Thursday, June 23, 2011

Third Flight of My eRC B-25


This is the third flight of my eRC B-25J from Hobby Lobby. This flight, the engine cowlings are mounted and I used the retracts in flight for the very first time.

The flight to place on the evening of June 21, 2011. Ricky Taylor was using my camera as I made this flight at the Lubbock Oddball RC Society (LORCS) airfield (i.e. Ricky's backyard).

It was a hairy take-off, I almost aborted when it finally broke ground and started climbing. It looks like one of the main landing gears did not retract fully.

The Youtube links are down in the ref section. Part one is the take-off. Part two is the landing.

Part One



Part Two


.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Starfleet Region 3 Summit Additional Pictures









Another Summit is coming to a close now and I'm exhausted! And I didn't even attend the final Sunday events either.

I put on my uniform again for the dinner last night and over the next several days, I will upload several photographs that I took with my cellphone camera.

First up is my table assignment and dinner card. There was some singing at the start and at the end. In the middle, there was the Final Mission Ceremony. A salute to friends and family members who had passed away in the previous year.

The Starfleet Marine Corps conducted nurf combat patrols in the hotel all day.

Region 3 is a compilation of all the members and chapters of STARFLEET, the International Star Trek Fan Association, Inc. It covers both Texas and Louisiana.


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Ref.
1. Flash255bunker blog. "The Spirit of Columbia Region 3 Summit" June 11, 2011. ( http://flash255bunker.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-fellow-ship-crew-members-of-uss.html ).

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Spirit of Columbia Region 3 Summit



My fellow "Ship crew members" of the USS Lonestar are hosting this years Summit here i
n Lubbock, Texas-June 10 thru the 12th at the Radisson Hotel. Region 3 is a compilation of all the members and chapters of STARFLEET, the International Star Trek Fan Association, Inc. It covers both Texas and Louisiana.

Last night, I attended the Marine Corp Mess Dress and I got to try on my Star Trek II (Wrath of Khan era uniform). Taking a walk about the hotel, I saw oour club's shuttlecraft in the parking lot of the hotel and decided to take some pictures to post here on my blog. The shuttle is names "The Spirit of Columbia" after the second space shuttle accident.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Space Shuttle Endeavour Docker at ISS


Posting picture just because its very cool looking. Picture was taken by Paolo Nespoli from the Russian Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft as it departed the space station on May 23rd.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Slaton Air Show 2011







Rarely now days does anybody take any pictures of yours truly. So it came as a surprise that fellow WINGs Miniature Aircraft Society (WINGS MAS) club member Tom asked me to join him on a walk down the flight line - where we took each other's picture standing next to some warbirds.

Every year, the Slaton airport holds a airshow fly-in. This year, Wings MAS had a charity booth spot in the north hangar to hold a raffle of a ready to fly Hangar 9 P-51 PTS trainer with a transmitter, that was won by a young boy. The star attraction didn't show up -
a FW-190. Something to do with a broken cooling fan. Instead, I got to finally see a Hawker Sea Fury in the flesh (so to speak)! There was a fly-over of a C-47 done up in D-Day paint scheme. Turns out the the Silent Wings Museum at the Lubbock International Airport was holding a event the very same weekend!

Of course, no airshow with Warbirds is complete without a Tora, Tora, Tora re-enactment. So, I had my picture taken with both the Japanese Zero and the Japanese Kate Torpedo bomber. There was also the big yellow T-28 Trojan in US Navy paint scheme and carrying the noseart of "Maid in the USA."

When I get around to it, I'll update this posting with some additional pictures that I took of the Sea Fury.

UPDATE June 6, 2011: Here are the pictures that I took of the Airshow.


Thursday, June 2, 2011

Invent the REAL Tricorder for Next $10 Million Dollar X-Prize


Doesn't matter what version of Star Trek you love. From TOS(i.e. The Original Series), through the movies and Next Generation era shows and back to the future with the prequel series Star Trek-Enterprise; there are certain elements that are common to all those shows.

The Tricorder was a plot device to help move the story on as a quick reference tools for Spock or Dr. McCoy. Now in the early years of the 21st century, we have our own communicators and Data PADDS (i.e. cell phones and computer tablets now). But we are still missing out on a fully functional Tricorder.

Here is where the X Prize Foundation and Qualcomm joined up to develope a new competition to enhance health care. The Tricorder X-Prize intends to extend the reach of health information and to provide more services to more people.

Quote: The collaboration between the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm will bring together experts in technology usability, wireless sensors, cloud computing and mobile health to accelerate the convergence of these fields. The winning tool will enable consumers in any location to quickly and effectively assess health conditions, determine if they need professional help and answer the question, "What do I do next?" End Quote.

Quote: Eugene Wesley "Rod" Roddenberry, Jr., son of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, commented, "It is great to see two amazing organizations -- the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm -- bring the technology of Star Trek to life and make the Tricorder a reality for people everywhere." End Quote.

For greater details, just copy and paste the link below.

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Ref.
1. Commercial Space Watch. "X-Prize and Qualcomm Announce $10 Million Tricorder Prize" press release. May 27, 2011.(http://www.comspacewatch.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33698).
2. Star Trek (in all its forms). Tricorder reference.