Great project, but "cuidado"... that means 'be careful' in spanish.  My airplane trailer started with a simple, pure, and perfect little radio like that.... I didn't listen to my conscience and evertime something bad happened... a rc plane crashed or ... one of my kids had something better to do than go fly w me or.... the dog crapped in the livingroom or... someone drove by the flying field with their radio on loud.. well everytime ANYTHING happened I added speakers to my sound system, then added more amplifiers, then added heavier gauge wiring, then added more amplifiers, then had to add a second 55ahr deep cycle battery.. you see the problem.  Since the airplane chargers are on the same battery system you can loose power 1/2 way through the day if you've been cranking the toons,,,, so I had to add a generator to the trailer so that would never happen.  I have a 5000W sound system now, so too much of a good thing is either too much of a good thing or money that could have been spent on a big plane or boat or car.  On the other hand, music and stereos are a hobby too so maybe it's just more of a good thing.  Please continue.

You say there's a problem...but ThunderbirdJunkie doesn't see a problem[8D]

I hear you Cluckin big rooster[8D]

Input choices keep changing every year... of course have the am/fm which are great if you have a good local station, cd player ok too.  In my trailer I set up xm receiver which is good but actually there are two better choice:  mp3 player, but as you alluded to earlier, you may feel that you are making other people listen to your stuff... hey you're not stopping them from poking their ear drums out so technically you're not making them listen to anything.. and option B use your cell phone with the free Pandora app - I like this, pick a song you like and choose to play 'similiar or like' songs and  you're all set but I find it can be even more monotonous than an mp3 because it sticks to that style pretty rigidly....

By the way here's a great song that I make people listen to when I'm flying:
<span id="yui_3_3_0_1_1303966323515183" class="url">www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V2J8qehe80</span>

Keep up the inspiring work.

ThunderbirdJunkie cancelled his XM subscription back in October or so.

The "metal" station was more of a "hard rock" channel, the "hard rock" was more of a "pop with feedback played on guitars" channel, and Classic Vinyl has turned into the local joke-of-a-classic-rock-station that plays the same six songs over and over.

The Sirius/XM merger was definitely bad for XM customers ITBJHO. He's been doing more and more internet radio-listening, hearing things he likes, downloading those artists, and just jumbling all of that on an SD card or USB drive and plugging it into the Jeep's head unit.

Today, the Jeep developed a no-crank/no-start issue, so ThunderbirdJunkie was somewhat forced to borrow his grandfather's Buick Lucerne, which has XM. Went back to ol' Faithful XM48 that used to be almost the only thing listened to in the T-bird and Jeep from about 2003 to late 2010. Exactly the same songs, in almost exactly the same order...

Wasn't XM supposed to free us from the tyrranny of the poppy corporate local radio stations? Just sayin'.

BTW; that Rata Blanco song is pretty awesome. Gonna have to dig up some of their other stuff[8D]

Lolz. I guess I'm lucky then, I have an FM rock station that plays, gasp ROCK!

Well, mostly. They have Free Beer and Hot Wings on in the mornings, which is hilarious, and they air the hockey game, which I honestly couldn't care any less about if I tried.

One advantage of a manual trans is that I don't need no stinkin' starter motor! [8D]
I thought it sounded like a litter of kittens beneath the tire of a garbage truck, TBH.

378...yes, that is one advantage of a manual transmission. But, manual transmissions are a lot rougher on the rest of the drivetrain (engine mounts, rearend, front diff, transfer case, etc) off road, which is what ThunderbirdJunkie's Jeep does. The delicious hydrastatic action of an auto softens a lot of the blows that would've otherwise grenaded the aluminum Dana 30 front end long ago (it currently has 180,210 miles).

A friend of ThunderbirdJunkie's has a similar vintage 5 speed Land Rover Discovery with a 5 speed, and it chews up engine and transmission mounts on a regular basis; both vehicles are subject to the same abuse. Chad's also relatively easy on his junk, compared to most of the guys he wheels with.

That being said, he hasn't had any engine mount issues since he bolted in the fully captured Jag V12 engine mounts...but there are still no fixes for the ice-cream-sandwich-esque transmission mount.

...That's because it's a BL product. Anyone who's ever seen Top Gear knows how shoddily BL cars were built. My Ford has 275,000 miles on it and still has the original motor mounts, and believe me I am NOT gentle on that poor old thing. I've driven it places your Jeep would think twice about for fear of cracking a diff wide open.


I did replace the tranny mount at 265K when I changed the clutch, but honestly I could have still used it if I wanted. It may have been beaten and worn but it was still in one piece.

Don't take this the wrong way, but ThunderbirdJunkie is fairly certain your F150 has not seen the places his Jeep or this LR Disco has seen.

