More Flying Machines

As we have said many times here at the Hive we are all about fun. So today I want to share with you another toy from my collection. Just like everything, this one has a story to go with it. When I retired from motorcycling a couple of years ago I took the proceeds from my last motorcycle sale and used some of it to buy a remote-controlled helicopter. I had researched these things some time ago on the internet, and thought it would be something that I could practice in our tiny back yard. The particular model that I settled on is from a company named Ikarus and is called the Eco 8. When it came it arrived in a box about the size of two large shoe boxes put together, if you can imagine. This is relevant when you look at the assembled machine:



It is not an exaggeration to say that this thing came in about 1000 pieces. Just to make it fun, the instructions were translated (very poorly) from German, and left me at times scratching my head. There were no curse words muttered during the assembly of this machine :-) I should've taken some progress photos, but to be honest, I thought a couple of weekends of rigrous yet satisfying building and I would have a brand new flying machine. Two years later, assembly is complete.

I haven't made my inaugural flight yet, as I just put the finishing touches on last night. I also rigged it up with some extra safety features to minimize damages when this thing finally takes to the skies.



Look for a future post to see how flying goes. After all of that time invested I'll have to admit I'm a little nervous. But I didn't build it to set it on a shelf, so we'll take 'er up and see what happens. Cheerio!!