I thought I’d jot down some highlights of 2012 from the point of view of my hobby, mostly for my own benefit, so I can look back and at least have a record of what happen!

The year began with my first renewal at the Wanstead MFC, meaning I’d officially been affiliated with a club for a year. From a model point of view I was finishing the Mini Tyro which I had started in October 2011 but failed to finish in time for the birth of our daughter Nuala in November. For obvious reasons Christmas was busy, so the little Tyro had to wait until the New Year. Powered by a Indian Mills 75 and with mini RC gear I was very pleased with the result. The downside was I didn’t get round to maidening it until well into April!

Whilst not managing to fly the Tyro, I was certainly getting plenty of air time with the Wot 4, actually managing to pass my A test around February.  Throughout the Spring I took advantage of my new freedom of being able to fly whenever I wanted and spent hours with the Wotty.

During the spring I was building the P51 Mustang, which my wife bought me as a Christmas present in 2011. With the new baby it didnt progress very quickly, but hey ho, a hobby is for enjoying, not worrying about! I spent quite a bit of time finishing it with a paint job and some decals, trying to make it look like a proper P51. She stalled into the ground on the first flight, only damaging the prop thankfully but teaching me to keep the speed up on future flights!

It was around the middle of Summer I started to think of something to replace the Wot 4 with, eventually picking the new Ripmax ARTF Acro Wot - another Chris Foss design. Originally I’d planned to put a SC70 Fourstroke in it, but eventually I found a OS FS81a on the BMFA Classifieds for a price I couldn’t refuse. It was out of the box and on the field within a month and was everything I hoped it would be. It wasn’t long before the Wot 4 would find itself on eBay, sadly I dont have the space to store it, a shame because it is still a great aircraft.

Somewhere in middle of the year I knocked up a S-Pou and a Liddlerod for use in the hall at our monthly meets, both were nice kits, enjoyable builds and fun to fly. Amazingly, and I’m still not quite sure why, I got the Sharkface bug. I printed the plan and figured I could knock one up for nothing using only scrap. This I did, in less than a week! I enjoyed it for a while, but eventually figured I needed the space more and sold it to somebody for a bargain £15 on eBay.

It was around the summer I decided I was bored of the Blade 120SR and the Blade MSR and I sold those too, promising myself I’d get out with the 450 3D more often, which I’m pleased to say I have done. Regularly getting out and putting all four batteries through it.

Sometime around the late Summer, we visited the mother in laws new house in Wiltshire, and I discovered an amazing hill only a 5 min drive from her house. Hmm, a nice big glider stored in her garage might be in order. So within a few hours I’d convinced myself and had a Phoenix 2000 on order! I now keep the Weasel down there too.

In Autumn I took a bit of a different tack when out of nowhere I decided to build my son a RC boat, I love working with wood so it had to be a wooden kit rather than some fiberglass thing. Soon I hit upon the Aerokits range, now reproduced and laser cut by Vintage Model Boat company. In about a month I managed to knock up a Sea Nymph which he now loves taking out onto the local pond

Also around this time I had a nice comment from a reader of the blog on my Wagtail page. In short he asked if he could buy it because he wanted to fly it. I’d never flown it so thinking it was better off with somebody who would actually use it, I said yes and a deal was done.

Somewhere along the way I sold the HPI Savage 4x4, which was too big and too noisy and too much hassle for me. I bought Edward a Lossi Micro Truggy which he loves. I never finished the paint on the Sand Scorcher, although I did sand, fill, sand and primer the body so it is a little closer.

To finish the year I started another vintage model, this time the Diamond Demon which didnt get finished in 2012, but it will be soon.

I treated myself to the lovely flybarless collective pitch Blade 130X just before Christmas, and the final model of the year was a Stinger 64 EDF from Hobby King, which was my Christmas present from my wife this year.

Phew! now I’ve written it all down it feels like a hell of a lot of changes and new stuff in one year. We are planning on moving home in 2013, so I expect things will be a little more static!