Oh, hey, how are you?! Haven’t seen you ’round the Fat Burger in a while, maaaan… I heard you been hangin’ round with those dudes!

I don’t know what all that’s about, but yeah dang I been busy as of late. I’ve got to set down this load in digi-print, so here goes – I’ve got all sorts of stuff going down in town:

I helped to develop and launch a thing for GE called Confessions from the Kitchen with my Flash guy Geoff. Real interesting project, that (in the “saying” sense of the word).

Also, I trained for and ran the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon (13.1 miles). I had this crazy idea that I could do it in 2 hours, and by some aligning of fates, I did it. 2 hours, 35 seconds. I never, ever could have done it without the determination and love of my lady KELLY. I owe her a lot for getting me to that point.

I’ve also been a model-building fool this winter. I built an Apogee handlaunch plane (my first-ever bagged wing), finished my Wind Dancer electric sailplane, built and flew a Redwing electric wing, built an XP-5 discus-launched glider, and am currently finishing up a prototype discus-launched glider for Denny @ Polecat.

Delving deeper into my R/C soaring passion, I’ve been tapped to write the NATS News coverage for the soaring events at the 2007 AMA/LSF Nationals! I’d apparently impressed a few people when I did my coverage of the World Soaring Masters back in September. I’ll be writing daily articles and shooting photos. Really excited about that!

Furthermore, I’ve signed up to tow F3J at the NATS this year! F3J is a class of soaring event that is internationally recognized, and there are “World Championships” held every two years. While most of soaring is an individual affair, F3J a team effort requiring a manager, pilots, callers (people who tell the pilots what is going on) and towmen, who actually pull the plane up into the sky. The 2007 League of Silent Flight / AMA Nationals in Muncie (aka “the NATS”) is hosting an F3J competition this year, and I’m really excited to be a part of it.

I’ll also be travelling in June to the 2007 Polecat Challenge, one of the best handlaunch soaring competitions in the country! And currently, I’m trying to aid Bruce Davidson in his attempt to claim the highest handlaunch in the world!

Continuing the aviation theme, my brother (who recently served OJ Simpson twice in one week at his restaurant, because some people just don’t care for OJ) and I took my dad up to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum up in Dayton, Ohio for his sixtieth birthday (May 6th)! I love that place, and we all had a good time…

Did I mention I’m coaching the softball team at Power Creative? How nuts is that?! Our first practice is TONIGHT.

I need to get things done!

You know I really don’t have enough soaring-related content on this blog. If it were in relation to how often I think about it or how much it consumes my free time, we might look into creating a more exciting (to soaring nerds) side-blog. But that is not why we are gathered here to-day, oh no!

I went to the first-ever World Soaring Masters held in Muncie, IN at the end of September. Being as excited as I might be at a world-class R/C soaring event, I decided that I’d keep my soaring chums on the RC Soaring Exchange (RCSE), a soaring mailing list, up-to-date for the course of the 4-day contest. I posted day-by-day accounts of the action, and thanks to the free Wifi coverage over the whole flying site, I was even able to give blow-by-blow, round-by-round accounts of the finals! I went into complete journo-mode with a pad of paper and pencil in teeth and the whole thing. It was a blast, and I received a lot of praise from my soaring brethren over my coverage.

While the emails of encouragement were nice, I was really “awe-shucked” when my coverage got picked up by the RC Soaring Digest (not affiliated with the RCSE), which is a classy monthly magazine for RC Soaring Enthusiasts. They’ve got 20 years of publishing experience behind them, so it was pretty neat to have my work accepted by something that I read religiously cover-to-cover.

Should you wish to read my report, which will be ungodly nerdy to the vast majority of you, you can – the RCSD is only published on the Internet anymore, and you can download the full-color November 2006 issue of the RCSD and read it at your leisure.

Hey all! Just thought I’d give you a postcard from the road! Kelly and I let out of Louisville on Thursday night. We made good time (even stopping by an outlet mall where Kelly exercised amazing discipline both in purchase and in efficiency) and got to the Academy of Model Aeronautics site with enough time to set up the tent in the light. We were, however, surprised, to find a troop of Boy Scouts in the camping area when we arrived. No problems, though — it actually made me reminiscent of my scouting days.

