Planes still sitting on the workbench can be seen here

He was born “Victor” by IHL-Modelltechnik, but I wanted this crazy dude to have a crazy name (apologies to all the people reading this actually named Schorsch Pankraz).
It’s a great addition to the hangar for a couple of reasons. One, it is something totally different and rarely seen. Two, the jumper allows your buddies (even unexperienced ones) to take part. Sort of a group activity. And after all it is just plain fun.
I bought the chute off of ebay and built the body myself using the 2D laser cutter at school. Converting the plans into CAD-files allowed me not only to do some modifications but to actually build it since the plans were drawn by hand and not at all accurate. I pity all the modelers who tried to build it using the original plans.

Schorsch has three servos (1 for each arm and 1 for the release pin) and a lost model finder.

The Raptor is a very good machine. It is my second Raptor. The first one was a 30 size. The availability and pricing of spare parts was very appealing to me and I needed a lot of them.
I upgraded the stock blade grips to aluminum ones. Now the main hub, swashplate and blade grips are aluminum. I wanted to put even more metal in the head, but ran out of cash. Atop of that it is not 100% sure the parts will not bend in a crash.
Although throwing it around the sky is entertaining, I find it more intriguing to fly scale like and that’s why I am stuffing it inside a MD-530 fuselage.

Thunder Tiger Raptor 50 SE, aka “Bugslasher”

I was looking for a slow and gentle high-wing sunday afternoon cruiser. The J-3 fits this description perfectly.
I fitted it with a Saito FA-65 four cycle engine. The black housing of the Saito matches the dummy engine on the other side of the cowling, which fooled a lot of people into thinking it is a boxer.
I recently cut a huge hole in the bottom of the fuselage for the skydivers parachute. It is a snug fit but it works. This is one of my machines with the most flight hours on its back.
This is a plane I would consider buying again when I crash it.

Oh, something else: I hate it when people say “Piper Cup”. It’s cub goddangit. The freakin’ bear’s right there.

Here is a short flyby video of the Cub.

Thunder Tiger J-3 Piper Cub

This comes as a kit by AFF-CNC. As the manufacturers name implies all parts are CNC cut. With careful selection of the components a takeoff weight of around 700g (44oz) can be achieved. I think this is an impressive weight for a 2m glider.
I love this plane so much, I’ve built and flown three Callistics so far. Two electric and one glider version.

I lost the first Callistic-E somewhere in the woods with an expensive vario in it :-(
and crashed the second one right behind my house. The glider is still alive.

My longest flight was with Callistic N°1. I logged 2:30 hours with just 5 min motor.
Although prices have gone up by almost a third for these kits I will definitely build another one or two.

Callistic N°1, brushless motor

Callistic N°2, smaller brushless motor, flattened wings, ailerons

Callistic N°3, kickass covering, high start hook

It’s been a long build for this one. From buying the plane until flying it more than a whole year passed although the actual building time was just a couple of weeks. It’s the P-51 from Hangar 9. I stripped the original covering off to build the ailerons and to not make it look like the two other guys’ from the club.
So far it is my most expensive plane, featuring Robart retracts, Robart diamond tread wheels, Robart oleo struts, TopFlite cockpit, Saito FA-100 engine, chrome covering, self made in-cowl manifold, high power lighting system with navigation lights, beacon and strobe, flaps, etc.

Putting together the Easystar went so fast that I did not even have time to cover the build in the “Projects” section. On the box it says “2 hours to complete”. It took me about three times as long due to the fact that I decided to add ailerons and cut off all of the small molding bumps individually with a razor blade.
When joining the fuselage halves I was quite in a hurry because of the CA and did not pay very much attention to alignment. As a result the halves are off by a notch which caused the tail to misalign with the wings. Nothing serious but nonetheless I want to punch myself.

Just returned from the maiden flight. The motor rocks to say the least. No need to toss, just letting go of the plane will do the job. I am thrilled. The plane flies superbly (as expected). Since I read a lot about the Easystar beforehand I built an enlarged rudder and it was really worth it. Even with the rudder twice the original size it was not all that easy to steer. Sometimes I had to blow air over the rudder to get a corner.
I ran out of control horns and so I had to fly just with rudder and elevator. As mentioned before I cannot imagine how on earth one is supposed to fly that thing with the original rudder. I’d say it’s a must to enlarge the rudder.

During the second flight I suddenly lost control of all functions. The plane came to rest some distance away and suffered only minor scratches (FUCK. Thats not supposed to happen on the second flight). The reason for this apocalyptic disaster was the ESC. It blew up and by blowing I mean explode. Sometimes they just heat up and melt away. Not this one. It literally threw its ICs out of the shrink wrap and all over the place. As to why this happened I don’t have a clue.

All in all I am very happy though. I think it is going to be one of the planes I will buy again after they find a gruesome demise.

UPDATE: I found the reason for the blown ESC. It did not explode like I thought it did. It simply desoldered some connections and ICs due to excessive heat. The heat came from drawing too many amps of course. I didn’t check this before the maiden flight (Arrrgh).

Naked Schorsch posing for the camera. This is right before he breaks his muscle laden arm for the first time