Heading West from New Mexico

Before leaving Alamagordo, I wanted to go check out the Space History museum it's quite distinctive from the air, and has lots of fascinating details inside. It also had an IMAX cinema showing 9 planets and counting. My mind was overwelmed by all the interesting facts, then I was given a tour of the theater itself. The film real system mechanism is amazing.

 From Alamagordo I headed north through a lava field and then west upto the VLA Telescope on Hiway 60. I would like to have taken a tour, but time was lacking for that. It was also getting dark and cold. I stopped for the night up on the central divide. When I woke in the morning, in my 5 sleeping bags, It had gotten down to 23'F. It had also snowed a bit ontop of black ice, which made driving my overloaded truck with the trailer ... interesting.

 Through Flagstaff and a few snowstorms later I made Vegas, suprizingly on time. I met Lisa and Kim there and we took a tour of Mt Charleston wilderness, made very pretty by a good dusting of snow. From there We traveled into Death Valley, a national park I hadn't been to before.

 The lowest place in the US at 282 feet (86m) below Mean Sea Level is covered in salt.

Up the road into "Artist Drive" area - pretty road :)

 This is where the rock turns to incredible colors.

 It just doesn't look real.

 The dunes area is something most everyone has seen or heard about. Fun to run around on.

From there we stopped in Lone pine Movie museum and saw an old 1926 western, entertaining in a cringe kind of way. Next day we headed north and found some hotsprings to relax in. The view from there was Spectacular! 

From there it was up over the Sierra mountains and back to San Francisco, where we went our separate ways. From New Mexico on it was one of the most spectacular drives I have done.

Alamagordo

Long story short I left Texas for a few reasons, business wasn't happening fast enough, though I think it will pick up eventually, just not on a timescale that worked for me. I also missed my west coast friends and mountains too. And not wanting to jinx anything a certain female too ;)

And so it was a week ago I headed back west. About 5 hours later I ran out of gas! A strong headwind killed my range and I went 60 miles without seeing a gas station. Fortunately I just needed 61miles. Phew! One mile is so much better than Two, and even with a short walk I was picked u by a friendly Sheriff, and given a ride, what luck!

But enough of that, I was lucky enough to fly a couple of days in Alamagordo on the way through New Mexico. It has caught my eye before, but weather and schedule hadn't worked out. Lucky this time, it is February after all.

 Dry canyon is the launch name, the site and a few others are administered by Rio Grande Soaring Association. RGSA I was very lucky to get a ride up with Dave C. Thank you ! I got to fly with both him and Lee B. It had been a while for me, and I happily twirled around for two and a half hours between 5k and 9k.

The next day, I met up with Robin, the current president. The opportunity to give a local student a Tandem that had volunteered to drive came up. I couldn't not do it!

 I swapped out all my flying gear for tandem stuff. Up we went. Such a fun day! Sharing the dream of flight really is a great thing.

 Shamek got a good 10 mins at the controls, then we had a pretty long glide into a headwind to make the LZ. We made it with 20ft after 2 miles? Landing in even knee high cactus isn't fun, so I was happy to make the manicured grass field.

What a great site and club ! Thank you RGSA :)

Cheap effective camera mounts

I've been procrastinating on this blog for ages, but you can thank Stephen Mentler for requesting this how to. Cameras have gotten so light and small that counter weighting is barely a consideration these days - almost...

Above, a collection of different cheap mounts, made from off the shelf parts from home depot.

On the camera end all decent cameras have a cavity that takes a 1/4" 20 thread count bolt. You want your camera to be pointing the right direction when the bolt is snug. So I use a wingnut on the end of a 1' bolt, that goes through a threaded schedule 40 1/2" endcap, secureed by a locknut. Obviously you need to drill a 1/4 hole in the endcap for that.

 

Then you just need an extension (PVC schedule 40) and the part that secures the mount to the frame.
A schedule 40 PVC 2"x2" T piece with a threaded 1/2" exit works great for the keel, leading edge or Xbar.
Or a 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/2" T for sprogs and downtubes.
Cut off a bit more than half.

