. More volts, more power, less weight - vertical performance looks possible.

I charged 1 pack at the 0.25A setting, as 0.5 would be over the advised 1C rate. It took almost exactly 1 hr. The last 30mins were the constant voltage phase, which will take the same time whatever the setting. I guess it wasn't fully discharged, as it should take a bit longer at less than 1C and with the tail off at the end. What the charger deemed "full" ended up at about 12.3V. Going below 3V per cell (or 2.5V from other sources) will (apparently) damage the cells. I need to make some sort of monitor circuit, as the traditional BEC is not going to operate at the correct point. Bought a few zener diodes and leds.

Finished building that ornithopter thing. It flaps very nicely, in an animated sort of way. Only flown across the room so far, and briefly outside before it started to rain.

Sunday 2x+ round the village circuit. A bit of sun, but rather damp. Cleared some of the rubble from the old fireplace, down to the tip.

Monday the underworld dvd hit the shops, and I was there. A much better film than widely credited. Loads of guns and black shiny stuff of course, but also an intelligent, complex story with lots of characters with their own agenda. Not to mention a sense of history. Oh... and Kate Beckinsale.

Got the new Courtney Love cd America's Sweetheart from play. A full £5 cheaper than the shops. Many reviews say it moves away from Celebrity Skin style, but there are plenty of the familiar pop rock tunes.

Also bought the new Skew Siskin cd Album of the Year recently. Saw the end of their set supporting Motorhead some time ago. It's been on in the car lots. Heavy.

Wednesday I turned 45.

Saturday morning at work, before going into town a bit late for lunch. I seem to have caught a cold in the frosty weather.

Cold and frosty all week.

Thursday put some new super slinky guitar strings on the yamaha. A bit of a game, as the bridge end are just clamped, rather than passing through a hole. Should be easier next time.

Saturday was cadmac indoor flight. The lithium polymer cells performed excellently. The indoor thing zipped down the hall extremely quickly, feeling light, with a great rate of climb. Still fast at about half throttle, I slowed it right down, and tried prop hanging. Plenty of power to pull up, but without a rudder, impossible to keep it vertical, forcing recovery in whatever direction it falls out of it. Eventually I overdid it and bashed its nose into the ground, breaking off the undercarriage mounting. Out with the epoxy. Flew the hornet lots. I covered the canopy in shiny xmas wrapping tape, which looks nice, but has made it heavier. I think the nimhs are going off too. The flight time is going down. I tried the lithiums in the hornet. Plenty of power, hovering on about half throttle, but rather difficult to control in the vertical direction as each click makes a lot of difference. I could cope with that tail in, but nose in it got too tricky. Went back to the nimhs. I could probably change the transmitter to reduce the sensitivity. I need to put an undervoltage indicator on it. The only 1 I have made so far is hard wired to the indoor thing, due to a lack of connectors in the shops. In between I flew the flappy thing. It goes nicely, although not for long. Changing the rubber I managed to get it most of the way to the roof. Flew the indoor thing again, with the same result. Need to mount those wheels better. It really wants to be outdoors. The pico motor got quite hot, but no signs of burn out, and the lithium cells don't even get very warm. There were lots of people/aircraft there. Several of these new shockflyers doing full aerobatics. Despite the busy air there were few incidents... until the last half hour when it was absolute carnage with mid air collisions all over the place. 1 more session to go.

Still cold and frosty at the start of the week.

Tuesday was long mynd. Got off to a slow start when the car park that we normally leave the cars in was locked up. 8 in the bus, which was a bit vague on the motorway. We arrived to find a very soft rear tyre. Lots of sun, but still snow in the shaded places. A S wind put us on ashes hollow. Only just enough to keep a zagi up at 1st, with a low sun directly in front, shining through haze. Reasonably warm though, and through the afternoon the wind got up, and some of the haze cleared. Everyone got some flying in. Several land outs, but little damage. Pumped up the tyre at a garage and headed back, only to find that the amount of fuel we normally use wasn't going to get us home, requiring a diversion off the motorway, and more funds. I guess the soft tyre used a lot.

Wednesday put 2 new tyres on the back of the car.

Saturday quite warm and sunny. My respiro dvd arrived from play. We didn't get around to seeing it at the cinema.

The pond is full of frogs, sounding like a distant 2 stroke bike rally with all the croaking.

White, yellow and blue flowers are out.

Sunday it actually snowed again - rather big, wet, sleety snow, but snow nevertheless. Later on sunshine and showers. 2x round the village circuit. Got the bike out too. Needed a jump start. Pumped the tyres up, but it started to rain before I got far.

I've bought some more Tx and Rx crystals from sussex model centre to support flying the eco8 in the helis only field. I've lost the cover off the back of the challenger Tx. I think it's on the pole cott slope somewhere. I'll start using the FF8 computer Tx instead. This gives me the opportunity to add some flap function to the stiletto, as the wing.aileron servos are separate.

Tuesday Simon round for a guitars session.

Wednesday ordered some quiet bits for the pc from quietpc.

Thursday bombs in Madrid.

Friday started with quite a bit of snow, and a very slow drive to work. We went down the pub in the evening. The oddsods were playing upstairs.

Saturday over to Nuneaton to order some carpet.

Very windy this week.

Monday my quietpc.bits arrived, but no time to do anything with them, as it was the cadmac concours d'elegance. I entered the freebird ornithopter, not very seriously. Came 8th out of 9.

Tuesday evening I fitted the new psu and processor fan. Very successful. Subjectively, the noise is about 10% of what is was, when the pc is idling. There used to be a roaring jet noise from the psu, and a whine from the processor fan, which were just base models. I have the processor fan turned down to minimum, and it is still slightly cooler than before. Of course, other sounds are now more noticeable, particularly the hard drive servo motor. Tempted to pursue the noise even further down. Also frees up the old psu as a bench supply. Need to find out how to turn it on/off.

Saturday was the last cadmac indoor flight session of the season. Few people there, but plenty of flying nevertheless. The lift had an out of order sign on it, but seemed to work OK, apart from a fussy door sensor. For the 1st time, I used only the lthium cells. The indoor thing flew very nicely, but it was far too fast to try anything clever. It would fly quite slow, but the ailerons, despite their size, gave a very slow roll rate at low airspeed. I decided a roll could wait until I fly it outdoors. I used a proper heli program on the Tx for the hornet, allowing a programmed throttle curve. I turned the max down to 60%, but was still only using about middle stick to hover. Nice and smooth in the air. I did crash it a few times, including 1x when I had to dodge a yellow biplane heading straight for me (in the heli corner). It swings its tail badly when sharp changes to throttle are applied eg. a rapid ascent. The only way to get more or less lift on a fixed pitch heli is to change the head speed, which means accelerating the gyroscopic mass of the rotor blades, causing a reaction at the tail. Wouldn't get this with a collective pitch heli. Maybe next year. Without a voltage sensor on the heli, I was a bit worried about over discharging. There was a noticeable increase in throttle stick after a while, due to the voltage drooping. I found this was about 11.1V, from a start at about 12.3V. 9V (or 7.5V ?) is supposed to be the danger point. Took a long time to recharge fully. Even so, lithiums are the future. Flew the ornithopter sucessfully. Also bought some more little GWS Rx xtals to give me a few more options.

