Bishop Hobbies

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

This is me in college next to my trusty 1955 Mercury Monterey – many many years ago. In fact it was in the last century. That car had an automatic transmission and you had to start it in nuteral for some reason – not in park. If you put the transmission in low – the throttle would stick every time – the car would just accelerate. I pulled that on a few friends – I would tell them to start it then put it in low gear. Always good for a laugh – the blood would just drain from their faces. Thinking about it now – it was a crazy thing to do – I’m surprised we never hit anything.

 

 

 

 

Here is a pic of some friends and I in my dorm room. This looks like my junior year. I was an ra at the time (resident advisor) – that was a sweet deal. I just had to work on the desk in the dorm for 6 hours per week and be in charge of one wing of guys and I got a room to myself and my room and board was paid for. In this picture you see from left to right – Jerry, Marshal, me, and Bill. As you can see I built models in college too. And I still use the desk lamp in my hobby room. In the other pic to the right I'm with Dean Odenthall on the right – I can't remember his roommates name on the left.  By the way I'm drinking rootbeer here.

Here is Chris giving Rick a shaving cream shampoo:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are pictures of my good friend Bill, my college roomate – he was a spaceman on the homecoming float the local chapter of AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) built. I was the float chairman so I was the guy inside the float working the propeller on top of the space ship and also the fire extinguisher that served as the spaceship rocket exhaust. We won the theme award. It looks corny now – but it was a lot of fun. I don’t recall where Bill got the costume – but the space helmet wouldn’t fit on his head so he couldn’t hide inside it but had to carry it insted. At halftime at the homecoming football game we were able to bring all of the floats onto the track and circle the football field. When Bill went to accept the theme trophy at half time he slipped on the podium and fell flat on his butt. It was hilarious – everyone just roared – Bill just laid there flat on his back timing when to get up.

I think he fell on purpose.

 

Here's another pic of Bill –  whatcha lookin at Bill?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some new pics I just discovered last night (7/6/09):

These were taken when we went on a snow trip to Big Bear.  The cabin all of the guys stayed in had a problem with the toilet.  Or some one did during the night because when I got up the next morning (I happened to get up first) I discovered that the whole place was flooded!  That darn toilet must have  run (overflowed) all night while we slept.  What a mess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are pics of Bill and I in our dorm room during our freshman year – 1967-68.  I found the sledge hammer at the side of the road one day as we were hitchhicking back to school after eating dinner one weekend.  I used it to pound on the floor sometimes – nice because we lived on the third floor – you could probably hear it  everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the left is Chris  in his room – on  the right are four of us trying to make a doorway pyramid.  We were just about to collapse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jerry on the left and me on the right dressed up for some kind of party or somehting – or maybe just bored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me in my room – awake on the left and asleep on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me still sleeping in a chair we found somewhere.  That Rick on the right hitching a ride.

 

 

 

 

 

Rod Ems is to the duck pond (left) and the Aliso Hall Third East wing picture for the 1967 year book.

Here is a picture of Bill and I taken in 2006. I’m on the right. We have a few more miles on us now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are again on June 4th 2011 outside our freshman dorm room in Aliso Hall – good old room 316.  Boy there are sure a lot of memories in this room!!!

 

 

Here is a picture of Bill an I flanking our old classmate Dr. Ali Amadi who is now chairman of the Aerospace department at Cal Poly.  We were attending the 2011 Cal Poly Aero department banquet on June 3rd which Dr. Amadi was hosting.

 

 

Here is a picture of me at the spot where I was thrown into the duck pond in November of 1970.  I can still picture the duck pond from 6 feet from the shore about three feet above the surface as I was looking down just before I landed.  Some things just stay with you.  I remember running 1/2 mile back to the dorm in pretty cold weather.  I had to wash my clothes out three times to get them clean.  You can imagine what the bottom is like in a pond inhabited by ducks – very soft and squishy!

 

Building an R/C Submarine

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How to Litter Your Local Lake Bottom

This article chronicles my almost two year sojourn in seeking to have my very own radio control submarine. This has been a great learning experience and also a trip into the land of insanity. But that’s what a hobby is all about right? In the spring of 2004 I got tired to the usual “building the plastic model thing” and was looking for a challenge. I found that challenge when looking over the SubCommittee website. Here the adage “be careful what you wish for” comes to mind. I speak of course tongue in cheek – actually a more experienced person would have avoided almost all of the pitfalls I encountered – ok – they would have avoided all of them. It was a wonderful learning experience for me – what else am I gona say.

