Stay Frosty

[DonStegall]

If you read these forums at all you have to have noticed that I have been quite active. 2017 was a very bad year. First a dramatic reduction in pay from 2015 and 2016. Then kidney failure in July that had started in April. Then a broken molar in September that I could not get pulled until November 13 because of an insurance change or I would have had major out-of-pocket expenses (see the first problem of the year).

Since around Christmas I have been back to my usual highly energetic and prolific self with a week or two here and there with migraines.

I always do a lot of things at once. Some would say unfocused. But I wrote a large portion of the restaurant Point-of-Sale (POS) system than ran Starbuck Coffee restaurants, Hardee's, Steak and Shake, and Jack in the Box for almost 15 years. I was the Chief Architect and ran the technical team of 30+ software engineers. (Talk about managing egos) You may have heard the terms Agile and SCRUM. I was doing these before they were even acronyms. One does not write around 50% of a 1.5 million lines of code without focus. And while I was doing that I learned to fly and was flying full scale planes. I learned all about things like DME arcs and VOR navigation, as well as ILS approaches. And flying IFR with a CFII. And I did this without an FAA medical and knowing that I could probably never fly without a CFI or CFII. In 200o when we moved into a house that my wife and I designed while I was writing the software mentioned above.

So I'm highly focused. I just do many things at once. It is nice when things wrap up.

When I got the thing working except for some mechanical design flaws and some poor choices of embedded controller communication done by others, my high paying contract ended. So sometimes finishing things is not such a good thing. I constantly have to prove my value in my field. Not yearly, not monthly or weekly, but hourly.

I work hard. I play hard. Sometimes I try too hard.

But all I want to do is have some fun. I enjoy R/C and the socialization part of it. I'm not the best pilot because I don't fly all the time with all of my other projects. But I have fun flying planes and quads and working on FPV quad flying/racing.

The most recent album by Van Halen with David Lee Roth pretty much sums up my feelings about life and people. On the album "A Different Kind Of Truth" there is a song called "Stay Frosty" .. you can listen to a bit at https://www.amazon.com/Different-Kind-T ... d+of+truth

My favorite line in the song is "If you don't want 'em to get your goat, don't show 'em where it's hid" ...

Maybe I don't hide my goat. Or maybe I do.

While I write online, I like talking to people on the phone. Expression is vastly superior in conversation than in electronic communication.

I'm doing a lot of videos. I've been doing a lot of videos. You can visit my main YouTube channel at http://DonStegall.com ... Please visit http://RCPylon.TV and http://RCFieldBox.com when you have a few minutes.

You can also get to my videos at IStayFrosty.com

So let's all "Stay Frosty"

Sincerely,

Don Stegall

[Kurt Bozarth]

Hey Don,

Sounds like you are getting through some tough times. I am glad you are overcoming and I look forward to meeting you in person soon. Stay Frosty!

Kurt

[DonStegall]

Hey Don,

Sounds like you are getting through some tough times. I am glad you are overcoming and I look forward to meeting you in person soon. Stay Frosty!

Kurt

Thanks Kurt.

I have been thinking of you a lot, especially with me having a high chance of getting colon cancer with the Crohn's Disease. I have had 14-15 colonoscopies.

Anytime you have some free time and want to just chat, give me a call 704-968-2881.

The album with "Stay Frosty" on it is is one of the best Van Halen albums with David Lee Roth, or even Sammy Hagar. It's got a lot of crunchy rhythms.

What you guys did in Colorado with the Sky Raider Mach II planes with 424 engines was part of the genesis of Club40Racing.com ... You guys had the right idea ... Myself and others just ran with it.

Thinking of you and praying for you.

[DonStegall]

I have to tell you I'm feeling pretty good mentally. Physically I'm in pain from the Crohn's Disease. But I'm running full speed anyway.

It is just great seeing Q40 on the cover of Model Aviation http://www.modelaviationdigital.com/mod ... =Cover#pg1

Many of the things I've been working on for the past 18 years are coming together all at once. It did not happen overnight.

Like getting this review done The World Models LA Racer ARF with Pylon Racing Mods in advance of writing the article Pylon Racing - Get Involved At The 2018 Nats took planning and a lot of work.

