So You're Into RC Cars. WTF Else Do You Do?

[morrisey0]

I don't know; felt like an interesting topic. We are all on this particular forum for a reason, but hopefully that hobby doesn't fill up all of your free time. What else do you do?

I start this because I had "a moment" earlier today, but I have been taking care of the wife at home (booster shot blues) most of the day, and work has sucked, and I haven't felt like doing any typical "social media" BS, so just haven't had a way to express the one good / great thing that did happen in my life today. And since this involves a hobby of mine outside of RC, I thought I would share it here and hope to hear of other member's hobbies / interests.

So, today, I threw a 1 under in a round of disc golf!

The Covid re-introduced me to my love of vintage RC, but it also introduced me to disc golf. I played ball golf for years, but eventually threw out my left rotator, and just haven't gotten around to fixing it yet, and I have missed just getting out there in nature and enjoying a nice personal challenge. And to honest, I needed an excuse to get the steps in which didn't include walking around the neighborhood again and again. Disc golf has become my way of getting my steps in, interrupted by throwing a disc around sometimes.

I have been in quite a lull with my disc golf play over the past six months or so, and feeling like I haven't really made any progress, but recently, it seems like some some things are starting to fall in place. I am usually a par-to-bogey player, while usually ending up around +6-8 at my couple of local courses. But today, I threw a solid -1! Four birdies (three in a row), one bogey, and one double bogey. For someone only playing less than a year, I will take that!!

This is just one small slice of my life outside of RC, so maybe I will come around to others a little later.

So, WTF else do you do?

[RPMfieldtester]

collect and ride vintage, pre WWII balloon tired bikes...and getting back into photography...

[jwscab]

I'm pretty much a car guy. I really like fabrication and machining too, so that parlays well into the rc stuff.

I work with my brothers and dad on auto/hot rod stuff. Guys will come to my dad with a classic car or hot rod etc with problems or upgrades so we do some of that work. But we all have a bunch of projects as well.

Other than that, my day job is electronics (engineer). Two early teen boys and better half so life gets busy with stuff too. Wife and I like beer so we visit breweries when we can.

[JosephS]

Most of my time is spent on work, the side hustle and being dad of two young boys. The RC thing has been nice since I get to share it with the kids. Though there has been less and less RC time lately.

I do technical work on movies, though don't get the time to watch them.

[toolman72]

My daily work involves property facilities manager for 1 million sq ft plus building. I have been around big car racing my whole life and it turned into a job from the mid 90's to early 2000's SCCA world challenge and Trans Am, car builder and car chief. the wife and I had children so I decided to quit traveling and started my own side hustle at my shop about 15 years ago, race car design fabrication and set up. My love for rc started in 1983 with the Grasshopper and then to the rc 10. I still race on occasion but really just love the restoration side of it. I always kid with my boys that they have a great inheritance with my rc collection.

[juicedcoupe]

My daily job is at a refinery. Been there for ~15 years. Before that, I spent 7 years at a neighboring chemical plant.



I also play around with real cars, mostly street/strip and small tire drag cars. While I still have my car, its been on the back-burner since covid.

- I have a new engine sitting on the stand. I just need to get the motivation to put everything back together.

- I help a few others tune cars, mostly carburetors and nitrous systems. I actually moderated the nitrous section of another forum for several years.



I'm also into fishing, mostly salt water. I mostly fish inshore but occasionally go offshore.

- I have a large rod and reel collection. Like most of my rc cars, many of my reels were used or damaged pieces that I got on ebay. Most are now as good or better than new.

- I have a couple boats but primarily use my skiff. My center console sits so much that I've been considering selling it. My wife also bought me a kayak but it has never seen water.

[Bottom Feeder]

Not a whole lot nowadays. While I love muscle cars and sports cars, I own neither. Also love sport bikes and bike racing but also don't own/do either. Computers take up all my time at work and I mess with them at home a bit. PC gaming is fun. Beyond that, handguns have been a new, expensive hobby. I've enjoyed learning more about them, safely handling them, modifying them, etc. I'd like to shoot steel somewhere someday as putting holes in paper has gotten a bit boring.

