Author Archives: Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

About Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

The name Xinhai Dude 辛亥生 is a pun in Chinese, as it means both “he who was born in Xinhai” as well as “he who studies Xinhai”. I had an ambitious plan to write something about the great Xinhai Revolution of 1911, thus my blog https://xinhaidude.com. But after an initial flurry of activities the initiative petered out. One day I will still carry it through. But for now, this website has turned into a conglomerate of my work on various topics of interest to me, including travel pictures, RC model airplane flying, ice skating, classical music composition, science fiction short stories, evolution and atheism.

A Resurrected Ornithopter – the Flytech Dragonfly

Posted on June 29, 2017

The Flytech Dragonfly was one of the most innovative flying toys when it came out in 2007. It was the first radio-controlled ornithopter mass-produced for the general public. Sadly it is no longer available for purchase. To add insult to injury, there has been nothing in the market for ten years that delivers remotely the same level of giddy fun for the money. Some event reminded me of the Dragonfly recently, so I went through boxes in my basement to find the two units I bought in 2007.

Unfortunately their tiny lipo batteries have since gone bust. With help from ancient posts on rcgroups.com, I managed to resurrect one of my dragonflies with a new setup. It allows me to reuse abandoned lipos from my Blade Nano QX which I have aplenty. Suddenly I no longer need to wait for 20 minutes between flying sessions, for the built-in battery to be charged. I can now fly it effectively non-stop. Continue reading →

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HHAMS Paintball Event by DMS Films

Posted on June 26, 2017

One of our newest members turned out to be a professional filmmaker and FPV guy. He made a short video of our annual paintball event where kids turn up in droves to try to shoot at model planes. In a decade we had not had a film made of this event. Everyone at the club are duly impressed. Continue reading →

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Ode to FlightLineRC 1300mm Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H-1

Posted on June 8, 2017

This is not a real “ode”. And I don’t know how to write one. Nevertheless I find myself compelled to publicize the greatness of this model warbird, after flying it time after time in the last month. I am talking about the FlightLineRC 1300mm Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H-1.

Unlike a few occasions in the past where I felt the need to praise some planes (e.g. Extreme Flight Laser) but sat on the idea, this time I actually decide to comment on rcgroups.com. It was then only natural that I turned that into a quick article here.

If I must use one sentence to describe this 3S-capable plane, I would say that, when run on a 4-cell 2,600mAh lipo, it transforms into a graceful speed demon in the sky. Continue reading →

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Restaurants – Sarasota wiki vacation part 5

Posted on April 5, 2017

This is part five of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme.

This one is about restaurants we we stumbled upon in this trip. I loved them, and their food. In the order we visited them: Mar Vista, Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar and Ophelia’s on the Bay. Continue reading →

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Siesta Key – Sarasota wiki vacation part 4

Posted on April 5, 2017

This is part four of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme.

This one is about Siesta Key. We visited three beaches on this barrier island: Siesta Beach, Crescent Beach and Turtle Beach. Continue reading →

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Lido Key – Sarasota wiki vacation part 3

Posted on April 5, 2017

This is part three of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme.

This one is about our trip to Lido Key, comprising an ecotour in the morning of the Sarasota Bay and its red mangrove trees, and a visit to the Lido Beach in the afternoon. Continue reading →

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World’s Largest Miniature Circus – Sarasota wiki vacation part 2

Posted on April 4, 2017

This is part two of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme.

This one is about The Howard Bro. Circus, undisputedly the world’s largest miniature circus, located within John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
Continue reading →

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Anna Maria Island – Sarasota wiki vacation part 1

Posted on April 4, 2017

This is part one of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme. This one is about Anna Maria Island, also known as the Anna Maria Key, where we explored Coquina Beach, Cortez Beach, and marveled at cast-net fishing at beautiful sunset.

Continue reading →

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Sarasota, Florida 2017 – an iPhone Wiki Vacation

Posted on April 2, 2017

Here is the latest installment of my series of Wiki Vacation posts, from a short stay in Sarasota, Florida. The timing could not have been better – daytime temperature was around 85˚F. Not too hot – a quick application of sunscreen was good enough for walking on the beach all day long. And not chilly – Gulf water was warm enough for swimming.

The range of day trips covered Siesta Key, Lido Key, Longboat Key, Ana Maria Island, and Sarasota City itself. Activities included paddleboarding by the beach, tunneling through red mangrove trees on kayaks, looking at manatees at the aquarium, and marveling at the world’s largest miniature circus at the Ringling museum. It’s amazing that we managed to visit 7 beaches in just a few days: Coquina Beach, Cortez Beach, Lido Beach, Siesta Beach, Crescent Beach and Turtle Beach. In addition, we also packed fine dinning into this busy schedule. For lazy people who woke up every morning to look at a tourist map gotten at the airport before figuring out where to go, this trip was a resounding success. Continue reading →

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Jenn’s Wedding: Saint Thomas 2009

Posted on March 7, 2017

This is an offshoot of a series of Wiki Vacation posts from my tour of the US Virgin Islands in 2009. The series covers Saint Thomas, Trunk Bay and Caneel Bay. This article documents the main reason we were there in the first place – to be at Jenn and Chris’ wedding. Continue reading →

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