The RCPRO Club 40 Electric rules are written and just being prepared for publication. There will be Bronze, Silver, and Gold class that use batteries of 4, 5, and 6 cells. The maximum battery weights for the classes are 454g, 566g, 680g. The minimum RTF weights are 5 pounds, 5.25 pounds, and 5.5 pounds. The maximum weight is 6 pounds per AMA 540-B. To bring a gold plane in at 6 pounds requires a light battery or lightening the airframe. Airframe modifications will be allowed for Gold class. I will be getting the Club 40 Racer laser kit cut optionally with balsa fuselage parts instead of lite ply. I'm taking orders for kits and plans within a day or so.

I hope you all enjoy the article and use it for the good of pylon racing. It was not just my work. Jim Allen and Dan Kane added to the article. Jerry Small advised on the EF1 history. I wish I had more words in the magazine space for a lot more of that. Many proof readers read and comment. Special thanks to Mike Condon for the constant reading and helping me get the article as readable as I could. There is a companion web site to the article at SportPylonRacing.com and much more content will be coming to that site about sport pylon racing.

[sahartman21]

Thanks for the article. It reads well and covers the wide range of NMPRA Racing Classes!

Good Job!

[DonStegall]

Thanks Scott and everyone else who has written me.

If you want to see R/C Pylon on the cover more and more feature length pylon articles in Model Aviation, please write to jays@modelaircraft.org and tell him what you thought about the cover and article.

I know some people think I spent too many words on Club 40. The article started out as a pure Club 40 follow-up to the October 2009 "Pylon Racing for Everyone". I added the NMPRA EF1 and the 424 and then moved it to the top of the article. This was well received by the reviewers.

Even people from my local club that does not allow any pylon have written me. Here is one message and response.

Today I received this email from Scott Gantt, CAM (Charlotte Aero Modelers) about my article in the June 2018 Model Aviation. Any of you guys at CAM that discard or give away your MA magazines, I would like to have them as souvenirs.


Hey Don, very nice article in the AMA magazine my friend....
Scott Gantt

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone


Scott,

Thank you very much for the kind words. I had many proof readers and contributors to the article. It was a team effort and we got pylon on the cover. The web site at http://SportPylonRacing.com has all the links and will be getting more content.

I saw you have at least one FMS Warbird. Those planes do great for Bronze and maybe Silver class of http://RCPROWarbirdRacing.com. I want to get a P-51 or something that is a Warbird tail dragger. I have been told the FMS P-51 is a very nice plane.

We are having a Warbird race on November 10th and 11th with practice on the 8th and 9th at http://OJA.today near Greensboro. Old Julian Airport has a paved 500' x 60' runway.

We will be having a "Pilot School" weekend sometime in August or September there.

The flier is in progress on a new web site I'm working on at http://eastcoastwarbirds.com/race ... this site is phone enabled and can be viewed on your Galaxy.

I have another phone enabled web site at http://rcpylonsuppliers.com/home

I'm now selling the Club 40 Racer Laser Cut Kits and have them in stock ... see http://www.stegallhobbies.com/Club40Racer (not yet fully phone enabled .. later by the weekend) ... and a video about the kit at https://youtu.be/58l4aOzVuaM

I make a lot of videos of interest to all kinds of R/C people. Not just pylon racers. Please check out my channels at http://DonStegall.com ... http://RCPylon.TV ... http://RCFieldBox.com

I have an interesting project going on the last one about using an electric auto start on a DLE-30 ... It is going in a 1/4 scale Clipped Wing Cub.

I now have all of the parts for a really big plane that I'm doing as an electric. 125" wingspan and 2009 square inches. See https://www.facebook.com/pg/AirBorneMod ... 9086636965 and https://www.facebook.com/pg/AirBorneMod ... 8437852030

I'm putting a 50cc equivalent electric motor in the PC-6 to start with. I will likely upgrade to a 100cc equivalent electric motor so I can do some serious quiet glider towing. Up to 1/4 scale gliders.

Please forward this to all of your friends and CAM club members. Even though I don't get to CAM much, I do fly a lot at my house. You and the CAM club members are always welcome to come fly electric planes, FPV quads, and glow or electric helicopters. I will be at CAM some getting ready for the 2018 MA Pylon NATS in a week or two.

