Go away rain

Can't ride to class today. Same thing happened yesterday. Day before that was Sunday, rained that day too, so all the trails were closed. :( Its supposed to rain every day of the week now... It's not that I don't like riding in the rain, I just hate getting to class soaking wet and muddy.

So what's up?

I'm building a small 20" wingspan flying wing, using the same wing cores as a few other friends. We're going to use them for some combat. Lars has already built his, but is using an edf with a feigao brushless motor as the power. I think all of ours are going to be similar except for the motor. A couple other guys are using a slightly slower feigao motor with props instead of the ducted fan, while I'm winding up a spare cdrom motor I had laying around

My vacuum bag system is almost completed. I'm waiting on some glue to dry right now. I had everything hooked up and powered, and the pump runs great, but is not powerful enough to turn over (its a piston pump) wiht a vacuum already established. The power supply would cut out when the vacuum switch would turn the pump on. I've added a smaller resevoir between the pump and the 1-way valve to remedy this. I'll know in a few moments if it works. Eventually, I want to vacuum bag the little combat wings I mentioned above.

The pump still has the same problem as before. I think I'll need a fairly large capacitor to prevent surging of the power supply...

DL50 Flying

Wow these pics are ~1 month old too. Adam took some cool pics with his camera of me flying the DL50 out at Dorthea Dix.

Launch
DL50

Also the thought of doing the GDR next year after graduating has crossed my mind...

OK so its been 2 months since I last posted. Like anyone's actually reading this garbage anyway. I mean c'mon, my last post included a picture that I didn't even take. Same with the one before that, I didn't even photoshop optimus prime in. Lame, I know. But seriously, school life kicked into gear and I'm dating a beautiful girl, so that's where my time goes now, along with aerial robotics stuff.

If youre just reading this blog, you'd probably think that I died in the wilderness of western NC on the extreme single digit camping trip I did with some friends in late Jan. Well, it was an adventure alright. Instead of doing a write-up, you can look at some pics that I escaped with from the wild:


Enjoy. My birthday was yesterday (21st), had a blast! Tomorrow is a pretty big joint party with another friend who just turned 21. So I'm taking it easy tonight and finally get an hour of spare time (first time in what feels like months) to write this jibberjabber.

On a related note, part of my birthday present was entrance fee to the Cohutta 100k race. No, not the 100 mile race! It was already filled up! DANGIT! I can settle for only 65 miles. I also bought some '08 aivd bb7's to put on the bike. I need to fix my front derailleur and get electro supplements dialed in before the race (3 weeks!).

Wintry mix

I'm going out to Linville Gorge this long weekend for rockclimbing/hiking/camping with some friends from AR. Weather calls for snow and lows in the single digits. I'm packing up right now, and expect a writeup when I get back. Here's a teaser pic of the gorge.

Optimus Prime is a Badass

Found this the other day

Transformers and bikes, a winning combo.

Subfreeze Hike!

I did a subfreeze hike over winter break, and never posted the pictures from it. It was a short hike along the Billy Goat Trail on the Potomac River.

Yup, definitely freezing out

Walking on water

The Potomac

The bigger parts of the canal weren't frozen

I saw a bunch of woodpeckers which is unusual. Quirky looking fellows, really

Part of Mather's Gorge

There are alot of parts along the river with a 50 ft drop to the water

More building

I've pretty much completed the horizontal stab, all except for the hinge slots. I'm waiting to borrow a hinge slotter tool from a friend to do that. Later tonight I will get the vertical tail built. The tail section is easy and fast to build, I am just taking my sweet time building this plane. I can't wait to start the wings, though.
Now some eye candy!




You can see the steed in the background
Here's a list of things to be done for her to be done:
Build vertical stab and wing
Sand all parts
Install hardware
Covering
Install electronics and engine
Break-in engine

Goodies!

Went out to Home Depot to get som eclamps tonight. I really liked these Irwin Quickgrips. Expandable to 4". These are far better than using the weights. Also went to REI for the sale and got a rear bike light for $3.50! I almost got creamed today by a pickup, and I've been riding without lights for a while, so it's for the better. Also got a camping spork for the upcoming bikecamping trip.

Fixed gear build

I realized I never posted anything about the build of my fixed gear bike. This was a weekend project last spring (April 2007). I was walking around campus and found this old BCA bike in alright condition sitting by a dumpster. The tubes were flat, probably why someone ditched it. Whatever, their loss, my gain.

The frame is a good candidate for a throw-it-together-quick fixie. Horizontal dropouts, steel, just like every other old, cheap roadbike frame out there. Sizing was decent, 57cm when I ride a 61... good enough for campus cruising.