 I used a wire brush to take off the rough up the inside of the pipe (after it showed me some 'tude)
Also take off the sharp edges and bevel the corners (while you fill you hair with white PVC crumbs)

The "ruffed up" PVC will now let the glue stick to it, like a wuffo to a late to setup hang glider pilot.
Mouse mat neoprene works great and seems to last for ever. Well 4 years of Tandems and counting.
Shoe Goo works a treat for the bonding (don't sniffit - its not the good kind of glue)

There we go pretty easy stuff.

Sometimes you might want to get a bit more fancy with those angles. The GoPro has its own swivel system but only in 2 axis, sometimes you might be coming out of a zipper pocket (huh !?) or maybe just going for something new and you want it at a certain angle. This nice ball head mount can be the ticket ~$18. SLIK SBH 60

but if you are mounting from a sprog, say on a sport 2 all you need is this (and some zip ties) and a saftey would be smart too.

Easy to carry around, easy to attach, cheap parts, fairly easy to make.

Maybe I should try to sell them... Anyone want me to make them one ?

I was in Austin last week visiting a good friend of mine. On Friday I took a couple of hours to walk around a bit.

Its always fun to see a new city.

Austin is known for its lively music scene. I'll have to return to experience that.

There are plenty of reminders around the city of what it wants to be known for.

I don't know what the future of the old power plant is, it's a landmark though and right next to the river. 

Figured I'd walk up to the state building and have a look around.

 I'll take a tour of the building next time, I hadn't realised that might be an option.

 Looking over the subterranean offices, this courtyard had a bunch of rattlesnakes in it, I wasn't expecting that !

 I couldn't work in that grocery store, even in the knowledge of it being a replica. Too weird.

Comal river swim

For some reason most public pools close in winter here in these parts of Texas. After falling in the river and realizing how warm and clear the water is. I figured I'd swim in the river.

While thinking about that I wondered how the GoPro might work...

I figured there was no harm in trying (apart from looking a right dork).

I was quite surprized by the results, I figured there would be water splashes on the lens, and an angle that saw the back of my head and sky, some of the pictures came out well.

The Comal River and spring is part of the fascinating Eduards Aquafer system of overground and under ground rivers. Definitely warrants further exploration :)

Internet Strike

It appears that there is a fair bit of support of the "STOP SOPA and PIPA" bills already, but the gap between senate and actual public opinion is vast. So a little more emphasis...

For example Trey's creative talents like his most recent below could not legally be shared.
This Spring at Marina from Trey Kropp on Vimeo.
For more information this presentation words the situation well.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Another Float on the Guadalupe

Another day, another float, this time the Guadalupe below Canyon lake for about 7 miles.

One thing you may notice, county roads in Texas are named FM (Farm to Market), Which would be CR in California or just "B" in the UK. I haven't found a Farm to Farm road yet...

For the most part the river was a bit on the shallow side.

The water might be a bit higher in the summer when water is let out of the dam a little faster to keep the water from getting too warm for the fish.

A raft would have been a more appropriate craft, not that I have one.

Splendid day out none the less. Pre-occupying my mind that instead wants to be in Forbes right now. Where the Hang Gliding PreWorlds are full swing. A few days to go and they have already flown over 1000km (600miles) !

We pulled out near this crazy 7 story treehouse.

A couple more Texas rivers

We put in this time up in Guadalupe River State Park.

It's 20 miles or so upstream of Canyon Lake.

With the rocky cliffs, clear water teaming with Catfish, Spotted Gar, Perch, Turtles and more, it is a scenic river.

Nice day to be on the water :)

A few days later Kit, Andy and myself put in, in San Marcos with the car parked 10 miles downstream.

Just look at how clear the water is !! It's straight out of the Aquifer, drinkable and slightly above swimming pool temperature. Which is good as I continue to find myself up-side-down every now and then ;)

The Turtles seem to like the warm water too.

This rope swing was too tempting to pass up :)

You never know what you might find in the river !

Note to self 10miles is a long paddle in a slow flowing river. Fun day though !