RC Pylon Suppliers

05/11/2024

I made it .. haven't talked to the doctor yet .. he's doing other surgeries .. may still see him, but more likely someone from the Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates practice tomorrow .. seems like I have more feeling in my legs at least in thighs and can move more .. but I'm just flat in the bed .. could just be wishful thinking .. I can already lift my feet more, and it's especially noticeable in the right leg which has been very weak .. maybe I'll actually be able to walk again without pain and feeling like my legs are collapsing .. and get back to some of my previous activitiesMy father and his wife Nancy surprised me on Sunday with a visit .. he said a prayer for me and gave me a hug before leavingMaybe this 4+ year nightmare is ending or on the way to ending Thank you for the thoughts and prayers.Lights out for tonight .. please feel free to message, text? email, etc, anytime, but responses may be slow for a few days.

02/11/2024

Even if you know my story, there probably are details in this message you may not be aware of .. I tried to make this an easy read from top to bottom (TL;DR ???) .. this is likely my last message about this until after surgery.

In 2 days, my life will almost certainly change .. possibly very substantially and even dramatically .. it could go multiple ways .. the countdown is about to begin as I have to start prep tomorrow (Sunday) for the surgery on Monday .. the procedures being performed on me are not uncommon at all .. however, for most people these are done for age related degenerative disease or accident related .. in my case, age is a factor with me being 65 years old .. the bigger factor in my case is that the rare bacterial infection that caused the acute vertebral osteomyelitis with discitis in 2020-2021 damaged the spinal bones in ways that age degeneration doesn't .. the bacteria damaged the bones effectively eating away at them .. this causes voids in the bones .. the healing process results in bones that are calcified and brittle .. I had MRI's at the end of 2023 and when seeing the spine surgeon early this year, the prognosis was that the damaged bones would not be able to hold screws and anchors or other forms of reinforcement .. surgery not possible .. with the changes that happened between then and April when my legs got very weak and then another appointment with the spine surgeon and more MRI's (on my spine) for his purposes, the intrusion of even more stenosis (narrowing) of the channels and the constant pain, surgery was planned .. I have significant heart problems and these are a risk. I had to get clearance from cardiology to have the surgery. It was initially denied, but when a cardiologist was to do a heart cath procedure on me, he saw me struggle to try to walk 15 feet to a restroom. We had a discussion about the risks involved in a number of treatment paths and that procedure was canceled. He gave clearance which was received by the surgeon's office on October 21st .. I came to Atrium Health Pineville that day because the pain was unbearable, I couldn't get around the house, and I couldn't take care of myself.

The nightmare of barely being able to walk is hopefully about over. This may or may not happen. The spinal nerves may be too damaged. Having to wait years to have the surgery may have affected the nerves too much. Or the nerves may need to heal over time. Or I might even be able to walk better by Tuesday.

The non-stop pain is hopefully about over. Dr. Ziewacz said he's pretty sure he can reduce the pain with the TLIF and Lumbar Laminectomy.

Two of the vertebrae have started fusing themselves and a thing called a bridging anterior osteophyte has formed at the front of those vertebrae .. a significant amount of work will be done on this area.

I posted these MRI images back in July just after the MRI .. when I saw Dr. Z to discuss surgery, he pulled up 4 images to show me where the problems were and 3 of those were these. The other was from top down, and I can't really interpret those.

There are significant risks. Risks for the procedures on the spine. The aortic aneurysm, the failing and regurgitating aortic valve in my heart is the biggest risk. This is a multi-hour surgery. If my heart doesn't get me through the surgery and anesthesia recovery, obviously the party's over.

The potential rewards make the risks worthwhile. I might be able to do simple things like getting up and down the stairs in my house. I might be able to get in the workshop and do actual physical work on model airplanes. Getting out and flying some R/C. Working on guitars. My dream is flying a plane around the pylons again even though flying 3 pole will probably be a long-term effort.

Sounds like I'll be mostly out of commission for weeks or even a couple of months or more. If the pain is reduced and controllable I'll be doing software work. I have a little collection of scale plastic model airplane kits and a good supply of airbrushing equipment and supplies as well as a hobbyist portable paint booth still in the box. I can't use that stuff in a rehab facility, but it's available if I get to a point and place I can use it.

I'm very excited about what should be going on this week and what the future may hold for me.

I've been fighting to survive and thrive again. As long as I'm still here, I'm going to keep up the fight to continue to have a productive life.

If you believe in prayer, please keep me in your prayers. Please keep me in your positive thoughts regardless.