I took it over to the AR lab that night to do the dirty work. First job was to disassemble everything and grind off those unneeded brazeons.

I also had to think about what I was going to use for the rear wheel. To keep it in cheap fashion, I decided to use the old wheel with a welded sprocket. Went over to the design school and used their welding torch to do that.

Not a bad welding job!
After stripping down the frame, I decided to paint it safety color red, so those cars see me zipping through traffic on campus!

I came back the next day after the paint was done drying, and reassembled all the part. What popped out was this...

Ouuuu nasty seat, I know. That was what I had on hand at the lab. It was soon changed out for an old saddle I had layin around. Ok so, I'm thinking time for a test ride, right? It was past dark, but there were lights all along the road behind the building I was in, so Matt and I go back there to ride it around. Keep in mind this is my first time riding a fixie. I ride around for a few minutes, amazed that the welded sprocket hasn't given out along with the rusty spokes on the wheels, getting used to that 'fixed' sensation. I pass it over to Matt to let him try it out. "Not bad for dumpster diving" he says. Ok, initial rides, great! Time for some more speed. I ride up a hill trying out the flywheel effect, then turn around pointing downhill. Time for downhill trials... Start peddling, faster, fastER, FASTER. I see some headlights up ahead, a car coming in the one way street (I was going the wrong way here) Ok time to start those brakes...wait, what? Tim you didn't install brakes on a bike?!? By this point I wanted to coast... a big no no. The pedals shot my legs up like a kid on a trampoline, massive legs have a lot of momentum. The pedals bucked me off the seat, rear wheel popped up, lost control tail falling off to the side. When the rear wheel meets asphalt again, the bike is yawing probably 30 degrees to the side. Thigh lands on top tube, rear wheel tacos, but driver never bails! I didn't fall off the bike, after tacoing a wheel at 15mph, much to the amazement of Matt.

No problem, fun while it lasted. I went to the bikeshop the next weekend to look at wheels. I walked out with an extra wheel from a Fuji Track Pro, has Formula hubs, DT Swiss spokes, and I believe a weinmann rim. I of course got a new sprocket to go on the flipflop fixed/free hub, no coasting at all for this bike...

I eventually bought a front wheel (Performance Titan, yea nothing flashy here, remember, cheap is the keyword) in the summer since the bike looked horribly aweful with rusted spokes and rims. I'd say it looks very nice. It's actually a bit too small for me. I am looking to sell it because it gets little use now that I live off campus.

More construction pics below.

Back in Raleigh

I just got back to Raleigh a couple days ago to get ready for classes. I also cleared off part of my large desk for the Tiger build. It's a little small for the plans, but they won't be on the table for much of the build. I'm continuing the fuse build, hopefully it will go faster now that I've got a comfortable place to build. This is recent, so I don't have any new pics besides this one.

More Tiger!

Making slow progress on the build, mainly because I don't have a great place to build at my house. The downstairs workarea has been taken over by my dad for refridgerator repair, so right now I'm building the plane on the floor in my room... A few pics for now.





Happy New Year!

Airplanes and Injuries!

So I've been having this pain in my foot after running, for the past 3 weeks. I don't notice it when not performing high impact activities, so I'm not really sure what it is. It could be a small stress fracture. Whatever it is, it makes my foot hurt alot after running, which stinks because my bikes are in Raleigh while I'm home for winter break. So running is really my only form of exercise for about another week. That's ok, because I have an airplane to build!

It's a Goldberg Tiger 2 kit I got for Christmas. I've only just started the fuselage build, so nothing great to show off. I did happen to get a gallon of Cool Power %15 glow fuel for only $15 at our hobby shop!
I've also got some pics from a flight session with Lars and JB before I left Raleigh for break.

JB got some good stick time on his Razor that he hasn't really flown before, and Lars is usually always out there with me.

Ahhh Winter Break

So far I've had an awesome time relaxing and catching up with some friends and family this break. For Christmas, I got some clothes, a new RC plane which I'll build up soon, and some new egg beater pedals. But being a member of Team NORSA, I need another adventure soon. I haven't decided exactly what yet, but, I'm thinking something along the lines of this in western North Carolina right after New Years. I might be in Boone for New Years, and start classes again on the 9th, and am trying to decide what to do in the meantime. Camping is cheap, and I've wanted to try some bike-camping at some point. Will keep you posted...

End of Semester

Weeeell it's been a long semester. I did not get as much mountain biking in as I would have liked, and didn't race this season in the ACCC. It's a shame, I really enjoyed racing and camping out on the weekends for the races. Yea, I am a fast biker, but the best mountain biker is the one having the most fun. This semester of school really killed that feeling. I think things are going to clear up a bit next semester, and I should be able to get to go to some road races and the Tsali trip so guys on the cycling team are planning. The Cohutta 100 is in mid-April, which will be right before the end of the spring semester, but that's what I'm aiming for. Hopefully another adventure race will pop up with Team NORSA too.

