Re: What is going on with 2024 the SCCBC season?

On 6/28/24 11:10 AM, Tom Elam wrote:

On 6/27/2024 3:55 PM, Alan wrote:

On 2024-06-25 10:34, Tom Elam wrote:

Dear Alan,
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Last year, 2023, April-June, there 3 weekends, 9 races at SBBC. Total unique CW driver entries were 97, OW 37. These are typical for an entire season for 2021-2023. In April-June 2024 unique driver entries are 14 OW and 49 CW, about half prior years.
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These stats are from the SBBC season championship records.
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Wow, quite the drop. What's going on, Alan?
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And, BTW, you entered 11 out of a 71 2021-2024 races. None last year of course, but also none this year and 11 out of 34 in 2021-22. Have you retired? I thought you were looking forward to getting back this year. Not so much?

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So great to see you taking such an interest in my life, Liarboy!
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I wonder if I might take a little interest in yours.
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Done much flying lately?

 Well, yes. Two very different flavors. Full scale last 6 months, 36 hours logged including 2 family visit trips to Georgia, some CAP hours, and just passed a VFR checkride. The Christmas return flight from Georgia was IFR all the way home and an instrument approach into Indy Metro.

Christmas of 2023, of course.

Now good for 2 another years on my BFR, taking me almost to my 80th birthday. At this time I am also IFR current and capable, but those are perishable skills. I'll be taking an IFR skills test checkride before the end of September.
 RC model flying has been active since the weather improved in April. Some of that is documented on my YouTube channel available at:
 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcvZXi-36GQkeHr0FdB4cTg
 My latest YT video is rendering as I write this. That one is on programming my 3 meter Fox sailplane for solo hand launch. It will be up on the channel by end of today.
 Tomorrow I am scheduled to go to the AMA annual Fun Fly in Muncie and do some instructing with beginning RC pilots. I also just passed my Part 107 Remote Pilot/commercial drone license FAA refresher, and good for another 2 on that front years too.
 So yes, done a lot of flying. Some airline flying in the near future too!

Because even 36 hours droning along at a Cessna's 125mph cruising speed is just 4500 miles: enough to cross the pond once...but not back.

We will be flying to Vancouver next month to catch a train to Calgary then flying home from there. August takes us to France, Luxembourg and a Viking river cruise to Basel. Flying home from Zurich. Ten day trip in all. So still traveling too.

Oh, so now its a ten day trip for what previously was a twelve day Paris-Rhine cruise claimed back in February?  /s

How about you, doing any racing lately? I know the answer to that, at least for SBBC events. Null, zero, nada since 2022. Going anywhere outside Canada this year?

Life invariably takes different turns.  My last travel comment here was in early 2023, that we were looking (in 2023) to be making up for our CoVid travel lull, but that doesn't mean that it all went as had been hoped for: indeed, it could have changed.  Cancelled outright, or even perhaps upgraded to be in First Class instead of Coach on all of that year's international flights! /s
Same applies for 2024 as well, for life invariably throws curve balls; this is why the advice was to 'do the hard stuff' while one's body (& finances) are healthy enough to be still able to do what one wishes. Otherwise, one can be pushing 80 and renting a car is no longer trivial, so one can get increasingly constrained to guided tours on cruise ships.
In any event, a week on the Rocky Mountaineer and the aforementioned Rhine cruise sounds to be in the rough ballpark of ($7500+air)/pp, so it does seem like Tommy is perhaps finally breaking out of his prior fiscal constraint, as I'd long advised.  Yay, you!.
-hh