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Your Nonav Hobby! (That is interesting.)

A forum about lifestyle: toys, gadgets, fine food, drinks and smokes.
 

Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 23 Apr 22, 19:07Post
Tell us about your non-av hobbies. I'm currently at Big Sky and my skis are enjoying 19" of fresh powder, so I'll post more later. My non-av hobbies are:

-Backpacking (40+ mile trips)
-Ski/snowboarding
-Kayaking and fishing
-Fighting in the combustion chamber

Queso has a very interesting hobby that I'm too dumb for, but I love his posts, so I thought about this. Pictured is mi esposa today at Big Sky. Got off my controlling shift, slept a tad, and got up at 4am to poach some powder.

Love you all...who have good hobbies!

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Mark 23 Apr 22, 19:45Post
I spend many of my days online counseling nurses and paramedics. This COVID period has been hard on them. Unfortunately, a lot of them walked off the job mid-shift. Some simply never returned to work their remaining shifts. No call, no show... which is a great way to get blacklisted in healthcare.

A lot of nurses switched to become travelling nurses, which pays as high as $130 an hour.
Commercial aircraft flown in: B712 B722 B732 B734 B737 B738 B741 B742 B744 B752 B753 B762 B772 A310 A318 A319 A320 A321 DC91 DC93 DC94 DC1030 DC1040 F100 MD82 MD83 A223 CR2 CR7 E175
ShyFlyer (Founding Member) 23 Apr 22, 23:03Post
- Photography
- Amateur Radio
- American Truck Simulator
- Video Production
- Writing

I don't have time for any of the above anymore.
Make Orwell fiction again.
captoveur 25 Apr 22, 21:44Post
Running- Half and full marathons
Shooting- Though not much anymore given ammo and the pain in the ass it became
Building Models- Still dabble, but zero time for it
I like my coffee how I like my women: Black, bitter, and preferably fair trade.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 26 Apr 22, 14:59Post
Mark wrote:I spend many of my days online counseling nurses and paramedics. This COVID period has been hard on them. Unfortunately, a lot of them walked off the job mid-shift. Some simply never returned to work their remaining shifts. No call, no show... which is a great way to get blacklisted in healthcare.

A lot of nurses switched to become travelling nurses, which pays as high as $130 an hour.



Holy cow, I should have become a nurse. One of my exes runs a floor up in MT. They had so many nurses quit that they told her that she didn't have to get a shot. Understaffed now, though, as no one came back. Wonder where they went.


ShyFlyer wrote:- Photography
- Amateur Radio
- American Truck Simulator
- Video Production
- Writing

I don't have time for any of the above anymore.


Video production? I wish I had ANY clue how to do even the most basic video production or editing. I struggle to even trim videos, much less anything else. I'm getting too old.

captoveur wrote:Running- Half and full marathons
Shooting- Though not much anymore given ammo and the pain in the ass it became
Building Models- Still dabble, but zero time for it


Admire the marathoning. I quit running around 25 after I really jacked my knee near Cube Rock Pass. It's recovered, but now I figure that skiing and backpacking are probably enough of a threat.

Just got mi esposa a new rifle, but ammo is super expensive. Would love to get into doing my own instead of acting like a housewife and going to the store, but given where I live, we have no space.
ShyFlyer (Founding Member) 26 Apr 22, 22:27Post
Lucas wrote:I wish I had ANY clue how to do even the most basic video production or editing.

I can do the basics like take clips and put them together, add audio tracks, and add basic scene transitions and title cards.

Lucas wrote:I'm getting too old.

You can't use the word "old" until you have trainees that weren't even born yet when you first started in your profession.
Make Orwell fiction again.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 27 Apr 22, 10:47Post
ShyFlyer wrote:You can't use the word "old" until you have trainees that weren't even born yet when you first started in your profession.

I turfed a surly teenager out of a priority seat on the metro the other day. I'm pretty sure that makes me old, even if I don't yet qualify for the seat.

Lucas wrote:Kayaking

I do that as well, though it's a highly seasonal activity up here! I'm not into white-water stuff, more touring on relatively calm waters. I recently bought an Itiwit X500 inflatable and an Advanced Elements 4-piece paddle (because Itiwit's own 2-piece doesn't fit in the kayak bag {facepalm} ). Still waiting for the lake to melt so I can get them both wet. Should be a pretty decent upgrade from the $100 Intex Challenger, though.
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
PA110 (Founding Member) 27 Apr 22, 23:50Post
Learning 'Ōlelo Hawai'i (Hawaiian language) and kī hōʻalu (slack key guitar).
Look, it's been swell, but the swelling's gone down.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 29 Apr 22, 14:07Post
ShyFlyer wrote:I can do the basics like take clips and put them together, add audio tracks, and add basic scene transitions and title cards.
You can't use the word "old" until you have trainees that weren't even born yet when you first started in your profession.


