So, my little buddy Kameron wasn't feeling too good for the last week or so. Fever started going up, he started having pretty bad pain. So, Tuesday morning, off to the hospital we went. Around 2pm he had his appendix taken out. Surgury on your little ones is never fun. Even simple stuff like an appendix. Scares the hell out of daddys!

Now he is home agian doin fine. He has been kickin my butt on the X Box while he recovers. Dang kids. How can a 7 year old stomp my butt!!! Im getting old

Here is a picture of his super cool scar. Chicks dig scars! But, he says girls have cooties. Oh well, he'll figure that one out soon enough on his own.

Now that he is up and runnin again, back to work on my truck and some planes.

Laine.

So, as some of you have noticed, the progress on my planes has stopped for awhile. I have been very busy, most every day workin on my #1 hobby... Dodge cars/trucks (Mopars). So, here a couple pics just to show you all what I have been up to since I got back from Afghanistan.

This is my 46 Dodge WD-15. I bought it about a year and half ago give or take. Of course, being gone for a year of that didnt help with the progress at all. Anyway, my goal is to have it on the road, driving by the end of the year. Its a lofty goal to say the least.

I stripped it down to a bare frame before I left. It now has an independant front suspension with Alden Eagle adjustable coil overs, rack and pinion steering and power disk brakes from Scotts Hot Rods in Cali. The rear has late model Dodge leaf springs and hangers and a 72 Challenger 8 3/4" rear end under it. The wheels/tires shown are just temps (from a Jeep) until the welding, grinding and painting is done. Then the 17" or 18" ones will go on.

For power, I have a 70's V-8, 360cid (5.9L for you tuner types) that Im building up to about 400HP or so. I have a late model A-518 overdrive trans for it, but Im thinking a late model 5 speed would be more fun, so that might change.

And yes, for those of you who are "in the know" that IS the big old Ohio Combat SRT/10 hanging from the ceiling behind it.

Anyway, this is what I have been up to recently. More plane work will come as I need to get ready for SEFF too!!!

Laine.

Here are some pics of my Mini Super Sportster.

Jan 13. Well, here is the beginning of my latest build. Just a few hours work so far. Its coming along well.

Anyone care to take a guess at what it is, or rather, what it will be when its done? Lets see how smart you guys are!

Laine.

Jan14. A little more progress today. I got the center section of the wing mostly put together.

So far, the hardest thing about this kit, is finding the pieces in the big pile of sticks!

Laine.

After spending the last few weeks getting back into the swing of being in the States again, then travelling to Nebraska for Christmas to see family and doin all that good stuff, it was time to build again!

Luckily for me, I bought this 45ish inch span Cedar Hobbies Bipe Stick a few weeks before I came home from Afghanistan. Since I LOVE bipes, it was begging to be built.

I spent about 2 afternoons assembling it. Really simple plane, as most "sticks" are. Its made for a 25 - 40 nitro motor. I went with a Dualsky 4250 6T and a 4S 3700 Flight Power lipo. Of course it has a Castle Creations controller in it and BEC. I could have used HS 81s on the plane to save some weight. But, it was made for standard size servos, and I have tons of them laying around. Figured the extra weight wouldnt hurt this one. So, it has some Spektrum servos that came with my DX-7 radios. They seem to work quite nicely.

The maiden went great, in between rain showers anyway. The little lady did a quick video for me, and I felt out the bipe. Smooth flying plane, even with half a Barbie on the controls My wife and daughter chose the pilot. I simply undressed her, cut her in half, redressed her and put her in. Man, here I am, 34 years old, playin with dolls... Also, those big old RC truck wheels work great! The look pretty cool too IMO.

Enjoy all, more to follow Im sure.

Laine.

Bipe Stick (3 min 47 sec)

Well, I just had to do it. The 5th day I was home, I had to start on a plane. The 24" span Agressor delta kit from JGRC. Really easy build. Airframe went together in about 2 hours or so. Covering has taken me a day, and it could be in the air as soon as tomorrow if I hinged the elevons.

Power is a Dons RC Wicked outrunner (2700kv) and a 3S 2100 lipo. Should scoot the little bugger along at about 90-100mph.