[Coelacanth]

I'm an I.T. manager for a power generation company. Like many of you, I'm also a car guy. I love old muscle cars and besides the daily driver '05 Dodge Magnum R/T AWD wagon, I have an '86 Buick Grand National and '70 Charger 500 (383 Magnum, my first car I bought when I was 19). The Charger needs a lot of work but the engine & bay are pretty much done. I play ice hockey twice a week (just getting back to it, thankfully, after a long COVID hiatus). I've also played the drums and keyboards since high school and am currently in a mostly-complete rock/prog rock band (looking for someone who can slappa da bay-ass!). My basement is a half-decent recording studio with PA system/speakers, 16-input audio interface, laptop and Reaper recording software. I have 2 kits, a Sonor Force 3005 6-piece and I later stumbled upon a ridiculous deal from MusicGoRound in USA for a used Sonor Delite 5-piece in rare Metallic Marine finish, including an even more rare matching 14" x 6" snare drum, a $5000+ kit that was selling for $1499...I managed to track down 8" and 16" toms in the same finish over the years and now it's my holy grail 7-piece kit.

For keys, there's a vintage Alesis QS8 quadra-synth that feels like you're playing a real piano...it weighs a fricken' ton but it'll probably never leave the basement, so it shouldn't matter...and a Nektar Panorama T6 MIDI controller keyboard.

I'm also into AFX slot cars, mainly the vintage Magna-Traction kind. During the early stages of the pandemic, I built a permanent layout on an 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, something I'd planned to do in my early 20's--30+ years ago--and finally got around to doing.

https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=110&t=45584

This summer, we added a pet to the family. My 11-year-old daughter really wanted a pet but I didn't want a rodent (hamster, guinea pig, rabbit) and she's not responsible enough for a dog, and I don't like/am allergic to cats. I've always wanted a parrot, so after a lot of research, decided on a Green-Cheeked Conure. It's basically a very little parrot with small-man syndrome. We chose him from a breeder, his hatch date was March 22, 2021...He's very affectionate and lovable, and really brought a lot of fun and smiles and brightened up the home during the dull days of COVID. He has learned one word, "peekaboo", and knows 6 tricks so far. It's surprising how intelligent he is! He can roll over and flies over to us when called (usually, heh). My wife was originally the least excited about getting a parrot, but now she's just as fond of him as my daughter and I are.

[shodog]

I work for a large aerospace company where I fabricate and assemble spacecraft. Most of my hobbies are mechanical. Working on bicycles, motorcycles and 1:1 cars. I also go out to sing Karaoke quite often.

[RC10th]

I'm also a muscle car guy, which has mostly been put on the backburner due to lack of money and time, also since moving to Australia the prices for US parts are outrageous. I have always been into RC which has remained constant but I have had many other hobbies on and off over the years.

From a young age I was into stunt kites which we used to fly regularly at the Shoreline amphitheatre, my dad had to hold my ankles so the bigger kites wouldn't pull me away. I still have my kites but since I don't live near the ocean they just sit in the corner in their bags.

I've got a few HO slot cars. When I was younger one of my neighbours friends 'who worked for BSRT slot cars' somehow found out that I was into slot cars, gave me a box of goodies. It was full of every BSRT tool, tons of chassis, heatsinks, tires, bodies, axles etc, you name it.

I've also been into vintage BMX, still have a couple bikes.

The Dukes of Hazzard was a big part of my life growing up

I wouldn't really call it a hobby of mine but we currently have a hobby farm, just maintaining it chews up a fair chunk of time and money.

I basically enjoying fixing up and restoring just about anything old. More recently I've sort of fixed up and souped up an old ride on mower to make yard work more fun, still need to rebuild the deck but I'll get to it one day.

[TRX-1-3]

I work for a large aerospace company where I fabricate and assemble spacecraft. Most of my hobbies are mechanical. Working on bicycles, motorcycles and 1:1 cars. I also go out to sing Karaoke quite often.

Sounds very interesting!


I did wildland fire suppression/management for 12 years then went over to the fleet maintenance side of the operation for a large government agency for 5 years. I am currently employed at a hobby automotive shop on an Army base. I essentially do shop chores and vehicle safety inspections. Alot of folks think it's non-stop cool stuff like dropping crate engines into muscle cars. But it is more like doing oil changes on older Hyundai and Kia sh*tboxes. The upside is I really enjoy helping customers solve their vehicle issues. And I love being the tool room enforcer. Some of my favorites are:

"Put it back where it goes!"

"That's metric, THIS is SAE! 3/8" is not 10mm!"

"That's a screwdriver, not a pry bar!"

[cas22]

Im an instrumentation technician at New Zealands only Steel mill, produce steel from Iron sand mined from our west coast beaches, enjoy getting out and exploring our nature walks, pictures here from the pinnacles walk near Corromandel, 7hrs return, very sore the next day, also Tama lakes near Mt Ruahuepu, Active volcano in Central north island.
Best fun has been rediscovering drumming again, now in a very relaxed band playing pubs and small gigs in summer, great relase from the precision of my daily work.

