A couple of weeks ago, Donna introduced me to her friend, Deborah and her husband Scott. Turns out Scott and I had something in common. Scott flies Radio Controlled (RC) airplanes and competes in AMA Pattern. I flew RC giant scale airplanes and competed in IMAC aerobatic competition. AMA and IMAC have similarities, but compete under a different set of rules and utilize different types of airplanes.

AMA refers to the Academy of Model Aeronautics while IMAC is the International Miniature Aerobatic Club. AMA pattern planes are purpose-built designs that have to meet size and weight limitations to compete in pattern events, which require pilots to perform a schedule of aerobatic maneuvers and are judged on the geometric perfection of the maneuvers.

IMAC planes have fewer limitations, but are generally scale representations (or close to scale) of full-size aerobatic planes that compete in the International Aerobatic Club. Where AMA pattern planes can weight no more than 11 pounds, my last IMAC plane was a 40% scale Edge 540 with a 10-foot wingspan that weighed 32 pounds.

Last Saturday, Scott was competing at an event held at the Arizona Modelers RC Flying Field in east Mesa only a few miles from our place at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. I participated in an event at this field over 20 years ago! After lunch, Donna and I drove over to the airfield and watched the competition for a couple of hours.

Donna’s friend and tennis buddy Deborah came out to the field shortly after we arrived to watch her husband compete. Scott told me Chip Hyde was competing – I knew Chip from the RC Tournament of Champions (TOC) days. The TOC was an international competition started by Bill Bennett in 1974 while Bennett was running the Circus Circus Casino and Resort in Las Vegas. Later, Bennett bought the Sahara Hotel and Casino and continued to sponsor the invitation-only TOC until his death in 2002. He put up over $150,000 in prize money for the TOC event each year.

In the late ’90s, I participated in the TOC as a caller for Jason Shulman. The caller stands behind the RC pilot and calls out each maneuver for the pilot to keep him in sync with the schedule of maneuvers. The last time I called for Jason, we came in third behind Christophe Paysant–LeRoux from France and Chip Hyde from Las Vegas.

Enough background – I saw Chip and we chatted for a bit. He remembered me from 20 years ago – I was surprised by this. Chip was at the top of the game for a lot of years – and still represents the USA in international competition. He was the AMA USA National Champion pattern pilot 10 times. He was the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Champion four times! It was fun to reminisce, but I quit flying RC airplanes after I won the IMAC National Championship twice and haven’t flown in years.

After my last post, I received a message from my friend, Leendert Hartoog. Lendert wanted to meet up and hear more about the Elekit stereo amplifier I built. We got together on Tuesday at Red, White and Brew and I filled him in with all of the particulars. After a couple of cold ones, I told him I would send him a couple of links for more information and ordering. When I got home and looked up the website for the US retailer, I found that Tube Depot had the kit on sale until midnight. I sent the link to Leendert and told him of the sale status – he ordered a kit. I told Leendert I would build it for him if he wanted me to, but I think he’ll want to experience building it himself.

I keep the stereo mounted on top of my guitar amplifiers – the vacuum tubes get hot and I wouldn’t anyone to accidently burn themselves. The 6L6GC output tubes run at about 330 degrees +/- 10 degrees or so. The 12AU7 preamp tubes are only about 180 degrees, but that’s still hot enough to burn fingers.

Last Thursday, Donna made a bean soup with andouille sausage and spinach for dinner. It was a great meal on cold day – the temperature only reached 56 degrees that afternoon.

She’s still following the Bright Line eating plan – it’s taken a few pounds off of me although I cheat and still drink beer. Saturday’s dinner was pan-seared chicken thighs with herb-roasted tomatoes and a side of asparagus.

On Sunday, she grilled shrimp with Mexican spices along with peppers and onions and served it with Mexican street corn and avocado. Delicious.

Saturday was 10 degrees warmer than Thursday’s 56 degrees. The pictures from the flying field show blues skies, but it was still on the cool side. Sunday was a little warmer and on Monday we hit the low 70s.

Yesterday we were back in the low 80s. Donna had me slice a flank steak and she made a stir fry for dinner. I had it over white rice while she had her serving over riced cauliflower to adhere to her eating plan.

On Monday, I went to the Verizon store and traded in my Samsung Galaxy 5 which I’ve had for seven years or so for a new Samsung Galaxy S22. The guy there couldn’t believe I’d had the same phone for that long. Donna upgraded to an S10 a couple of years ago. My Galaxy S5 was first released in 2014. Since then they released the S6, S7, S8, S9, S10 usually in March of each year. In 2020 they changed their nomenclature to coincide with the year, so after the S10 came the S20 then S21 and now the S22. The S22 was released in the USA last Friday, so I’m truly up to date now.

Getting the files from my old S5 to the S22 was problematic. I have over 4,000 photos stored on the SD card in the S5 and it was running so slowly that the S22 indicated it would take four hours to load the data! I was trading in the S5 to get the discounted price of the S22 but the guy let me take both phones home and complete the data transfer instead of hanging around the Veizon store all afternoon. I really appreciated that. I got it done and returned the S5 to the store first thing on Tuesday morning. Now I have to learn the new phone – finding my way around it can be a little frustrating at times!

We should reach the mid-80s today and stay warm until the weekend when we have a couple of days back in the 60s forecasted. We’ll see how that works out.