After the muscle car thread it got me wondering what else everyone does. Hobby or otherwise. The "normal" hobbies I have are fishing, hunting, gardening, woodworking, assaulting my guitars, Ham radio, working on my 2000 LandCruiser because I can not because I have to, Last but not least, Photography. I shoot 8x10 and 4x5 film as well as digital. I develop my own film. I've made platinum palladium prints but I don't have a darkroom. I wish I did. All of my film negatives are scanned and processed in Photoshop. Blasphemy! The move to NM put a damper on photography. There's only so much you can do with sagebrush. I'll get back in the groove soon.
If you can't tell I am a habitual dabler in things.
During a recent 5 year stint (work transfer) in NW NM I took up a few different hobbies that still involved contained explosions
While in NM, I got into making black powder. It's easy enough to do but surprisingly the wood that you make charcoal from makes a big difference. My pecan tree sheds here in TX make really good charcoal. I didn't have the tools to puck and grind it like GoEx does but I could use my BP in my BP guns if I needed to. That led me to making fireworks. I got right up to where I needed to make and use flash powder and stopped. I wanted nothing to do with that stuff. I'm working on living longer not shorter So... I took up High Power Rocketry. The area I was working in has a high power rocket launch site. I earned my Level 1 (L1) there. I was about to start on my L2 when I got transferred back home. Top rating is L3. Those are the guys that mix their own motors and put their rockets in the edge of space.
When I wasn't doing that I would go to the airport, rent a plane. I didn't enjoy pattern work so I flew to Utah, Arizona, all over NW New Mexico, and a little into Colorado. I take that back. If it was crosswind landing practice I liked doing that. Here's a shot of the approach into KFMN (Farmington). It's a bit different up there...
Here in TX I have my reloading tools and supplies. I still fly only it's 90 miles to the nearest airport that has rental aircraft.I just finished up the training I need for my instrument rating. Almost. I got within a few hours of the checkride and my instructor got his airline gig. I lost a good instructor and I'm paused for now. That pretty much sums up my 40 years of aviation. Start, pause, start, pause...
I have a well equipped electronic repair bench. I can fix just about anything with tubes in it. My happy place is building / repairing guitar amps. I have a collection of radios from the 40's. I can repair some transistor devices. The newest stuff is beyond my skills but I'll try to fix it before I toss it. I'm probably leaving something out... I used to ride motorcycles. I had a VTX 1800 and I rode it from TX to CA, TX to CO, all over CO. A little of NM. Long story but a wreck dislocated my shoulder (very dislocated) and that took almost a year to get to where it is today. It's fine. I drop things with my left hand if I don't concentrate on holding onto it. I've "happy Gilmored" my fair share of full coffee cups lol Most of the time nobody knows my shoulder was jacked up. They just think I'm uncoordinated The insurance check for the bike was used to buy my first DSLR. What a rabbit hole that turned out to be.
Obviously I don't do all of these things at the same time. Reloading / shooting is pretty constant. As is flying, Ham radio, and phtography.
The guitar gets played up every day. Most of the time musical instruments trigger questions that I'll go ahead and answer. No... I don't know what I'm doing. Yes... I know 3 chords very well and probably a dozen that I have to look up No... I can't sing. I enjoy every second of time that I am playing. I am my favorite audience but sometimes I'll play with some family members at get togethers. There's no way to be unhappy when playing a guitar...
Found some HP rocket photos...
This is the L3 guys rocket head for 20,000'. It gets to Mach 2+ very, very quickly
My L1 rocket. It does not get to Mach 2 lol
This is one of the two avionics bays in my rocket under construction. Redundant controllers for the charges that eject a drogue chute at apogee and main shoot a 800' agl. The tracker is in the nose cone.I made the white boards. More specifically I designed the boards and sent the files to Osh Park. I can make boards. I don't like making boards...
If you can't tell I am a habitual dabler in things.
During a recent 5 year stint (work transfer) in NW NM I took up a few different hobbies that still involved contained explosions
While in NM, I got into making black powder. It's easy enough to do but surprisingly the wood that you make charcoal from makes a big difference. My pecan tree sheds here in TX make really good charcoal. I didn't have the tools to puck and grind it like GoEx does but I could use my BP in my BP guns if I needed to. That led me to making fireworks. I got right up to where I needed to make and use flash powder and stopped. I wanted nothing to do with that stuff. I'm working on living longer not shorter So... I took up High Power Rocketry. The area I was working in has a high power rocket launch site. I earned my Level 1 (L1) there. I was about to start on my L2 when I got transferred back home. Top rating is L3. Those are the guys that mix their own motors and put their rockets in the edge of space.When I wasn't doing that I would go to the airport, rent a plane. I didn't enjoy pattern work so I flew to Utah, Arizona, all over NW New Mexico, and a little into Colorado. I take that back. If it was crosswind landing practice I liked doing that. Here's a shot of the approach into KFMN (Farmington). It's a bit different up there...
Here in TX I have my reloading tools and supplies. I still fly only it's 90 miles to the nearest airport that has rental aircraft.I just finished up the training I need for my instrument rating. Almost. I got within a few hours of the checkride and my instructor got his airline gig. I lost a good instructor and I'm paused for now. That pretty much sums up my 40 years of aviation. Start, pause, start, pause...
I have a well equipped electronic repair bench. I can fix just about anything with tubes in it. My happy place is building / repairing guitar amps. I have a collection of radios from the 40's. I can repair some transistor devices. The newest stuff is beyond my skills but I'll try to fix it before I toss it. I'm probably leaving something out... I used to ride motorcycles. I had a VTX 1800 and I rode it from TX to CA, TX to CO, all over CO. A little of NM. Long story but a wreck dislocated my shoulder (very dislocated) and that took almost a year to get to where it is today. It's fine. I drop things with my left hand if I don't concentrate on holding onto it. I've "happy Gilmored" my fair share of full coffee cups lol Most of the time nobody knows my shoulder was jacked up.
They just think I'm uncoordinated The insurance check for the bike was used to buy my first DSLR. What a rabbit hole that turned out to be.Obviously I don't do all of these things at the same time. Reloading / shooting is pretty constant. As is flying, Ham radio, and phtography.
The guitar gets played up every day. Most of the time musical instruments trigger questions that I'll go ahead and answer. No... I don't know what I'm doing. Yes... I know 3 chords very well and probably a dozen that I have to look up
No... I can't sing. I enjoy every second of time that I am playing. I am my favorite audience but sometimes I'll play with some family members at get togethers. There's no way to be unhappy when playing a guitar...Found some HP rocket photos...
This is the L3 guys rocket head for 20,000'. It gets to Mach 2+ very, very quickly
My L1 rocket. It does not get to Mach 2 lol
This is one of the two avionics bays in my rocket under construction. Redundant controllers for the charges that eject a drogue chute at apogee and main shoot a 800' agl. The tracker is in the nose cone.I made the white boards. More specifically I designed the boards and sent the files to Osh Park. I can make boards. I don't like making boards...
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memtb
