Totally missed this thread until now even though it's based off of one of my questions
First off - that custom watch is amazing! I've always been fascinated by horology in general and watches specifically. I've been wanting to make a wooden clock for years and finally got a set of plans last year but am still working on getting my "shop" setup to where I can make it happen.
As for myself. I have way too many hobbies which is kind of why I was curious if Chad had pushed something(s) to the back burner when flight hooked him. I don't really think of myself getting out of anything though, just re-prioritizing. Though now that I have a kid the hobby budget has shrunk to all time lows and some of those priorities have gotten lower than I'd like
That being said I've never liked filling out questions about hobbies because honestly I'd be here all week trying to think of every thing I like enough to consider myself "into". Off the top of my head though a few of my higher priority interests include - brewing my own beer (been brewing for 20 years now with the longest break being about 2 years when I moved from Ohio to Arizona and my temporary housing didn't have room for me to brew), building and playing cigar box guitars (I'd love to learn to play real guitar but...well that budget thing), gardening (this has been on hold a LONG time but we bought our own house a few years ago and this year I finally got a small herb garden started), off roading and exploring in general and riding the nearby sand dunes in particular (this is actually one of the things that's pulled me back to model aviation, wanting to film friends from the air and seeing other people at the campgrounds with some zagi's when they first came out and wanting one), I've rebuilt a few motors and done quite a few upgrades and modifications to my various cars/trucks/buggies as well, wood working and home improvement (I tackle everything from framing and drywall to plumbing and electrical), photography (was actually my major in college, and I built my own darkroom while still in high school - framed and drywalled it plumbed it and wired it all by myself my freshman year. I'm actually working on a project for a local art event right now that included making a pinhole camera out of a bucket), electronics and radio (I've got a stack of homebrewed radios both finished and waiting for me to have time to finish assembling - I got my ham license when I was in 3rd grade), cooking (I do 95% of the cooking in our house and love experimenting), making and flying kites, knitting crocheting and sewing, kayaking & canoeing (we live right on the Colorado but don't get out nearly often enough!)
Basically almost anything can catch my attention and suck me in
Right now RC flying seems to be near the top. I subscribed to Make magazine the day they started taking subscriptions and don't think an issue has come out that I haven't tried/build 2-3 projects out of. A few years ago they had an issue dedicated to "heirloom technology" and one of the projects was a 60" balsa glider. I had been working on a kite aerial photography rig so had some RC gear (and realized how much more affordable it had become! Side note to this side note - I just got a relatives old hobby stuff recently and one of the things I got was an early 80's Futaba FM 2 channel transmitter...with a $70 price sticker still on it!) My wife was pregnant with our daughter at the time so being a soon to be new dad had me really thinking about things I enjoyed doing with my dad and when I saw that article and knew I already had a TX that could fly it I had to build one. Which I did:
http://www.dunephotos.com/Hobbies/Medicine-Man-Glider/7710282_Zwg2Q5#!i=498158286&k=d79vhTm
It's had 2 flights so far...and neither went more than 10 feet off the ground and 30 feet in distance - but both ended up with major repairs. So I decided the glider had to go on the shelf until I could get more experience flying real planes and not just simulators
Then last year I heard about the 9958 micro heli and decided I had to have one. Next thing I knew I had one along with a Syma Chinook and a generic coaxial and was having a blast - but the 4 channel FP 9958 was by far my favorite. I still wanted to fly more fixed wing stuff though so I started looking for a good trainer. I had heard of the EasyStar and was seriously thinking about getting one...then I heard about the Bixler...but I've always preferred kits over RTF/ARF/PNF/**F stuff so I kept looking....I found Ed's experiment airlines foamboard univeristy post on RCGroups and within 2 days had built a couple of tubes and a wing, but the motor/batteries I needed were out of stock. Make came out with another article for the "Towel" a flying wing with elevons and a flat airfoil - with the mid mounted prop it seemed like it may be even better than the nutball for a first plane...but again finding the right parts in stock was tough.
Somewhere along the way I had heard of FT and got hooked on their videos - and just as I was debating what to build to train myself with they released the nutball swappable. I had actually heard of the nutball myself a few weeks earlier and being RET and very similar to my RE glider I had been thinking it may be a good cheap easy build to teach myself with. So I ordered some parts and build a swappable nutball. But had almost no luck flying it, I went through my first bag of 5 props in less than half an hour and my second bag in less than one battery. Then summer hit. My hobby budget dries up in the summer to feed the AC here in the desert. My 9958 had a bad servo, my nutball needed props, the nearest LHS was almost 2 hours away and my budget was dry. So flying got pushed back on the priority list yet again.
But a month or two ago I hit the happy part of the year where my hobby budget is at it's peak, a new LHS opened here in town, and I decided to give things a try again. Picked up a few props for the nutball, finally gave it some landing gear (which helped the CG issue I was having that was making it so hard to fly) and have finally had some successful flights! Also picked up a v911 heli to go with my 9958 and a Syma X1 to get a taste of multi rotors.
I'm still dying to get a FPV setup going. But that will probably have to wait until next year since this years hobby budget is getting low again and summer is coming sooner than I'd like (it's 90 here today already!) But now that I'm actually able to fly we'll see. I've got an exerimental airlines Axon I've been building the past few weeks that I'm hoping I can maiden this weekend, just have to finish making the control rods and mounting the motor. Hopefully with it's easystar/bixler style layout I won't break as many props on my crashes since running out of props seems to be the thing that keeps pushing the hobby to the back in the summer.
Of course, I've also got a
Little Free Library I'm building for my wife that I really need to finish before summer hits (my workshop is outside so it's not very usable in the summer!), two cigar box guitars that have been commissioned by thankfully very patient friends, a new duct for our AC I need to build, a manx buggy I really need to finish the rear suspension on, a new battery tray for our RV I really need to build (I finally finished building a
welder out of broken microwaves), and I really want to build a permanent solar oven before this summer - the one I made out of cardboard last year worked great but didn't last very long!
To be honest though model aviation was one of my earliest hobbies and flying RC has been a dream of mine for over 30 years. I built quite a few balsa/tissue planes as a kid and several of them I setup for RC...but never had the money for servos and radios. So finally managing to successfully fly (even if my landings still leave a lot to be desired) has me super excited to be back in this hobby again. I'd still love to build a larger gas powered balsa plane at some point...but for now I'm sticking to foamies until I get better on the sticks!