NickSee

Nice job Kiwi K I've learned loads reading this whole thread - thank you for the time and effort to keep documenting your journey

Nice bit of met experience imparted whilst also making us very jealous of your 26 degrees, glorious setting and flyable weather it looks great Andy, thanks for sharing and glad you were packing in the experiences before returning to the cold and wet! Hoping for a chance to fly this weekend, think Sat is wet for Membury but maybe Sunday....

cheers Mark, appreciate the reply. Nick

thanks guys you've scratched the itch - it was cathartic talking about the costs and to know others views - and certainly I won't be buying anything until completing training with Simon at some point - am I insane thinking of starting in Autumn? In RC days there'd be more flying done on cold clear mornings than spring/summer... but I guess wet grass is bad for learning ground handling? Very off topic so feel free to ignore. Am overseas on holiday and typing this is very temperamental I've lost 3 paras already and sick of re-typing!

Mark - somewhat heartened to read your reply to paraflyer17 as it echoes recurring thoughts I keep having - as a man in a shed with welder, lathe, 3d print, laser cutter not afraid to design and build things... as I stare down the barrel of what feels like excessive costs of around £10k to get going esp when it comes to the frame. Generally in life I will always pay for something when the cost of it passes a reasonableness test but if it doesn't, the itch to build is hard to resist - however as an utter newbie and all this kit being safety critical I will just have to suck it up. Bloomin' top of the range 150cc petrol engine for old hobby (large scale RC) was £1k can't believe these have many different cost drivers mutter mutter