Yeah, I haven't been writing as much lately. Mainly, because I figure the people reading this blog don't want to read a bunch of "yeah, we rode another 10 miles today and it was awesome!" type of posts. :D

Well, we have been riding a lot. We've even made a few "utility" type rides, where we needed to go on an errand and decided to go by bike instead of driving. It was fun. One of them was to go over to a friend's house because they were having a garage sale (because they're moving to frackin' ALASKA, sigh). The house is awesome too. :( Huge, truly finished basement, with a huge common area, a full bathroom, and two somewhat large bedrooms down there. And that's just the basement!

Haven't flown much. This weekend was the Hoosier Heli Rumble at my club's field, so I couldn't fly there. I did fly at a school field Friday night but that was a total disaster. :( It was the maiden flight of my Fokker D.VII, and I completely screwed up. While setting up for landing, I stalled, and the plane ended up 50' in the air in a tree. Luckily my friends Chad and Emmett were able to avoid laughing their asses off long enough to help me get it down. Believe it or not, it's totally flyable after that ordeal. ;)

The old war-torn MUS is still being worked on, and I actually found an insane deal on a new PNP one, and that's coming this week. Then flying will begin again in earnest.

On Sunday, we went to a high powered rocket launch, and that was ... cool! I was into model rocketry back in the mid/late 80s when I was in my early teens. I had a few dozen Estes kits and launched 2-3 times a week. Back then, "D" size motors were considered a really huge deal. I have been out of the hobby since then. In fact I wasn't even sure if it was still an active hobby at all, until one day I was wandering hobby sites and found that it was, and also learned that there's some truly high power stuff out there! Motors up to "R" and higher now.

I also learned we have an active, local mid- and high-powered rocketry club, Tripoli Indiana, and that their summertime launch field is under a mile from house! They were having their launch yesterday so I had to go!

Wow. The first flight we saw, was a certification flight for a newer member. In order to buy and fly H and I sized motors, you need a Level 1 certification from either Tripoli or NAR. Level 1 is easy; you just need to fly a rocket on an H or I motor (which an already certified rocketeer has to buy for you) and successfully recover it in flyable condition, while a certifying member observes. Levels 2 and 3 require written tests, and 3 even has some design requirements. Anyway, I was truly amazed at the sound and concussion of the size H motor he flew his certification flight on. It was I believe an H123, which is pretty much the smallest size you need a cert for, but even that was amazing. Such a loud sound and you could feel the power of it even back at the spectator area. Very cool!

Saw several other low- and mid- power launches too. Very cool. All the club people I talked to were cool as well, and I'm definitely planning to re-enter the hobby. With launches being just once a month it's easy to schedule time to participate. In between I can work on building. Building rockets is actually a lot of fun. :)

We went and got a 8' x 3' conference table from a home improvement store, to use as a build/work table in one of the spare bedrooms. I've always wanted an area I can work on hobby stuff, in a room that's close-able, so I can keep projects protected from marauding pets... And now I have it. :) I won't have to drag planes over to a friend's house to work on them, and plus, I'll need a table for building rockets anyhow.