AutoPalooza at the Disher’s household.

Molly now has new wheels.

She saved her money and took advantage of the the 401-Disher Auto matching funds.  Well almost.   We’re in a Co-Ownership position at the moment.

But she now has a car with AC and it’s a convertible, and it’s an automatic since driving a manual really wasn’t going to be part of her long-term auto strategy.   I’m sure she would eventually master it, she’s usually good at just about everything she does.  Except bowling.  I’m afraid, driving a manual might be just like bowling. Winking smile

Molly

Just look at that smirk on the test drive.   This was the car.

Miata

Viola, another one-owner, below blue-book find.  Though not much below, this was a well taken care of car with 87k original miles.

Fun times ahead.

More Tri-Copter 06/24/2014

After a hard days work, prepping the property for the ‘Hen Fest 2014’, I got to get the Tri Copter out for some fun after a little storm blew through.

Enjoy…

More Tri-Copter goodness.

Tri-Copter Fun Flying.

Tossed the legacy Contour HD camera on the Tri-Copter today.   Keep in mind this is pretty much hard mounted and there is no gimbal so it’s not nearly as smooth as previous Dead-Cat, or Hex Gimbal videos.

photo 1

Details of the build are here in Part 1 and Part 2

Some video from two different batteries.

SimpleCopter Tri-Copter 2.0

 

Hanging where it rests…

photo 3

I would most definitely FPV this thing.  It flies that well… A smidge under powered with the Contour HD but that’s a heavy camera.   FVP gear is next up on the list, that and finishing the micro 3D Printed quad that I have almost all the parts for.

New wheels for mamma.

So we’ve been looking for a good used car for Molly for a while, and yes we’re still looking but this popped up yesterday.  Claudine had driven one when were looking for cars for me an liked it.  So we ran to go see it and bought it.

It’s a one owner, 2005 Ford Freestyle, with 71k miles.   Very well taken care of by the original owner and we have every receipt for everything.  Deals like these don’t come along often but they are out there if you look for them.

FreeStyle_02

Keeping with the Dave Ramsey, no Debt, pay cash for everything strategy, we used our ‘Car Fund’ and bought this.   Again, a fully loaded vehicle, the only option it’s missing is a DVD player and with iPhones and iPads that’s not a necessity.  In fact nobody really wants to look at a DVD player from 2005 anyway.

So this replaces the 2003 Pontiac Minivan that we bought in 2010.   We actually bought two GM cars that day.  My first and my last.  We still have it, it runs and the AC works.  As soon as we find something for Molly we’ll sell it and likely recoup some of our cash.  It will make a great mini-van, people hauler for someone.

So we’re looking forward to getting a number of good years out of this.  Claudine is so happy to not be driving a minivan, specifically that minivan.  I think she’d be happy in a Honda or Toyota or something not GM.

So we have this Ford, which is actually Volvo drivetrain as I understand it.   It runs great, drives great and so far we’re really happy.

Tri-Copter Proof of Life

OK, I got some tail swivel parts from my buddy, and got her all back together.

In reality the left arm is still broken, just wedged in the body for this demo proving that she does fly.

Tri-Copter / SimpleCopter Proof of Life

This thing is going to be loads of fun once I get the arm fixed and a few things touched up. 

Like adding some color to it for orientation and some lights.

More later.

Tri-Copter for the Win!