Tuesday 1x round the village circuit. In the evening we went over to the next village to see a new band practicing, largely because they are doing a support for Carol's rafting thing. Also opened up the old pc power supply. Remarkably little in there considering the power available.

Wednesday 1x round the village circuit. My alien director's cut dvd arrived.

Thursday 2x round the village circuit. Finished converting the old pc psu into a simple 12V bench supply. Measured at only 11.5V, but should be ok for most chargers.

Friday ordered a filip 400 artf electric glider from puffinmodels, to fill in while waiting for the simply the best.

Saturday morning I went on the litter pick around the village. Carol too busy. Got the microphone inside the pc case. It seems most of the remaining noise is still coming from the (now much quieter) processor fan, with the graphics card a close 2nd. Not a lot from the spin of the hard drive, although the servo is noisy. Probably not worth going any further.

Sunday got the bike out. Needed to jump start it, but it was OK for a trip to B+Q. New brake pads starting to free off. Got some of that new 90secs clear epoxy. Seems to take more like 5mins. Anyway, nice small syringe type set to go in the tool box. A bit of garden tidying.

April and 04.04.04.

Monday a bit of a struggle getting up after the clocks changing, but it was at least daylight. My filip 400 from puffinmodels arrived promptly late afternoon. Mine has yellow wing tips, but otherwise looks like it does on the box. Nicely put together, but still quite a bit to do, to get it in the air. Even has an airbrake option.

Tuesday a lovely sunny afternoon. We went to the art centre to see the film Goodbye Lenin. Missed the 1st 10mins or so due to road works on the A46. A very good look at life in a once divided city - funny, sad, thought provoking etc.

Friday bought the matrix revolutions dvd.

Saturday evening we went to the next village to see the band revelations playing to support Carol's rafting thing.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. Spent some time putting the filip 400 together.

The broadband registrations has passed 50% at last 177/350. Still a long way to go to trigger.

April showers.

Forgot to mention that last Saturday I bought nikita and betty blue (37^o le matin) dvds.

Friday forecast to be the best day of the holiday. I took the eco8 heli down to the new heli only field at wolston. Swapped to the new xtals for the heli only frequencies. Gareth, Chis and Eddie there, making more helis than fixed wing, as usual. A few more turned up later in the main field, and we saw a couple of crashes in the distance. I started off with a tail in only flight, just to make sure everything was ok. Perfect conditions, with just enough wind to know which way it was coming from. 2nd flight I managed some nose in, but had a couple of heavy landings, managing to temporarily lose 1 of the skids in the mud. By the 3rd flight Carol had turned up to have a look and take some photos. Managed to keep it in the air for the whole charge, including several reversals. The tail was quite steady in the hover, but swung about a bit after rotation. I noticed the gyro wobbling about inside the canopy too. I think the plastic chassis is a bit too floppy. Perhaps I should upgrade it to carbon and remount the gyro. A good session though. Even bigger power pack in the post.

We went into town and did Saturday on Friday. Reminded of black night, I bought the deep purple cd made in japan. 1972.

Saturday my new power packs from overlander arrived. 9.6V 8x 1250mAh nicad for the filip 400 and 12V 10x 3300 nimhs for the eco8. In the afternoon we went to Leicester for a change. Bought another hawkwind cd welcome to the future. Some rather dodgy live recordings, but an interesting dvd interview with Dave Brock on the history of the band. Nice to hear some Bob Calvert stuff from stonehenge 1977.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. Carol cleared out the greenhouse. A bit more work on the filip 400 - should be ready for next weekend's competition.

Retired the aerojet and electric glider thing to the roof. They were both too heavy, and I have rather a lot of aircraft on the go at the moment.

Monday holiday. 2x round the village circuit. Surprisingly large number of shops open in town. Finished off the filip 400. With no power pack the weight ended up at 578g. Adding the 1250mAh pack at 347g made 925g, which felt ridiculously heavy. Also, such a tight squeeze that I couldn't get it back far enough to get the c of g right. Abandoned that idea. Fitting an old 7x cell 8.4V 500ar pack at 138g made 717g,which is close to the nominal 715g in the instructions. This time, I don't think I've built it heavy - the extra weight is down to the non bec extra Rx pack (300mAh nimhs) and a rather overrated 40A speed controller.

Wednesday a bit windy, but I needed to try it out, so off to wolston. 2 others there flying without name tokens on the peg board - hmm. The climb rate was disappointing, and it soon became clear that the c of g was too far back. I struggled to keep it into wind and in the right attitude. Got it down safely though. Decided that was enough proving. The access hatch is annoying, as it is the obvious place to pick it up, but only very loosely attached, and not very strong anyway. Ordered an 8x cell 9.6V 500ar pack and an 1850mAh nimh Tx pack from overlander.

Got the call that the new carpet was coming Friday, so we spent most of Wednesday and Thursday evening clearing the main room. Typing this in the bedroom, where the pc is temporarily. Amid all the chaos we managed to miss the last episode of black books.

Friday afternoon off unnecessarily to wait for carpet and fitters, which eventually arrived...

Saturday morning 08:00. All done by about 10:30, just leaving the enormous task of moving everything back in. We went over to Nuneaton to pay, then into Coventry for lunch. Sunny, but windy weather not looking very promising for the glider competition. Late evening we went over to Nuneaton (again) to see Simon playing at a social club.

Sunday morning up early (again), just in case it was on. Drizzly rain, but not actually much wind. Went over to wolston anyway. Dad organising (but no aircraft), me, Neil and Bruce (didn't fly). When the rain eased off we decided to do some test flights. Climb rate is much better with the 8x cell pack, and the pitch control is better with the pack further forward. We decided to run the 3 slots, and recharged the packs. I only managed about 4mins (of 10), including a 1min motor run, compared to Neil's 7 or 8mins. I managed to land on the take off patch each time, but not close enough for a bonus. Neil managed it every time. Still, I now have some points, which is more than those that didn't turn up. Currently placed last (out of 2). I limited the 1st 2 runs to 55secs, to save some for the last, but in fact there was plenty left. I think it really needs more volts - maybe a 10x cell pack ? Rather a large amount of right trim for straight flight - must investigate the wing alignment.

1 week and 2 days late due to holiday in france.

Monday cadmac meeting with flying outside. A bit windy, but lots of aircraft. 1st time for the swift with 8x cells. Much easier to launch with the extra thrust. Not quite vertical performance, after the 1st few seconds of charge, but from level flight, point the nose at the sky and it will easily rapidly climb about 100ft. Still goes slow too - I managed to hover it vertically down in the strong wind. Great fun. Also flew the eco8 and hornet helis, but too windy to be comfortable.

Most of the rest of the week packing/getting ready for the holiday.

On y va.

Saturday after an overnight stop at a travelodge off the M11, we used e parking and flew ryanair from stansted to montpellier. Stepped out into wonderful hot, dry sunshine. Great to be in france again. We took a 206 and drove the N roads to béziers, stopping at an intermarché for shopping, before heading north for pailhès. Arrived at the french life gite domaine la fleuride neuve. A lovely, enormous house attached to that of the owners Régine and Gilles. A bit different to have a TV, washing machine, freezer, microwave etc. There was a log fire burning when we arrived, which we thought quite strange in the hot sunshine, but we needed it later. 4 cats and a few small dogs. We saw 3 of the cats, but only 1, really long haired, was very friendly, wanting to be in the house all the time. A pair of nightingales singing all night kept us awake until we got used to it. I think they could be more accurately named "car alarm" birds, as they seem to have mastered all of the various tones, including the lock/unlock.

