Droning at and around Ogunquit Beach

Posted on November 27, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This article is a part of the Ogunquit in September Guide I am writing, for the model aeronautically-inclined. It is the main and the last installment in the series. Together with the modern beach equipment installment, it details everything you will ever need, before you head out to fly a drone or two in this beautiful beach town.

My main interest in this trip was to fly RC planes by the ocean. To that end, I booked a suite at the Norsemen Resort, and for the second half of the trip a room at the Cliff House. This allowed me to fly my planes on a whim, at the Ogunquit Beach and later on a perilous rock formation at the Bald Head Cliff, without needing to plan for these activities. One moment I would be drinking my morning coffee on the balcony just after sunrise, and two minutes later I would be out there flying my micro sailplanes.

During the day I walked or drove to nearby oceanfront locations, to sample what this place had to offer. These day trips took me to popular tourist attractions such as the Marginal Way. They took me north to Wells Beach, Drakes Island Beach, and then farther to Gooch’s Beach, right next to president Bush’s compound. They took me south to Cape Neddick where I visited both the Long and the Short Sands Beach, plus the famous Cape Neddick Light.

Points of Interests around Ogunquit

Points of interests around Ogunquit

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Ocean Terrace Rooms at Cliff House

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This article is a part of the Ogunquit in September Guide I am writing, for the model aeronautically-inclined. This installment is about the Ocean Terrace Rooms at Cliff House, near Ogunquit. We stayed at this place during the second leg of our trip. And I had a good time flying my model sailplane, while standing on perilous rock formations, with multi-person-tall waves pounding on these same rocks.

Cliff House at Bald Head Cliff

Cliff House at Bald Head Cliff

We called the booking service of the hotel directly when making our room reservation. The agent convinced me to book a room at the highest floor available, for it afforded the best view of both the ocean and the cliff, despite its higher room rate. But I read afterwards on TripAdvisor that some of the rooms on the higher floors actually had balconies with partially blocked views. Some rooms were situated directly behind other buildings, so they looked over ugly rooftops instead of the ocean and the cliff.

I agonized over this issue before the trip. The uncertainties tortured me. There wasn’t much useful information and pictures to be found online, to ease my mind.

Those who have read the previous article on Tidal Rooms at the Norseman can be forgiven for thinking that I have the buyer’s remorse syndrome as a chronic condition. This article is born after the trip, partly because I am anal, and partly because I want to help the next guy in my situation.

If you landed on this article during your research for a room at the Cliff House, then you have found the right resource. Most of pictures showcased here are taken by Elisha Huang.

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Tidal Suites at the Norseman Resort on Ogunquit Beach

Posted on October 28, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This article is a part of the Ogunquit in September Guide I am writing, for the model aeronautically-inclined. This installment is about the Tidal Suites at the Norseman Resort we stayed at, during the first part of the trip.

As was usually the case, I spent time writing this article after the trip, because I wished someone had written something about this topic, and had posted some pictures of this place online. It would have helped me tremendously during my trip planning. And it would have eased the anxiety I continued to feel until the day of departure. But there was very little information to be found online about the resort, and almost nothing about the new Tidal Suites. Most of pictures showcased here are taken by Elisha Huang.

Norseman Resort on Ogunquit Beach seen from Marginal Way at low tide

The Norseman Resort on Ogunquit Beach

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Modern beach equipment for the model aeronautically-inclined

Posted on October 22, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This article is a part of the Ogunquit in September Guide I am writing, for the model aeronautically-inclined. Obviously, those who enjoy flying radio-controlled planes at a beach will find this article useful. But I am also certain that any modern man or woman planning a trip to the beach will not want to miss this one.

Hauling your beach equipment through sand shouldn’t be hard labor

I know it, because I’ve spent countless nights before the trip googling for the best beach equipment to bring, to no avail. If you are looking for novel contraptions that solve known problems with ancient beach equipment technology, you will not be happy with what you find online today. Even Google isn’t smart enough to weed out hastily-assembled, so called “top ten beach equipment” websites that simply scout Amazon for highest-ranking sales. YouTube is full of computer-generated videos with screenshots stole from above-mentioned “top ten beach equipment” websites. And most search engines nowadays only want to show you online shops, because… that’s how they make money.