I do very limited glow and gas on my field. But my old next door neighbor used to fly a 42% Extra on the field. The trees can be intimidating, but if you fly close in or up high they are not a problem. The approach has to be a turning approach because of the trees except for slower and lighter foamies. After I get my shop cleaned up, anyone is welcome to come see some fiberglass and composite construction.

I will be having two weekends of electric racing on my field sometime in August , September and October ... We will be racing http://ClubWingman.com ... http://Club40Electric.com ... EF1PylonRacing.com ( http://EF1Rules.com ) and "Run What You Brung" with a 120 mph speed limit.

See https://www.google.com/maps/place/606+I ... 9305?hl=en

I'm a dealer for http://APCPROP.com http://airborne-models.com/ ... and many others .. I will soon be a dealer for https://www.mikegoesflying.com/ and carrying the Magnum line of engines, plus their Starter and other accessories.

Check out these web sites I have done ... http://www.abmshowcase.com/ ... http://ysengines.us/ ... http://rcpylonmemories.com/

I have a web site with an article I wrote http://gettingintorc.com/article that was partially incorporated into Jay Smith's article in the May 2018 Model Aviation. I self published the article as public domain and will be updating it as described on that page.

Please forward this to the CAM members and all of your R/C (or Control Line or Free Flight) friends. I will also soon be a dealer for http://brodak.com/ for their EF1 and other motors, control line planes, and everything they sell. I can't wait to get an electric control line plane. I flew Control Line Speed starting when I was about 10 years old. Attached is a photo of one of those planes. I made the molds for the fiberglass fuselage when I was 13 years old. I'll be 60 in November and I'm still a kid.

It's going to be a very fun year.

Don

[DonStegall]

Well some of you will not like this, but some will.

I'm back. I just renewed my NMPRA membership this morning while working on cleaning up my main shop.

2017 and 2018 have been hellish years. In early 2018, my wife had a Cologuard test come back positive for cancer. This was right around the time there was a bit of a frackus here on the forums. The publishing of my article in the June 2018 was a great day and like it or not, my article got R/C pylon racing back on the cover of Model Aviation. Then later in the year there was another pylon cover where you could see the top of one of the pylons at the NATS. The same design I came to Muncie and built for Steve Kaluf in 2002 for the NATS that year. But the joy of seeing pylon on the cover of Model Aviation was tempered when my wife had a colonoscopy in June and there were two polyps. On July 2nd, my wife got a call from our gastroenterologist and one of the polyps was positive for cancer. I spent many hours taking her to doctor appointments, consultations, additional tests, and then surgery on August 7th. We got the word a week later that there was no cancer in the approximately 1" diameter piece they took from her rectum. My son's wedding was coming up on September 15th and things were looking up. The wedding was in Asheville, NC, and all of the family had suites and condos. The wedding was held at Highland Brewing Company as they had a large inside and rooftop area for events. On the 14th, the day of rehearsal, it was very hot and muggy. Hurricane Florence was coming fast. We had to do rehearsal on both the rooftop and inside in case of bad weather. My wife is significantly overweight as am I. During rehearsal on the rooftop she was sweating profusely and had to sit. She had to take the elevator down. Even in the cool area she was still sweating. We went back to the suite and she continued to look pale and was sweating. She told me she didn't feel good. I thought it was just nerves and she took some meds. When we walked out to my Dad's Tahoe, she was unable to lift her legs to get in the SUV. I had to go get our car. My sister tried to stuff her into the back seat of our Tucson. She could not control her legs. I had top push her in and move the driver's seat all the way forward and was very cramped. We got to the rehearsal dinner location. I had to get my son to help me get her into the building. She could only make it inside the doorway. Eventually we were able to get her moved as where she was sitting messed up the seating arrangement. we made it through dinner but she couldn't really eat. When some people were bringing her out to the car, she could not walk. My son's friend who is in the Coast Guard and is trained as an EMT said it wasn't nerves and we needed to take her to the hospital. We took her to the hospital and in fact she had had a heart attack during rehearsal. I'm not going into all the details, but both she and I have been through the wringer with heart diagnostics. I had a heart catherization on November 28th. My arteries are clear, but I have calcification on my aorta causing what the cardiologists call :"regurgitation" and I have a heart murmur than is getting worse. But my doctor says I am not at much of a risk for a heart attack. I have to have an echocardiogram every six months. My wife has to have diagnostics on both her heart and her colon ever six months.