Sunday morning over to the boulangerie/patisserie at thézan for fresh bread etc. Walked up to the top of the hill where swallows were wheeling around the square. A lazy day in the garden, with a later walk around the surrounding vineyards, with the hills in the distance.

Monday we resisted béziers as the market was closed, and drove up into the hills instead. Had an excellent lunch at hotel/restaurant roc fourcat. Drove through several places without stopping. Excellent twisty roads through the hills, reminiscent of biking holidays. Stopped to turn round at a nice spot by a windmill overlooking st chinian. Spotted a garden centre on the way back. Went to the super unico supermarket at murviel.

Tuesday into béziers. Great difficulty parking, with even the underground halls full, eventually finding a free space right next to the indoor market. Walked down the main avenue past a statue of Pierre Paul Riquet (built the canal du midi) to parc des poètes. Remarkable statue at the top showing (presumably) atlas holding up the world, looking out over the water and down the hill, but round the back a dark face looking the other way. A small amphitheatre. Down to the river to see the standard view from the old bridge. There really are too many little dogs around there. Lovely clear water in the river orb, showing the large fish. Back into the centre for lunch. Went to see the cathedral, but it was closed - something to do with no electricity during works.

Wednesday we decided to go west. Weather had clouded over and gone a bit cold. Stopped to have a look at the roman oppidum d'ensérune and the spectacular drained lake, on the way. The visitor centre was closed for lunch, but the views were good. At narbonne we used the underground car park and had lunch in the central square, where a bit of the roman road via domitia is exposed. The 128M memory in the camera ran out - swapped to the older 64M. Eventually found the enormous carrefour supermarket on the coast side. Bought a few unknown cds and a dvd about the area. Thinking it was about time we saw the sea, we headed for the coast, arriving at gruissan plage, which was very quiet in april - lots of empty beach houses on stilts, rather like in the film betty blue. Left it a bit late, and drove back down the A9 in the dark, with a rather alarming 3 lanes into 1 just before the exit.

Thursday it literally rained all day, and probably the night too. Over to thézan in the rain for breakfast stuff - a very wet local market on the car park. We put some extra logs on the fire and did some reading, but eventually we had to go out. We headed east through some rather dangerous flooded roads, through pézenas, which looked a nice place, to visit the aquarium at cap d'agde. We got the impression they don't get much rain, as the gift shop was flooded too. In the evening we watched pop idol nouvelle star on channel M6, which was down to the last 4.

Friday morning the sun was back, with a few clouds. Went over to the st chinian garden centre, Carol looking for juniper something or other, but only getting some tomato plant and asperges. We followed the reverse of the route through the hills we took on Monday, stopping to look at st pons this time. Wind farm on the hills in the distance. The rain had come back. Decided to go back to the same restaurant again, but got there too late. Got something fairly indifferent in olargues. Stopped at cessenon sur orb on the way back, and had a look at a local art show in the salle des fetes. All the reasonably priced good stuff had already been sold. Back to the supermarket at murviel to get some wine to take home. Lovely and sunny again, we went for a walk over to puimisson across the vineyards. 3/4 moon high in the clear sky, with the angle of the shadow showing the latitude. The 64M camera memory ran out, and the spare 128M that I bought for the holiday refused to work. Nevermind, still had the original 16M unit.

Saturday up early to pack and clean the house before leaving. Back to hot and sunny. We took the A9 back to save time, and stopped at the port of sète to have look round. Saw jellyfish in the canal leading out to sea. Had an excellent lunch in a backstreet restaurant called the mercel. We were planning on getting rid of most of the returned deposit euros by filling up the car for return, but everywhere seemed to be shut - something to do with the bank holiday, so ended up with lots. They are nice though. When can we have them here please ? Everything seemed to be still also priced in FFs for comparison. They flight was good coming back, arriving into miserable damp/dark weather in the UK, on the day of the accession of several new countries into the EC 1st may.

An excellent holiday in the languedoc rousillon area. I thought the weather was just right, but I suppose may might be better. It would have been nice to visit carcassone, le pont du gard, avignon etc. - maybe another time. We were hoping to see stars, but the nearly full moon, and some street lights in the distance stopped that.

Au revoir.

Sunday morning got the call that my simply the best has arrived at last. 1x round the village circuit. Finished reading the ...must be beautiful book. Not really started the new book about time that I bought for the holiday.

In the evening we went to see hawkwind at the wulfrun civic centre. Missed a lot of the set, as we had a lot of trouble finding the place, and they seemed to be on unusually early - it was all over by 22:30. Anyway, very good - just 3 of them.

Monday bank holiday we went into town for lunch. In the evening, more flying at the cadmac meet - swift and eco8.

Tuesday long mynd rained off. Decided to have the day off anyway, to catch up.

Wednesday back to work.

Thursday finished reading the wolverine - snikt book that I bought in béziers (en francais). I finished the joe bar team 5 book while in france.

Saturday my simply the best arrived. Over 6 months wait, but I now have exactly what I wanted. It is a thing of great beauty. The wings come completely finished and slot together very satisfyingly. A little to do fitting controls to the tail surfaces, and the radio in general. It is actually designed around the motor/gearbox I have, but it would be nice to put something brushless in there.

Sunday cadmac 2nd electric glider competition. Still a bit damp, and overcast, but not actually raining. 7 turned up to compete. Dad managed to land his in a large puddle with a spectacular splash. A couple of minutes later the speed controller went up in smoke - presumably the water go it confused ? Graham having problems, which turned out to be the Tx, competing using dad's instead. Flew 3 rounds of 2 slots of 3, rotating those competing. My filip 400 not very competitive (nothing to do with the pilot of course), placing me 5th of 6. Even so, I managed my best flight yet of 5.01 mins. You could almost start to believe in those thermal things. Also managed to get it inside the landing tape 1x. I had straightened out a twist in the right wing tip panel with some heat - glides a lot straighter now. Also flew the swift after. The 8x cell power pack seems to have gone off - only about 8.4V - missing a cell somewhere ?

Added a page on the filip400.

I see otway is planning a world tour for 2006.

2 days late due to an extremely busy weekend.

Seen some more of the shakira dvd live and off the record I bought in france. Filmed in rotterdam, rather more lively than the mtv unplugged thing. Some good guitar.

Tuesday went swimming.

Wednesday, with a better weather forecast, I took the eco8 heli to wolston. A bit windy and not very sunny, leading to a few heavy landings. Put off nose in hover practice by the gusty conditions, I tried throwing it about a bit from side to side. Rather exciting, but it survived. 1st time with the GP3300 nimhs. Marginal improvement in duration.

Investigated the swift power pack. Turns out 2 flat cells. In fact the 8x cell arrangement is achieved by lying the 8th cell across the end of the 4 layer. The plastic cell covering had worn through on the sharp welded link strips, effectively shorting the cells 6 and 7. I carefully made sure that they were still shorted and discharged the rest. Then added insulation and recharged. Seems good as new now. Also bypassed the motor connector, soldering the controller straight to the motor.