Friday was Handlaunch day at the NATS, and the weather was crap – which means it was great for a contest! Windy and overcast, it had rained the first night a bit, and it threatened to do so the whole day. Thermal activity was boiling in the morning, but it quickly dissapated into what I think was some sort of low-level temperature inversion (think of it as a “cap” on the field) and thermalling was rough. Ed Franz, the contest director, loves to punish the handlaunch competitors, and the tasks were *real* long. One wrong move or one missed thermal and *pow* you were out of there! I flew pretty well during the middle of the day, but I really fell apart at the end of the day, and ended up in 9th out of 19. My buddy Bruce Davidson flew to 2nd place and fellow LASS-mate Ken Marks ended up in 15th. I’ll do better in Unlimited on Wednesday/Thursday and then in RES on Friday, right?

Friday night was rain, rain, rain and our tent has some leakage issues, so we were a little damp. Despite that, Saturday was beautiful and I hung around with “Team Polecat” as they bucked the trends and flew a 60″ ship in an event that usually calls for planes that are 160″ in wingspan. Kelly and I split around 2PM for Detroit, making a stop in Fort Wayne at their H&M store.

Today we went to a Detroit Tigers game, and had a blast! The weather has been very mild (low 80′s ) and a nice breeze was occassionally around. Kelly got to see her beloved “Pudge” Rodriguez, and we both enjoyed a day at the ballpark.

This evening, we headed out to another H&M store in Ann Arbor, and then drove north up State street to the University of Michigan area. What a cool little town up there! We walked around for a few hours and ate sushi and ice cream.

Tomorrow, the Henry Ford! Right now, there are photos here: 2006.07.23 – Detroit. Soaring related photos are here: 2006.07.21 – NATS Handlaunch and 2006.07.22 – NATS Cross-country.

This Thursday, Kelly and I are headed for vacation, bookended by me competing at the Academy of Model Aeronautics Soaring Nationals in Muncie, Indian, better known by it’s competitors as just the NATS. You may remember that last year I went to my first NATS and I managed to do pretty well. Hopefully, I can repeat that performance this year, but in all reality I’m just there to have fun.

The Soaring NATS is actually a number of different events packed into a week-long span. This year, I’m flying handlaunch, Unlimited and RES. Handlaunch being planes under 60″ launched by hand, Unlimited being winch-launched planes of any size, and RES being rudder/elevator/spoiler only planes. Handlaunch competition is on Friday, July 21st, and my next event, Unlimited, doesn’t start until the 26th, so Kelly and I have plans to go up to Detroit and kick around there for a little while. We are going to hit a Detroit Tigers game and go to the Henry Ford Museum as well. Not to mention that Kelly is most excited about going to H&M, the “hip Target”.

Photo courtesy of Charles Frey. That is a RES plane I’m throwing there, by the way. Handlaunch planes are under 60″ in wingspan.

Man, have I been busy as of late! Let me roll it down to you blog style!

First up, since about January, I’ve been helping out my buddy Denny over at Polecat Aeroplane Works to build the prototype of his new sailplane, the EZ Bubble Dancer. You may remember that I built something similar last winter, called the Allegro-Lite. The EZ Bubble Dancer is the “big brother” to what I built, with a 117″ wingspan. Denny saw my Allegro-Lite Building Gallery and offered to let me build the first EZ Bubble Dancer. I was elated! It took me a little longer than I had expected, but it was the first kit to be built, so I guess that is expected. I also volunteered to write the instruction manual, which ended up as a 59-page tome with full color photos. A lot of work, but well worth it! Oh, and I also help maintain the Polecat Aero website and have been helping out with Denny’s ginormous handlaunch contest as well.

Even deeper into hobby news, I’ve been helping to organize and plan the 2006 MidSouth Soaring Championships which will be held here in Louisville in late June/early July. I wrote the flyer for the contest, and am pretty close to finalizing a t-shirt design.

