A Bit of Good News

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Company said Monday it would invest $850 million into several of its metro Detroit facilities.

Ford President of the Americas, Mark Fields, made the announcement during a news conference at the Ford Van Dyke transmission plant.

The transmission plant is one of the facilities benefiting from the three-year investment; others include Sterling Axle, the Livonia transmission plant and the Dearborn truck plant.

"Investing in American manufacturing is a priority at Ford, and that is what today is all about," Fields said.

Nice to see a US auto maker doing well. The new Mustang is going to be an absolute beast. The only problem is that you can't throw a rock without hitting a Mustang.

I think GM (thanks to the government help) is going to do well also. We went to the car show at the Texas State Fair last month, and I sat in a brand new Z06. The car was just ridiculous. I can't believe how awesome it is. The CTS is also redesigned and looks amazing. They have a version with the Z06 motor in it.. something like 560 HP. You have to be fuckin' kidding me.

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In other news.. I have a new hobby... R/C airplanes. I was looking for something different to do, and it seemed like a lot of fun. That and we have a 500 acre park pretty much right across the street from the house. It has big ponds, large open areas, nice trees. It's just a very nice park and perfect for flying planes.

When I was really young, 10 or so, I used to fly the control wire gas planes. I enjoyed that, but never got into R/C because it was so expensive. I was talking to John about it, and it occurred to me that back then, I was constantly wishing I could have this cool thing, or that cool thing.. and I never could because of money. Now I can buy pretty much anything I want in R/C - so I am.

I bought a nice transmitter, and got a high wing trainer.. a Super Cub LP. It's a 3 channel plane that's easy ("easy" being a relative term) to fly. I also got a simulator for the computer that's controlled with the transmitter. It's very realistic. The Super Cub will do loops and you can get it inverted, but since it doesn't have any ailerons, it's not quite able to do rolls. It's battery powered, but still can fly upwards of 40 MPH and around 15 minutes a flight. It's not slow by any means.

Last week, we took it out and I had some great flights with it. Even landed both times pretty much perfectly.

Yesterday we went flying and it seemed a little windy. During the first flight I realized the wind was just too much.. I made a mistake and nose planted the plane about as hard as you can do. I thought it was going to be a total.. but after working with it, turns out 10 bucks worth of new parts and some packing tape will fix it right up. The plane is about as durable as they can be. The prop was totaled but the motor and gear box was still in good shape and the prop shaft straight.

Flying R/C planes is all about learning the lessons of what causes problems, and I learned what is too much wind for that plane, and I learned that a brain meltdown when things get hairy can lead you to push the elevator in the wrong direction and it's all over.

I'll get the plane back into flying condition this week, and hopefully take it out for another go this weekend. Hopefully it'll be calm and I can get some good flights in. I need to do a lot more flights before I move up in planes.

The next plane I get, more than likely, is going to be the Park Zone P47D Thunderbolt. The plane is capable of adding retractable gear and flaps, but I think I'll just fly it without the gear and belly land it on grass.

It's a neat plane, and I think I'd like to have a nice collection of war birds. I'm not really interested in the acrobatic planes right now. I'll be happy with 4 channel planes that can do a majority of the maneuvers.

It's quite stunning how far R/C planes have come since I was a kid. Now you don't have to worry about other people using the same channel and crashing your plane. The planes are very durable and easy to get started with, and the battery technology is very cool. The price isn't even out of this world. You can get started with some nice gear for under $300. I highly, highly, highly recommend the simulation for the computer though. It helps a tremendous amount in teaching you how to not over-control the plane.

I got a video of the fateful flight yesterday, but John shut off the camera just before I face planted it. It's kinda too bad. I would have liked to have seen exactly what happened. I do know it was too low, and I looked away for a moment.

Splat