I owe people stuff and money. I'm working hard to resolve everything. I had a hard time doing anything with airplanes and R/C over the past year. I went from Bank of America to Wells Fargo on November 7th. Wells has had to deal with me working remote a lot.

My left hip has been hurting since before Christmas. On Wednesday January 30th, as I was standing up from my care after a conference call, my left hip let go and I fell into the corner of a cubicle. I stopped myself from bashing in my face with my right wrist. I could not get my hand there in time and my wrist was severely bruised. Because it happened in the office, I had to report it to my contracting firm. I had to go to NOVANT Urgent Care / Occupational Medicine. They evaluated my right arm and my upper back. Nothing was broken or fractured, but I had to have a splint/brace on my right hand and wrist, and a sling to support my arm. I got orders to not work until I was re-evaluated. I had a limit of two hours of computer time per day, and no repetitive motion.

I saw my primary doctor on the 31st. I have a problem with a disc in my lower back causing pinched nerves. I saw a spine specialist this past Tuesday. The disc does not have to be operated on right now, but I have to start physical therapy (PT) next Tuesday.

On the 7th, I was given clearance to return to work. I had a follow-up with my primary on the 8th. She said I looked the happiest she has ever seen me look.

While I was not able to do much on the computer I watched a lot of music and aviation videos on YouTube. I'm working on a concept for music and plan to have it fully ready in a few months. You can see the teaser web site at http://MakeSomeMusicTV.com .. Click on http://makesomemusictv.com/gettingstarted for a brief description I have mobile apps for iPhone/iPad and Android that use the content from the web site, but store it for when the device doesn't have internet connectivity. The Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/MakeSomeMusic.TV

What does all of this have to do with R/C pylon racing?

Because of one particular airplane transaction, I have gotten back in the shop.

I'm making progress on the cleanup and I'm finding things that had been in focus before everything went haywire.

One of my managers at Wells is intlo helicopters and planes to a degree. I had let him borrow some of my micro and mini quads with FPV equipment. I had let him have a copy of the June 2018 Model Aviation and now he is interested in going further into planes. He enjoyed the drones and heli's with his son. His son is flying a trainer now.

All I have ever wanted was to have fun.

My life has mainly been focused around aviation, football, tennis, table tennis, music, and software development.

I use my hobbies as subject matter to learn new software technologies. It is more fun to create something of use to people than it is to write test applications and learning exercises.

I have a lot of projects in progress that got put on hold. I have giant scale racing planes in progress. I have a 125" wingspan 50cc Pilatus PC-6 Porter that I'm doing as an electric. It will weigh about 30 pounds. It will be cool to fly that on the field behind my house.

I have a number of EF1 projects in progress.

I'm back in a groove and I'm going to be making a lot of videos for both models and music.

So if I owe you something, I'm working on taking care of it.

I will be posting to the Facebook pages I created like the one at https://www.facebook.com/EF1PylonRacing and the https://www.facebook.com/Warbird80/ page.

I'm going to be posting to this forum. Maybe a lot. If you don't like what I post, don't read it. I have been advertising in the NMPRA Newsletter since last summer. We've shipped thousands of jars of our fillers on the Amazon store at http://EpoxyFillers.store and we include a color copy of the NMPRA application even with the Amazon orders. We're soon going to move the most popular fillers to Amazon Prime so people have guaranteed two day delivery and we don't have to ship to customers. Unfortunately when orders go out from Amazon using FBA (Fulfilment By Amazon), there is no opportunity to put additional inserts unless it is in the product packaging. We send out an instruction sheet with the fillers in poly bags or boxes when we fill the orders. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to put the NMPRA application form in with the product and instruction sheet. If I don't feel like I have the support of the NMPRA, I may not put it in. If you like what I try to do for pylon racing, please let me know so I can decide if supporting the NMPRA will be accepted and appreciated.

As I wrote on Facebook:

I go by Don now, but in my younger days, I was Donny Stegall. Some people spell it Donnie, like my sister Sherri Stegall Miller, but my Dad Jim Stegall (Jimmy to the family), had Donny, Sherri, and Charlie (Charles Stegall) for kids, and my late beloved MOther Julia. I don't care what you call me, just call me.

