Hobbies & pastimes

30/10/13
After 20 years of Insulin Diabetes I have started having fainting fits without warning. I can usually recognize Hypo symptoms (Many do not) anyway I have returned my Drivers License and sold my Bike. Peak District walking has been banned by the GP. as has Sailing. So what to do? I am Ex RAF Air Traffic Control Assistant and so I took up Flying a Simulator, because I already knew many of the techniques

It has made a tremendous difference to my life. I have learned Geography, Meteorology, Maths (Currency exchange), Languages, Navigation, and Religion (After an engine failure!!).

I jumped in at the deep end and set off on a round the World adventure, learning to fly as I went. That took two days short of a year to complete. After which I flew to Mistys Place in Alaska and took up bush flying in a Grumman Goose.

I can recommend this Hobby. It does not need to be expensive. I purchased XPlane 9 and upgraded to Xplane 10 but have stopped using them since I discovered Microsoft FSX (£18.00). Although MS stopped developing this application they made the software available to the community and there is now a vast choice of apps for the users. Christmas 2012 provided a gift of Ultimate Traffic 2(£28) which is highly recommended for realism.

As for hardware I used an old Desktop and bought Saitek Yoke and Rudder pedals.
Expensive and no longer used. Instead I purchased a Thrustmaster Joystick with a twist action for rudders. (£68 but you can buy cheaper joysticks).

I subscribe to PCPilot which is highly recommended.

For my birthday my family paid for a 800 watt power supply, a new Motherboard with Intel I5 processor, 16GB of memory, an NVidia high performance graphics card and a 256 SSD drive. I have solved their problems as to what to buy for Grandad at Xmas and Birthday!!

For those readers who think I am advertising: It is always a good idea to learn from your mistakes. It is even cleverer to learn from other's mistakes. To do that requires that other people are courageous and strong enough to tell you of their mistakes and the lessons they learned.

I spent quite a lot of money on flight simulator software and hardware that I no longer use. You can avoid those expensive mistakes by following the advice above.

I only have one regret. Derby is very backward in the IT area and I have yet to find another local virtual pilot to share my adventures with. Are there any other Grandad/Grandma Sim Pilots out there? I would love to hear from you.
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Yes, Hardy Brothers have been supplying fishing tackle to the rich and famous for many years (hence I have a Hardy trout bag - but as I got it at a car boot sale, that may not count !!)

Thanks; I didn't realise that. May give them a ring. Prince Charles gets his fishing stuff from there, doesn't he?

If you want a factory tour, you need to book in advance (the tours are free).

Thats the one I'm thinking of..it's just off the A 1 north of Newcastle. I thought it was by the Rothbury turn off [my sense of direction isn't good!].Will have another go at seeing it in August when we head north again. Quite an art, isn't it?

I do not know that one, I have visited Hardy's museum in Alnwick, also had a factory tour, very interesting.

Have you ever been to that fly fishing museum just by Rothbury tjspompa? We often drive past it but the one time we stopped of to go round it was just closing.

That's a Great Garden Shed PoppaRob, we could use one like that..

I used to play classical guitar, and think luthiers are next to God, they can create instruments of such beauty. Strange, but so often the do not play themselves. (I started playing classical guitar because it did not include singing !)

Music, especially guitar and other fretted instruments - major disclaimer being that I'm a crap player and an even worse singer - but I like making and playing instruments.

I have 2 border collies, a girlfriend (when she feels like making the effort to interact and/or communicate), a great beach not too far from me, and a house I've had for 2 years and have plans to do some additons and gardening but so far all I've really done is cut the grass, spray weeds and build a fence. Pics in my album.