What's your biggest Hobby failure?

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Dork_Vader

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I have had quite a few and its hard to just pick one.. But this one stands out...

Me my brother were in grade school and had RC cars. We decided we wanted a RC boat so we went in on a kit..

We get it put together and it worked fairly good in the pool. The problem was the pool wasn't big enough to really use it to its full potential.

So our parents take us to this family reunion at a park and we brought our RC boat and charged batteries. We put it on the pond/lake and first battery my brothers driving it. Suddenly he loses control. It starts driving in giant circles about 5-6 feet out of our reach.. We both stretched at the shore hoping to grab it but couldn't.. Then it just zooms off out of sight full speed..

There were no boats of any kind on the man made lake and no way to get it back.. We never saw it again.
 
My other hobby is race cars... rally cars to be specific... so i dont even know where to begin... my latest epic failure was this year on pikes peak... we spun a rod bearing in day three of practice on the middle section... second run... right around 730am... got the car down off the mountain and took it to the dealership (they sponsored us and were letting us use their lifts to work on the car) found metal in both oil and coolant... we were gonna have to rebuild the motor put it back and re tune the car in 36 hours... we towed it up to denver to have a buddy of mine and his crew help us tear it down and get it back together... about an hour later after getting up to denver we were told we didnt qualify (loooooong story behind this) so we packed it up... later that night at end of fan fest we got an email saying we were still in the race if we could get the car running... well by that time it was too late...
 
My first hobby failure was a Sig Kadat MKII R/C Airplane. I bought a used 7 channel World radio, 5 servos. I paid $125.00 in 1982. A months rent back then, plus the kit and the motor. At least $250.00 in the air. While learning how to fly, I lost it in the woods and never recovered it. It was hard to face my wife back then to tell her and I spent my two week summer vacation searching the woods inch by inch. I found out years later it was found by two kids the day I crashed. They took it home and hide it under their bed. That part of the story came from an unreliable source and I didn't believe his tale. I went looking for it this past summer, Thirty years later, in hopes of finding something, no luck.

Sig Kadet MK II.jpg
 
RC airplanes .40 size kit and arf's can get in air but fail to land , I still have electronics for 3 sets but have sold off most models , building tools from them still have


Rocketry was looking cheaper until got in HPR stuff LOL , but at least this stuff has a chance of landing :)
 
michigander said:
RC airplanes .40 size kit and arf's can get in air but fail to land , I still have electronics for 3 sets but have sold off most models , building tools from them still have


Rocketry was looking cheaper until got in HPR stuff LOL , but at least this stuff has a chance of landing :)
Click to expand...

ALL of them come back down, in one condition or another, sooner or later...

WHERE is often a matter of much debate, however...

Later! OL JR :)

PS... Personally I fail to understand why people put themselves into the poor house over HPR... I don't see much difference between "whoosh, pop" versus "WHOOSH! pop... POP!" There's TONS of fun to be had with LPR/MPR for a FRACTION of the cost of HPR, but hey, to each his own I guess... Hey, if it floats yer boat, go for it... but I fail to understand why people gripe about the costs involved and yet keep doing it... what I particularly find amusing is HPR folks that whine like a mule after they drop several hundred bucks on motor casings and loads, sometimes hundreds more on HPR kits and building supplies, and usually hundreds more on electronics and hardware, then suddenly find the prospect of buying a tank of gas and driving 2-3 hours to a SUITABLE HPR field to suddenly be some huge imposition and expense... seems like a $50 tank of gas is "down in the noise" compared to the other expenses... :eyeroll::lol: but what do I know... LOL:)
 
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Building my LOC Onyx, I glue on the top centering ring, and I am sitting there thinking "What the **** did I forget to do?"
Glue is almost cured...

Darnet! I forgot to glue in the shock cord to the top centering ring!
Took my dremel and the carbide disc and made a quick mod to the centering ring...
:)

Fit perfectly!
 
When I was younger, I had lots of collections. Stamps, kites, rockets, models, coins, musical instruments. My biggest failure, though, was girls. It was and still is a mystifying field of study.
 
For me it was airsoft. First time out at a real event I almost put myself in the hospital with heatstroke. Decided I was too old and out of shape to survive and sold my gear. RC planes/cars/helis, model rockets, modl railroads and amateur astronomy are MUCH safer!
 
luke strawwalker said:
ALL of them come back down, in one condition or another, sooner or later...

WHERE is often a matter of much debate, however...

Later! OL JR :)

PS... Personally I fail to understand why people put themselves into the poor house over HPR... I don't see much difference between "whoosh, pop" versus "WHOOSH! pop... POP!" There's TONS of fun to be had with LPR/MPR for a FRACTION of the cost of HPR, but hey, to each his own I guess... Hey, if it floats yer boat, go for it... but I fail to understand why people gripe about the costs involved and yet keep doing it... what I particularly find amusing is HPR folks that whine like a mule after they drop several hundred bucks on motor casings and loads, sometimes hundreds more on HPR kits and building supplies, and usually hundreds more on electronics and hardware, then suddenly find the prospect of buying a tank of gas and driving 2-3 hours to a SUITABLE HPR field to suddenly be some huge imposition and expense... seems like a $50 tank of gas is "down in the noise" compared to the other expenses... :eyeroll::lol: but what do I know... LOL:)
Click to expand...

We had a guy up here that must have gotten a meth-like addiction to High Power. He embezzeled thousands from his employer and ended up in the state penn...:eyepop::bangpan:
 
My biggest hobby failure was spending a ton of time and money building a 4" minimum diameter fiberglass rocket only to have it do a loop right after launch and it ended up crashing somewhere in the woods or a farm field. It was totally unstable. We looked for a while and never found it. I'm not sure why the altimeters failed to fire. We think it came in hard as we never got a signal from the Rocket Hunter.