Laine....Continue Reading

Hey guys/gals. Made it home late last night. Family was freezin their butts off watchin for the plane to come into Ft. Campbell. 2 hours later, I was on the way to the house. Got to shower in a real shower, sleep in a real bed and tuck my kids into bed last night. Life will be back to normal soon. Catch yall later. Thank you all for the support and I hope to see ya'll at a flyin sometime.

Laine.

Well, its official. Barring any unforseen crazyness, I have less than 24 hours to go. I will be outta here, see ya, laters, bye bye now, gone, history. Bye bye Bagram.

It has been a long long year away from the family. My wife has had some tough times at home with things breaking, falling apart, kids acting up, her own college classes, and numerous other issues. She handled them all, just as usual, like a pro. A guy cant ask for a better wife, let alone an Army wife. I sure am a lucky guy.

Our 3 kids, well, yeah, they drove mom nuts all year. But they also kept her laughing, helped her when she needed it, and generally just did their part while dad was gone.

It will be so nice to tuck the little one into bed again at night and tickle the crap out of him. As for the older two, I'll be there to work with my oldest on his truck. He will be rebuilding his engine/trans and everything else on his truck over the next year. Otherwise, he wont be driving! Thats just the way it goes at our house. You wanna drive it, you gotta build it. Yes, my daughter will be doing the same thing next year on her vehicle. As for her, well, I'll be putting the fear of DAD into all those boys who keep calling her! Oh yeah, daddy is comin home.

Then there are all of you guys here on RCG. Wow! You guys together sent us sooooo much stuff. From airplanes, motors, radios etc... to cookies, candy and drinks. You just cant find a better group of people than what we have here on RCG. Maybe thats why Im on here for hours every day! Thank you all. Make sure you find me at SEFF, hopefully some of the guys will be coming along also.

Thanks again, and see ya all soon.

CW2 Laine C. Stahr.... Out.

Hey all. I am down to less than a week to go now until I leave for home! Soooo, I figured I'd post a few misc pics that we took through out the year that I never got posted. I have about a million more, but who has time to post a million pictures!

Enjoy the colaboration of craziness.

Laine....Continue Reading

Since the last pics were a bit blurry, I figured I'd get a couple more of the Mustang after I put some stripes on the wings this afternoon. Its lookin good. As always more to do though and never enough time.

Laine.

So good old Fizzy and his buddies hooked us up with some planes!

What we have here are Henry Bayer (one of our company test pilots) doing his first build ever, a House of Balsa Laser Stick and little old me working on the House of Balsa P-51. They are coming along nicely if I do say so.

Henry is doin a great job on his, even though its hot pink (in honor of his daughter I'll add). The P-51 is getting there. Tons of sanding on this one. But, its worth it. As you can tell, Im not going to make the covering "scale" really, just kinda what I want it to be. Some of the guys disagree, but they arent building it!!

Its getting iffy as to if we will finish these things before we leave or not. Only a month-ish left for all of us and we have to get stuff sent home. We are giving it our best shot though!

Thanks to everyone!

Laine.

This plane is sweet. Smoothest foam plane I have flown in a long time. It just slips through the air so nicely and handles great. I need to put a small spar in the wing, but otherwise, this thing is awesome! Looks like I might need a little more stick time to get my "skills" back though.

Thank you to all the guys who sent stuff over too us here. It has really been great having something to build/fly during our small amounts of "downtime".

MS Composite Unique in Afghansitan (3 min 7 sec)

So, this is the result of a nose in crash from about 75 feet up. Had a "radio malfunction" (read: when the radio starts beeping at you, LAND!!! lol)

Anyway, nose plant had minor damage to the plane (surprising) the the battery was, as you can see, smoked. So, to be "safe" we smacked it around a little with a long chunk of metal! Sounds safe right?? Well, in our defense, we are trained professionals (as Black Hawk pilots anyway!). Plus, we were in the middle of the friggin desert! not much to damage there.

So, after just a couple smacks, the smoke came, then very quickly and violently so did the fire. Once it was done, it was burried for good.

Cool to do and watch, not so cool in your garage or somewhere else!

