Firelight

I wasn’t feeling well on Thursday afternoon. As a programmer this is disastrous. It’s impossible to write code when you’re not alert. You don’t have to be sober, but you need to have at least some cognitive function. Knowing that I was virtually useless for next few hours, possibly the rest of the day, I might as well waste it on something interesting.

Jon, who had to already know what was going to transpire, lead me to a hobby store that he encountered while walking to work one day. Once we got there I began questioning the owner as to what was the best device for indoor flight, leaving the part out about wanting to hit Aniel with it. After telling the owner what planes we’ve purchased in the past, and that they came from HobbyTron. He informs us that they are currently under suit by his son’s company for failing to pay for a large number of goods that they ordered. Supposedly they have been doing this with a lot of other suppliers and then settling to prevent their credit from being negatively impacted.

I’m not entirely sure if I believe the owner, but I don’t see why he would lie. I understand that HobbyTron has to be a direct competitor and is most likely gutting their business. However from the level of detail the owner provided, his remarks seem to be a little more then a careless jab. In the end HobbyTron has never really sold us anything that has flown. Aniel’s helicopter never made it very far without flipping over and blowing apart the blades. My plane, well that probably had as much to do with cheep design as it did with Jon being behind the controls. Aniel’s new plane was clearly not designed to be flown indoors or any semblance of a confined space. Believe me, we tried.

After listening to the owner talk about the crazy world of hobby, and being discouraged from purchasing an airplane because of it’s poor maneuverability, we were pointed to a helicopter that was supposedly suitable for my purpose. I say supposedly because I bought it only a few minutes later and hauled it back to the office. It cost about $250.00, moving us from the kindergarden class right into the intramural league.

So we got it back to the office, plugged in the charger, watched the included video and waited impatiently for it finish charging. Once it was charged I prepped the device for flight as indicated in the video and unintelligible manual. I put the remote on, plugged the battery in and pushed up on the throttle. The damn thing wouldn’t fly! It would even spin up. We franticly tried everything we could think of to get it going. Among this rush Jon was fussing with the remote as I’m idly sitting next to the craft waiting for a sign of life. He flips the remote off and it takes off, right for my crotch. Why it moved in that particular direction, I’ll never know, but what I did know was that it was out for my junk and in a hurry. Thanks to marvel of wheeled chairs I was able to roll far enough away for the helicopter to only hit my legs. Jon, out of nowhere, grabs it like a hawk carrying off a small pet in it’s talons. This was not a delicate grip.

Anyway, here I sit, days later with no helicopter. When we returned it I omitted the part about Jon trying to squeeze the juice out of it. Supposedly I’ll get it back tomorrow and they won’t have noticed the unusual wear. Aniel bought a different one on Friday, I’m sure he’ll post about that soon.