Christmas 2012 From Within The Bunker

For those of us who live on the South Plains of West Texas, we awoke to a winter storm with a dusting of snow and wind chills down in the single digits.  The view out of my window presents a gloomy day.  I know when it comes time to venture forth from the bunker, I will have a very hard time getting the old pickup started.

This morning I decided to make a post of what I got for this Christmas and in the process write about what I am thankful for.

The greatest gift this year was keeping my land when I was facing foreclosure.  I once again have a job although it is a part time one.  In 2013, I hope that it can grow into a new full time job or another job entirely if it pays more.

I am also thankful for my friends this year.  I am not married, and I have no children to call my own.  I do have a little 3 year-old lady and her younger brother who have adopted me and I so do look forward to seeing their bright smiling faces every chance I  have. I have taken to calling them my "pretend grandchildren."

My extended family/friends last night have the tradition of opening their gifts on Christmas Eve.  They are large family with lots of young kids (including my pretend grandchildren) to scream and rip open gifts and shred the wrapping all over the place.  And everyone had a great time.  I was able to gave gifts to the kids this year and all of them appeared to like them.  

I myself was surprised by two gifts that I received in turn.  The adults did a not so Secret-Santa with one another this year.  The first gift was totally unexpected.  As a 53-year old man, I never had a BB rifle ever in my life.  But now, I have a Daisy 1938 Red Ryder spring air BB rifle to claim as my own.

This year, its BB rifles or pistols for all of us to play with.  Last year, it was the RC tanks and the year before that, RC helicopters.  Although I must add here, some of the kids got a newer generation of RC helicopters. I think we adults will be getting some for ourselves in the new year when we can afford to spend money again.

The other gift was most thoughtful.  Since I am a big Star Trek fan, they found me a tan T-shirt that had a cut-away view of the original U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701.  Image comes off of the Haynes manual and is what is shown on the front of my new T-shirt.

On a more mundane level were the gifts that I gave to myself.  A new CD player and two James Bond movie soundtracks to go with it.  The latest movie called "Skyfall" and the other was a chance discovery: "The Man With The Golden Gun."  

And for the kid in me, I purchased a 1/18th scale toy helicopter from the World Peacekeeper action figure line, also known as PTE (Power Team Elite).  It is modeled after the Chinese Zhi-9 (Z-9) army utility helicopter, which is a license-built version of the Aérospatiale AS-365N Dauphin II.  Aérospatiale is now know as Eurocopter.  The version released in the US doesn't have the PRC decal sheet, and it is also missing the missile launch tubes which is a bummer for me.  This will go along with the same scale UH-60 Blackhawk and UH-1 Huey gunship helicopters that I have in my collection.  The Huey comes from a different toy company, but is of the same scale.

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Ref.
1.  Image off of the internet after generic search for a Daisy 1938 Red Ryder spring air BB rifle
2.  U.S.S. Enterprise cutaway view image ( http://scifanatic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/images/merchandise/haynes-1701.jpg ).

Scale Radio Control V-22 Osprey

I could not believe it when I first watched it. A scale model of the V-22 Osprey that is able to translate from vertical (helicopter) mode to horizontal (airplane)mode and back again.

Kit has been under development for 3 years working out the details of hover, conversion, and airplane flight

Licensed by Bell/Boeing. 35 inches (spinner to spinner). Model is easy to fly as a helicopter or an airplane. 1/18th scale.

Model easily converts in and out of airplane mode with no bad tendencies. Collective and cyclic pitch for precise control indoors and out, even in high wind. Electronic controller manages ship keeping it fully controllable for all conversion angles. Pitch, Yaw and Roll remain inline with body through entire conversion. 3 axis gyro stabilization. Can be flown with 7 channel model helicopter transmitter. Also, a user friendly PC Software interface makes programming and adjustments easy, using a standard USB-Cable.

Basic ship can be flown in a profile configuration to help with test flights and setup. Easy to add body covers to complete the scale look after all setup is complete. Precisely designed in CAD for reliability and maintainability. Precise scale model of CV-22 Osprey.

I have been looking at helicopter models, like the E-Flite Blade series (like the CX3 with the MD-520N Notor tailboom); for the past several weeks. Especially after discovering that most of my (technically former) WINGS Miniature Aircraft Society flying buddies were getting into them finally. (The technical part is I do not have the money right now to rejoin the club). Have to join the crowd I guess eventually.

I like the Blade series for the upgrade path that it offers. When I get tired of the MD-520N body, there is the Bell Jet Ranger, the UH-60 Blackhawk bodies that can be switched to. The UH-1 Huey is an upgrade path for the Blade CP, CP+, CP Pro, CP Pro2. The CP Pro series has the single rotor and a working tail rotor.

UPDATE (May 25, 2010): Well, I lost my internet connection in the middle of working on this post. Had to relocate to a wi-fi spot at Hastings to finish this. Basically, it was the reference link below that was unfinished.

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Ref. (http://www.rotormast.com/rm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=130).

Horizon Hobbies, E-Flite Blade CX-3 (http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLH2080).