4G6S Back in action!

After a late night rebuild my heli is back in working order. It took an hour to put everything back on, and another 15 mins to balance it all out. Am now looking forward to my next crash...urg, I mean flight!

Mini DV Camera

Check this out - 5cm tall, 19g weight and takes 480p footage direct to mini-sd card. Perfect to try and capture some of these crashes from on-board the helicopter... should also be useful filming my mountain-bike crashes... available for £13 now - link in title!

CRASH!

Oops - was getting a bit too brave and got disorientated - heli came down upside down fast and missed the grass, hitting the tarmac. I reacted badly by slamming the throttle wide open. The resulting crunch followed by a little 'funky chicken' was somewhat painful to witness. I've broken the tail boom, tail drive, main gears, lower chassis, canopy and a set of blades - total cost - £22 in P&P :(

E-Flite Blade 450

Am getting used to the smaller helicopter now - so time for something a little larger - and more capable in the wind. My decision was made just in time to pre-order the newest 450 size heli on the market - the E-Flite Blade 450 (link in title). It is about 2.5 times the size of the Walkera and a lot more powerful. Spares should be easier to find too. It should be shipped in a few weeks...

Nitro Heli

After a long hibernation J tried to coax his nitro heli into the air - it didn't quite make it... :(

First flight of Walkera 4G6S

So, after much simulator practice, and several hops around the floor of the house I finally took my helicopter out for a proper fly. It was a bit windy - but I only crashed it once (luckily not caught on camera). It is much more stable than I was expecting and coped with the wind well. This was the last flight (of four) so the batteries are starting to go...

New Mouse - RAT 9

I bought a new mouse today having seen it in WIRED magazine. The RAT 9 is totally customisable to your hand...and looks, well, like some kind of robotic snack :) The base station also doubles as a charger and weight carrier (yes, weights so you can alter the feel of the mouse). Totally OTT - I love it!!!

Broken Tail Gears

Second flight - stripped the tail gears out - making flying a bit dizzy... Luckily this was a 10 min fix - have to order some spares now :)

Walkera 4G6S First run

So - here it is spinning up for the first time. Nothing dramatic and I am taking it very slow! Made a couple of hops... but no serious flight yet... to be honest - am not sure if it is set up properly yet - have lots of reading to do!

Walkera 4G6S - RC Helicopter

Been wanting a rc heli for several years - but the technology just wasn't able to provide what I wanted. Well, at last I found something suitable after reading a Wired ad. It's small, electric, fully articulated and way WAY less than the £1200 I was looking at a few years back. I got a pack with 5 spare blade sets and bought some training gear :)

Tree Disaster!

Disaster - it appears a tree has fallen over and crashed through our fence at the back of the house.... Luckily there appears to be nothing hurt other than the fence panel. Am now wondering how to remove said tree without causing any more damage...

New Android Blogger App

Thought I'd test it...

Wallpaper

So - we got rid of the large white wall by making it a feature wall with contrasting wallpaper. Once the white sofa turns up it should look pretty cool... I hate wallpapering btw!

New sofa

Finally found a sofa that we both like and will accomodate Roomba and cats. The actual one will be here in 8 to 12 weeks and will be ice white!

Thomsons Conference Brighton

Have just been to Brighton for two days for the annual Thomsons conference. This one was themed 'back to the future', hence the Robocop costume for the Fri night party - more pics linked in title. Awesome time, some great speakers, some good strategy pieces and a LOT of fun :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wow - 2010 has been a fantastic year. New job, new house and some new friends to boot! We celebrated over dinner with a few friends, much champagne and some very nice port (and a large firework - see link in title). Here's to 2011!

Google Nexus S

Picked up my Nexus S today - fantastic phone but never used Android before so am learning as I go along.... tips/hints?

Sweden

Mac Air 11

Whilst waiting in T5 for our delayed flight to Sweden I bought a small impulse purchase... a Mac Air 11".  Well, I was fed up waiting for the Sony P to get any good (and the Sony store didn't have any in stock!!).  Nice little netbook actually - not sure about OSX but no choice but to live with it for a few days as the Win7 disks are at home...

Padstow

K and I have just returned from a short visit to Padstow to collect Grandma for Xmas. We braved the snow - and missed all the closed motorways! Padstow was quite sunny and had no snow - due to the weather in the rest of the UK it was also deserted.  We took advantage of the situation by grabbing a table at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant where we dined on lobster :)

Mom's Birthday/Xmas

K and I braved the snowstorms to make it to Mom's for her Birthday (and early Xmas) celebrations. The snow was getting worse and worse as we travelled to her - by the time we were there it was a complete white-out with 6" on the ground. Somehow we managed to make it back out the following morning - good little car the Merc :)

Xmas Tree

Our Xmas tree went up today - much more room in this house so we can have a bigger tree than normal.  Also decorated the rest of the rooms - very Xmasy now!

Thomsons Ball

WOW - what a night. Thomsons had their 10-year anniversary ball and K and I were invited. We were put up in the Royal Gardens Hotel for the night but the ball itself was at the Natural History museum - which was lit up pink :) The night started with Champagne and got better and better. Some great entertainment and excellent company. It was all over far too soon.... but not to worry - we found a club afterwards and then trapsed back to another hotel. My evening ended around 05:30. BRILLIANT!

Loft Insulation

With the recent cold (very cold) weather we've been looking at how to make the house more efficient.  Have applied for a cavity wall survey (should be able to get a Government 50% grant) and also ordered more loft insulation via an offer from nPower: http://www.npower.com/web/diyloftinsulation/index.htm

Bathroom Designing

Starting to get the hang of this - here's a first draft of the bathroom.  Can't get it to look exactly as I want it - but gives me an idea of layout.  What you can't see is the moisture proof TV, in-ceiling audio, underfloor heating and auto LED mirrors :)