Also, the mystery of the camera memory has been solved. Lee spotted several cracks on the surface. It seems having it in my back pocket and sitting on it was not a good idea.

Friday evening we packed and headed off for cornwall, stopping at the colliford tavern on bodmin moor. We had camped there amongst the rabbits 2x before, but booked a room this time.

Saturday morning up early and down to st austell for the eden project. Rather ominous road signs on the approach detailing how much more queue there is at peak times. Nicely sorted car park system, and a winding path to the entrance, with no view into the quarry, builds the sense of anticipation. 10:00 on a saturday in may meant only a couple of people in each queue at the ticket office. Impressive full size statue of a horse, made from drift wood, just outside. The outside area is nicely landscaped with art/scuplture all over the place, but calling it a biome is a bit much. The biomes themselves are seriously impressive. 1 of the very few things that have actually been bigger than they looked in photos. We did the tropical humid biome 1st, emerging rather too hot and damp. Palms, coffee, rubber etc. in there, looking very healthy. Lunch was good in the restaurant, outside in the sunshine. The temperate biome was much more pleasant - a mediterranean environment. Olive trees etc. Robins flying about in there. Saw some of the dvd playing in the gift shop and bought it. The site is well built and run, but ultimately felt like a rich man's folly - going nowhere. No sign of the research mentioned in the write ups. We headed down to mevagissey (again) for tea, before getting back to the tavern for the eurovision song contest, rightly won by the ukraine entry.

Sunday morning we toured the area a bit, including some standing stones before the long trek up the motorway.

Monday back very late from work and straight over to wolston the cadmac scale evening. Quite a selection, probably half electric. After a very hot day the evening was soon quite cool with a moderate wind blowing up the hill. I flew the swift after the scale flying finished. Back to its usual impressive performance.

Still looking at power train options for the simply the best.

Having now seen the dvd of the eden project, it seems that education got squeezed out of the under funded budget, after the builders, the plants and the artists had had their share. Rather a lot of ego and shouting concerning the build, and precious little about the centre itself - oh well.

Decided on a power train for the simply the best. A kontronik drive 200 set from galaxy. Made up from a fun 400-42 motor with preassembled 4.2:1 gearbox and a smile 40-6-12 speed controller with bec. Also the recommended folding 11x8 prop. Ordered late friday morning, arrived 1st thing saturday. Had to solder and heatshrink the connectors - I guess they are separate in case you want to upgrade to something gold. Test fired up, it seems extremely powerful even on 7x cells. A bit of a tight fit in the fuselage.

We are actually getting a bonus this month.

Bought the latest hawkwind dvd out of the shadows on friday. Not seen all of it yet. Relatively recent at 2002, but rather spoiled by Arthur Brown fronting, with dodgy timing and making up the words.

Sunday went to see the film troy. Despite some dodgy detail, and the inevitable hollywood messing about, it was actually quite entertaining. Achilles is impressive as the godless, ruthless mercenary. The fights and battles are dramatic, but the appalling carnage of combat is absent. The realities of empire building are considered over the pretext of Helen. Troy looks good in itself, but is strangely set on a beach in a barren wilderness ?

Monday and Tuesday evenings taken up with getting the car serviced. Took the bike to work, after topping up and charging the battery at the weekend. Rather expensive, but they had a good go at cleaning it. Tax, insurance and MOT to come yet. Bonus - what bonus ?

Wednesday, forecast to be the best weather of the week, I took the eco8 heli to wolston. 5 helis there sharing just a few frequencies, with 1 or 2 fixed wing with loads in the next field. Definitely improving, I wasn't too bothered by the light wind. Had a go at side on hovering (facing left), which was rather alarming/confusing. Did lots of nose in hovering, landing and take offs, and throwing it about a bit in early attempts at figure 8 circuits. Lots of duration from the 3300 nimhs. I didn't measure it, but probably about 10mins, and 40mins to charge. Gareth progressed to loops, and Chris doing everything 3D as usual.

I think the simply the best. might be a bit over motored. Even with the speed controller and power pack back as far as they'll go, and servos on the tail, the balance is a bit far forward. Bought a small gws naro Rx to squeeze in somewhere. Ordered some transparent purple profilm to remake the tail after servo fitting.

Seen all of the hawkwind dvd out of the shadows. Bit of a mixed bag of songs, but some good stuff, and nicely recorded. Interesting long interview with Dave Brock going into the history of the various members. Apparently, Arthur Brown was on the original starfighters record. I suppose it is a long time to remember the words.

Saturday we went to Oxford. Used the excellent Water Eaton park and ride again. Heated waiting room with good toilets and a hot sandwich machine, as well as tourist info, maps etc. Very busy, with a few exams going on. Ate at the bear again. Found a nice coffee and ice cream shop down from carfax towards christchurch. We caught the free history of science museum, next door to exeter college, just before it closed. Lots of astrolabes, telescopes, microscopes, calculating devices. There's a lot more to the history of science than that, but not bad for free, I suppose. Rather a lot of time in Blackwells. Bought a couple of science books Galileo's finger and Nature's building blocks (a reference for the elements of the periodic table). Popped into borders book shop, which is right next to the bus stop. Found the latest durham red graphic novel the vermin stars. Also bought the LOTR dvd return of the king. Didin't get round to seeing it at the cinema. Supposed to be the best of the 3.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit. Lovely sunny weather, with small white clouds sailing by. A bit marginal, but decided to take the heli to wolston. Took the nicads as well as the nimhs, and got lots of flying in. Rather hard work with a gusty wind blowing over my left shoulder. Cranked up the gyro gain from 30 to 60, which helped a bit. Started to feel quite (over) confident. Managed a bit more vague circuitry, although I did have an alarming moment, when it got blown further downwind than I wanted, and I got a bit confused. Managed to level it out and fly it back though. It gets blown about more than these heavy ic things. Afternoon in the sunshine in the garden. Later we put the pushbikes in the van and rode up the track opposite the combe abbey entrance.

June.

Monday holiday. Went into town.

It took us 3 evenings to wade through the return of the king.

Friday MOT on the car. Not too bad. New tyres on the front and a bit of a fuel leak.

My transparent violet profilm arrived a bit late. I think now I have a way of fitting the servos without needing to recover the tail. Still need to find a home for the Rx though. Started looking at the glider fuselage too.

Finished the vermin stars.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Got some switches from maplin to repair my FF8 Tx. The 3 position air brake toggle had been broken off, travelling in my backpack. On opening the case, it is obviously more heavily engineered than the old challenger Tx. The 8 toggles live 2 each on a pcb with a flexy cable linking a set of 4. Worse, they are different dimensions to standard in almost evey dimension - even the screw thread. In the end I had to replace 2 on the same pcb, with the outer terminals of each switch manually wired by flying lead. Even then the Tx refused to boot up, eventually traced to 1 of the switches being shorted across all 3 terminals, probably damaged while I was messing with them to fit the pcb. All working now though.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. A bit of reading about time in the garden. About 16:00 we were standing in the garden, when a hedgehog wandered in through the cat hole in the gate, sniffed about a bit, then wandered down the side and round the corner of the house to disappear under the other gate. As usual it seemed oblivious of our presence. Rare to see 1 in the bright sunshine. Earlier Carol had disturbed 2 toads and rehomed them by the pond. Fitted the servos to the tail of the simply the best. In the evening we went down to the other pub for dinner.

