PixelBrat's Blog: July 2006 Archives

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July 25, 2006

A quick update on my stepfather... he's fine

After a delay of one day my stepfather finally had his surgery this morning and he's doing well now. They are talking about sending him home tomorrow. We're all very much relieved that all is well! Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers!!

Posted by pixelbrat at 8:31 PM | Comments (1)

July 22, 2006

Your thoughts and prayers requested...

My stepfather has been ill for several weeks now. After going to several doctors to find out what was wrong with him and getting nowhere one of them finally scheduled him for a CAT scan yesterday (Friday) at Emory University Hospital. They found a 7 cm leaking aneurysm on his aorta in his lower abdomen. They rushed him to the emergency room and scheduled a battery of other tests. He has a low grade fever, which the doctors said wasn't a typical symptom of a leaking aneurysm, so they will be conducting several other tests to try to figure out what else could be wrong. He has been admitted to Emory and they have scheduled him for surgery on Monday to deal with the aneurysm, depending on the results of the tests over this weekend. We feel extremely fortunate that this was discovered since aneurysms can typically mean instant death depending on their size/severity. Hopefully we'll get the results of the tests soon and we'll know more. For now, please keep him/us in your thoughts and prayers.

Posted by pixelbrat at 10:26 AM | Comments (1)

July 13, 2006

More R/C helicopter flying goodness

Continuing my R/C helicopter obsession, I made a little video of my favorite heli of the bunch. This is the Walkera 5#5 and it's super tiny, which is one of the main reasons I love it so much. It is perfect for flying around the house. It has all the power and control of my bigger heli, the Blade CX, but at about half the size. The small size makes it much more fun to fly indoors. Below are some comparison photos.

The Blade CX is the yellow one up top and the Walkera 5#5 is below it.

Chose one of the links below to see the video. It's a bit boring but the purpose of the video was to show some folks on the RCGroups.com forum how well she hovers. Well, I'm sure in more capable hands she would hover much better than the lousy job I did but I'm still learning. Both links are of the same video, just one is smaller than the other to accommodate those with low bandwidth. Enjoy.

Walkera 5#5 Hovering (1.7 MB)

Walkera 5#5 Hovering (7 MB)

I'll try to post some videos that are a bit more exciting when I have more practice.

Posted by pixelbrat at 7:06 PM

July 10, 2006

A quick follow-up on R/C Helicopters...

Just a quick follow-up to my last post about R/C Helicopters... if you decide to try out one of these helicopters I don't recommend the one that's being sold at ThinkGeek.com. That heli is called the Dragonfly King HX-242 and the quality control is pretty much non-existent with that model. If you get lucky enough to get a good one, it flies great. However, these are few and far between. I have read far more negative reviews than positive from owners on the RC Groups.com Muli-Rotor forum. I got mine for $30 off ebay and it's junk. Lessen learned. I do highly recommend the Blade Runner line. That's the black one you saw on the first video I posted. You can buy these locally at Radio Shack and the Discovery Store in the mall for about $50. OK, back to work...

Posted by pixelbrat at 10:47 AM

July 9, 2006

Taking a break from photography for some flying fun!

My hobbies and interests run the gamut. I also have a pretty short attention span. So after saturating my life with photography for the past few months I got really tired of it and needed something new. While perusing one of my favorite online retail outlets, ThinkGeek.com, I found a new toy that I had to have. It's a small R/C (remote controlled) helicopter that you can fly indoors! Unfortunately they were sold out but that didn't stop me. I scoured the web and found some others and before I knew it the wonderful world of R/C helicopters sucked me in. Now, a couple of weeks later and I have 3 that I've been playing with. What a blast!!! Yes, I know I'm a 35 year old woman and I'm not supposed to like these things... So what!!

Now typically R/C helicopters are very advanced and extremely hard to fly. Not so with the revolutionary co-axial helicopter designs. Co-axial (meaning two rotors spinning in opposite directions) helicopters are extremely easy to fly and almost anyone can do it. (Even a 35 year old hag like myself) Below is a quick video of what one of these heli's looks like as it flies. This one is called the Bladerunner and almost anyone can fly it, right out of the box.

Click on the photo above to see the video

The Bladerunner is a lot of fun but a pretty tame toy. I wanted something a bit more powerful and with more maneuverability. Enter the Blade CX. This puppy is much more advanced and has a lot more power. It also takes a lot more time and practice to learn to fly. I bought one second-hand from a local hobby store for half the price of a new one, which was great because I wouldn't feel so bad if I crashed it. (can you see where this is going yet?) Below is a photo of Wasabi checking out my new toy. Those orange balls on sticks you see are part of the training gear. It helps you while you learn to fly.

Typically these heli's should only be flown indoors or outdoors on extremely calm days with no breeze. Well, I got bored today and decided to experiment. I attached a small video camera to it and took it out for a quick flight. When I went out it was pretty calm outside, I promise! Of course, Mother Nature apparently sensed my presence and decided to have some fun with me. Check out the video below to see my first crash...