I can kind of do some of that, ish. It just takes me like 17 hours/60 second clip. I also have no gift for determining visual flow. Never have.

I do have trainees now that are a lot younger than me, and boy does it make me feel unaccomplished.


ShanwickOceanic wrote:I do that as well, though it's a highly seasonal activity up here! I'm not into white-water stuff, more touring on relatively calm waters. I recently bought an Itiwit X500 inflatable and an Advanced Elements 4-piece paddle (because Itiwit's own 2-piece doesn't fit in the kayak bag {facepalm} ). Still waiting for the lake to melt so I can get them both wet. Should be a pretty decent upgrade from the $100 Intex Challenger, though.


White water is fun but I haven't done any of that since college, as we prefer rafting (and have our own pro rafts). If I get time off this year, I'll be flying into the middle Salmon to raft with my family for a week.

Our current kayaks are a cheap Pelican, a Lifetime Tamarack Angler, and a child's yak, but I forget the brand. When we have extra people, we bring out our 3 inflatable SUPs. Like you, our available time for the activity is limited, and sadly it overlaps with hiking season, which is my preference.

Do you do any yak camping? That is a lot of fun.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 29 Apr 22, 18:42Post
Lucas wrote:Do you do any yak camping? That is a lot of fun.

I've done some 3-4 day trips, including one on Lake Inari last year. My brother saw the photos from that and he's coming over in July to do the same trip. Ryanair have already ballsed up his flight connection!

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We're just going along the southern shore of the lake, you could go for weeks up there. I'm told some people get a floatplane to drop them off at the top of the lake for fishing.

I'd really love to come over to the US in winter and kayak-camp on Lake Powell, although I understand that the water levels are so low right now as to make the really fun stuff inaccessible.

Here's the upgrade:

Image
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 30 Apr 22, 13:31Post
Those pics are beautiful and the name of the beverage is a real hoot. That new yak is a significant upgrade and is going to track way better. My mom got one ultra-cheap inflatable at one time that, even with a skeg, was basically made for 360s, though it worked well enough if you put it down a river.

Not having to load up a heavy kayak on top of a vehicle must be dang nice, too. With three yaks, it's a real pain in the butt and takes at least a solid 20-30 minutes to make sure they're sandwiched right.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 02 May 22, 10:14Post
Lucas wrote:Those pics are beautiful and the name of the beverage is a real hoot.

That's their alcohol-free beer ;) Sums up my feelings exactly when I've had a long, shit day at work, would love to sit back and crack a cold one, but Mamma Finland says no because I got to the supermarket till at 21:00:01.

The sunset wasn't actually a sunset, it dipped down almost to the horizon and went back up again. Amazing to think that I was looking over the North Pole at Anchorage's noon. I'd noticed just as I crawled into the tent that there was smoke and the occasional flame licking out from the fireplace, but thought, "Nah, it'll be fine, stop being paranoid." Then that sun dipped below the clouds, lit the whole tent bright orange, and my first thought was "SHIT! Island's on fire!" :P Once I'd recovered from that, though, I woke the fire up again, made coffee, and stood on a rocky outcrop and watched the sun till it went back up into the clouds again.

Lucas wrote:ultra-cheap inflatable at one time that, even with a skeg, was basically made for 360s

In the UK I had an earlier version of the Intex that had no skeg, and it was terrible. This one does, and it makes a huge difference, but I'm really looking forward to having something that actually tracks properly.

Lucas wrote:Not having to load up a heavy kayak on top of a vehicle must be dang nice, too. With three yaks, it's a real pain in the butt and takes at least a solid 20-30 minutes to make sure they're sandwiched right.

I don't have a vehicle here, and not much chance of squeezing a hard-shell boat into the "tenants' outdoor sporting equipment storage area" (don't ask me what the Finnish is, I gave up on that one). So inflatable or folding would be the only practical choice. But it opens up possibilities that I wouldn't otherwise consider. Throw a big backpack on, get the bus downtown, and go grill sausages on an island for the afternoon. Jump on the train and go to any number of big lakes. Hell, it's light enough and small enough to check it into an airliner hold (with some precautions), so I can take my kayak pretty much anywhere. I have all sorts of plans for that.

I've had to buy a backpack cover because Finnair's "special handling" munched a hole in my brand new boat's backpack and took a ding out of the boat itself (thankfully it still holds pressure, but grrrr). The lifejacket is the bigger PITA, because it's self-inflating and therefore might contain explosives. It doesn't, it has a CO2 bottle identical to the 200 already on the damn plane, but every flight I have to wait an hour for a chat agent to get permission. They used to have a form on the website but killed it.
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
ANCFlyer (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 02 May 22, 10:55Post
Trains . . . I like trains, passenger trains, all kinds of 'em. Long haul, short haul, commuter, scenic, hobby . . . trains.

