Very true Serowbot,my Dad gave me a wood lathe about 15 years ago ,you can make all kinds of things with one of those,practical and whimsical ,buy a half dozen clock motors and then just use you imagination, using exotic woods you can make highly polished  round boxes much to the delight of your wife. how about RC flying ,you can buy model planes "Almost ready to fly"  or as we say in the early days almost ready to crash. Jerry you can fly one and crash without bodily harm,unless you crash it on your own noggin.

Mick -

I remember using a wood lathe in junior high school, in the 8th grade.  I had a paper route, and there were 2 really nasty dogs who used to try to bite me.  Their owners let them run loose.

So, I made a billy club in wood shop on the lathe (try doing that today).

I gave each of those critters a tap on the nose with my club and both left me alone after that.  I still have the club at home in a dresser drawer.

I played a little with model airplanes as a kid, but never got into it - I'd rather fly the ones I can sit in.

Looks like fun, but not the same as the actual thing, being in the airplane.

From 1994 thru 2004 I was a very active glider pilot,  My personal record was somewhere about 9,000 above the ground.

Because I flew in a glider club, we had one hour time limits on each flight, so I never had any real long flights beyond the allowed one hour.  On weekends there were always other members waiting to fly.

I got bored with just circling around the area near the airport.  The next step would have been cross-country flights, but that's a real production.

In case you have to land out, away from the club's airfield, you have to have a pre-arranged crew with trailer and truck to come get you.  Gliders are all built to dis-assemble easily just for this event; the wings come off in 5 minutes with virtually no tools needed, and then you just put everything on the trailer and head home.  But I never got into all of that.

Of course, if you want to spend the big bucks, you buy a motor glider that has the ability to self launch, then you shut off the engine, tuck it into the fuselage, and you are a glider.  But you can re-start the engine if needed to fly you home.  Those types of gliders begin about $50,000.

You can buy a plain glider for around $10K. Our club owned the gliders, and each flight cost $4 for the glider, and about $12 for the towplane to tow you up to 2,000 before you released from the tow.

Pretty cheap flying - $16 an hour.

I know very little about hang gliders.  I've never flown one - the thought of no structure around me is pretty scary.

But I bet it is fun.

Thats a bit of a stretch, innitt? She dabbled with some stuff in High School. So what? While Bammy wont let us see what he wrote in college, well just hang this gal out to dry for being a kid.. genius.

Jerry Eichenberger wrote on 09/24/10 at 05:22:40:


My point exactly..."I smoked , but I never inhaled!"

When are we (the voters) going to stop focusing on crap like this and look at who is pulling the strings?
As Deep Throat said so many years ago, "Follow the money!!!"


I repeat...Oh the hypocrisy!