At work we’ve been pretty busy! The Interactive Department where I work has seen some changes over the past few months – and for the good! Last fall we added Matt Rasnake, a friend of mine and a fellow ex-Corvus Digital Systems employee. In the interim between the fall of Corvus and Power, he worked for GE on web stuff. He’s done right well at Power, and we’ve certainly had enough to keep him busy. This spring, we added Jackson Cooper, another friend of mine and chum from my University of Louisville College of Business / Computer Information System days who actually interviewed at Corvus a few times. He’s had better luck here at Power and like Matt, is doing very well and staying busy.

Me? Well, apparently last summer I was promoted, and didn’t know it! Now, I’m heading up a team of folks in the Interactive Department and moving into more of a Analyst role while still “keeping my hands dirty” in development of websites and such. I also got to pick my title, which I finally decided was “Senior Interactive Analyst / Developer”. We had a bit of a “Programmer” vs. “Developer” debate up here, and I’ve never been a big fan of title “Programmer”. That insinuates that all I do is write line after line of code all day long, which I’ll tell you is so remote from the truth that it boggles the mind. (Insert your witty puns here, friends).

On the fun and fitness end of things, I ran two miles in a row last night and did not collapse. It actually felt pretty good! Now, I probably won’t be trail-running or doing miniMarathons with Kelly any time soon, but it was nice to know that I could run from thugs or bears for a while and at least give them a decent go for it.

Finally, on the games front, I’ve been playing in a poker tournament hosted by colleague and interactive marketing consultant Jay Lane for the past 6 months, one night a month. I’ve been fair-to-middling placing as high as 4th out of the 21 people that play each month. Chuck Pearsall, Hunter Dixon and Chris Gerstle have faired much better (in that order) with Chris being in first place at the moment! The final tourney is this weekend. While I don’t think I have a chance at the money, I hope to ruin someone’s day!

Softball season is also upon us! Power Softball is in a rebuilding year after a fun year of 1-and-13 ball last year. The same Jay Lane of poker fame is heading up the team this year after Coach Johnny Kitson has stepped aside to go and get married. Yes, I know it’s softball, but dammit I do love anything close to baseball. Also, I’m not 28 yet, so I can’t join up with the Louisville Men’s Senior Baseball League 28 and Over.

Man – been a busy time as of late with ol’ Ben! Let’s get down to business…

First off, I’ve been embroiled in a huge project here at work to launch 6 (count them one two three four five six) websites for a company called Heatcraft in less than a month. It couldn’t have been possible without the help of Yukon Charnelius and the venerable m@.

Secondly, yes, it’s true: I have been playing World of Warcraft, and yes, it is everything that they say it is. Deep, engulfing, wide, full of content and as addictive as crack. Me? I’m a 15th-level Dwarven Paladin name of Cramfist on server Akama.

Nextly, or perhaps thirdly, ol’ Cholly and I have regularly been playing chess. Currently, the record stands at 5-4-1 with me holding a tenuous lead. Ideas are underway to create a Web 2.0 site for chess. We’ll see if it takes off…

Lastly, on the soaring front… You may remember that last year I built a sailplane over the winter. This year is much the same, but improved! I’m building a bigger version of the one I did last year with help from a new friendship with Denny @ Polecat Aeroplane Works (I did his site for him, too).

What’s shakin’, mother bacon?! Been a lot of stuff goin’ on ’round here lately — but I haven’t had the time to come back and rap with you, so here goes:

So, as you know, I like playing with RC sailplanes, and specifically ones that you throw into the sky with your hand (aka handlaunch). Well, the last handlaunch contest of the temperate season this side of the Mississippi was held last weekend in Wilson, North Carolina. You might remember that about this time last year I made a similar voyage to Wilson to compete in the 2004 East Coast Handlaunch Glider Festival, and this year was no different.