Donny is the more masculine version, so use that instead of Donnie. Even my wonderful wife Cindy Naylor Stegall can call me Donny, but it's usually "Dear"

My email address is Don.F.Stegall@gmail.com and my mobile is 704-968-2881. Of course you can text as well. I turn on Do Not Disturb when I'm unavailable because I get phone calls and message notifications all hours of the day and night. So if you have a thought, question, comment, suggestion, criticism, or just want to communicate in a better way than electronic, I'll be glad to talk if I'm free. Some of my friends text me to see if I'm available.

Back in the 80's I had my hair frosted and some friends called me Frosty ... If you can't remember how to spell my name just use http://IStayFrosty.com and that will get you to my personal YouTube channel.

I hope we can all stay frosty.

[DonStegall]

Main Workshop Cleanup

I have some model airplane work I need to do. My main workshop has just had stuff thrown into it over the past year and is very cluttered.

I started with the videotaping area as I need to make some videos. But I needed the table space to put things on temporarily. I also needed part of my fiberglass and wood cutting area for cutting some paper templates.

I proceeded to moving stuff from in front of the tools areas since I had to use the scroll saw and drill press. I got that area decluttered and completely cleaned up.


There are four 6' x 2.5' tables under here somewhere. I hope to find them over the next few days.

This is the table video taping area. I have removed a lot of stuff from the tables and will be making videos this weekend.

I have two 36" x 24" self healing cutting mats for cutting fiberglass cloth, plastic coverings, carbon fiber, wood, etc on. Using a rotary cutter makes handling fiberglass much easier

[DonStegall]

The Tools and Cutting Area

This is the tools area. Note the piano benches. They cam from https://www.guitarcenter.com/ .. I got three of the smaller one's on a Daily Pick for only like $15 each.

My drill press does not have a lot of features I need like a lockable arm. I can only set the depth, and this makes setting up to slot tail wood a challenge. I made a video of it and it will be online soon.

This is my 1" belt sander. Note that the table for the 1: belt is removed. This is because it is much easier to shape things without the table on. But I keep the table beside it so I can easily put it on if needed.

This is my Ryobi 16: Scroll Saw. A jigsaw is a must for modelers

Another view of the tools area

My bandsaw is a table top model mounted on a stand. I really need a bigger bandsaw than 9". I use a metal cutting blade on it because I don't cut hardwoods on it often and the metal cutting blade cuts balsa and thinner plywood just fine.

I almost choked to death on Monday, 2/11/19 at work at lunch because of a narrowed esophagus and valve. Food backed up al the way to my throat and I couldn't even breath, I was gurgling. I'm having an endoscopy with dilation procedure today (Valentines Day) at 10:30. It should be a non-issue, but please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

[Kurt Bozarth]

Thoughts and prayers for you Frosty.

Kurt

[DonStegall]

Thanks Kurt,

The surgery/procedure went well. I had no problems and felt nothing. My nurses were just awesome and Dr. Sam Fulp is just a great and talented gastroenterologist.

Dr Fulp did the balloon thing to open the valve at the end of the esophagus. I have what he thinks in fungus in my esophagus. He did biopsies. I had Glossitis last July and have had a lot of fungus problems. Now that may get fixed and I will not have to deal with that anymore. My throat is tremendously better. But it's not cured yet. It will take a few days for the pathology report on the fungus. A little longer on the biopsy result.

I was able to eat last night. Cindy drove me to Karen and Irwin Funderburk's home yesterday afternoon. I picked up my Yamaha G100-II guitar amp from him and dropped off a couple of things for him to try to fix. One is my cordless Great Plane Slot Machine. The battery had died in it long ago and I got the AC powered version back in 2008 or so. Irwin has a lot of electronics experience and has built multiple FPV racing quads for me. He is an awesome guy. I call him my "Wonder Friend".

Amazing things have happened lately. This choking thing happened on Monday. I was ok by the time I got near Charlotte Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Matthews and I was early for my appointment. So I dropped in Guitar Center (GC). I demoed an amp to a guy that way getting ready to buy a $1600 guitar. I showed him how to use an iPhone or iPad to control the amp. He would tell me what kind of sound he wanted and I would pick a sound and modify it to what he wanted. He was blown away. I left, then he bought the guitar after I left.