Info about the procedures ...

https://www.hss.edu/conditions_tlif-transforaminal-lumbar-interbody-fusion-spine-surgery.asp

https://www.hss.edu/conditions_spine-surgery-lumbar-laminectomy.asp

01/11/2024

I've talked some about publishing of Android apps on Google Play and iPhone / iPad apps on the Apple App Store

This is a good article about the challenges and the changing challenges. It's primarily of interest to developers publishing apps, but some people like learning the high level details of things like this.

For me it was a good read since I've experienced much of it and as is addressed in the article, "Is it just me" .. I had figured out several years ago that it wasn't just me.

My apps had been unpublished on Google Play sometime around 2021 during my hospitalizations. I only recently (June) got the paid versions of Drill Bit Charts Pro and RC Calculators Pro back on Google Play and available for purchase and install. The free versions remain unpublished. The reason? They have the word "Free" in the app title or icon. Apps cannot have anything in the app name or title that has anything about costs.

The author of this article talks about discontinuing publishing Android apps. IPhone apps are where the actual money is because users must have a working credit card associated with the iCloud account used on the iPhone or iPad device. Android users are not required to have a payment method to use their phones .. they can get free apps .. Android is a much cheaper to use platform .. While the number of active Android devices in the whole world is approximately the same as active iPhones, in the US, the percentage of iPhones is much higher than Android phones.

Since I'm going to be limited in my ability to go places and do things, I'm going to try to get some of these long messages published on my Substack blogs. If that happens, I'll make sure the links are published for those who want to follow my writing.

When I first published an app on Google Play the process was fairly straightforward. I never got rejected and the app was approved in an…

23/10/2024

I was actually supposed to come to the ER last Thursday after my appointment on 11/17 with my primary Dr. Kindel at Atrium Health Dove Internal Medicine .. but I knew I had to try to get some computer stuff ready so I won't go crazy doing nothing. I wanted to have a Windows laptop, multiple phones and tablets, proper USB cables, and at least one 4 port or more USB switchable HUB.

I wanted to have the MacBook Air with me. It's what I used as a computer when In was in the hospitals in 2021. I wanted to have a fresh NVMe SSD in the windows laptop and the MacBook Air. I had two fresh unopened Crucial 4TB NVMe SSD drives.

I got a 4TB SSD in the Windows touchscreen laptop. It booted with the unformatted drive just fine. I got Windows 11 installed on the laptop and got a few basic settings done. Then I got Chrome downloaded and installed. Then got it syncing in the way I wanted.

But there was an unusual problem that got me to the point of getting to work on the MacBook Air and pausing on the Windows 11 touchscreen. I'll come back to the problem because on Tuesday evening it has wasted way too much of my time.

The MacBook Air had a 2TB NVMe SSD with an M.2 converter in the loop. I put the 4TB in the Air with the converter. I could get it booted into the Mac repair tools, but it never showed up as a disk volume. I tried multiple methods. I'm not sure the 2015 MacBook Air can support 4TB. I didn't have time to get the 2TB back in the MacBook Air on Monday morning before my legs and body gave up. But I got everything on my list into my laptop bag.

On Monday night I was totally exhausted and all I did was get the laptop out, a 4 port USB switch, and a USB Lightning cable so the phone could charge gently through the night.

After dinner around 6 pm on Tuesday, I got the laptop out, and the phones and tablet, then got things hooked up.and got to work. I got an amazing amount of work done. I'm going to write about what I got done. I have my reasons.

I hear people say they don't get programming. Most anyone has the skills for some level of programming. But they just might not have the aptitude for the things surrounding real programming that actually have value for employers. And for a lot of people who think they aren't capable of programming, they just haven't had the resources, teaching, or motivation to actually learn what programming really is. I've mentored a lot of people and have had a lot of software development protégés.

At the moment I'm in a hospital bed and have been doing a mixture of installing software development tools, and CAD tools. I don't currently have any activities scheduled for Wednesday. If I'm not moving to a nursing facility, I'll be at least watching some educational on YouTube or doing some real software development.

Anything that I have published and a lot of non-published software lives on the cloud with a lot on GitHub. So for instance I should be able to get the published DonStegall.com project, work on it and update it.

22/10/2024

I'm currently in the Atrium Health Pineville hospital facility. Just finished dinner. It's been a long day of people coming to do things to me and have me do things. But they are managing the pain. Not "knock you out" meds, but managed. They've worked hard to learn my extensive list of meds and give them to me at the proper times. I feel better overall even though the areas of pain do still stop me at times.

