2018 Blues/ 2019 Resolutions
 

Comrades:

I'll say it up front, 2018 stunk. I was thrilled to see Midnight, 1/1/19.

From a rocket point of view, I only managed one launch all year. Everytime I had time, the weather or my young recovery crew had different plans. I didn't even get a single leg of my NARTrek Silver done although I now think I have everything ready to go for launch.

On the plus side, I did get some building done. I learned about and made various gliders, both parasite and pop-pod. I now have a Vashon glider and an Enerjet glider like it's 1972 again and I can't wait to go try them out. I have a special Glider Launching Rocket for the little parasites. I only had a few Rescues: a Sandhawk and an Arcas. I did research and scratch-build an SS-520-5 and built a Centuri/Semroc Nike-Smoke with a different paint job. Lastly, in an all-time, epic example of impulse buying, I built a Black Hole Probe after "discovering" the fin set for it on the Semroc site. I had one as a kid, but I remember I wasn't particularly fond of it and yet here's a new one sitting on my desk in all its metallic blue glory.

Geez.

For 2019, I've got a seriously aggressive plan:

1) Semroc 1/10 Phoenix (Semroc part set)
2) Semroc 1/35 V-2 (Semroc part set)
3) 1/10 Nike CHTT
4) Finish the LTV Scout that's been lying around for years
5) painting a very special Blossom V-2
6) Finish a BT-60 White Sands V-2
7) 3" Super Big Bertha for 29mm power
8) 1/10 Nike-Ajax in pieces around here somewhere

From a skills point of view, I'm going to finish my NARTrek Silver, learn how to make my own decals and learn 3D printer programming with the ultimate goal of an ST-16 size Soyuz lattice interface.

Oh, and I'm going to win the Club Championship, too.


So what was your 2018/2019 analysis?


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2018 from a hobby standpoint was mediocre...acquired several more vintage kits, but got little building of rockets done and little flying. Little flying was better than nothing, since I had not been able to get any flying in during the past 8 years.
R/C flying was only slightly better, but had no crashes.
Career/income wise, 2018 was my best year by quite a bit.

I'm planning to fly a 90mm MotionRC F-4 and F-15 this year and possibly a F-104 as well.
Possibly will get a turbine aircraft as well.

2018 was actually a pretty good year for me. Having been in the new house not quite a year when 2018 started we were finally getting settled in and I was able to start building rockets and other types of models again. Although we haven't flown any yet, I did manage to complete a number of models, some that we had started years ago and never finished. The return of the satisfaction one gets from completing a model project was a welcomed feeling.

I also renewed my NAR membership after being away for a number of years. Looking forward to getting the magazine again, as no local store carries it around the new neighborhood.

Lastly, we decided to start up a blog to keep our writing skills from going dull. We did some prep work in anticipation of starting this new endeavor. It went live on the 1st so we will see how well this plays out.

We are looking forward to 2019. More building and hopefully adding some flying in as well. Things are looking good from this vantage point! :chuckle: :chuckle: