Looks like I'll be flying a Blackhawk from Ft. Campbell again late this week. I'll be heading from Campbell, to St. Louis, MO, to Olathe, KS to Lincoln, NE, to North Platte, NE, to Denver, CO and on to Eagle CO. I'll be in Eagle for about a week or so doing some more high altitude flying. Should be a good time.

If you are near bye along the way, lemme know, you can come out and check out the aircraft at each of my stops.

Laine.

Well, I found an awesome deal on a 6 foot Telemaster ARF one day when I stopped in at Hobby Lobbys Sidewalk Sale. Not my style of plane at all, but of course, I never pass up a great deal and I picked it up! In my spare time over the last two nights, I assembled it, put the servos linkages and RX in it. All Im waiting on now is my motor and ESC to get here.

This thing has to be the EASIEST ARF I have ever put together! Probably 4 hours total time in it right now. And trust me, I was in no hurry doing it. One thing that really stands out to me is just how light it feels! For a 6 foot span plane, this thing weighs nothing, but it sure feels strong.

Of course, I have to modify it slightly so it dosnt look like every other Telemaster out there. So, I slapped on some old worn out Traxxas Rustler wheels and tires that I had on my truck over in Afghanistan, I pulled off the HOBBY LOBBY TELEMASTER decals from the wing and fuse, and I will add some more color to it another time.

Anyway, who knows when I will get out and maiden this one and the Bobcat I just finished.

Laine.

I decided that during the day time (on the weekends) I needed to get my butt to work on my REAL cars/trucks again. At night, I can work on the planes I want to get finished.

So, back to work on my drag car. Its an 89 Dodge Ram 50 pickup (smallest/lightest Dodge truck I could find). I cut the rear frame off, and added a Checkered Racing 4-link frame and 4-link setup. Along with the 4-link, I had a 8 3/4" Dodge rear end (from a 73 Challenger) cut down so I could fit a set of 29"x18.5" Hoosier Pro Street Radials under the bed. The Frame is 20" wide in the rear, the bed is 63" wide, so these big old tires just barely fit under it. Now I just need to order my axle shafts from Moser Engineering, and I'll have the rear suspension done. FINALLY. Then its on to insalling the roll cage.

For those interrested, power will come from a small block Dodge (360) For now its pretty mild with flat top pistons, stock heads, a 284 duration, 484 lift cam, Edelbrock intake/Carb and some shorty headers. Eventually it will be stroked to a 408 with aluminum heads on it. But, that will be down the road.

For now, I just want to get it "finished" and driving. Yes, it will be street driven also.

Laine.

I figured it was time for another update on the 51" span Bobcat. I been workin on this thing for weeks! But, being an Army pilot kinda takes a lot of time, so it still has no prop on it and has not been maidened yet. I need a day off!

Thanks to my little buddy Kameron for sitting still with Hemi long enough for me to get a picture!

I put some HS 225mg servos on the elevator, some HS 81s on the rudders, some Scanner RC MG servos on the ailerons and a Scanner RC MG servo on the nose wheel. It has an AR 7000 RX in it, a Castle BEC Pro, a Castle Ice 75 and an AXI 4130 outrunner on the back. I would like to run 8S 4450s in it. I'll have to see what prop will work without overloading the motor/lipos or ESC. I may have to step down to 6S. Either way, it looks like it will be a lot of fun once I get it in the air.

Laine.

Hey guys, Im lookin for some help here if possible. I have been tasked with organizing our fund raiser for our Battalion Christmas Party. 660 soldiers/aviators, plus their familys. They want me to do another "give-away" to help raise some money for our "Family Readiness Groups".

A give away is like a raffle, only with a different name. The Army dosnt allow "Raffles". I am trying to find "stuff" to give away! So far, I have a couple guys checking for some guitars, keyboards, some hunting gear, hobby type stuff, you name it.

I am looking for some beginner type RTF stuff to add to the mix. Something like a Super Cub, Easy Star, Blade CX heli, Traxxas trucks etc... Has to be new, has to be ok for someone who has never done RC so we can give it away. Or, if you have something else that would be a good addition to this give away, that would be great too. This stuff will be for soldiers, their kids, or thier spouses. And ALL the money we raise stays in our Battalion to help our soldiers and families.

So far, my LHS has promised me something... dont know what yet. Daisy has offered up 6 Red Ryder BB guns (3 normal and 3 pink ones) (Yes, Daisy sells PINK bb guns!!!). And Im waiting on some answers from a group of Realtors that want to get something to help us out.

Anyone have anything, know anyone who would be willing to donate something, or have an idea of who I can contact? Biggest problem right now is short notice. The party is the 2nd week of Dec.

Laine.

Finally got a chance to snap a picture of some of my fleet together today. These are some of my favorite planes.

PS all of them except one are FOR SALE too! Gotta get ready for my next year tour in Afghanistan. The red/yellow plane with flames on it is NOT for sale. That is my baby!

Laine.