Godiva festival next weekend.

1 day late after a busy festival weekend.

Hot.

Monday cadmac meet. Nice hot sunny evening with a light breeze. Several small electric aircraft, with lipo showing the way to the future - tiny aircraft that are the correct weight to fly slow and fast, but enough power for vertical performance. Flew the swift, which is not quite vertical, but zips about the sky very nicely. Also flew the eco8 heli... and crashed it. Took off in the shade of the trees near the club house, flew out a bit, rotated to nose in and flew out a bit more, into the sunlight. Not sure exactly what happened. It lost a bit of height (from about 10 feet). I added a bit of throttle, but it continued down, impacting with an enormous bang, then lay very quietly on its side in a tangled heap. Shut off the throttle and went to collect the bits. It had obviously hit the ground quite fast, with the blades flexing down for a spectacular boom strike, stopping 1 of the blades in about 3", wrapping the aluminium tube around it, and twisting the tail rotor round. Obvious broken bits include fractured blades, boom, flybar, but closer inspection required. Oh well. Flew the swift again. Later inspected the fuse. Not blown, but a bit corroded. Could be loss of power, or just pilot error ?

Tuesday cadmac trip to long mynd, at last. Not been for a long time due to bad weather. A bit out of practice, I forgot to take the frequency control system, but as it happened there were no clashes, as usual. 8 in the bus, A bad start when someone accidentally put 50p worth of unleaded in, instead of diesel. Drove past the new stadium and enormous tesco under construction. Paid the extra and used the M6 toll to avoid delays. More wind than expected, but from the south as forecast, meaning ashes hollow, which is unfortunately ruled out until July 15, on account of the peregrine falcons nesting. We parked up at pole cott, for the long walk to the other south facing slope. While we were there, the warden turned up. Quite helpful, apparently the falcons have not bred succesfully yet this year. He suggested following the track down the hill to the left of the pole cott car park, where we could park the van and use a bit of the west slope after it turns round to the south a bit. Bit of a rough track. Full size flying overhead, now and then. We managed a lot of flying. The lift being mostly thermal bubbles blowing through. Sometimes we could keep a zagi up, but it was really a day for big thermal soarers. I flew the siesta lots, but about the most exciting thing it can manage is a loop (about 4 consecutive), and we were facing the (mostly hazy) sun. Nice to have the bus close by, for lunch, repairs etc.Stopped until about 15:30. Struggled to get back up the gravelly track - we all had to get out (except Lee) for the steepest part. M6 toll again on the way back.

Wednesday the car got its MOT.

Thursday popped into the heli shop to have a look at the voyager e heli kit. Seen it flying nicely. A bit put off by the wooden blades, which can't be upgraded to carbon/glass as they are a funny size. Also the standard size servo holes. It is really a scaled down ic heli. Probably repair/upgrade the eco8 instead, when funds allow.

Friday over to the memorial park for the 1st day of the godiva festival.Classical music for the 1st time in the main music tent. Very sensibly put the stage along the long side of the tent. Unamplified instruments struggling to compete with the drone of the generators outside. Saw a bit of the "new talent" in the number 2 music tent, and the black eagle acrobats (again) in the "fools" tent. Outside for the some of the biggest fireworks I've ever seen, centred on a flaming spherical metal framework suspended from a crane. Several vertically shooting things bouncing off the crane, in a rather alarming, but apparently quite safe, sort of way.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Afternoon back over for the main day of the festival. Missed the 1st 2 bands getting something to eat. Do me bad things were interesting, with 3 different lead singers taking turns, including a robbie williams type of thing, with some tight backing and good lead guitar. The mooney suzuki a bit weird looking, but some good guitar. Young heart attack from texas sounding rather like acdc, but rather more interesting. Headlining Datsuns from australia were very good. Lead singer doing a very good job of playing bass and communicating with the audience. 2 guitars with lots of riffs and lead. In between that lot, managed to see some of the wild west horse show and free fall parachute display. 1 of them getting it badly wrong and crashing at high speed into the barrier. I didn't see it happen, but the dent in the barrier told its own story. He went off in an ambulance, which turned up very quickly. 1 of the highlights of the show were 2 dressed up as kangaroos, with leather flying helmets and goggles, rather like tank girl. With flexy leg extensions, they bounced around the field in an absurd, very entertaining way.

Sunday.2x round the village circuit. Made up the servo extension leads for the stb. Afternoon back over for the last day of the festival. Amazingly good roast beef lunch from 1 of the vans, in time for the 1st folk band Isambarde. 3 piece guitar, violin and oboe doing something interesting. Quite tempted by their cd, but £12 is too much. Of the rest, only Bisiker and Ward worth a mention. Somehow managed to miss the beijing opera. Saw someone trying to demo some freeflight falconry. The owl flew off and sat in a tree. The falcon flew over the trees, found a nice thermal and wheeled off into the distance, having a great time, leaving him to waffle on. Left him to it. He did seem to have a full set of birds later though. Saw a couple walking about on a huge rotating beam - rather alarming, but soon boring. Saw the black eagles doing their thing - again. A disappointing showing from the local bands in music tent 3, with the exception of headline Thoria, who seem to have added a 2nd guitar, but don't seem to have progressed much.

Probably the best festival yet, with great weather.

Leamington peace festival next weekend.

The weather has broken into cooler, showery and sunny.

Forgot to mention last week that I bought the killers cd hot fuss. It must be 1 of very few to get a mention on newsnight review. Bursting full of melody, with strange lyrics. English pop rock from the US - hmmm ?

Tuesday, after 4 years of nothing, I got a small pay rise, or pay cut if you take account of inflation. Still, extra numbers in the bank account has got to help.

Did a channel rescan and firmware download on the freeview box. Can now get bbc4.

Thursday I bought some replacement and upgrade parts for the eco8 heli from midland heliopter. Apparently they're moving to a bigger shop just off the a5 soon. Decided on an alumnium motor plate, with carbon chassis sides, carbon tail boom, and white grp lifting blades. I still haven't stripped down the wreckage yet. There may be more damaged parts.

Friday I ordered some 1050mAh 7x and 8x cells packs for the simply the best, after full power tests showed only about 40 secs before cut out, and some very toasty 500ar cells.
In the evening, with about 2 hours to go, I decided to go and see yes at the nec. 35th anniversay tour. Only tickets left were right at the back or bay 17 left of the stage, which I went for. Shockingly expensive at £35 plus anoth 10% booking fee... and handling charge... and £6 car park. They were on stage less than 10mins after the stated 19:30, which caught a few people still outside the arena. The classic lineup from the era of fragile and close to the edge. 3+ hours with a 20min break for "tea and biscuits". Yessongs from most albums, but nothing from relayer. Mostly excellent, but occasionally tedious - particularly ritual from topographic oceans. An acoustic bit in the middle was a waste of time. There was a neat ripply underwater lighting effect on the audience at times. Big queue getting out of the car park.