[Steve71]

I'm into a lot of various things. Truth be told I probably have too many hobbies. I use to be a big muscle car guy/gearhead pretty much my whole life, have had numerous GTO's, Chevelles, and an old t bird. spent about 30 yrs into cars. Started building an all tube chassis / fiberglass body 69 GTO to run mid 8's in the 1/4 some years ago, but after 15 yrs of work and well over 20k invested the price of parts just got to be so much I finally decided to sell that project just this past spring. I miss being into hot rods but it's got to the point of being a rich mans game these days so I don't miss shoveling the cash out the door.

Couple pics of the goat and bird I sold this past spring.



My main passion in life is fly fishing. Been fly fishing for over 30 yrs now and spend a great deal of time on the Au Sable river up north. Turned my enjoyment of fly fishing into a business 19 yrs ago and have ran my own custom fly rod business now since about 2002 so that's what I do for a full time job these days.


Another of my enjoyable things to do is to work with bonsai trees. I have been into Bonsai for about 10 yrs now and have a collection of about 15 or so tress that I have been working on for quite a few years now.



Then I am also into firearms. Enjoy going to the range and shooting as much as I can. Just got back from the range yesterday with a friend and put a few hundred rounds downrange. It's a great way to spend some time. Which is probably going to lead to a new hobby for me soon, reloading ammo. With the cost of ammo these days going through 100 rds of 9mm in an hour at the range gets pretty pricey. So I have been thinking about starting to learn reloading to save a bit on ammo costs.


There's some other hobbies I really enjoy as well, such as 3D printing & airbrushing my prints, painting on canvas when I get the chance, and I'm also into home theaters as well since I built mine a couple years ago. Throw in the RC hobby and I have a lot of interests, maybe a few too many

[dinglem]

Interesting thread to read - good to find out what makes the familiar usernames on here tick apart from vintage RC. Some interesting hobbies and occupations have already been mentioned.

Just before i got into RC as a kid the BMX revolution hit the UK, and I was thoroughly swept along with that. Before i re-entered the RC world I was restoring and building vintage BMX bikes as a pretty much full time hobby. It got pretty expensive and to me at least the re-release of certain bikes killed the magic off a little. I still have a large collection, but don't really build anymore. In fact, somebody on one of the BMX forums asked a similar question to the one which initiated this thread and i mentioned I used to also race RC cars, somebody asked for some pictures and i ventured up into the loft to dig out my old stuff.... and that is what kick-started all of this.

I am a Geophysicist/Geologist and work mainly offshore either discovering potential new oil and gas reserves or more recently, in the windfarm sector undertaking geotechnical and shallow seismic studies for windfarm turbine placements. I work for myself as a consultant which gives me a lot of flexibility and i only really have to work 6months or less a year. It gives me a LOT of online time when offshore at work (hence i can hunt and research so much), and then i try to avoid being online at all when I am at home with the family. I take project RC builds offshore with me to work on whilst I am there too.

The time off is great as the wife is now a full-time mum so when I am back we get a lot of quality time together. We have a young family (7, 4 and 8months... a result of that quality time!) so plenty going on day to day. I started late and am an older dad (48 next week) but the the upside is that I have somehow bagged a much younger wife. I gym a fair bit, run 5 to 10km every couple of days just to keep in shape. I watch a lot of rugby too, but haven't played myself since dislocating my left shoulder during a charity match in 2018. I am also a qualified snowboard instructor but that has now dropped down the list and we only get out to the Alps for a week or so each winter, COVID-permitting.

I would say my main hobby when i am back home is doing as i am told.

Like many who have already posted i am into full sized cars, albeit with a UK twist. I have a 1960 Austin Seven Mini, a 1969 Hillman Imp Van and a 1970 Sunbeam Stiletto. I also have a thing for old house restorations. Our family home is a farmhouse which dates from 1650 so that is a lot of daily upkeep in itself, and we have another one over in France which is an 1850 labour of love.

[LowClassCC]

I do auto restoration on 90's Honda's and other small cars like Triumph's. Spend most weekends during the summer months at small local car shows with my imported Japanese Kei car, a 1993 Honda Beat Version Z.

I teach kids to do basic mechanics, body, paint, and custom work. (Sadly the kids these days are not on the same level as they were when I started doing this 30 years ago.)

I home school my son.

Have a small animal hobby farm. I use to do animal rescue but have since stopped.

While r/c related I am in the process of building a large "backyard" offroad track. Been a work in progress for the past 4 years.