Captain's Blog

Today puts me half way through my 3-week stay in Regina: if the Air Canada strike doesn’t change my plans I’ll be back in Toronto the last week of June. I wasn’t able to stay in the same hotel the whole time, since the entire city seems booked for one event:

The Western Canada Farm Progress Show

For 4 days I had to move into alternate lodging: a place that rented “suites” for longer term stays. Compared to checking into a Comfort Inn the sign-in process was a bit dodgy: get to a gas station in a certain part of town, call a guy, and wait for him to show up to lead you where you’ll be staying.

So I made the call, and followed the black SUV that came to meet me. When we first turned off a residential road onto an unpaved back lane, and stopped behind an older 3-story house… I was a tiny bit apprehensive. My room as at the top of those peeling wooden stairs, behind that tree branch? OK…

It turns out it was really nice inside: basically my own apartment with laundry and everything: with nicer furniture that I have back in Toronto.

So here I sit with my laptop, nibbling on Subway and sipping on a drink after a long day at work. In 2 more days I have to move back to my old hotel… and I think I’ll miss this place 🙂

Almost a month ago I ordered a RC helicopter that was the next step up from the flying-around-your-living-room models I’ve played with so far. It arrived quickly… but didn’t work.

Replacement parts arrived yesterday and went in this morning. Success!

You don’t have to be a helicopter expert to see that it’s a bit… um… unbalanced?

I flew around in the underground garage with the training gear on (orange balls)… until I plowed it into a wall. My fault: I had gotten lazy with the small heli when taking corners… by just turning it in a new direction and sliding around a bit wide (it’s light, so turns quickly). However this new larger and heavier heli when I saw it was heading towards the wall I did successfully turn it 90 degrees…. but that only left me with a heli travelling the same speed towards the wall, but sideways. You’re also supposed to bank it towards the inside of the turn so it starts to pull itself in the new direction instead of just continuing on its merry way in the direction it was pointed before you turned it. Doh!

Oh well.. time to order more parts 🙂

Last weekend I sold my shiny yellow SV650S street bike. When I bought it 5 years ago I couldn’t imagine selling it… so I took good care of it because I was in it for the long haul. But as others have said when you start with this hobby: “Think of it as your first bike, not your last”. And so it was… a couple weeks ago at the Spring Toronto Motorcycle Show…. that I decided to upgrade. Last Monday my sister helped to deliver it to its new owner in Mississauga (a fun ride in the rain (not)). So the yellow beast lives on as someone else’s “first bike”.

I’m in no rush to get the replacement, as prices are better in the fall, and I’m hoping to keep busy with the dirtbike this summer. But some of the low-cost options would be the Suzuki DL-650 V-Strom, or Kawasaki Versys. The pricier options include the BMW F 800 GS or Triumph Tiger 800 XC. For now it’s just a little bit of money in the bank…

The yellow one was a bit cranky to start (probably the last season for that battery) but the blue one fired right up!

Haven’t done any real maintenance yet: just put the batteries back in and will top them up with fresh gas. I have parts on the shelf for the dirtbike… but it can wait a few more weeks for things to warm up. The yellow SV really shows the dirt from living in a big underground garage all winter, so I’ll give it a once-over with the pressure washer, then hopefully take it out for Photo Tag today!

Almost done!

I received the ESC for my new RC buggy a couple of days ago, and today the motor arrived as well:

I came home at lunch to upload a support video for another RC toy, so I figured I’d post these as well. As soon as the radio arrives I’ll be on the road! XERUN 4274SD motor on the left, and 150A-SD electronic speed control on the right.

Swapped in a set of Losi 8ight truggy rims and XTT tires. A smoother ride with a bit more clearance for driving around the back field. Still no electronics though… waiting for the mailman to come…