Saturday we went over to Leamington for the peace festival. Usual stalls. Lots of unknown bands on stage and in the bandstand, with probably only sadie hawkins worth a mention. Rather annoying sunny, cloudy, sunny weather. We got a bit fed up with it about 17:00 and went over the road to the park and hired a canoe for 30mins paddling up (and down) the river leam. I looked up canterbury fayre, which was quite good last year. Apparently it went into liquidation, so there'll be no more. Curious after a recent article on how much money is being made out of festivals now.

Sunday morning up early for the cadmac glider competition. Flying field in a bit of a state, with the landing patch fence partly down and covered in sheep fur (wool). Still waiting for the new cells, so just using the 8x cell 500ar pack. A quick test flight showed everything to be ok. The climb out is unspectacular with just an 8x4 fixed prop, and requires a bit of down held in to maintain it, but the glide was quite smooth and nicely steerable. A moderate wind with thermal bubbles and a big black rain cloud meant lots of landing short, including me, although I managed it on my last go. 2nd slot, I seemed to launch straight into a blue sky thermal, but it didn't last long, and I managed my best time so far of 5mins 32. Unfortunately, I was against Neil in 2 of the slots, so my times will be scaled down to not so many points.

Added a page on the simply the best.

Glastonbury next weekend. Not going - just watching on TV.

4000+ hits.

Monday evening was the cadmac vintage session at wolston. Lots of aircraft with ideal sunny/cool weather. Not sure how "vintage" some of those brushless motors were. Chris won the vote with something enormous and 4 stroke, which he flew perfectly in an authentic way... as well as stall turns, loops, rolls, inverted.

Tuesday morning my kan 1050mAh cells arrived from overlander. Also some gold 4mm bullet/banana connectors. 2mm connectors arived later. Only about 20g heavier than the 500ar and the same external dimensions. In the evening I started dismantling the eco8 heli wreckage and transferring to the new carbon/aluminium chassis. Further damage revealed includes bent main and tail rotor shafts.

Wednesday we woke to no power. Don't know when it went off. Got the camping cooker out for coffee. Apparently came back on about 08:00.

Thursday ordered some smaller aero-naut propellor blades from west london models. Bought some new shafts from the heli shop. Also a flightpower 1050mAh 3s lithium pack for the swift.

Friday the blades arrived. Bought the new motorhead cd inferno and the young heart attack cd mouthful of love. Also the old film flight of the phoenix dvd.

Glastonbury has finally found a use for all those extra digital tv channels. Much more extensive coverage on bbc3. Still repeating stuff later though. Why can't we just have a channel for each main stage, and another for what's happening elsewhere ? And ditch the presenters.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Over to Coventry for lunch, then back for the (rather damp) village fete. Wired up the new cells and charger with the 2mm connectors and fitted 9x7 blades to the simply the best. With the 7x cell pack it ran (static) for 4mins 20secs, which is just about right for 3 slots of 1min motor run. Pulls much better than the 8x4. I don't think it will have vertical performance with the wing on, but should climb plenty high enough to have trouble seeing it. Also ran the Rx aerial down the inside of the fuselage - others seem to have it working OK. There's quite a bit hanging out the back.
Put the 1050mAh 3s lithium pack in the swift. Had to dig out a little more white stuff, but generaly a nice fit. It could really do with a 1300 or 1500, as I had to add about 20g nose weight. Slightly worried about cooling. At 11.1V the performance is way over vertical - should be interesting ! We'll have to see if the 280 brushed motor survives.

Broadband registrations for our exchange seem to have stalled at 181 for weeks now. Only just past half way to trigger. Maybe there just isn't enough demand.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit.

2 days late due to busy weekend with the national trust and flying.

Windy, sunny, showery.

Took the swift and simply to wolston after work. A bit windy for the simply, but flew the swift. Full power is now a bit too much for a boomerang type hand launch. Used about 3/4. In fact it is more a case of just letting go and grabbing the stick. It now zips about unpleasantly fast on the level at full throttle. Still flies very slowly too though. Climbs vertically, but any attempt at vertical rolls rapidly kills the speed with the extra drag. Did lots of horizontal 8s - yes, as in control line. Should be even more fun in less gusty conditions. Seems to have plenty of duration too. I landed reasonably early to find the voltage only down to about 11.5V from 12.3V. Should be able to go down to 9V.

Wednesday evening we saw a hedgehog wandering along outside the open patio door.
Friday afternoon we saw the hedgehog again, snuffling about on the edge of the wildlife corridor. Again saturday.

Spent some time rebuilding the eco8 heli.Long job. Should be a bit stiffer now. Slightly relocated some of the components. Cable tied the gyro direct to the chassis - should be OK, as very little vibration with no ic engine. The spindle shaft (between the main rotor blade roots) was well bent. I suspect that this and the main rotor shaft may have been slightly bent for some time, from minor impacts, probably affecting the stability/performance. Hoping that it will be nice and smooth now. Also fitted new tail rotor blades, which I bought some time ago, as the originals were a bit bashed, but still working ok.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. In the afternoon we visited calke abbey. A bit different from other stately homes. It sits in a little dip in the hilly ground, with the front just facing a hill. Only the left side has a view down to the lake. Most of the rooms look as though they have been untouched for 100 years, including damp wallpaper. Far too many stuffed animals. A highlight is a four poster bed with extremely decorative drapes, as new, in a darkened room to preserve the colour. Interesting underground tunnel to the brewery in a separate building. I don't think I've seen an ice house before.

Monday evening was the cadmac meet with electric flying. Flew the swift. Rather gusty conditions, but managed lots of radical moves. Point it at the sky and it just keeps going. Flew it a bit longer - down to 10.5V.

Tuesday was long mynd. 7 in the bus. Took the M6 toll again, making it a bit expensive, but we did get there and back early. Initially cool with a light wind, slightly south of west, put us on pole cott. Lovely sunny weather meant lots of tourists on the hill. We got a bit of flying in early on with the light stuff, but later the wind reduced and swung round to the south. I took the motor out of the filip 400 and flew it as a glider. 1st flight not enough lead in the nose. When I brought it back for some more, I bonked the nose and the servo extension lead to the rudder became separated. 30mins of poking about in the long thin fuselage with various improvised implements to get it connected again. Flew again. It looks quite pretty in the air. We got a lot of attention from a sheep back at the car park - after food.

Friday finished off the eco8 enough to actually fly it. Looks very attractive with shiny new white main blades, and shiny black carbon tail boom. Just hovered it in the garden. Very smooth. I've used a carbon rod to connect the tail servo direct to the tail linkage, eliminating any stiction and stretch from a control snake. No sign of tail oscillation now.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Took the gpz600 in for an mot - passed ok. It expired some time ago, but it doesn't get used much these days. Went over to have a look at the cadmac flying display at exhall grange school. Very small field, with a strategically placed tree, but some expert flying going on, to a very small crowd. Into town for lunch. Considered going to the nearby prom in the park thing in the evening, but the the rain put us off. Watched the t in the park festival on bbc3 instead.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. Over to wolston for the 4th cadmac electric glider competition. 5 entries.A quick test flight with the simply showed the climb to be better but unspectacular. However, in the 1st slot, a 60secs motor burn produced about as much height as I could cope with. In the grey, windy conditions I'm not sure how much lift was about, but it was still too high at the end of the slot, resulting in a mad dash for the circle. Somehow managed to get it inside the tape, with a time of 9:48. Considering I didn't launch straight away, excellent. Not the longest time, but I was the only 1 to get the landing bonus, so 1000 points. There may have been an element of slope lift, as the wind was blowing up the hill from the allotments. 2nd slot I got a bit confused on the climb out, having to hold a bit of down in to get the correct ascent angle, so I didn't get quite as much height. Even so, won the slot with over 5mins and a landing bonus. Another 1000 points. By the 3rd slot we were down to just 3. I managed over 8 mins - the best time, but I landed short in the strengthening wind, so less points this time. The simply is now well sorted, and just performs. It could do with more down thrust, but that is not possible with the way the motor is wedged in. The prop is not folding completely away - could do with a rubber band on it. Also flew the swift - it's brilliant, screaming vertically into the sky. As well as the horizontal 8s, I managed several consecutive bunts. In the moderate wind I could hover it down vertically to land at my feet. The motor is only comfortably warm and the lithiums are only just noticeably warm.

