Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 05:01:12 -0800
From: "eBay Member: deusbovum" 
To: "eBay Member: kubus85" 
Subject: Re: Bericht van eBay-lid over object #6044802915

I'm sorry, I don't speak Dutch. Do you speak English? It sounds like you're saying that shipping costs will be high. It isn't that bad relative to the
cost of the helicopter itself. Shipping to Holland will be USD $107. I'll send you an invoice for the total amount.

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I've sold my R/C helicopter. I have no savings, and lately I've been growing more aware of how tenuous that financial position really is. I decided I wanted to get out of that position as quickly as possible. I still really like the helicopter and it was a really difficult decision to sell it (as I worked with it, cleaning it up and taking the pictures for the auction, I started to reconsider my decision), but the fact is, I've only flown it once in the last year. That $1000-worth could be put to better use.

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This was a weekend of failed attempts. The plan was to go fly the helicopter on Saturday. On Sunday I planned to take the ferry to Culebra and rent a Jeep and then drive around, explore, and take pictures.

Saturday when I woke up it was raining. It wasn't a heavy rain, and the airfield is a 45 minute drive away so it's possible it wasn't raining there, but it's hard to drag yourself out of bed with four hours of sleep when there's heavy rain falling outside your window.

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Last Saturday I finally got back out to the airfield to fly my RC helicopter. It was the first time I'd flown it since December 2004, and I was quite rusty. I only managed to get one flight in before everyone headed home, and the entire flight was spent just getting reacquainted with the controls. I was still able to fly it alone with no problem, but I was very unstable. All I could do was take off, hover, and land again, none of it cleanly; I couldn't hold it in one spot while hovering, and when I tried to land in the X I ended up getting it down about 10-15 feet outside the circle. Still, it was fun and I'm glad I finally got out there again. I plan to go tomorrow afternoon as well.

On Sunday, I really wanted to go out taking pictures. I'm tired of all the typical spots like Old San Juan, so what I really wanted to do was get out into the island and explore. I don't know my way around anywhere outside of the metropolitan area, but I figured if I could find the software for my GPS in my vast collection of boxes, I could install the Puerto Rico maps and just go get lost. Unfortunately, I seem to have more boxes than patience, and the software didn't turn up.

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For the last month or so I've had this insidious and steadily increasing desire to get back into flying, and finally get my pilot's license like I originally planned to do when I was 16 (because of the relative priority I gave to the idea, I remember musing that it was very likely that I'd find myself having a pilot's license but no driver's license — needing my parents to drive me to the airfield when I wanted to go up, hehe). Even the harrowing experience of landing in a light jet in tropical storm-force winds hasn't done much to allay my enthusiasm. As a recreational pilot, I can simply choose not to fly if the weather looks like it could turn ugly.

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