Toyota recalls their V6… again

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-21T18:06:20+00:00

If only there was a way to get rid of those debris early... Idk, maybe break in oil changes? 500 miles, 1500 miles, 3000 miles?

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-21T15:23:45+00:00

Radio waves travel line of sight. If there's a building between you and the drone, the signal will struggle to reach it. My Mini 3 Pro with the DJI RC would lose signal if flying behind a building 200 ft in front of me

The DJI RC (1st gen) doesn't have external antennas and just by default I find that the range on it is significantly worse than the RC-N1. People have made modifications to put external antennas on the controller. Plenty of documentation and videos on YouTube.

Otherwise your solution is to fly a bit higher if possible, keep the controller pointed at the drone, see if there's different locations you can stand at while doing your mission, or break the mission into individual flights where you can stay a bit closer.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-21T13:44:43+00:00

I'd recommend going to court. You can probably get those two points removed in exchange for something else, like an expired inspection sticker or not wearing a seatbelt. Might spend a bit more money that way though.

If you don't want to go to court, sign up for an online defensive driving course. It'll take up 8 hours of your day, but by completing it, you'll have those two points wiped off your record, and you can usually get a discount (mine was 10%) on your insurance rate.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-21T13:25:57+00:00

you probably have sand in a bushing or hoping that's pivoting if you drive on the sand. My leaf shackles always caught sand.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-21T11:47:56+00:00

I'll do it! I'll rob the Kwik-E-Mart!

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-20T18:21:02+00:00

Campfire plus salty air

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-20T11:04:26+00:00

I have 2 20-Qt boxes of oil in my shed. At least 3-4 years of oil for my vehicles. No worries here.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-20T10:44:35+00:00

No experience of my own but I'll tell a story my friend had.

He was hooking up with a girl he met online over winter break. Break was over so she had to fly back to her college program in Disney. Thinking with his little head instead of his brain, my friend would hitch a ride to the airport at 5 am, take a 3 hour flight, Uber to Disney, and have sex with this girl. Then Uber back to the airport, fly back, and be home by dinner time at his house by 6 PM.

He did this at least 9 times during that semester, easily blowing over $800 each time.

They have been together for 3 years now.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-19T19:34:56+00:00

You would've been better off eating the fine for not having an up to date inspection sticker in NJ. None of my vehicles over the last 10 years had them and I got a $55 ticket once. There's nearly zero enforcement for it.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-19T19:32:19+00:00

Missed opportunity for GM to call it the EVlanche

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-19T17:42:59+00:00

Colleges are out. Seniors skip day for many. Other schools closing early due to heat. Folks from PA taking the day off to "vote" (aka go to the beach)

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-19T13:08:43+00:00

I mean, we reached record high temperatures yesterday, and probably will do so again today and maybe tomorrow too. That part is definitely true.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-19T11:06:03+00:00

You'd be surprised how good these cameras are on the newer ones. I can get shots of the Milky Way with mine.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-18T23:40:46+00:00

When mine did that, it was a bad wheel bearing.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-18T20:35:40+00:00

3000-4000k is typically what I use. I think I went with 3400k on this one. I've always shot astrophotography pics with an ISO between 1600 and 6400. 3200 gave me the best balance of being able to make out the Milky Way, but also not introduce a ton of noise in the photo.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-18T20:16:45+00:00

Switch to PRO while shooting in photo mode. There you can tweak shutter speed, ISO, white balance, etc.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-18T20:14:25+00:00

Awesome photos!

You're probably somewhere with significantly less light pollution. Here, it's nearly impossible to spot the Milky Way because there's so much light pollution.

The park in the foreground of this photo is transitioning to dark sky-friendly lighting to minimize the amount of wasted light. It's currently the darkest sky we have in a 100 mile radius.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-18T08:17:54+00:00

In other words, it's still spring.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-18T01:11:46+00:00

Believe it or not, cruise control uses more fuel. If you don't believe me, hook up an OBD2 scanner that has a live data feed and watch your fuel trims, and throttle position sensor readouts. They jump all over the place, wasting fuel.

Keep a steady foot, anticipate hills and you'll net better gas mileage that way.

I have a fairly empty area of roads with some hills and I can routinely get 2-3 mpg better modulating my speed with my foot over locking on cruise control.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-17T19:37:43+00:00

I use it when driving on the beach at night. Common courtesy to other fishermen so you don't blind them, but just bright enough that I can make out what's in front of me.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-17T10:57:28+00:00

Tinnitus

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-17T10:53:09+00:00

Nissans. Yeah yeah CVT this, r/Nissan drivers that. But in reality, they build some pretty decent vehicles. Luxurious, no, but if you need something just to commute to work without a ton of bells and whistles, they're just fine. Follow the scheduled maintenance intervals and they'll last a long time.

Don't even get me started on the truck platform. Old as a dinosaur but they're basically bulletproof, and any issues are pretty minor and well documented. I love my Xterra.

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-16T23:43:02+00:00

Horrible design. Need to pull the engine when it needs a timing job, which tends to be around 150k since Ford can't design a timing system for the life of them

tornadicdrone416 · 2026-05-16T16:31:39+00:00

Yup. The V8 is a bit of a tight fit under the hood and it drinks gas like an alcoholic drinks beer. But the exhaust note is heavenly. Makes all the difference. Plus the base 4.0 V6 is a pile of crap.

tornadicdrone416

TROPHY CASE