In the afternoon I put 2 new tyres on the push bike. The original knobblies are a bit cracked, but I mainly wanted to try something rounder to get hands off stability. Only partly successful.

Monday I played the furslide cd in the car. Decided there probably ought to be some more by now. Well, there isn't, but I was amazed to find that the wild guitar was by jennifer turner as well as the vocals and lyrics. There is another project - inner, but that doesn't seem to be widely available.

Tuesday, looking like the best weather of the week, I took the eco8 to wolston. Still a bit too windy, and blowing from the pits behind. It is actually still shaking its tail just as badly as before. Messing with the gyro gain didn't help. Decided to have a good look for the source of the problem. The tail rotor blades are very wobbly, each being attached to the hub only by a single tiny ball race. The pitch slider is only controlled from 1 side. I found I could get about 10 degree deflection on the blades without moving the servo or the control linkage. I'm now convinced that this is the problem. I tried adding a rubber band to pull the pitch slider to the boom, to take up the slack. Unfortunately, at spool up, it got eaten by the pitch slider bearing, stopping the tail rotor, and forcing the drive belt to move the tail boom in a bit to slip over the teeth. Stayed safely on the ground though. Back home I took the tail rotor to bits, to think about how to improve it. I found 1 of the ball races had mostly disintegrated, which was probably not helping. I guess it has suffered a bit from tail 1st impacts on the ground. I'll get some new bits.

Thursday I headed for the heli shop. Stuck in traffic, the 106 over temp light came on. On with the heater and fan, and open the windows. Managed to get it down and off. It seems the electric fan is not working. OK on open road. Bought some new tail rotor bits. I upgraded the tail pitch slider to an aluminium part, which looks very nice, although I don't suppose that will make much difference. I put 2 ball races in the root of each tail rotor blade. This has stiffened it up very nicely. Needed slightly longer screws. Also added a nut between the race(s) and the hub, which puts the blades about 1mm further out. Hovered it in the garden (in the rain). Seems to have tightened it up nicely. Still oscillates a little, even on minimum gain, but the tail is only moving about 1" from side to side. I can't turn the gyro gain down below 30% in the Tx. I might try to reduce the mechanical gain, by messing with the servo linkage. Probably 1 of those super fast servos might improve things, as the gyro supports 3x pulse rate.

Friday I saw the spiderman 2 film, which was very good. Probably the best of the comic adaptations. The bad guys are a bit silly, and don't look too closely at the physics, but everything else is great. He goes through the superhero impotence of self doubt. The interaction between him and his public is well done. I was amused by an ad for a game where a whole team of cleaners are scraping sticky white web stuff off the windows.

Seeing more ads for thunderbirds, I fear it will be disappointing.

Saturday 2x circuit. Over to Leamington early to see the start of the home made raft race down the river. Carol threatening to compete next time. A few bands and stalls, rather like a scaled down festival.

Sunday 2x circuit. Had a look at the 106. The fan works ok - could be the sensor, or low level in the radiator.

Monday was the cadmac electric evening at wolston. Electric flight is just routine now. Nice weather and a good turn out. I flew the swift, which just performed, as ever.

I hovered the eco8 in the garden, and moved the tail pushrod to the inner servo arm hole, and recalibrated the gyro. Seems to have steadied the tail nicely, still with plenty of control authority. Need a bit more airspace to really tell though.

Thursday a good thunder storm and heavy downpour on the way home.

Friday I saw the thunderbirds film, which was a complete travesty. A plot shot full of holes and continuity errors. Every episode of the original was more entertaining than this. It seems to have been mixed up with harry potter, as much of the time is taken up with 3 kids, 1 dark with glasses, 1 blond, 1 girl, running about having pointless adventures. Oh yes, they get to ride in a flying car too. Highly derivative, with others used including aliens (remote uplink), various 007 bad guy sidekicks, and probably tomb raider too. Tracy island is about right, and very scenic, but it's amazing how the weather can change completely in just a few seconds, and then back again. A big mistake, to take the main characters away for most of the time - I still couldn't tell them apart at the end. They all looked the same, and nothing like the original series. The messing with the vehicles is just about tolerable, but thunderbird 1 really shouldn't have windows, and acquire 5 seats, just to accomodate the plot. Thunderbird 5 almost burning up on reentry 1 minute, and in geostationary orbit the next ? hmmm. Penelope and Parker were actually reasonably good. Very Lara Croft, until the stupid plot required her to be pathetic again. Did I mention product placement ? Apparently Gerry A had nothing to do with it - it shows. Such a wasted opportunity.
While we're talking films, the ad for catwoman looks rubbish too. I, robot actually looks quite interesting.

We've had a car alarm outside going continuously for about 4 days now. Not very loud, but continuous. Apparently not actually going off, but complaining about low battery voltage. It has gradually developed over 4 days - quite strident at 1st, now just a slightly warbly squeal.

Saturday 2x+ circuit. Alarm now just a clean tone, presumably rather like tinnitus. Into town for lunch. Coming back we got stuck in traffic, and the 106 overheated again. Alarm has stopped, at last.
In the evening we went over to warwick for the free part of the folk festival in the main square. Curiously, the fan came on. Maybe it's just a bad connection, or needs a new sensor ? A band called nizlopi were rather good. Just 2 of them, guitar and double bass, with the bass filling the role of percussion, rhythm, chords, lead etc.

After a report in new scientist, I installed spybot and found and removed lots of those pesky parasites from the pc.

Sunday 2x circuit.

Tour de France coverage has been excellent, with 1 hour every day.

Monday ordered a new radiator temperature sensor for the 106, which arrived on tuesday.

Tuesday forecast for light winds, I took the eco8 to wolston. Put 2 charges through it. Doesn't shake its tail any more. In fact, hovers very nicely, although the light wind helps. Rather overcast. My nerves were bad though, after the crash. Even so, managed lots of nose in hover and transitions, and even a few shallow circuits. Took it home in 1 shiny new piece.

Wednesday fitted the sensor. The fan now comes on nicely, so it presumably was faulty.