My project started with the Revell/Germany 1/72 scale kit of the Type VIIC German U-Boat of World War II fame. It is a very nice kit and lends itself to radio control. I had looked at larger scale submarine kits – some get 6 feet long or more. The thought of lifting something like that out of a pool or lake made me remember my back surgery in 2001. A 33 inch 1/72 scale seemed more friendly – to my wallet and my back. If I would have waited I would have converted the Revell-Germany 1/72 Gato model as that’s I have always identified with growing up and watching stuff like Victory at Sea.

The key ingredients in a radio control submarine lie in the water tight compartment (WTC). I had come across Dave Welch’s website: https://www.frontiernet.net/~bwelch which seemed to fill the bill for me. He offers what he calls an “experimenter’s kit” to r/c this sub. Let me just say that nothing was more appropriately named (for me anyway) – experimenters kit indeed! This kit contains three lexan tubes with resin end caps and o-rings to seal the end caps. He also includes a CD full of pictures and a description of how to put things together plus a list of vendors for the different bits and pieces such as servos, batteries, electrical switches, pumps, etc. – all very well done and I can really recommend his system to those interested in r/c submarines. Dave is a wonderful guy and has very nicely answered my many e-mails and provided valuable advice.

The whole system works on what is called RCABS which means Recirculating Compressed Air Ballast System. Basically this means that the sub is able to conduct static (no forward motion) submergence and surfacing by the use of a blood pressure pump located inside the WTC. The pump forces air from inside the WTC into a blood pressure bladder located outside the WTC thus displacing the water inside the sub and providing enough buoyancy to bring it to the surface. For submerging – an electronic switch activates a valve which releases the air from the bladder back inside the WTC – this provides negative buoyancy and allows the sub to submerge – and it can go right to the bottom. Interior servos link to the stern dive planes, rudders, and bow dive planes. Ultra light electric motors through a gearing system run the two counter rotating brass props. Power is provided via two cell phone lithium-ion batteries sealed in a yellow balloon in the bow. This is a really well thought out system.

All of this is very well and good. In the real world of r/c submarines I discovered that it is not “if” you loose your sub on the bottom – but “when”. Fortunately for me that “when” hasn’t happened yet. These things dive (sink) really well and this particular model has to have everything working properly to STAY on the surface. I must say however – that the RCABS system has worked very well. The system does have a fail-safe feature – if the sub looses the signal from the transmitter it will automatically surface – now that’s cool.

Well none of this deterred me and (fool that I am) I plunged in.

I was able to build the WTC with all of its ingredients and wire all of it up. I only burned out the speed control twice, stripped the gears on two servos, and ruined one pump in the process. As I said this was a learning process and these are things that I would easily avoid now. It has been a real process of learn-as-you-go. Everywhere the WTC could leak – it did at one time or another. The design is very good – I just needed to learn – and I have. Once I got everything in the WTC to work properly I had to balance the sub in water. This balancing act must take into account not just the weight distribution of the sub – but also the center of buoyancy. I had to add quite a bit of foam to displace water in the bow and stern as well as weights in the keel.

Here is a diagram for the control setup on my Tracker III transmitter. You can get Tracker R/C equipment at Polk’s Hobbies

After successful tryouts in the bath tub it was on to the neighbor’s pool for the real thing. He hasn’t had his pool cleaned for several months now (electrical problems) and the deep end has only about a 4 foot visibility before everything turns dark. I found I hadn’t sufficiently mastered the control of the transmitter – before I knew it the sub had slipped into the deep dark unknown of the deep end. Neither I nor my neighbor could see the darn thing. Just blackness. My neighbor postulated that the sub had got stuck in the gunk on the bottom “What gunk?” I asked. I hadn’t even thought of that. I gave the sub full reverse on the props and a command to surface and nothing happened. I wasn’t looking forward to jumping into water this cold – this was on the 8th of January of 2007 and I was just getting better after a cold. After about 3 minutes the sub finally popped to the surface – well I considered this first test a success and promptly pulled it out of the water. When I got home I discovered the WTC was half filled with water.

I have since made several successful runs in the pool – each one is better as I improve the trim and balance. I did loose one prop in the deep end and a replacement is on order. I gotta say this thing is really cool!!

Wanna see more pictures? Go here.