Jeff
I was hoping to get a phone call form Laine today but he did not call. How dare the war get in our way!

Seriously, I have a shipping address but Laine does not want his home address posted on the web. When you are ready to send your items you can send them directly using the address Laine provided or you can ship them to me and I will make sure that they get to Laine.

Laine
I boxed up the Aerobird tonight in the origional box. The shipping box will be made tomorrow and it will be shipped tomorrow or Thursday. Here is what we are sending

1 complete Aerobird w/transmitter
2 extra wings
2 extra tails
3 extra props
2 batteries
1 battery charger
1 extra fuselage (less control board)
Old control board (does not work properly but could be used for parts)
1 landing gear
1 bag of rubber bands
1 needle nose pliers
1 roll of 2" packing tape
1 roll of 1" strapping tape
1 hot glue gun
1 bag of glue sticks
8 AA batteries
1 package of razor blades

The razor blades are under the battery charger. You will need them to unpack the contents of the box. I taped everything down and it will be filled with packing peanuts tomorrow.

It is not much but it is a start.

I am still working on the electronics for the BAT.

We will send it ot Doug at the address that you provided.

Thank you and God Bless

We are finally moving forward with the Zagi Tazz.

First, I finally heard back from Joe Teisan of Trick RC. He had been traveling and will talk with his brother Jerry about a donation.

Second, RCU has published my [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=463]Zagi Tazz Review[/link].

Well, wow, a lot happens when a guy goes out on a mission for a day or two huh? Like old man said, how dare they let the war get in the way of my fun time!! yeah right! Gotta job to do too!

Anyway, lets see here, Greg, Lipo battery and charger! Awesome THANK YOU!!! I will be sure to email FMA Direct TONIGHT and thank them personally!

Old man, you too, just plain awesome! Doug and the guys will be thrilled and they can even afford to crash a few times with all the extra parts you are including!! THANK YOU!!

Sodflyer, is the zagi motor basically like the speed 400 I have in my slinger? Will it work in the slinger? how about the speed control? If they will work on it, then Im sure we will need it after my buds and joes crash it a few times, or the sand does a number on the electronics. The TX battery I know I could use for sure, not sure about the RX battery though. I know my slinger uses a 5x5 prop so Im sure it will be of some use too. The Li bat. Im not sure what I could use it on? Greg, you and old man would know more about that.

As far as everyone shipping things, I know its a pain to do, but pretty much the only way is through the regular post office. Yes, you have to fill out a form for customs, but its no big deal. The cost to send it here is the same as sending it within the cont. US also. Or to send it to my WONDERFUL WIFE, Kristy, and she will take it to the post office and mail it to us over here. I dont feel comfortable posting the address here though, so I will trust old man and Greg to give it out to people that they trust if I am not available to decide, like when I am out on missions for days to weeks at a time.

Once again, thank you all so much. This is going to make our time here so much more fun. We really appreciate it!

Hi Laine,

Thanks for checking in. I also hate it when work gets in the way of my R/C!

More good news...Joe and Jerry Teisan of [link=http://www.zagi.com/]Trick R/C[/link] just notified me that they are donating a Zagi Tazz to you!

You should now be getting all the pieces you need to duplicate even my 315 watt power system hop-up. I can see the Tazz tearing up the desert sands already!

Stay safe!

UPDATE

I got to talk to Laine on the phone today. Forget every stereo type you ever had about a person in the Army. Laine is one of the most humble persons I have ever met. Laine's posts do not begin to express how grateful he and his buddy's are to be receiving our offerings. He did request that he and his platoon be kept in our prayers. Laine also indicated that cards letters or what ever would be more than welcome.

I have beeen trying with no luck to raise the funds to get the flight pack and power system for the BAT. If anybody would like to help out here is what we still need.
* GWS 300 or 350 gearbox with a C ratio
* Pixie 20 speed controller (or similar)
* receiver channel 42 for a Hitec radio
* 3 HS 55 sevros (or similar)
*a bunch of GWS EP1047 slowflyer props.
He also stated that several guys would love to play with an RC car so if you have one you could donate that would be great.

If you can help please contact me or Greg Covey either on this thread, pm, or email, (Hope that is ok with you Greg.) and we can help you get it to Laine.

Thank you Greg, first off, for starting this, second, for getting all of the parts together for the Tazz. This is going to be one fun deployment! I may even be able to outrun the Apaches when they start chasing me now. Hopefully I wont need to try! Thanks for everything you have done!

David, thank you for the compliments, the Aerobird, and working so hard to get the stuff for the BAT. You are a VERY busy man, and yet you find time to try to help us grunts over here out! Thank you, you also will be in OUR prayers. It was great talking to you on the phone for that short time.

I will be out of the loop for a couple days, got one of those Army missions again! Hows a guys supposed to have any fun!! Catch ya all in a couple days!

Well, I am back "in the loop" Thanks again all.

Laine the Aerobird will ship today!!! I have been in contact with Fred at DCRC. We are trying to figure out the best options as to which plane he is going to send. I am still working on the flight pack for the BAT as I think that it would be a great plane to buddy box a newer pilot. I am getting ready to go to campus, so I will post more later.


I added you and your platoon to our church prayer list.

God Bless
David

Thank you again for everything David, I really appreciate it. We need all the prayers we can get! We have had a couple REALLY close calls in the last couple days! Thanks.

