Do You Ever Get Distracted??

 They tell me that model aircraft are only a hobby and you shouldn't let a hobby get in the way of life - yeah right - Bloody Life sometimes gets in the way of my Hobby! I recently took on the Secretary's job in my Model Club and pretty soon found myself also being the Newsletter Editor and then I was also 'nominated' to assume the position of Webmaster. Now my club is a small one and every member wants to fly - but club responsibility?? They run a bloody mile. I know that this is a common problem with many clubs but it is particularly acute in mine. Small membership, some members pre-occupied with business and family matters and all they want to do is grab a model and go flying on Sundays - more responsibility? NOT LIKELY.

Now - I'm retired - I have reasonable computer skills - and I'm available - yeah - I know - I should have ducked while I could. But - old age brings slower reaction times and suddenly I was the only one left standing. So as the Club had NO Newsletter AND no Website you can see my problem - it wasn't so much taking over as starting off - a whole different ball game.

Now - I'm not complaining - as I said - I'm an old fart and have the time and the skills to do the job BUT it does distract from time at the building board - you cannot code a website and build a quarter scale model WWI Biplane with 210 ribs and all that rigging at the same time!

I now find myself with 9 projects that are behind schedule, another five that have sort of drifted to the back of the hanger and a complete mess in the workshop. On top of that I'm rebuilding two wrecks - yeah - I did rush out to the field and didn't top up the batteries - and only one model in flying condition.

SO - I have now been forced to reschedule the building list in order to bring some order to the chaos; The bigger projects - that is the Lancaster, The Mosquito and the Texan to Wirraway conversion have now been moved to there own 'Bigger Project' list - in other words I'm having to put them aside for the moment to do the repairs and finish off some of the smaller models if I want to go flying in the forseeable future. In the next day or so I'll post up a project list so those those who may be following specific builds will have an idea what is happening. Oh - on top of all that I've just had my 70th birthday. - Bloody Hell - I'm now three score and ten, which might add to the belief that only the good die young!!

Merry Christmas - or what ever you call it where ever you are -

Cheers
Grumpy 42

I haven't run away - really -- but the sun is shining and

Sorry I've neglected this blog for a couple of weeks but as noted last time I've been doing other things. The Club's website is now up and running in it's final format but there are still a couple of tweaks to go. But - just to keep me busy - I turned 70 years of age on the 23rd of November - I don't really feel that old except when I'm getting up in the morning and when the Doctor sort of shakes his head in the way that Doctors do when they can't believe you've given your body such a hard time - AND - hooray - the weather has finally discovered we are halfway through spring.

So what all this means is that I got out to the flying field during the week and at the weekend - and - well, yes - the building board did get sort of overlooked for a few days. I shall yell at myself in the mirror (shudder) and get back to building this week - photos of progress next week - I promise - sort of - the sun is shining and the ....... 

I've Been doing Other Things!

Besides being Secretary of my Club I'm also the Newsletter Editor and now, the Webmaster of the Club's new Website. This has taken me away from the building board for a week or so and flying seems to be a thing other people get to do.

Anyway - it's some years since I built a website and so I had to get  the reading glasses out, brush off my HTML reference and try to put the bloody thing together - Yeah, well - last I heard we had HTML3 - now there is HTML5,  XHTML and a whole sh*t load of other stuff - ummmmm - steep learning curve. After a lot of coffee, swearing, muttering, assassination of gremlins, grinding of glitches and of teeth I've finally got a website started and on line. For anyone who is interested in how we do it way down here in Tasmania, or wants to have a giggle at my efforts, the website address is: -

http://www.tasmanianaeromodellingacademy.net.au

As mentioned I'm also the Club's Newsletter Editor so if you want a copy emailed to you contact me on my email address - echo.echo100@gmail.com - the Newsletter is published at the beginning of each month and you will need MSWord or something that can open Word documents. I can send a copy in RTF format if you ask.

Hopefully next week I'll be back to the building board and,  if the weather God's are in a good mood, I might even get to go flying.