Speaking of NORSA, we had an attempt at biking to Virginia from Raleigh this past weekend. It was an awesome study break even though horrible weather stopped us halfway. Read about it on Alan's blog.

I need another adventure soon.... will make one over winter break :)

Little recap

In between work the past few days I've managed to:
~Get pepsi can stove working properly
~Hang out with Lindsay
~Add a new steed to the stable:

Bear Island Sea Kayak Trip

Today I returned from 3 days of sea kayaking! The whole trip was a lot of fun and was a much needed break from school. It was really amazing to be able to get away from civilization for 3 days and not have to answer the cell-phone/worry about ANYTHING. If that's what happens when you go kayaking...I need to get my own!



Alan, a fellow member of Team NORSA, let me borrow one of his family's many sea kayaks (their garage looks like an outdoors outfitter store!) and some equipment for the trip. The other two guys that came on the trip were Dan and Adam, both from the aerial robotics club (which is how we all know each other). Dan brought out one of his family's canoes while Adam rented a sea kayak from a shop out in Swansboro. Alan had his mom's (he's always been a momma's boy) Kruger Dreamcather, basically a REALLY nice kevlar canoe/kayak hybrid.
Dan
Adam
We played in the surf on the ocean side of the island a lot, got flipped over a bunch of times, Alan tried to teach me how to roll a bunch of times... we built kites out of those black trash bags and reeds that were growing around our camp site. The kite building actually turned out to be a little competition, since we're all aerospace engineers :) And guess whose was the only one, I mean two, to fly? Hehe, Alan and Dan couldn't get theirs to fly at all! Anyway, the whole 3 days were awesome, very well spent :) Be sure to check out Alan's (Sailing adventures of SOS) blog soon, I'm sure he'll have more pictures, too!

Pepsi can stove

Today after class I decided to try making one of those pepsi can stoves I've seen on the internet. It's a lightweight camping stove made from 3 aluminum cans, and it's really easy to make. The stove uses 90% isopropyl alcohol, which you can get at any drug store for $2 for 16oz. so it's reallly cheap (good for college students...) I'm going to use it this weekend on the sea kayaking trip, so it'll have some field tests. It only took me an hour to make the stove, and I was going pretty slow to make sure my cuts were right. I used these instructions if yall are interested:
PCT Hiker

And Alan posted a write-up about the adventure race this past weekend on his blog:
SOS

PS 10 points if you can guess what brand cans those used to be...

Been a long time

Ahhh it's been a long time. Yes this blog was abandoned for some time. The last post was at the beginning of last mtb season... well it turns out I finished 2nd in my class. I won the last XC race of the season for double points which was really rewarding. But then I fell into a slump of bad parts and school and didn't get much riding done until spring time rolled around.

Anyway, on to new (recent!) things! This weekend I went to my first adventure race, a 12 hour beast located in the Uwharrie forest of North Carolina. I raced with 3 other guys from Team NORSA who go to State, too. This weekend, I got free admission into the coveted NORSA team based out of my hometown DC! SPRAGAW! In the raffle after the race, I won a nice floor bike pump that I needed since the carpump broke, and some Hammer gels, bleh. It was a lot of fun, and there should be some more coverage on their blogs. Actually, it's seeing they're active blogs that made me want to write something in here. I'll give you links to those soon! Here's a link to the race website, and you can see my name on the racer list to prove I went! HA!
Bushwhack Adventures

Next weekend is fall break, I've got two extra days for my weekend, and we're going sea kayaking! Should be fun since I've never been in a sea kayak before. A couple of us are heading out to the outbanks of NC to do some paddling around Bear Island. Three days til that happens, can't wait!

First ride

Alright, so I finally got to ride with some team members and other new people yesterday afternoon, and, well, I now know how much faster I need to be/what bad shape I'm in right now. ERrr, I mean how much faster I could be. Anyway, we went to Lake Crabtree, which is a very rooty loop, and did 2 laps at 5 miles each. It doesn't like much, but this group was the fastest group I've ever ridden with. It will definitely help me out in the long run though.

Oh yea, I got to ride someone's full suspension Specialized Epic disc for a little bit, and it was sweet. I want one. now. It has an inertial valve so the suspension is locked out until it hits a bump, so there's no pedal bob :) Now I know their secret to being fast on the roots... And I still need to replace my saddle, which I bent the seat rails a while ago, so that was giving me some butt pain that wasn't needed.

Anyways, I need to get back to homework since I procrastinated for so long on it. I'll be back later.