Feb 27 2012
New hobby, RC cars!
My son, Malikai, got an RC car for Christmas. While outside playing with the car with him I decided it would be fun to get an RC car of my own.
So I went to the hobby store and got an introductory car, a Helion Animus 18sc. The thing is amazing!
It is a lot faster than I expected it to be, with an advertised top speed of 20 Miles per Hour.
Saturday was a beautiful day out, so we raced our RC cars up and down the driveway outside our house. The gravel left on the road after the last snow storm made the car skid a lot, and it tackled a rocky area near my house without trouble.
Sunday was another beautiful day, so we went to a park that has a large cement pad and raced the cars. The battery lasted for quite a while, so long that I never got to see how long it would take to discharge. And then, it happened.
I tried to spin the car around a light post, but was closer than I thought, and ended up hitting the concrete base with one tire while going nearly top speed.
I ended up busting the front suspension arm. Yeah, that sucks. My second day with the car and I break it. (I always have such bad luck with hardware….) 
Luckily these cars let you buy replacement parts instead of having to buy a whole new car. Anew suspension arm will only cost $7.50, but everybody here is sold out! I hope I get it before next weekend.
One thing I would recommend though, is to buy a quick charge charger. The charger that comes with the car will charge the battery in 5 hours. The quick charge lets you customize how quickly the to charge the battery. The battery recommends 1.1 to 1.5 amps, so I charged it at 1.3 amps and it charged in about an hour. Not too bad! Well worth the investment.
This hobby turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and I look forward to using it as a means to spend more time with my son, and to spend more time outdoors.
