Skiing in Kronplatz

For a change, instead of my usual trip to Arabba for the Snowheads Birthday Bash, I decided to go on the pre-Birthday Bash the week before, in Kronplatz. That was an area I'd been meaning to try for some time, and this year that wish came true. It's an interesting area, also on the same Dolomiti Superski pass as the main Sella Ronda, and also with a bus link from just outside the hotel (well 2 min walk) up to Alta Badia. So we made use of that bus and some cars to ski some Sella Ronda parts, plus spend more time up at Cinque Torre and the Hidden Valley than we would normally do from Arabba. The main Kronplatz area is very deceptive, with the top to bottom runs much longer than you would expect from the piste map.

Some nice ice sculptures in the Kronplatz area...

My first trip to Marmolada for a while. It's quite an ascent to get up there, with 3 end to end cable cars, and about 1 mile vertical.

But stunning views down on to the Sella massif...

Chris, Amily, Jamie, Graham, Ronald, and the 3rd of 3 consecutive cable cars in the background...

For once, the hidden valley was not hidden. Last time I skied it, it was all murk and no views. Lovely run down though, with a couple of ace rifugios for lunch near the bottom, and a horse+sleigh tow back to Armentarola.

Skiing in Zillertal

So it's January again already, and time for one of my usual weekend trips down to Austria to get some turns in on snow, before my main winter ski vacation. As usual I went to Zillertal, but staying over in Innsbruck.

On arrival, the place was green down in the valley (only about 550m ASL), with only the Kaltenbach gondola cabins giving a clue as to what the conditions were like further up the mountain...

Encouraging to see some actual snow falling...

That's a bit more like it!

What a difference a day makes though! The next day I went to Zell am Ziller, just up the road in the same valley, and on the same lift pass. And the snow was right down to the valley floor, covering the Rodelbahn (mini rollercoaster)...

And with a bit of blue sky and snow everywhere, the Alps look pretty...

And the Rodelbahn also starting too look pretty at dusk. It seems quite popular for an Apres Ski activity.

ALRS 2014

Once again, my last rocketry event of the year was a trip down to Switzerland for the ALRS launch. I didn't fly all that much, but definitely flew the Art Applewhite Saucer (probably on an D12), and the Thargoid foamboard model on an Aerotech E15-W motor. Pretty impressive flying foamboard saucers etc. on such meaty little AP motors :)

I really ought to do an upscale of my trusty Estes Black Brant some time...

With upscale flame effects of course...

Meanwhile, Juerg (or was it somebody else?) was demonstrating that a single canted outboard motor is perfectly OK for a safe flight, so long as it is canted to point through the CG, and sized with enough thrust to propel the rocket to a stable flight speed.

IRW 2014

So it's August again, and that means another trip to Scotland for the annual International Rocket Weekend. This would be my 22nd attendance out of 23 events, if my sums are correct.

Arrived on the Monday (the week before the English bank holiday), and when pitching the tent, for once there were zero midges. Not a single one. Weather for most of the week was excellent - sunny but breezy, with the only rain being overnight once. The last day was superb weather, not even needing a jacket since the wind was so calm.

One day was mostly filming with the first of 3 crews, although I think there were some smaller models also flown. I flew the saucer a total of 4 times over the week on D12-0, D12-0, D12-5 and finally on a Pro24 E22 Smoky Sam for its 40th flight. That E22 was much faster than I imagined, and I'd purposefully chosen the "slowest" Pro24 motor too.

I've also been building a Thargoid ship from the Elite computer game, made from foamboard, similar to the Qubit. That got flown on a D12-5. Then I flew the VB Extreme 29 on a D12-5 too, and the Loc Legacy on an Pro29 F36-7 Blue Streak motor. The ejection on that was rather meaty, and caused the motor retainer to be ripped clean off the motor tube! The motor and retainer fell and landed in the ground not far away. Not sure how to rebuild that, since there's no external motor tube left now to attach another retainer!

The Landward programme from one of the Scottish TV channels was also filming one day, and for the weekend, a couple of girls from the Vice Media "Motherboard" channel on Youtube were also filming. Pretty sure I must be in that one. Will update this entry with a link when the show goes out.

It also seems that quad- and hexa-copters have caught on big time too. Between the various participants, there was at least a Parrot AR-Drone 2, a DJI F440 quad and a F550 hex. The latter crashed twice. Impressively stable even in the stiff breeze, but it didn't like something. Possibly hitting the GPS Return to Home when at an altitude below that of the home location? No damage at all on the first crash, but the second caused the legs, one or 2 arms and some propellers to break. I am definitely going to buy one though!

Here are a selection of other photos from the week. More can be found here.

Bletchley Park and MRC

On a weekend in July, a few of us took a short trip to Bletchley Park, home of the wartime codebreakers. Darwin (from US, but studying in NL), Howard, Phil and me.

Firstly we did the Bletchley Park part of the complex. Definitely recommend the free guided tour, which takes about 1hr30 all in. The tour just does the outside, complete with explanations of all the various complexes. Inside was free to roam. There are also some demonstrations and other indoor activities (eg the Phoenix electromechanical computer used to crack the Enigma).

Following the Bletchley Park part, we took a trip around the National Museum of Computing, which is on the same site, but costs an extra £5 entry.

The first section was the rebuild of a fully working Colossus computer, rebuilt to the same basic spec (90%+ identical) of the original machines. On a hot summer's day, and the airconditioning was one small window that was open, and those valves generate a lot of heat (so definitely take a bottle of water!).

The rest of the museum is really just a massive collection of computing nostalgia, from calculators, mobile phones, huge archaic business hardware, pretty much every home computer from the ZX80 to the Raspberry Pi, and every home games console too. Many are powered, still running, and you can play or work on them too. My first ever school computer (RML 380Z) and first ever home computer (Amstrad CPC 464), unsurprisingly, were on display at least once each.

The following day, 2 of us also went to the MRC rocket launch not far from Twycross Zoo. Don't seem to have any photos of that. It seemed to be a bit of a jinx day though - several rockets lost to the crops, abnormal flights, and a BBQ that just wouldn't cook sausages! Thankfully there were a couple of camp stoves, and Malcolm always had his frying pan, which came in handy!

The rest of the weekend's photos can be found here.