There's dents in my oil pan and driveshaft from where I've bopped them on rocks. Suffice it to say I've taken it farther into the bush than 95% of lifted pickups in America ever go. It's also been overloaded by a good 2,000 pounds towing before, that didn't hurt anything, and I've had it up to the middle of the grille in standing water several times.


It's seen it's fair share of hard knocks. Certainly far more than anyone would reasonably expect out of a 2WD.

Yeah...your truck hasn't seen what ThunderbirdJunkie's poor Jeep (or his previous 4x4s) have seen...

For all we know it's seen far worse. I've only owned it six years now, and it was pretty beat up when I got it. By the looks of things I've been gentle to it compared to it's previous owners.

Yo 378, dude, you still alive????
That was one hell of a storm according to the news this morning.

Some storm. I don't even have any tree limbs in the yard!

Nice to hear your O.K;
The news just said there are 85 people dead.R.I.P.

Thunderbird, sorry for hijacking your thread.
Now that the storms are over lets get back on track.
WHERES THE TABLE???

..what I find odd is why your news is showing what's happening in some hick state half a world away when there's a royal wedding to cover...which is all my news channels are blabbering about...blarg.

We're getting the storms on our news here.....but ya....way too much wedding farting going on as well...

I could'nt give a toss about the wedding eather. Dont get me wrong, I wish Big Willy'N'Kate all the very best but at the moment there are more important things going on in the world. The wedding reports could or should wait until the moment itself, just for the suprise effect.
Anyway, nice to hear your O.K dude.

The only thing I was worried about was my mom's minivan ingesting water. Again. Stupid thing has the air intake four inches off the ground or something, veeeeery prone to hydraulic lock when it rains like this. I've already had to go fetch her once when she drowned it on accident...thank god I have a pickup truck.


And as far as the wedding goes, 100% with ya bro.

[sm=drowning.gif]

378 is hardcore, catch this action of him in his f150:

<span id="yui_3_3_0_1_1304049248532212" class="url">www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RriC_<b id="yui_3_3_0_1_1304049248532221">GnIIE





[/b]</span>

JK.   378 does your nexstar have the flight stabilizer? if you've done it that way what did you think?  We had one for awhile but it didn't have the the flight stabilizer operational... nice plane only thing I didn't like was the window graphics and pinstriping graphics ... once they start to peel the end is near so after flying wipe the fuel residue off religiously like we should have but didn't, at least not consistently.  I'm pretty sure if Kate Middleton wasn't busy becoming the Queen of England she would fly a nextstar.

Negative. The AFS only comes with the RTF, I bought the ARF. The wood is cut for it, though, if I wanted to install it. I'll probably use that area to drop things like skydivers.

Haven't flown it yet. Finances haven't allowed me to get a radio and the field gear yet. Got the plane, got the engine, got servos and a battery in it, and that's where it sits.

From what I read the AFS gets in the way anyways. I'll just let it go and use it as an excuse to learn how to cover. I want to change the color scheme anyways.


I've already peeled off the badging. It's no longer a flying billboard. I know who made it, I know what it is, I know what's powering it, and I know what's controlling it. I don't need the logos plastered all over the wings, tail and nose.

Maybe ThunderbirdJunkie will get some time tomorrow to screw with the pit table. IF we don't get rained out it's the first outdoor race of the season.

Sent the Jeep to the shop today after ripping out hair over it for several hours. Narrowed it down to the delicious ignition switch that's built into the steering column() or that delectable neutral safety switch embedded inside the transmission above the valve body ().

Don't feel like screwing with it, and more than happy to pay the "convenience fee" for somebody else to dick with it.

Well Mr. TBJ time flies, has your work/radio table evolved in the last few months?  I just in the last month got the 10" bass speakers in  my trailer hooked up to a 1100W amp and I must say I'm underwelmed, doesn't add as much as the regular speakers or the 12" bass did, they just kind of tickle the hair on my arm if I stand in front of them w the volume on high, I think I need to review my wiring and see if something is askew.

We been using rc cars in the airplane club to teach kids about engines and adjusting and to teach about controlling an rc vehicle while driving towards yourself.. at least thats the unspoken agends, the kids are just having innocent unsuspecting fun.  By the way we are making 3-4 arf planes per month and putting smoking holes in the ground 2-3 times per month, but by Christmas we'll have 5-7 kids who can mostly build, start, and solo a .40 size arf.  Most of these kids didn't know what a screwdriver was 10 months ago, now they're adjusting engines, diagnosing problems, changing plugs and adding filters etc, been having lots of fun.   

A bad thought has been entering my mind, We have a good smoke machine that was used for a 4th of July float, the kind that rock bands use, would it be too much to add that to my trailer??  Trailer already has blinking lights that actually in the dark of night are awesome, got the parts at an auto parts store, 12v leds and a sound sensor and the lights, blue and white in my case, beat to the bass, first time we played it I got nauseated, almost had a siezure, but I can handle it better now.  Any thoughts on the smoke machine?