What a great day! I went down to John C. Tune airport in Nashville, TN this morning and met up with Steve Johnson. Steve is the owner of an MX2 (serial number 009).

We took off from Rwy 20, headed NW out of the Nashville Class C area and it was off the hook from then on! Steve did rolls, loops, quban 8s, snap rolls, stall turns, knife edge and combinations of all of thee above. Full deflection aileron rolls are a blurr! The first one bounced my head off the canopy when he started, and when he stopped! AWESOME to say the least! That dude is an awesome pilot!

Then it was my turn! WOW is that thing responsive! Very similar to a Blackhawk acctually. So, I did some rolls and loops and general screwing around. Its surprising how my RC experience and helicopter flight time really make that stuff easy. Im sure my manuevers were not nearly as pretty as Steves, but over all I dont think they were bad. With a .93 to 1 trust to weight ratio in a 1200lbs airplane, that flies as smooth as that thing does, everything looks and feels "right"!

So, if you are ever wondering what to do late on a Sunday morning, find a guy with an MX2 and go for a flight!!!

You can see more pics and info about Steve and his plane at www.stuntplane.com

THANK YOU Steve!!!!

Laine.

A couple hours ago I decided to get another ARF built this afternoon. I chose my new 51" span Bobcat from NeoPlanes.com. I would have to say, this was one of the easiest ARFs I have ever built! It took about 3 hours from pulling out of the box, to what you see here. Sure, there are no electronics in it yet, but, pretty much everything else is done.

Once my servos and brushless motor arrive, I'll have it all together and ready to go in no time.

Click on the "Comments" for this post and you can check out some more pictures and my "mini build thread".

Laine.

Well, I figured out what plane to build today the easy way. I asked the wife. She is a HUGE fan of Gee Bees (she calls them Bee Gees cuz she's silly). Her favorite is the R1, but, I dont have one of those yet. So, I put this one together today. I'll install the electronics in a couple days if all goes right.

Now, lets see if I can get another ARF put together today. Might as well have the airframes ready for the electronics!

Laine.

Well, Im home from 11 days of flying an Army Blackhawk for high altitude training in Colorado. It was fun for sure, but, now Im home, and I have planes to build!

So, Im trying to figure out what to do next. I have a few planes waiting to be built/finished/repaired. An Eflite Extra, a Gee Bee Senior Sportster, an Ultimate Bipe, a 51" Bob Cat, a 60" flying wing, a Combat Corsair, a H.O.B. Mustang, a Bullit Delta, and a small Pitts S2 that needs a quick repair. Plenty of planes to choose from thats for sure.

I have power systems for most of them, but, I need a ton of servos and recievers to get them in the air. I guess I just need to figure out which one to work on first and order up some servos and a reciever to get-r-done.

Or, maybe I should work on my 46 Dodge... Or, maybe I should put the transmission back in my 1SGs Jeep... Or, maybe I should fix the transmission in my sons 93 Dakota... Or maybe I should work on my race car... Or maybe I'll just sit on my butt, relax for a few days and just hang out with the wife and kids. The latter sounds the best, but I just dont know if I can sit still that long!

Decisions decisions!

Laine.

Well, we had our fun last weekend at the Fun Fly in Tullahoma, TN. Time to get back to Army life. Im rollin out for Colorado for 10 days +/- to do some high altitude flight stuff. So, no more workin on my planes, and flying in the evenings for a week and a half. At least the scenery out there is awesome!

In other news, my 16 year old maidened the first plane he has ever built by himself! Its a 44" Cox 380 trainer. We chucked the brushed system and put in a Ultra Fly FRIO 9 brushless outrunner with a 10x4.7 prop and a 3S 1320 lipo. I took it up, trimmed it, handed it over to him and he flew out the entire battery himself! He did about 10 -15 patterns, 3 takeoffs, some "low approaches" and finally brought it in and landed it by himself. He came in a little steep, and broke the prop, but hey, the plane is still in one piece! Proud daddy I am! Now, to get him an AMA card so he can come to the field with me.

Laine.

I got all the electronics in tonight. I put the Scanner RC servos from Hobby-Lobby into it that used to be in the SRT/10. A 6S 5000mah lipo supplies the electricity to run the Venom V-50 outrunner mounted on the nose with a 14x7 APC prop and a cute little Dubro plastic spinner. It has a Castle Creations HV-85 in it (overkill for sure) and a Castle Creations CC BEC to run the servos.

I made the top part of the fuse in front of the wing into a battery hatch held on by magnets. I replaced all the hinges on the control surfaces with dubro hinges. Of course, the covering is now Monokote with some automotive pinstriping on it. I also put some new Dubro control horns on it and I replaced the 2.5" foam tires with some 3.5" rubber tires to give it a tad more prop clearance.

I put the motor on some stand-offs to help get the balance just right. In "flight trim" it balances out perfectly with no added wieght anywhere. The only thing left, is to put a battery tray into the front over the top of the ESC then its ready to go.

