Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Persistance

I was walking the dog this morning and got to thinking that I hadn't been keeping up with my blog. It isn't that I don't have plenty to write about but the weather is so beautiful I spend as much time as I can out of doors.

Last week I bought a foamy model airplane, The Apprentice, by Horizon Hobby. I had seen it advertised and the billing was that it was super easy to fly and almost impossible to crash. Anyway I purchased it on a whim and immediately suffered an episode of buyers remorse. Then I shrugged and said "What the heck... my wife and I live modestly and chances are good we won't outlive our money.

Anyway I took it to the flying field and had Don trim it out. When he was satisfied he handed me the transmitter and I was off to the races. Well not exactly the races. This model is not exactly fast. What it is, is full of functions like auto-stabilization, which compensates for the wind that gusts through our flying field. In addition if the pilot loses orientation all he/she needs to do is release the control gimbals and the airplane self rights itself. There's a panic switch if someone gets it into some kind of convoluted maneuver, where it will right itself and reassume level flight. It's a wonderful little model and a real pleasure to fly.

When I got home I took a nap and around 4PM went out into the shop and worked on my camera plane. Right now my primary focus is on the wing. I have it framed up and am inserting the foam. I'm using two kinds of foam. One is the white foam stuff they use in cheap insulation and shipping fragile items. The other is a more expensive type that is very flexible and almost impervious to damage. I saw a fellow on U-Tube fly one made of the stuff into a brick wall and it just bounced right off. It was a pusher plane with the engine in back. No way it would have survived if the engine had been in the front.

The more expensive foam will go underneath the wing because it is thin stuff and has the properties I'm looking for. The wing will have retractable landing gear. The foam will be covered in brown craft paper using Elmer's glue slightly thinned with water.

Every day I try and do a little bit. Once I get started and into the routine I often find myself doing more than a "Little Bit." My experience is that being persistent and sticking with something make it possible to take those "Overwhelming A" projects and break them down into bite sized chunks. It is the same work habit I try and instill in my students taking the Exploratory Writing Workshop. Writing a novel requires a plan and some "Stick-To-Itness."

When I build my models I often don't have a blueprint but rather only a general idea of what I want to do. These ideas I get often generate a lot of passion in their formative stages and it is from these that I select one for investing long term energy and resources. Keep in mind that I might not know exactly where I'm going in the beginning but if I feel that twinge of excitement I know I'm on the right path.

I can't emphasize enough doing at least some little thing every day on a long range project. Not only will doing a little task keep you in the groove, and often leads to doing more than expected, it keeps the job at the top of your self consciousness. Chances are you'll dream about the project and when this happens its a good thing. Better to have dreams about a project you're working on than some random nightmare.