That "doohicky" in the video looks like an electrified glider. The fastest R/C recorded is actually a glider, 545mph. They take them up really high, then dive them down and thru a speed trap.

There was this guy locally that must have been part bird or something. He could go just about anywhere, toss his glider in the air, and ride currents and updrafts around for hours.

https://www.hobbyline.co.za/content/...40-46_390.jpeg

Built this kit. Sanded all the wood down the half it's thickness before cutting the parts our. The only thing I didn't sand down were the wing spars. The did the thing with ultra thin and soaked it into the grain of the pieces, then sprayed the wood with accelerator to make sure the super glue dried. Also did the NASA droop. That's where the last few inches of each wing the airfoil is a bit longer and is thicker with the rounded front drooped down. The makes it so you still have control of the plane with the center section of the airfoil stalls. Because it was lighter and the NASA droop it would fly really slow.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile...edge-droop.png

Also had a servo on each aileron so they could be operated as flaperons, both ailerons and flaps.It was fun to be able to taxi around in the wind with the flaps going up instead of down. Then bring then down to normal and the plane would leap into the air.

Back to Hump day.

The Portland weather has arrived. Just drizzle and cold.

My business partner is processing on one project. The DSM (Digital Surface Model) is just a LAS format file so most any mapping program and AutoCad like programs can open it. It is 25 gig. That is a whole bunch of points or pointcloud. Each point has a RGB value, (Red Green Blue) and an XYZ geospacial point (Cartesian coordinate system) and if you view it at normal magnifications it looks like a photo. Since it has full XYZ values you can spin it around and look at it from any angle.

We also produce DTM (Digital Terrain Models) that removes all structures and vegetation. So it is a map of what would be left behind if you had a giant vacuum cleaner and sucked up every building, tree, bush, utility pole or anything that is above the surface. All that is left is the shape of the drainage and hills so the low spots and high spots of the bare earth.

Pretty cool stuff. We used to do it the hard way, by manual photogrammetric methods. Now the computers do a lot of the heavy lifting.

Of course, we do all of that for surveyors. They take the data, check it against their data, and they put their engineering and survey stamps on it. We just save them tons of boots on the ground work.

Morning all. Tiny wind storm last night. Was to dark to see if the roof is ok this morning I'll have to check when I get home.

Snow and freezing drizzle last night so you are going to have to delay the trip out to fly the Corsair a while longer. Driveway is mostly ice and is inches thick in places. I should grab a couple salt blocks for the cows and toss on the driveway.

We have real light freezing drizzle. The roads are just wet, but bridges and overpasses are ice rinks from what the news says. My commute to work down the hall was not affected by the conditions outside. I am running low on bananas and I may not have one left for tomorrow's breakfast. I usually have sausage biscuit and a banana for breakfast. I may have to change it up, and have an apple instead. I hope I can survive that major hardship due to the weather.

if you don't survive can I have the Porsche? Just kidding. Better ration those apples.

I bought a whole bag of them them the other day. It was typical of my buying experience. The big bin of apples in a bag had a sign in front saying the bag was Fuji apples, and the Gala apples were to the left. I looked at the bag, and there is no mention anywhere at all, even on the obscure places that it is indeed Fuji apples. I like Gala also, so what the heck, I grab them. Get to the checkout with the rest of my goodies and some lady bought the entire display and store stock of a gravy mix packages. The clerk had to ring each one up, one at a time. It must have been 40 or 50 packages. Finally that is done, and of course the bag of apples has a bar code that does not scan. They ask me if I know what the price is and I guess 99 cents? So they call the produce department. It takes a while and they get the price and I get out. I did indeed get Fuji apples and they are good ones.

I can survive for several weeks on the food we have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. As long as the electricity, and other utilities, and of course the internet stay going. It is supposed to be above freezing tomorrow. I think we will pull through. My survival skills have been honed for many years. I will run low on beer by the end of the week, so that is critical to get replenished.

Low on beer? Are you mad? go now!!!!!!

Fuji are my favorite. So much so we planted a Fuji tree. Honeycrisp are good too, but over 2.5x the price of Fuji. Red Delicious are my least favorite.

If your morning commute is ever affected by the weather, I hope you and your wife were already in your hidey hole!

if the carpet is iced up the dog chewed thru a pipe and it froze.

Fuji apples are my second favorite apple. The ambrosia apple is my number one. And the red delicious is low on the list, only for when every other apple is bruised up or bad.

You could always avoid the iced up bridges by doind the beer run this way.

<iframe width="612" height="459" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OisOEemBfl8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If all that is left are red delicious, I will get grapes, or oranges, or some other fruit.

I have red grapes, oranges, and bananas on hand all the time. I am an admitted fruit-a-holic. I eat some red grapes and an apple or two every day as well as a couple of bananas every day. When I can get peaches or plumbs or good oranges I have them too.

If it is iced up I figured the roof was gone.

I like just about all fruits. The edible ones. Limes are about the only one I don't eat plain. There are some from other countries that can be nasty, I leave those alone too. We have a plum tree, fuji and state fair apple trees, pear tree (we get doves, no partridges, though we do have those around here), montmorency and rainier cherry trees. We have one grape vine for juice and we are set up to plant a couple eating grape vines this spring.

I like Fuji apples, too. We eat a ton of fruit here. My three favorite fruits are mangos, pineapples, and raspberries. If I had a larger yard, I’d try to grow them myself. And avocados. Unfortunately, I only have room for the one orange tree and a lime tree.

My grandparents had an apricot tree that only bore fruit a few time per decade. A late freeze, or the winds are just tough on fruit trees around here. There are some peach orchards, but they are pitiful compared to Georgia peaches. My best source of great fruit is Sam's Club. It is ironic they sell more high quality fruit than the local "natural grocery" stores or the regular grocery stores.

The store I bought the apples at is a local chain. They are huge, and have 30 or so check out aisles. On a regular day they only had 22 of them open. Around Thanksgiving they are all running. The store is humongous. They are just hard to get to from my house.

Weather is not THAT bad. Little cold at 23°F and drizzly. but didn't notice any ice. The only real bridge on my route to the company campus somehow ended up behind a sand truck putting dirt on the bridge.Most of my route is snow route so pretty well maintained. My report may be a little skewed since driving a 4x4 Cayenne and having always liked driving around on the ice and snow, (which there was none of either),

Had to go in for a "fireside chat" with the VP of IT. Wasn't disipliany or anything just wanted to make sure I knew what was going on and the future plans sprinkled in with basic socializing. Took 2 hours. The last 30 minutes he called in the President of the company to join in the banter.

They want to break up our domain into 3 forests and hire 2 more system admins to help manage it all. That way they can save $60K a year in licensing because of the lower number of users in each domain versus everyone in one domain like it is now. I ask if the 2 additional system admins were going to get paid less than $30K salary each? Looked at me like they hadn't thought of that.

Told the President I was just happy I wasn't called into a meeting with the VP at the end of the month to get a pink slip.