Go here, about the most comprehensive RR info I can find on US Railroads.
https://www.american-rails.com/?fbclid= ... ZtzwZLcIXg

Go here for the RR I grew up on, I know every inch of this railroad, even did an adjunct stint as a tour guide once when the comm between parlor car 1 and 2 failed.
https://wpyr.com/
LET'S GO BRANDON!!!!
Mark 02 May 22, 16:17Post
ANCFlyer wrote:Trains . . . I like trains, passenger trains, all kinds of 'em. Long haul, short haul, commuter, scenic, hobby . . . trains.


I, too, am a railroad nut. My dad was a signal maintenance supervisor for the Chicago & North Western Railway from 1954 to 1995. He primarily covered the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, but technically also covered North and South Dakota. In addition to supervising signal maintainers, he had a knack to quickly analyze and repair railroad signal systems and circuits that stumped the signal maintainers under him.

He retired just before the C&NW was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad. When he started in 1954, he was a signal maintainer assigned to cover track from St. Paul to Menomonie, Wisconsin. He settled in Hudson, Wisconsin, got married, and bought a house. Soon after, I came along. My interest in railroading started when I was two years old when he gave me a ride on his motorcar or speeder (pic below of one). I got to drive a GP7 locomotive when I was nine years old. And, I had the ability to memorize the timetables for trains coming through my hometown. I'd go to the tracks five minutes before each train of the day was scheduled to pass and take pictures of them.

I love the 3000 series new locomotives of the White Pass and Yukon Route... the ones built by the National Railway Equipment Company. I'm also intrigued by the overhauled Class 90 locomotives, which are now equipped with Cummins QSK45L prime movers. That was brilliant of the powers that be to do proper overhauls of those older, yet valuable locomotives. I can sit and watch videos of the WP&YR all day.

Most recently, I had the privilege to see the overhauled Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive up close and personal and in operation... not just sitting in a museum..

Image



Image
Commercial aircraft flown in: B712 B722 B732 B734 B737 B738 B741 B742 B744 B752 B753 B762 B772 A310 A318 A319 A320 A321 DC91 DC93 DC94 DC1030 DC1040 F100 MD82 MD83 A223 CR2 CR7 E175
ANCFlyer (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 03 May 22, 10:29Post
Mark wrote:I love the 3000 series new locomotives of the White Pass and Yukon Route... the ones built by the National Railway Equipment Company. I'm also intrigued by the overhauled Class 90 locomotives, which are now equipped with Cummins QSK45L prime movers. That was brilliant of the powers that be to do proper overhauls of those older, yet valuable locomotives. I can sit and watch videos of the WP&YR all day.



The uprated GE 90 class engines are great, but the frames suffer. They weren't designed for 1800hp. Some of them - mostly from the 1950s buy - have been retired and used for parts. The ones that were uprated were sent to Washington state for the work. The contractor originally doing the work went bust, so the work stopped for a while. They came back to life under a new name/company and eventually got the work done. The 90s still in service can haul a train with two units (3600 hp and dynamic braking) versus the original configuration with 800hp each.

The 101 class was purchased all at once, in 1969. When the railroad upgraded significantly and began hauling lead/zinc ore from the Yukon to Skagway. Two of the 101s never pulled a train (102 and 105) as they were destroyed in the great Round House fire in October 1969. I have photos of that fire and the aftermath. The entire footprint of the WP yards at the north end of Skagway changed over the next two years as all of the shop facilities were rebuilt and rails realigned. The 101s are 1200 hp. Some have been sold off to Durango and Silverton as both roads are 3' narrow gauge. Three 101s (112-113-114) were not taken up when they were delivered. 112 and 113 went to US Gypsum. 114 finally got to Alaska several years later but was rebuilt after a serious crash, killing a crewman in the 2010s (I have photos of that wreck as well).

The new 3000s series bugs the hell outta me. They "look" okay but Carnival (owners of the WP now) decided to paint them black and red. Public outcry reversed that decision and they are now the iconic Green and Yellow again. Only thing missing is the just as iconic Thunderbird plate on the nose of the locomotives. The 3000s can do with one unit what the 90s had to do with four. Progress they call it.

My Dad started as a dispatcher there in 1960 (the reason I grew up in Skagway) and departed as Vice President of Rail Operations for the White Pass Corporation in 1972. His first adventure to Skagway was in the 1940s. I have pictures - very few are digital - of every station, locomotive, parlor car, friend and relatives on that railroad. In one fashion of another, my Dad was a railroader all his life.

White Pass Steam: The only one still in use is the 73, a 2-8-2 Mikado. One was destroyed in the Round House fire. Two were shipped off to Dollywood. The rest just wasted away. They also have the 69, which was running for a number of years, but has been idle for 10 years.