I saw the doctor at 3:00 pm and she determined I had to have the endoscopy with dilation, and then they got me scheduled.

I went back to GC to pick up a couple of little items. I met a young guy that manages a Mooyah restaurant and is in his senior year an UNCC in Criminal Justice. He had just gotten a beautiful Epiphone Les Paul Standard with a flame top a few weeks ago. He is mainly an acoustic player that sings. He is coming to the house on Sunday to do some video recording and for us just to play some guitar.

I talked to both of them about working with me on MakeSomeMusicTV.com and both are interested in doing videos and learning more about music technology. The younger guy is coming over Sunday and I'm working hard on the workshop so that I can use the area where I currently have four folding tables as a video studio when needed. I will be able to convert from model workshop to video studio in about an hour.

If you have ever wanted to play music, the MSMTV site is going to be a great resource. You can see a little of what it is about at Getting Started.

In January I was about ready to just quit R/C, at least pylon racing. But a call from Dan Kane and some private messages on Facebook from Gary Schmidt and Ken Fluney got me going again.

I had made friends with a lady named Casey Erickson early in 2018. She is a full scale pilot that races Biplanes and Formula 1. She has a new Formula 1 plane in progress and hopes to have it ready for Reno this year. I created a web site for her. You can see the plane at casey-erickson.com. She sent me the full scale plans in a PDF file and I have (somewhat exclusive) permission to do the plane for Q40 and EF1. I won't get to it this year, but I may do the Q40 and EF1 next year or later. She joined Team Stegall and my logos will be on the plane. Pretty exciting stuff.

Thanks for your support.

[vonderhey]

Don, If you have hemorrhoids or contract hemorrhoids please refrain from posting photos. Von Der Hey
Get well Don.

[DonStegall]

Don, If you have hemorrhoids or contract hemorrhoids please refrain from posting photos. Von Der Hey
Get well Don.

LOL

Lee, that made my day !!!

I'm ok now, and I'm back in gear.

Made a video of cutting out balsa parts and slotting them for 1/64" plywood. I made a video and it is online on one of my YouTube channels. Should be on http://RCPylon.TV later today and I will be starting a thread in the Building section. The video is available now, but does not show the correct thumbnail. The video is no for those who have "been there, done that", but it does have some little life tips that anyone can use if the yuse an iPhone X or wear contacts or bifocals.

I brought this in last weekend and I've already started prepping the molds to make male molds. I want to change the nose area and do one for electric with no engine fairing. Plus fix the engine run problems that people had with it. Just looking at it has me wanting to get going with the composite work again.

It's exciting to be getting over all of the medical issues. If Cindy comes back cancer free when she has the diagnostics in March and April, things will be good. I think I have enough momentum to get through even if she does have a recurrence.

[Kurt Bozarth]

Frosty,

Check your email.

Kurt

[DonStegall]

Frosty,

Check your email.

Kurt

Kurt,

I did not get an email. Maybe you didn't hit the send button and it is in your Drafts folder. My email in Don.F.Stegall@gmail.com and you can text or call 704-968-2881.

I'm so happy about your cancer scans coming back clean. Now if my wife Cindy comes back clean in March and April, things will just be right with the world.

If you're interested in The Mako Shark Q40, I'm starting on the male molds for the stab this week. If I can get the primer out of the other wing half, I will start on the wing molds and fuselage molds next week. I expect to have a duplicate set of molds within a month or so. The two Sharks I have on hand are for sale at a very good price. I will even make you an offer that might be attractive to you. $500 gets either the neon yellow one or the yellow, orange, purple one, plus one new full composite kit when I get the molds done. You can see the two I have here https://www.facebook.com/StegallHobbies .. I have two sets of wing panels for the neon yellow one. One set has servos already mounted. The other does not. I need to keep one set, so you could take your pick.

If you need any Quickies, I have plenty of Smasher fuselages and slotted tail wood for the bolt on V-tail and the conventional tail ready to ship. I will give you a GREAT deal on up to 2 of them. Kevin Matney lays them up for me and I'm placing an order for 4-8 this week.

I also have a Matney CandyKane at a good price.

Talk to you soon,