I wish I'd set up the blog when I first started flying.

So, this is a blog of me and my rapidly-developing obsession with model aeroplanes.

You know model aeroplanes - the flying kind. Not the kind you spend weeks painting and stick on a shelf, only to fill it full of gunpowder and see if you can turn it into a rocket. Hmm, did I just give away some of my childhood there?

Anyways, about three months ago I was putting my four year old son to bed and we were watching YouTube. Jet Fighter crashes and ejections, specifically - he thinks those are really cool (and hey, so do I). The usual Wikipedia effect happened and before I knew it, I had followed a trail of videos after my son was asleep which led to some stuff posted by a bloke named Dave Powers, otherwise known as RCSuperPowers, and he was having heaps of fun with RC planes.

Allow me to dig back into the past for a sec...
Now when I was a kid, I thought RC planes were very cool. My neighbour was a good mate of mine (hi to Marty Cooperwaite) and his dad was into RC planes *and* helicopters. This was the 1980s too folks, so it was scratch-build terrority and big dollars to get flying. I went to the local flying club with them a few times, but it all seemed quite rigid with rules and with some very serious people - maybe rightly given the costs if you crashed your balsa-framed beauty. It still put me right off though, because I'm all about fun, and I've always hated "thou shalt do it this way" garbage.

I guess it didn't help that I had no spare cash, consistently had no spare cash until I had been in the workforce for 6 years, and also happen to be a computer geek first (guess where the majority of my spare cash still goes). But I have digressed too far, so let me get back to the present day.


So there I am, watching Dave Powers on YouTube, and this guy is having a blast. He's out in the local park with his electric planes he builds out of foam (or testing planes from other RC merchants) and talking about how the planes work and how to fly, and the guy is really cool. His wife Val does all the video work and she's also really into it and having a laugh.

All I can think is "wow, maybe this can be fun after all". It doesn't hurt that I've got a more spare cash these days and people sell Ready To Fly (RTF) planes, including batteries, radio transmitters, the lot. And even under $250 - in Australia!

At that point, I found myself watching RC YouTube videos whenever I could. I knew I was hooked and that it would only be a matter of time before I actually did something about getting my own plane. That was three months ago, and I already now have TWO planes and want more. Finances will slow down the rate of acquisition certainly...