Concerning Hobbies
This page is largely concerned with hobbies, and from its text the reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history…
Model Aircrafts
Planes fascinate me ever since I can remember. Alas, I was the only one in my family and except from occasional visits to model aircraft shows I had no business in this hobby. However, at the end of the 1990’s, I bought my first electric soaring model “Varta Fly” by Robbe and made my first humble flying experiences. The necessary skills I had learned mostly from flight simulators.
The little Varta Fly could only be steered via rudder and elevator and it was burdened with an impossibly heavy accu-stack made from nickle-cadmium-cells, plus a non-brushless motor for propulsion. But did it fly! I even encountered my first thermal experiences with this fine model.
A Taxi III by Graupner followed. With that 3-axis-trainer I made my first attempts at aerobatics and I performed quite a few experiments with droppable cargoes and banner towing. At my father’s 55th birthday a greetings flight made its rounds over the house.
But then my studies killed all my spare time. After being damaged beyond repair during the flooding of a cellar in 2014, the models had to be disposed of with a heavy heart and that seemed to be the end of that.
Nevertheless, in 2018 the old passion awoke again, not least because of the slow and costly progress on my model railway. On the spur of a moment I bought a new electric soaring plane, this time an EasyGlider 4 by Multiplex and since then I’m an active model aicraft flyer again.
In the meantime, technology had rapidly evolvved, much to my pleasure. LiPo accumulators and brushless motors deliver a power/weight-ratio beyond the wildest dreams of the past. Telemetry allows to measure climbing rates and altitude.
With more than 140 hours worth of flying time and more than 1,200 landings I’ve amassed quite a wealth of experience with this fine airplane. Since 2019 I’ve started constructing my own model aircrafts, too. The first model is the Joyrider, which is currently undergoing flight tests and addressing teething problems.
Details on my building efforts can be found in Model Flight.
Model Railways
Christmas 1986 saw the first LGB train making its rounds in the living room. Since then, my father has anchored this hobby in my family, there were times when every child had its own sets of trains and the garden railway following swiftly only ever grew larger.
During the 1990’s I started constructing from scratch with my oldest friend, alas no pictures of those survived.
However, there were some experiments in other gauges, at least one layout in gauge N evolved into a somewhat operatable status. I was particularly proud of the security fence, made from pins and fly screen…
It won’t come as a surprise that railways and especially garden railways have always been some part of my life.
When my parents moved in 2009, the basis for this fascinating, but costly hobby was placed out of my reach. Only as recently as 2014 I found the leisure to reengage in model railways, this time focusing on scratch building. My ventures are summarized in the section Model Railway.
Photography
I always liked to take pictures, but a few years ago I began to engage seriously in composition and the technical aspects of pictorial design.
I used a Nikon D60 single-lens reflex camera, but since it’s more of a casual hobby and I didn’t like to freeze my limited financial means in costly equipment, I sold it in 2019. I’m now or then taking pictures with my smartphone or, on occasion lend professional equipment. Results are on display in the section photography.
Concerning me
Born in February 1981, model making has accompanied my whole life in one way or the other. My professional life is based in IT, working as a coordinator and developer at the faculty of medicine of the university Münster, where I also studied.