The rocket had been designed around the Hypertech M1000 motor. A friend of mine donated a research composite M motor so I launched it on that. I had never run a Rocksim simulation with a composite motor and the rocket was unstable without the Hypertech motor. It was very embarrassing for me as a level 3 flier to have such a spectacular and dangerous failure. It would be one thing to have a shred or something, but a failure due to not running a proper Rocksim simulation is another thing altogether.
 
The Strawwalker strikes again! We love ya man, but dang you got axe to grind when it comes to HPR. I guess you speak some sense, its not a lot more bang for you buck. Although it is cool and a lot of fun to see a big rocket you built, tear off the pad on four feet of flame. :)


TA
 
My biggest hobby failure was each and every one of my forays into model airplanes. The less said about each of them, the better.
 
Funny thread...my biggest failure was at the end of my sailing career. I had a sponsor, I built a race boat, kind of extra long australian 40 foot skiff. I thought my italian "friends" would be perfect team. They started playing games as boat was built and one day they destroy it without telling me ...a carnage ..also with the friendship..i was so stressed i rebuilt the boat and sold it, finishing international competitions same day...believe or not years before Dennis Connors asked me to join his Americas Cup team...
 
A wipe out of a large salt water aquarium is my worst failure. Introduced a new fish (after isolating it for a month) and it introduced a disease that killed of all the other long term inhabitants.
 
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In Rocketry I lost a PML Eclipse,Rocketman R-9 chute,Altac altimeter and an AT 1280 motor when the J-135 said goodbye.No one ever saw it after it went into the Georgia haze.

Back in my early teens I had quite the lab with full size flasks tubing distillation..etc (would get me arrested as a Meth lab now-a-days!)
Anyway My older bro and I were making something like match heads or some other dangerous endeavor.....The sulfur rotten egg smell contaminated the two story house for a week! HEY! at least I didn't burn or blow up anything..
 
My other big passion is painting miniature figurines - okay, toy soldiers. Last year I decided to begin reproducing some with a plastic casting kit. Turned out to be messy and unsuccessful, save for the front half of a few Civil War troops that will make decent casualties half sunk in the mud.
 
Tried RC planes after doing Control-Line 1/2 A planes for several years. Had a Cox RTF with a high-performance .049 in the nose and a large wingspan, but could not get a decent flight out of it. Bought a single-channel pulse unit and an easy-to-build trainer with foam wing, but no joy with a Cox .049 either.
Sold them and got a Tamiya Leopard A4 1:16 scale medium tank from AHC. Drove it in the snow in my back yard and chased the cat around the house with it.
Eventually, the rechargeable batteries to power the motor, servos and radio died and the wreck sat for a quarter-century. Sold the tank and radio as a unit on Ebay two years ago and got much of my investment back. Tamiya tank kits have more than doubled in price since 1983. I think I initially paid $99 for the kit and $49 for the RC, not counting batteries.
:wink:
 
RC airplanes for me. I crashed 3 (a moderately expensive one and two cheap ones) before I gave up. With that money I could've bought at least a year's worth of LPR/MPR motors. :sigh: I still get a kick out of my expensive RC flight simulator, though. :)
 
I had a serious disaster this last Spring.

I build 1:32nd scale modern aircraft when not flying rockets. I was working a night shift and my wife called and said she heard a loud crash downstairs. She texted me pictures of the source of the noise.

My shelves had come off the wall and toppled. Every aircraft on the shelves were destroyed totalling almost 1000 bucks and well over 7 years worth of work. A few of these kits were out of production and hard to find.
 
Not so much a failure as a blunder. Finally finished my ho race/train layout in the basement-after several years--28 ft long 10 feet wide--sorta e shaped---decided to move 2 months later---Oh well! was'nt made to be moved---holy disassembly batman!
 
Weeellll...it's not really my fault....but the frickin' price that Helium has climbed to is making life very, very difficult for me and Janet!


It's gotten so a single 20 minute scuba dive is costing us us ~ $220 in Helium alone. Woof.


All the best, James
 
RoyAtl said:
My biggest hobby failure was each and every one of my forays into model airplanes. The less said about each of them, the better.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna ask anyway, which part of model airplanes? Building, Flying, Clubs? Find a local R/C club, they teach noobs for free. They will check out your plane, fly it and teach you how to fly, in time. Believe me, it takes time and money. I have enjoyed it for over 40 years.
 
paul.nortness said:
I had a serious disaster this last Spring.

I build 1:32nd scale modern aircraft when not flying rockets. I was working a night shift and my wife called and said she heard a loud crash downstairs. She texted me pictures of the source of the noise.

My shelves had come off the wall and toppled. Every aircraft on the shelves were destroyed totalling almost 1000 bucks and well over 7 years worth of work. A few of these kits were out of production and hard to find.
Click to expand...

Plastic models?
 
I think that frequent moves are a main factor affecting model railroading these days. Back in the late '80s my uncle started a nice N scale layout but moved about a year later. Never did get around to finishing it.
 
My rocketry club, WOOSH, has a club rocket that is pases around member to member. It is called gouda wooshka, and was built in 7 minutes, and 53 seconds. I was putting the 19th flight on it a month ago, with a north coast F64-4 darkstar motor (Thanks to Eric Camburg for the motor) I was drag racing two other rockets. My mentor (SMR as you guys know him), and Eric Camburg. All three rockets lifted off majestically into the air, under power of the 15 year old motors. We were drag racing to closest to the pad, and I clearly won, however I hung the historic rocket in a tree. The rocket was shook loose wit use of the poles, however the parachute was destroyed when we ripped it with the poles, and the rocket landed directly on the onboard camera, destroying it. After all this, the most important part survived, but nothing else survived!
 
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