Laine.

Matt and I got to go out and fly the other day again. This is one of the little planes we took out with us. Cant tell you much about it, other than it is completely made of carbon fiber. Flies like a dream too! Really nice on an AXI 2208/34, 3S Thunder Power 2100 a graupner 8x4.5 folder.

Laine.

So, we finally got Matts Cub up in the air a couple days ago. The weather was perfect, we were not on the flight schedule, nothing could stop us... or so we thought!

We got to the field, set up with the buddy cord, and I planned to take off for him and trim it out. Well, it had other ideas. It went hard left and into the ground. Easy fix with some CA right there at the "field".

So, we tried again. This time, it got airborn! Sweeeet! It flew... well, ok I guess. So, I made some trim adjustments in the air and hit the trainer switch so Matt could fly his creation!

He flew great, although the plane flew, well, again, ok I guess. Matt decided to come in and land, but I said, "fly it longer, it could be your only flight!" He agreed and kept on puttering around the field.

About 2 minutes later, on a nice mid speed, 20 foot high or so pass near us, the wing decided it had done enough work for the day. That thing folded up like a book in mid flight and, well, you know the rest!

We all laughed a bit, because it was cool to see it happen. Matt wasnt too upset since it wasnt the nicest looking plane we have seen. But, on a good note, it did fly! Not bad for a first build ever and a rookie pilot on the controls.

Enjoy the pics!

Matt and I did some work on our planes today. His Cub is coming along pretty good. Not bad for a first EVER build. My "Hummingbird" is looking interresting. The blue is a little "sedate" but it looks ok. The wife thought it would look good with some #43 and STP decals. Too bad I didnt listen.

So, we get a little silly when we work sometimes. As you can tell by the pictures. Mine is ready to maiden once we have time and weather for it. Matts will be about one more day and it will be ready to go.

Laine.

For those of you who have been following the building progress of The Lighthouse over here, I would like you to take a look at what the great guys at Castle Creations are doing for us! Click HERE and check it out!

Thank you all and thank you Castle Creations!

Laine.

So, good old CW2 Dennis Eelkema finished building his Mountain Models Smoothie that Shovelheadfreak sent over to us. Sorry, no build pictures, as he was in such a hurry to finish it he didnt take any.

However, here are some pics of "maiden flight day" on, as Dennis calls it his "ninja plane". Yeah, he's a bit different, but he keeps us laughing.

I did the maiden for him just to get it all set up and trimmed. We are flying it on an AXI 2208/34, 9x4.7 prop and two 3S 1320 lipos. Plenty of power and just heavy enough to handle the mild winds today. All in all, great flying little plane!

I didnt have my buddy box available today, so I took it up about 150 feet and handed him the TX. He flew about 3 nice patterns before getting a bit disoriented. I took the TX and landed it without incident though. All in all, not bad at all for a firts time builder/flyer!

Laine.

So, again, thank you to Shovelheadfreak for sending some planes over for us. These pictures are of my Lee Stangel Hummingbird kit Im working on and Matt Coles Hobby-Lobby Super Cub he is working on.

Both are turning out quite nicely and both should be done sometime this week, depending on our schedules.

The Cub is Matts first kit build ever. He saw it when it came and freaked because he LOVES Cubs. Unfortunatly, we didnt have enough yellow covering for him to do the entire thing yellow. Its all good though, its taught him how to add some detail to a covering job.

My Hummingbird is a really neat little kit. 30ish inch wingspan and I love the long nose on it. Really gives it an interresting look. It is supposed to be built with some dihedral, but I dont like dihedral! So, I "took it out". I'll be powering this one with an AXI 2208/34 with a 8 or 9" prop. Should fly quite nicely and balance out really easily.

More to follow later!

Laine.

Courtesy of "shovelheadfreak" we now have some more planes over here! This is one that I decided to build. Its a Acro 28 from Slofly. Im running an AXI 2208/34 on it with a 3S 1320 (cuz thats what I have!) Flys pretty well too now that the winds have started dying down in the evenings.

I did the maiden yesterday. Quite happy with it! Thanks Shovelhead!

More pics of more planes coming soon!

Laine.