fyrfytr310
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2006
- Messages
- 1,115
- Reaction score
- 1
Hello All!
Man. It has been a long time. The last time I posted here was in '08 I believe. I had made the decision to leave the hobby for several reasons but primarily because I had decided to return to college to get an engineering degree and my free time dropped to nil. A lot of time has now gone by. I am now married, have a 4 y/o daughter, a son on the way (~November 9th), graduated college (twice), acquired a firm position in the electrical engineering world, cycled through several hobbies, run 3 marathons (working on #4) and yet, despite all the time, distance and experiences, I do not find myself immune to the bug.
My daughter saw one of my old Estes kits (I think it is the Big Daddy but I am guessing as I rarely put decals on my kits) last week and wanted to see it fly. I took her to the LHS to buy motors, launch pad, controller etc etc and I could already feel the bug making an appearance. We took all the requisite components to a soccer field nearby, set it up and let her fly. Seeing the excitement from my daughter as she pressed the button and the rocket took to the air, the smell of the BP, the anticipation of waiting for the parachute to deploy... It just brought a lot back for me and the bug became fully set in.
That said, I am back. I am planning on spending the summer living in the LP and MP world while working on a L1 project. After the flight mentioned above, I bought an Aerotech Warthog on the way home. I still have my original L1 kit (see avatar) but I would like to reboot my skills and build new. I hope to regain L1 this fall and follow it up with L2 maybe in the Spring. I had passed the L2 test and built a 4" Thor from BSD to 90% completion but it all got trashed (imagine my disappointment when I learned I couldn't repurchase....
). I haven't decided what I will build for L1 but I know for L2 I am between Binder's Velociraptor and Tyrannosaur with DD. We shall see though, I want to take more time to learn the finer points of the hobby and gain a better understanding of the physics behind everything. I plan to use Open Rocket for everything MP and above to hopefully get more out of what I am doing.
So, I know there have been changes. What are the major ones? I see there are new rules from the FAA. It seems the HP certification process is essentially the same but I won't say I have done a deep dive yet. Anything in particular I should be paying attention to in the electronics world? Anything else I should be paying attention to that has changed over the last 7 or so years?
Thanks and I look forward to flying with any of you in the near future!
-Mike
Man. It has been a long time. The last time I posted here was in '08 I believe. I had made the decision to leave the hobby for several reasons but primarily because I had decided to return to college to get an engineering degree and my free time dropped to nil. A lot of time has now gone by. I am now married, have a 4 y/o daughter, a son on the way (~November 9th), graduated college (twice), acquired a firm position in the electrical engineering world, cycled through several hobbies, run 3 marathons (working on #4) and yet, despite all the time, distance and experiences, I do not find myself immune to the bug.
My daughter saw one of my old Estes kits (I think it is the Big Daddy but I am guessing as I rarely put decals on my kits) last week and wanted to see it fly. I took her to the LHS to buy motors, launch pad, controller etc etc and I could already feel the bug making an appearance. We took all the requisite components to a soccer field nearby, set it up and let her fly. Seeing the excitement from my daughter as she pressed the button and the rocket took to the air, the smell of the BP, the anticipation of waiting for the parachute to deploy... It just brought a lot back for me and the bug became fully set in.
That said, I am back. I am planning on spending the summer living in the LP and MP world while working on a L1 project. After the flight mentioned above, I bought an Aerotech Warthog on the way home. I still have my original L1 kit (see avatar) but I would like to reboot my skills and build new. I hope to regain L1 this fall and follow it up with L2 maybe in the Spring. I had passed the L2 test and built a 4" Thor from BSD to 90% completion but it all got trashed (imagine my disappointment when I learned I couldn't repurchase....
). I haven't decided what I will build for L1 but I know for L2 I am between Binder's Velociraptor and Tyrannosaur with DD. We shall see though, I want to take more time to learn the finer points of the hobby and gain a better understanding of the physics behind everything. I plan to use Open Rocket for everything MP and above to hopefully get more out of what I am doing.So, I know there have been changes. What are the major ones? I see there are new rules from the FAA. It seems the HP certification process is essentially the same but I won't say I have done a deep dive yet. Anything in particular I should be paying attention to in the electronics world? Anything else I should be paying attention to that has changed over the last 7 or so years?
Thanks and I look forward to flying with any of you in the near future!
-Mike