This leaves old fashioned research work as the only option. I read and combed through tons of user reviews, and wrote notes. The trip proved that I did find the right beach equipment to buy. I don’t monetize my blog. I have no skin in the game. You can trust that when I talk about a product and link to a page, it’s simply because I personally like the product.

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Ogunquit in September – for the model aeronautically-inclined

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This is a guide to upcoming articles I will be publishing on Ogunquit, a small town at the southern tip of Maine. The guide serves as a preview to these articles, before they are written and published, showing the beautiful Ogunquit river, the town and the beach named after it, in mid September. This was when kids were force off the beach, back to school, and just before the autumn arrived in full force. Some articles will explore the Marginal Way, Perkins Cove, Cape Neddick, York, Wells, Kennebunkport and plenty of public beaches in the area. Some will focus on hotels we’ve stayed at – the Tidal Suites at the Norsemen and the Ocean Terrace Rooms at Cliff House. There will be plenty of 360° panoramic photos that can be viewed with the Google Cardboard – some scenary simply cannot be experienced without the use of VR.

I’ve also brought the current obsession of my life together with travel and videography. Most of these articles will be of interest to those who are model aeronautically-inclined. While I did not have room to bring big model airplanes, I did pack two micro airplanes and a variety of kites. While flying a sailplane on the peaceful and expansive Ogunquit Beach proved to be a relaxing pastime, fighting the precarious Bald Head Cliff in inclement weather against a stormy sea turned out to be quite challenging. Equipment for the pursuit of a frustration-free beach flying will be presented as well.

In short, these will be articles I wished someone had already written, for people like myself. But I did not find them online, despite vigorous googling before I departed for vacation.

Did I mention that I adopted a pet seagull during this trip?

Pictures I’ve taken on a meager iPhone will be culled, and the remaining usable and useful ones uploaded to Wikipedia, for illustrations on various relevant articles, continuing my series of Wiki Vacations (from here and there). Articles will then be revised to link to full-resolution images on Wikimedia, for what these mediocre iPhone pictures are worth.

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A Resurrected Ornithopter – the Flytech Dragonfly

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

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 recent event reminded me of the Dragonfly from WowWee, so I went through boxes in my basement to find the two units I bought in 2007.

Dragonfly With Remote

Brand new Dragonfly with remote control

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 to charge the built-in battery. I can now effectively fly it non-stop by plugging in replaceable batteries.

Resurrected Dragonfly ready for its maiden flight. A 1S 180mAh lipo is inserted from behind.

Resurrected Dragonfly ready for its maiden flight. A 1S 180mAh lipo is inserted from behind.

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HHAMS Paintball Event by DMS Films

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生
HHAMS Paintball Event - video by DMS Films

HHAMS Paintball Event – video by DMS Films

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 at the Hempstead Harbor Aero Modelers Society. Everyone at the club are duly impressed. Click on the image above, or this link, to watch it.

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

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

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.

Battle-tested TA 152. It has suffered runway rash, and has lost all plastic guns and cannons.

Battle-tested TA 152. It has suffered runway rash, and has lost all plastic guns and cannons.

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 consolidated my comments 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 turns into a graceful speed demon in the sky.

Update 2017-07: the ESC on the plane they shipped me was apparently faulty. It burned up midair and the plane crashed. Sigh. After making some noises on rcgroups.com, I got a call from MotionRC. And I explained that the product pages (for the plane, for the 2-blade prop, etc) should clearly say that the 2-blade prop can only be used with the motor upgrade, as part of the “High Power Upgrade Set”.

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Restaurants – Sarasota wiki vacation part 5

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

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.

Ophelia's on the Bay

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Siesta Key – Sarasota wiki vacation part 4

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

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.

Folks Enjoying Sunset at Siesta Beach

The immensity of Siesta Beach

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