Anything you want to know about the White Pass, I'm your man.
LET'S GO BRANDON!!!!
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 03 May 22, 15:47Post
ShanwickOceanic wrote:
Lucas wrote:Those pics are beautiful and the name of the beverage is a real hoot.

That's their alcohol-free beer ;) Sums up my feelings exactly when I've had a long, shit day at work, would love to sit back and crack a cold one, but Mamma Finland says no because I got to the supermarket till at 21:00:01.

The sunset wasn't actually a sunset, it dipped down almost to the horizon and went back up again. Amazing to think that I was looking over the North Pole at Anchorage's noon. I'd noticed just as I crawled into the tent that there was smoke and the occasional flame licking out from the fireplace, but thought, "Nah, it'll be fine, stop being paranoid." Then that sun dipped below the clouds, lit the whole tent bright orange, and my first thought was "SHIT! Island's on fire!" :P Once I'd recovered from that, though, I woke the fire up again, made coffee, and stood on a rocky outcrop and watched the sun till it went back up into the clouds again.

Lucas wrote:ultra-cheap inflatable at one time that, even with a skeg, was basically made for 360s

In the UK I had an earlier version of the Intex that had no skeg, and it was terrible. This one does, and it makes a huge difference, but I'm really looking forward to having something that actually tracks properly.

Lucas wrote:Not having to load up a heavy kayak on top of a vehicle must be dang nice, too. With three yaks, it's a real pain in the butt and takes at least a solid 20-30 minutes to make sure they're sandwiched right.

I don't have a vehicle here, and not much chance of squeezing a hard-shell boat into the "tenants' outdoor sporting equipment storage area" (don't ask me what the Finnish is, I gave up on that one). So inflatable or folding would be the only practical choice. But it opens up possibilities that I wouldn't otherwise consider. Throw a big backpack on, get the bus downtown, and go grill sausages on an island for the afternoon. Jump on the train and go to any number of big lakes. Hell, it's light enough and small enough to check it into an airliner hold (with some precautions), so I can take my kayak pretty much anywhere. I have all sorts of plans for that.

I've had to buy a backpack cover because Finnair's "special handling" munched a hole in my brand new boat's backpack and took a ding out of the boat itself (thankfully it still holds pressure, but grrrr). The lifejacket is the bigger PITA, because it's self-inflating and therefore might contain explosives. It doesn't, it has a CO2 bottle identical to the 200 already on the damn plane, but every flight I have to wait an hour for a chat agent to get permission. They used to have a form on the website but killed it.


These are about our best views, minus my cheapier eyesore Pelican which I've added so many parts to that it's a true monstrosity, not even taking into account the "closeout special" color scheme: Image

Image

The unfortunate thing is that we're really just too far south to ever see the auroras here, which is frustrating, as where I lived in MT was much farther north but also much warmer. I've spent many nights going outside to look for then, only to have my friends a state up posting pictures the next day, while I try to chug down some coffee to see if that helps the lack of sleep. The esposa wants to go up to the far north at some point just to do aurora tourism...if that's a thing that people do. Don't know if you can really time that.

The fortunate aspect of it is that it gets light around 0500 and dark at 2200, or else I think I'd start tripping from the sun being out all the time. I can't imagine how disoriented I'd be hiking or yakking when it's basically always light out. {laugh}

The inflatable tech has come a long way in the past 5 years or so. I much prefer my iSUP to my wife's old rigid-body SUP, and she did too, so she got her own. Taking the boats here is a minor annoyance (check stations), and I have to pay an extra $17/year/watercraft to take them into the park...along, once again, with the inspection every time. Plus they kill my gas mileage, which is way more than it used to be. If I want to go to Green River Lakes, I'm looking at $50 for the privilege. {crazy} It's still worth it to catch big lake trout from the yaks and then bring them back to the camping spot for dinner.

On the topic of trains, I worked with a conductor who was a foamer. That guy was living the dream. I was jealous. It never got less magical to him. For whatever reason, working in a control tower for so long has killed my love of spotting. Sad, sad.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 07 May 22, 15:27Post
I guess an inflatable kayak would pay for itself very quickly if it's out of the breeze and out of sight in the trunk ;)

That looks like an absolutely stunning location for paddling. You Americans are truly blessed with some incredible scenery. (I'm kicking myself for only discovering in the last day or two that I could've been driven out from Vegas to Hoover Dam and done a day trip along the river beneath. Dagnabbit.)

Got some new gear last year that I still haven't tested, including a Tentsile tree-tent/hammock thing. Ordered that one in mid-summer, and it was snowing when I took delivery, so it's been unpacked once and never slung. It can't possibly be worse than the last tent, which was mostly mosquito-proof but absolutely not waterproof.

As for the aurora tours, there's an outfit in Swedish Lapland claiming 100% success since 2012. They have you up there for a whole week; I suppose the longer you stay, the better your odds!
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
 

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