Losing grip – RC for every occasion
G’day folks! Long time, no write, once again. Work and a move that never happened, due to covid, has kept me off keyboard. Not off RC though, not completely. I have managed to find a couple of occasions to get some trigger time with boath cars and boats. Our hobby is a diverse one, and it is my firm belief that there is an RC vehicle for every occasion.
My very long term goal to actually own an RC vehicle for at least most occasions. Preferably two actually, one for me, and one for a friend or family member. Hence I have two drifters, two 2.2” rock racers, a sail boat, and am hoping to add a second 1.9” rock crawler to the line up. A Traxxas TRX-4 sits high on my wish list. Maybe also a second sail boat to be able to do some racing.
Now, to begin proving the point regarding an RC for every occasion. First, Australia:
Drifting on the smooth asphalt of the botanical gardens, with my squidlings. On the way home after school, or on lazy Saturday afternoons. Also, nighttime drifting at the parking lot at work, while waiting for the next job:
Relaxing, and a good way to spend time at night when all kinds of checks were done and nothing but waiting remained. And no, I did not drift on the helicopters (neither am I a pilot), but thought they made a cool background:
Another cool background would be the pacific ocean, crawling on the rocks of the east coast. A very corrosive environment, but otherwise great crawling and sand racing.
Far less corrosive was a nearby natural park, where a dried out river bed provided some great crawling opportunities for me and the squidlings. A very good day out it was, trekking, RC crawling and lunch outside:
Northern hemisphere, same time of year, a couple of years earlier:
Oh, the joy of going out on the ice and throw some roost! My Yeti in its first iteration, original body not yet worn out. Man, was it a monster on the ice!
A week or so ago a friend of ours too us out in the archipelago on his boat, a very nice way to spend a summers day. We had lunch, coffee and a small barbecue on a tiny island, and did some sailing with my Joysway Dragon Force sail boat that I had brought along. It is surprisingly satisfying just sitting on the beach and watch the boat as it catches the wind.
On the way out and back in my friend’s boat, I couldn’t help myself just looking at the wake though, imagining how much fun it would be to drive a deep-V race boat in it. Not to mention race past the real boat with an RC one! Something like a Traxxas Spartan or Pro Boat Sonicwake would be absolutely awesome, and would bring even more diversity to the line up. (Brian, pull some for me strings, will you 😉 )
Last week, we spent some time in the mountains, doing some trekking. When everything else was packed, I also managed to squeeze my Bomber and SCX-10-3 into the trunk, as well as batteries, charger and the usual assortment of spare parts. How awesome it would be to do some crawling among reindeers! Sadly, after an hours driving, I realised that I had forgotten the AC-connection cable for the battery charger. Very unfortunate. With two batteries per car, both storage charged, I knew I would have roughly two miles of driving in each one of them. These miles were carefully chosen, giving me the opportunity of crossing into another country with the SCX:
These kind of photographs are hard not to take: front wheels in Norway, rear wheels in Sweden. Thirty knot winds, forty degrees, rain. More on this particular tour in another column.
Anyway, a good hobby it is. With not enough hours to go around, I love how I am able to bring my RC’s along on travels and when hanging out with friends and family. There is an RC for every occasion, and for just about every kind of terrain and weather out there. I have used my RC’s at both fourteen and a hundred and four degrees, in rain, snow, scorching sun, in windless conditions and maybe not in storms, but definitively in heavy gales. Tarmac, dirt, rocks, ice, sand, bogs, the local archipelago and the pacific ocean.
Ours is a great hobby! Now get out there, and enjoy it!
To read another column, hit the link!