So, now that its done... whats next? I have 2.5 more days before we head out to Tullahoma with the trailer in tow for the fall fun fly. Hmmm... there has to be another plane or two around here I can fix up real quick before we go. We'll see I guess.

Laine.

EDIT: Put it on the wattmeter tonight. 1250 watts and 65 amps. So I could go with just a little more prop if I needed to, but, it wants to climb straight up out of my hands at about half throttle. Should be a fun plane! If I get home in time tomorrow, I'll put it in the air and find out.

Laine.

On Wed, September 30th (my 35th birthday) my new (to me) .60 size H9 Super Stick showed up in the mail. Sent from a new friend down in Floriday, the SS had seen its share of use. I stripped it down, made some minor repairs, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned the goo and slime off the plane, put on a coat of poly, sanded it and started recovering the beast.

4 days later, with a little help from my little lady (and a big mess in my building room) its done. Now, its on to installing the new power system. 6S 5000mah lipos, Venom V-50 400kv outrunner and of course, a Castle Creations ESC and BEC that should zing this thing around pretty good.

Laine.

A new aquaintance, srwtippler here on RCG, was kind enough to ship his old .60 size Hangar 9 Super Stick to me pretty darn cheap. I have a 1200 watt 6S power system sitting here and some servos, so, I figured what the heck. It looks pretty rough right now, but seems to be nice and solid.

Tomorrow, my two teenagers will be hard at it again stripping the covering off of another one for me. With any luck, by Sunday night I'll stick some pics up here after I make this stick stick out by sticking on some new sticky stuff to make this into a Super Stick we would all stick in our hangar. Wow, that stunk! Pics of the progress will follow of course.

Laine.

Recovered the little bugger yesterday during the NASCAR race and on into the Colts game. Took a bit longer than I thought it would, but its done. I used up some "short rolls" of metallic charcoal, pearl green and metallic silver. Of course, I ran out of silver pinstriping too, so that will get put on in a day or two. The bottom is red to match the landing gear. Looks kinda Christmasy with the green and red though.

The entire thing is kinda a concoction of random leftover stuff. Came out ok, not my best job thats for sure. But, the 700+ watts on board should make up for anything it dosnt have in the looks department.

Laine.

Well, that was quick! About 2 hours to strip the bugger down. One Cracked wing rib, a couple iffy glue joints, a little sanding, and a warped horiz. stab. Thats the damages I guess. Not that bad for a plane that has been through the hell this one has. That includes spending 2 weeks on the covered front porch at one point.

So, given that I have time I want to get it fixed up, recovered and back in the air in just a couple days. Heck its been 4 months or more since it flew last already. Im sure its happy just to get a little attention!

Laine.

So, I spent a couple weeks at Ft. Bragg about 2 years ago. While I was there, I found this Ultra Stick 25E for sale RTF with an OS 25 on it for $200. So, I needed a plane to fly while I was there and figured what the heck.

After 2 flights on the slimer motor, I pulled it and put on an AXI 2820/08 and a 4S 3700mah lipo. MUCH better.

Well, 2 years of flyin, one minor crash, landing gear ripped out a dog chewin on the tail section and hangar rash do a number on a "beat around" plane like this. TIME TO RECOVER IT!!!

With the help of my teenagers we started stripping down the old beast. So, I present to you, part 1 of the "Chronicles of the Beater Stick".

Laine.

Hey all. So, after months of "life" getting in the way, I finally got the Demon and the Sledgehammer done today. They are RTF now. Fully glassed, and built nice and strong but not excessively heavy.

Both of them have identical power systems, Neu 1112 1Y motors, Castle Creations Phoenix 80 ESCs, and 3S 5000mah lipos. I will run an APC 5x5 prop on both of them for the maiden flight and we'll see where we go from there.

The Sledge is Blue and Orange.

The Demon is Yellow and Black.

Hope to maiden them tomorrow if the weather straightens up some. Stupid rain.

Laine.

Here is a short flight video my son took for me. Nothing special, but, now you can see it fly! Hopefully I'll get it down to the water soon.

Splash 9 (1 min 10 sec)

One of my buddies (Warlord6101) got me thinkin about float planes and flyin off the water the other day when he built some floats for his 40 size trainer. So, I had to go out to the garage, bust out my CAD program and CNC machine so I could design something for some water fun.

This is the prototype I came up with. A seaplane I have dubbed "The Splash 9". It is CNC hot wire cut 1.9lbs EPP, hollow fuse, with a 32.5" wingspan, 9.25" chord, 4 channel plane that will have an outrunner mounted above the wing. I'll try it as a tractor motor and as a pusher and see what works better. It still needs a spar put in the wing, servos and control rods installed and a motor/esc mounted.

Once I get the design tested, tweeked and finalized if anyone is interrested in them I'll cut some more and put them up for sale. So, if you think this is something you might like to have, or if you have any ideas on what changes would make it more to your liking, LET ME KNOW HERE! And, well, if you hate it, think it sucks, its ugly or whatever, well, LET ME KNOW! I got thick skin, so its all good.

So, here it is, the Spash 9.

Laine.