What other hobbies are you into?

Fix ya' right up.

I can appreciate a good audio system. Mine runs an old 1700 MacIntosh amp/tuner powering a pair of Norman Lab model 10 speakers, and a Thorens TD160 turntable. I no longer have a CD player or tape deck. I have converted most of my decent cassettes and 8 tracks over to digital and ripped all of my CDs. Now that is all stored on Ipods, I find that I haven't sacrificed anything in sound quality but don't have to store all these bulky tapes and can listen to music for hours without having to get up and flips sides or change tapes.

Cars: Enjoy restoring and driving old sports-purpose cars as well as driving modern autos. Doing track days with my sons! My interest began with Soap Box Derby racer around age 10. Now, Bring A Trailer competes with Omega Forums for screentime. I was wrenching on and then driving an older car as of yesterday afternoon. Spring is not too far away here in New England, US of A.

Airplanes: Flying right seat since I was a kid, and Single Engine Land rating at age ~21. Glider rating at age ~28. This interest is on "simmer" at the moment as other things compete for my time. but sport sailplanes keep tugging at my sleeve.

Free Flight Scale Models: A lifelong passion for building and flying “old school” rubber band powered, stick and tissue model airplanes. My interest in it has waxed and waned over the years, but I always come back to it. This time intensive hobby blends creativity, design and plain old good common sense along with history, all leavened with fun. I have a bunch of similarly-minded friends with a surprisingly broad age spectrum ranging from 7 year olds to 95 year olds. We share and pass on what I call the tribal knowledge of this rather unusual hobby to each other. An earlier series of posts I've made on this topic appears below:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/show-us-your-favourite-toys-boyz…-and-girlz.93839/#post-1217441

Bones of a Mitsubishi "Dinah" Japanese reconnaissance plane from WW II below. The Dinah was roughly the equivalent to the De Havilland Mosquito in terms of its purpose and performance.



Spark Ignition Model Airplane Engines. Specializing in 1934-41 classic free flight motors, and the contrasting post-war era from 1945 thru 1948 where power increased dramatically by greatly improved design. Fascinating designs, metallurgy, ideas and colors of engines are evident of what was a wide open field of opportunity following WWII.

I've observed many parallels between collecting old engines and wristwatches in terms of the collecting skill practices. It is interesting in following the history, innovations and what then springs forth from earlier ideas. That notion carries through with these engines much as it does with wristwatches. And as always: original condition of the example is paramount


Finally: NOT watching Television.

Reading history, and buying a lot of history books.


I'm also working (at a glacial pace) on a history book of my own. At the rate I'm going, I'll finish it after I retire.

You sound like my ex-wife (no offense intended) - when she and I moved in together for the first time, she demanded to reorganize them by the color of the binding ...

Needless to say, we're not married to each other anymore