No, wait, it was different! Firstly, Kelly was going to travel down there with me because I went with her to her big contest — the Chicago Marathon a few weeks back. I was to be the only LASS member to make it, so she was a welcome companion. I certainly recognize her sacrifice of a perfectly good weekend to sit in a field with me! Secondly, I had managed to do pretty well at the 2005 NATS handlaunch event back in July, so I had to prove to myself that that wasn’t just a fluke.

Long, boring story short, we had a good trip and I managed to get 6th out of 22 against some of the best handlaunch pilots out there and most importantly had a lot of fun. It was nice having Kelly around, too — she’s never seen me “in action”, and it was nice to have a lady around to hug on.

Want some photos? Check them out here: 2005.10.22 – ECHLGF @ LouisvilleSoaring.org. Further coverage you can find here at RCGroups: East Coast HLG Festival ’05.

Hey hey! Back from the NATS for a short time… I’m leaving again this evening to fly in the 2-meter competition on Monday and Tuesday.

Well, as it turns out, I managed to get 4th place in the Handlaunch event! Wow! I’m pleasantly surprised. I even led my mentor, Bruce Davidson, for a couple of rounds there. It was truly surreal. I was in 2nd place up until the last round, when I really blew it! I scored only 549 points out of 1000 and frittered away my 2nd place finish. Ah well, too much fun! By the way — the term “getting wood” means getting a trophy, which is usually a plaque.

I received quite a few kudos from some really top-notch pilots, only adding to the elation of hearing my named called at a national-level soaring event! Dang.

You can check out more photos from my NATS trip here: 2005 NATS Gallery @ LouisvilleSoaring.org.

Woo woo!

Most who know me know I have a thing for controlling unpowered planes from a distance via radio-waves. My major hobby (outside of teh Intarwebs) is R/C Sailplanes, and starting this Friday (tomorrow) the 2005 AMA Soaring Nationals, AKA “The NATS”. The Soaring part of the NATS is only one chunk of a 6-week set of events that started July 4th. Over 1,000 pilots will be in attendance for this festival of flight.

The Soaring “genre” encompasses a number of events – Handlaunched gliders, F3J “man-towed” gliders, 2-meter (wingspan) gliders, unlimited gliders (any wingspan allowed), RES (rudder/elevator and spoiler only), and Nostalgia (gliders designed before… 1942? 1962?). Me personally am only flying in the Hand-launch and 2-meter events. I have attended handlaunch contests before, but never at the NATS! I’m excited.

The NATS also draws international competitors as well — and one of my fellow LASS-mates (Gordy) is hosting a gent by the name of Jo Grini who has come all the way from Norway(!) to fly as a part of the LASS team. To quote: “There was not one single place around here that did not have an air conditioner. And when you walk out to 90-95F (33-35celcius) you feel the difference I can tell you.”

I’ll be taking a crapload of pictures, so keep an eye on this site and wish me luck!

Lately, I’ve been more interested in a previous pseudo-hobby of mine — kite flying. Specifically, I was spurred on by O’Reilly’s new MAKE Magazine which I recently subscribed to. In their premier issue, they had a good spread on kite-aerial-photography (KAP for short). I have already done some aerial videography with my RC camera so I already had half of the rig.

Back in the day, Art Black and I used to fly kites during the summer, and I had nice old 6-foot rip-stop delta kite from Go Fly A Kite. Recently, Target was selling some decent rip-stop nylon kites for under $10, so I picked up a nice little parafoil kite. Parafoils are neat because they are A) very stable and B) have no hard parts to them. They just fill up with wind and won’t shatter into a billion pieces if you cram it into the ground.

Last Sunday, Charlie and Dalton joined me out at Charlie Vettiner Park (after the wind-cancelled LASS soaring contest) to fly some kites. Much fun! Charlie and Dalton brought along a cool little stunt kite made from rip-stop and carbon fiber tubes. You could crash that little bastard into the ground all day long and it wouldn’t break! Not bad for less that $10!

Anyway, I’m planning on making a rig for my wireless video camera soon. More on this later. In the meantime, check out the NASA Interactive Kite Modeler. Your tax dollars at work!