Laine I have been very busy the past couple of days and have dropped the ball. I have been talking with Fred at DCRC and we are trying to figure out which plane would be the best to send. I am getting ready to post a thread over at RC Groups to see if I can generate some donations. I would think that more people would be willing to step up and make some donations.

I did find out that you can use a buddy cable with the radio that you have and the one that Greg is sending! I need to get busy. I will keep you informed

As always you are in our prayers
God Bless

David

Laine
I forgot to mention that I found your church in Va. I am getting ready to send a prayer request to Pastor Marrow. Their web site looks like it is a very active church.

God Bless
David

Hi Laine,

Your Kokam Lithium pack and charger showed up on Friday. I will check with our foreign country shipping expert on Monday to see if she can do the customs paperwork and have it shipped to the APO via USPS or DHL.

Regards.

Thanks Greg and Thanks David. Once again, you guys are awesome. We are at a very small FOB (Forward Operation Base) up north for a few weeks. They have some of UAVs here that they fly for recon work! I got to check it out and see the control center where they fly it from. Really cool aircraft! Loud as heck, funny looking and not real fast, but man the cameras for day and night are awesome. I keep trying to convince them to let me fly, but havent gotten that far yet. Anyway, thanks again guys. And David, tell Pastor Morrow, I said hello!

SSG Stahr, Laine C.
2/2 Combat HET

Hi Laine,

I sent the Lithium pack and charger via USPS to the APO address. It turns out that the local Post Office in my suburb of Rochester was all I needed to go to. The customs page is a small sheet the size of an old charge card receipt so I grabbed a few extras to have them filled out in advance.

Unlike UPS and Fed. Ex., the USPS does not fill out a mailing label so you need to address the box in advance. They sell mailing labels for 49 cents so I filled one out. It made me laugh because it had some goofy kids designs on it almost like it was for a present. I said to the clerk, "Do you know that this is going to a U.S. soldier?!", and they said that's all they have. I just smiled and shook my head.

When the Zagi Tazz arrives, i'll send it right out to the APO.

Take care!

Hey Greg, just in case I havent told you lately, THANK YOU! lol. Mailing things here isnt too bad huh. I even mailed things to myself last year when I was on my R&R leave from here. I will be looking forward to getting the package with the "cute little kiddy" label on it! Im sure my guys will have something to say about that if they see "old sarge" getting cutsie little labels on my mail! Thats what makes it fun, screwing with eachother over here. If we ever quit picking on eachother, that means we have problems.

thanks again

Laine,

I shipped the Zagi Tazz to the APO today. It has the brushless motor and ESC but no battery so you'll be running on pure Lithium power!

If you recall the pictures from my review, the ESC comes fully wired with the Dean's Ultra plug. This is a nice plug-in-play feature of the Tazz power system. The motor is also ready to plug into the ESC, so, if the direction of rotation is wrong, you can just swap any two motor wires by easily unplugging them. This is best tested before you install the prop. Also, do not run the motor more than half throttle without the prop attached.

Let me know if you will anything else. I was thinking that you may need a charging cable to go from the Kokam charger to the Dean's Ultra connector on the Lithium battery pack. I'm not sure what is supplied with the charger.

Great! Thanks again. I think I will order a standard battery from trick also, never hurts to have one laying around. I cant wait till everything gets here, Im very impatient when Im waiting for shipments of cool stuff! Catch ya later, thanks.

I heard from SSG Stahr this weekend via e-mail that stuff is starting to hit its destination. They received the "care" packages from my co-worker and his wife as well as the Kokam pack, Kokam charger, and Hitec radio system. This went overseas to the troops surprisingly fast!

Thanks again Greg. With any luck the Tazz will be there when I get back off of the mission we are on now (we cant seem to get time off lately). I sure hope so, and I hope I get some time to get it put together.

Mail typically takes 7-10 days. Its the same for packages or letters usually. Sometimes it can take 14+ days, but thats not typical. Anyway, I cant wait to get you some pictures and video of the Tazz.

Laine reported today that the Zagi Tazz arrived so he will start building soon.

I'm amazed at just how fast things can get shipped to our troops. I've waited longer for stuff to arrive state side.

I just ran across this thread I see the last post is approximately a month old. If anyone is still taking donation I would be happy to donate a wing dragon that I used to learn to fly. Few nicks and scrapes but it still flies it will make a great trainer for anyone interested in learning to fly. Please PM me with shipping details if anyone is preparing a package.

JMTDMT... If you are willing to send it, I am certain that I have at least 10 more people who would love to learn to fly. Once some of these guys saw my Slinger fly, they were hooked. Now with the Tazz here, Im sure a bunch more will be getting interrested. Thank you VERY MUCH!

jmtdmt,

Thanks for stopping in and offering your [link=http://www.hobby-lobby.com/wingdragon.htm]Wing Dragon[/link] for donation.

You can send the box via USPS to the following Army Post Office address:

SSG Laine Stahr
13th CSB, 2nd Trans, 2nd Plt
FOB Speicher
APO AE 09393

The Post Office will have you fill out a simple one page customs form. It only takes a minute and has a few simple questions. For contents, just put "toy airplane" and everyone will be happy.

Greg,

No problem glad to do it the Wing Dragon plus extra goodies will ship next week.