Friday looking like good weather for the weekend, we got the tent out and went camping. Most places completely full, but we found a place just outside bath. A bit of a late start had us putting the tent up in the dark. Managed to catch a bit of TV on the handheld, before being kept awake until about 02:00 with noise from other people. Ground was a bit hard and slopey too. Quite pan european, with camper vans from NL, D and F. Warned about the parking situation, we bought all day tickets and got the bus into town. A very scenic place. It was my 2nd choice for university. There was some sort of guitar festival going on, with several playing in the streets, in addition to the usual hordes of tourist coach parties doing the roman baths. We had some lunch, sitting on the grass and feeding the pigeons and seagulls, before getting on another bus up to prior park. Still a private house, but the grounds are national trust. The house has a remarkable view down the hill, over the lakes and palladio bridge, to the city. There were a few gliders wheeling about in thermals over the city. They have added a new track over the land to the right, to a point on the hill that reveals even more. The water features look a bit scummy, but several large fish looked happy enough. The palladio bridge to nowhere is quite remarkable, covered in graffiti, including some from1809. A long climb back up to the entrance,and a bus back to the centre. More shops and coffee. I bought the book I, Robot to remind me of the original stories before seeing how the film has messed it about. We saw spiderman in a traditional 1 screen cinema - such a good film. We emerged into late evening sunshine for a wander along the canal/river before heading back. We decided not to go for nother night in the tent and headed back under an almost full moon - home at about 00:30.

Sunday I went out to buy 1 of those freeview digital video recorders I had seen in bath. Chose the digifusion fvrt100. It has 2 tuners, supporting 2 channels at once eg. watch something and record something else. Nice box too, if you like silver/grey. Soon set up, but some of the channels are breaking up and it makes a whining/humming noise. I suppose it is basically a cut down pc, with a hard drive spinning, and maybe a fan ? Might need a better aerial and some sort of sound proofing.

Monday was cadmac meet with flying. Flew the swift. Seemed a bit out of trim, eventually traced to loose zagi tape on the trailing edge..

Tuesday forecast for light winds, rain and thunderstorms, meant not many takers for the long mynd. Just 4 in the bus, making for a rather expensive trip down the M6 toll. Sunshine in the morning gradually gave way to murk as we headed west. A SE east wind put us on ashes hollow, back open again after the nesting season. The rain started as we parked up. On with the waterproofs and march off through the misty drizzle. What wind there was, was straight up the crack, providing enough lift to keep almost anything up, but not supporting any radical moves. The rain went away, came back briefly and went away again. Even so, we got lots of flying in, staying until after 15:00. Flew all 4 of my aircraft, with the converted filip400 staying up well, and looking pretty in the air, with its red and yellow transparent profilm/oracover. Bands of rain and sunshine on the trip back, but the rain really let go as we unloaded the van.

Wednesday I went to see the film king arthur. Too late to catch the early show, so the 19:15. Used to very few people in there, it was annoying to have late arrivals and mobiles going off. Anyway, it was actually quite good. Very silly in many respects, of course, but entertaining even so. A refreshingly new take on the myth. Playing fast and loose with history and technology. Guinevere very attractive playing a boudicca type character. The radical weather change from temperate to arctic as soon as they crossed hadrian's wall was ludicrous, not to mention the lack of suitable clothing and steaming breath in the "cold" conditions. The plot covers a lot of ground, and gallops along nicely, but probably could have done with a bit more time. Nice to see a lot of main characters. It is, at times, almost impossible to avoid hearing the clip clop of coconut shells. Derivative from so many films including, magnificent 7, lord of the rings, star wars (and everything that fed into that), etc.

Friday my heather nova dvd live at the union chapel and hawkwind dvd chaos arrived from amazon.
In the evening up the motorway north to Richard's for woodvale. M6 toll remarkably busy, and the coin hopper failed to read my coins, causing an angry queue behind. Decided to give it a miss on the way back. Had a nose at the new services. Quite a nice building, but just the usual shops. Richard back late kept us up to 02:00.

Saturday over to woodvale show for model aircraft and more. Glorious (too) hot weather. Lots of show flying, including some excellent 3d heli, but spent most of the time in the shops. Bought a few bits and pieces, and some more lithiums. Kokam 1500mAh and 750mAh. I'm trying to standardise on 3x cell 11.1V packs to reduce the risk of incorrect charging. Also bought a typhoon small brushless motor with a castle creations phoenix 25 controller. Back at Richard's we had to watch shrek (1). Not as entertaining as I had expected, and the animation is poor compared to current state of the art ie. final fantasy. Back on the motorway to get home about 23:00 for sunday's competition.

Sunday up early and over to wolston for the 5th electric glider competition. Sunny, but very windy, Neil arrived 30mins late to find we had called it off, due to bad weather. Flew the swift, but it's not much fun in strong gusty conditions. In the afternoon we went over to newbold quarry park, where Carol had a swim in the water. Several swans, and we saw a rather lively brown rat on the bank.

Monday, after a busy weekend, I saw the I robot film. Rather good. Had me guessing, with various plot twists. Yes it has some cliches, in particular the final fight, and some unnecessary action set pieces, but there are lots of nice traditional sci fi ideas explored too. Unlike many "robot" films, it doesn't neglect the impact of modern technology on other aspects of life. This requires the main character to have a taste for 2004 retro, to support product placement. Oh yes, it lifts ideas from terminator, blade runner, etc. Do we really need red lights on the bad guys ? I didn't get far with the book. It is so dated. Having a graduate chemist going on about AI is not a good idea. Go see.

Had a bit more of a play with the fvrt100 ie. rtfm. It really is a well sorted box. It pretty well gets on with business and you do what you want. You just look up the programs you want to record in the on screen guide (including synopsis), press record, confirm, and that's it - go back to watching something else. No videoplus code, no record/program mode. No finding a tape with a bit of free space on it. Tried the record 2x channels at once thing - works fine. You can even watch something else you recorded earlier, while it does it. Finding what you want in the library is really easy. I think it really does do what it says on the box ie. change the way you watch TV. Only negatives are the slight noise it makes, and the lack of a digital archive interface. It is quieter than my newly super quiet pc though.

Friday, despite the reviews and trailers, I went to see the film catwoman. It is a poor (paw ?) effort. A wafer thin plot and characters. I'm not familiar with the original comic, and anyway, this is supposed to be a different catwoman, but spiderman shows what can be done. The cgi is not the worst, but not up to modern standards, with her zipping about the screen in defiance of newtonian mechanics. Probably the best bit is her awakening defiance, where she sorts out the noise from a party over the road, although even this is spoiled by a ridiculously speeded up bike scene. Oh yes, the unintentional tip toe along the back of the sofa while taking a phone call is good. She is cute.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. A bit of an effort after 3 weeks not. Into town for lunch. Bought some bits to have a go at a remote extender for the fvrt100, so we can get the noise out of the room. Bought the concretes cd.

Sunday 2x circuit. 2x more later. Put some connectors on the new kokam lithiums, and charged them.

The heather nova and hawkwind dvds are both a bit disappointing.

Monday cadmac electric glider evening. It used to be "powered" glider evening, but no one seems to bother with noisy, greasy engine pods any more. Average turn out, probably due to the late afternoon rain. Flew the simply and the swift.

I didn't get the remote extender working. With a red led monitoring the output, It looked like I had managed good reception, right across the room, but connected to an ir led, the output was not recognised. Probably something to do with mark space on the pulses out. Really needs a scope to see what's going on. Sorting out the fms flight sim serial interface needs that too. Maybe I'll get round to buying something eventually.