Dave Smith's Blog

I strapped my Kodak EasyShare C340 camera to the side of my HobbyZone Super Cub today and flew over Grandview Park in Provo, Utah. You can skip the first 1.5 minutes or so. I was taping the camera to the plane during that time. This video features two loops and one death spiral that almost caused the ground to come up and crash into my plane. I flew at about 5:00pm, so the sun causes lots of glare. This was my first successful attempt at aerial video, so enjoy:

Michael Torrie created a really handy tool to save your RC plane’s propellers from a spinning death on impact. It’s called a prop saver and it’s based on the “elastic rules, static drules” principle. Read on for pictures and explanation:

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After repairing my Super Cub from my first crashes, I ventured onto the flying field again today, this time with the help of an experienced veteran flier, Michael Torrie. Thanks to Michael’s help, the experience was almost totally positive. I learned to land! I also got some much needed practice at controlling my turns, rolls, pitch, and throttle. I had a great time. Once a gust of wind threatened to crash my Super Cub into a concrete parking lot, but thanks to some tips from Mr. Torrie, I was able to recover and fly her to safety. Read on for pictures and details.

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I anxiously unboxed my long-awaited model airplane today: The HobbyZone Super Cub. I decided to document the assembly process and first flights with lots of photos. Read on for the log. (more…)

I’ve updated my LDS General Conference podcast to include the most recent conference, October 2006. If you are already subscribed, you don’t need to do anything. Your podcasting software (like iTunes) will automatically download the latest conference sessions. If you want to subscribe to the general conference podcast, just paste this link into your podcasting software:

http://thesmithfam.org/podcasts/lds-general-conference.xml