My back surgery is not until 11/4. It is doubtful they will keep me in a hospital room until then unless more diagnostics are required. Likely I'll be moved to a nursing facility. It is doubtful in my opinion that they will let me go home. I can't take care of myself with the extreme mobility problems.

When I was in the Atrium Hospitals and care facilities in 2021, the food was great .. even though I was having trouble eating, most of the recipes were good .. today's breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all good.

I took a photo of the dinner ticket and used the AI features built into the Photos app to copy the text .. I prefer not to type except when needed .. much easier to copy the text and then manipulate it by deleting, copying, formatting, etc, than starting from nothing.

I've seen a lot of people trying to do things on iPhone and Androids that should just be second nature. Neither platform is going away anytime soon and the odds are at least 98% you're using one or the other.

Priority #1 .. know how to cut, copy, paste text in all different types of apps.

Priority #2 .. know how to rotate and crop photos.

There are other essentials, but these are the ones I've seen with many people working too hard and inefficiently that are very easy to learn.

I have a touchscreen Window 11 machine on the hospital guest network where I can watch YouTube and other video sources. But I can also write in a quiet single person room. I intend to write quite a bit while I'm hospitalized.

Dinner Ticket - 10/22/2024

Beef Burgundy

Rosemary Parmesan Polenta

Caramelized Pearl Onions

Caramelized Carrots

20/10/2024

I should be getting admitted to the hospital some time in the next few days. The heart cath procedure that was scheduled on 10/7 was aborted. The plans changed to me having spine surgery and whatever procedures are needed to minimize the extreme spine, hip, and leg pain. Dr. Rinaldi, the cardiologist determined that the pain I'm experiencing is much more debilitating than my heart is a risk. I could be in the hospital for weeks or months. I need to have my computers and devices so I can manage my personal business and have useful things to do. I have a new 4TB SSD in my Windows touchscreen laptop. I'm copying a lot of my software development software and projects onto that machine. I've show some of the work on the DonStegall and RCPylonSuppliers web sites and mobile apps. I wasn't happy with the gradient colors in the menus in phone mode. I've resolved that in a way I'm happy with. I published DonStegall dot com with the changes and I'm ready to publish the Android versions to Google Play Store. If you open https://donstegall.com/, please refresh the page and see if the menus look correct. I hope to get the RCPylonSuppliers web site republished and back online before checking into the hospital. If I can get those things done, I'll have a better chance at developing content.

15/10/2024

I started working on learning Microsoft .NET Blazor skills seriously in September of 2022. Blazor is a major overhaul of ASP.NET MVC that uses Razor pages for creating web apps. The Razor pages required writing significant JavaScript to create nice interfaces. Blazor is for web app development, as well as mobile development. MAUI is the Multi-platform App UI framework that allows creating apps for Android, iOS (iPhone, iPad), macOS, and Windows Store using the same tools and technologies for them all. When I saw that I could create apps to be used by web browsers on anything that connects to the internet as well as “thick” apps that could run standalone as mobile and desktop apps, I started working on MAUI heavily at the base level. A version of Blazor that runs on the MAUI platform allowed for heavy duty proof of concept for “Run Everywhere” apps. It is known as Blazor Hybrid, or Blazor Hybrid MAUI. I was an early adopter and ran into a number of problems that made fully realizing the dream impossible. iOS and Android are very different at all levels, but especially at the user interface level. One of he first “blockers” I ran into on iOS and macOS is that screens did not render properly even though they rendered properly on Android and Windows Store. I spent a fair amount of time learning the MAUI source code. I found the bug and reported it to Microsoft. They investigated and found out the same bug was causing rendering bugs in Blazor Hybrid on MAUI. At the time they got it fixed I was working for Wells Fargo or Bank of America, so I didn’t get back to Blazor and MAUI right away.

This spring I was back at work on my Run Everywhere framework. I was making good progress until my legs became extremely weak and my spine problems were getting progressively worse very quickly. Then when I was getting prepared for spine surgery, the need for cardiac clearance prior to spine surgery got everything all mixed up on the spine care.

My framework is in pretty good shape. If I sit in one place with a good butt cushion, I can work reasonably productively. If you’re wondering why I’m focusing on mobile apps when mobile devices can run my Blazor apps in a browser on the phone or tablet, I’ll explain. When you are running a web app in a browser, the app is at the mercy of the web server and any other web servers providing data to the web app. For the parts of a mobile app that use data, they can use local data or data retrieved from a web service. What I do is “cache” or store data that was retrieved from the web service by the mobile app. I then have better control over what the mobile app shows versus the web app. For instance, I can show the “old” or “existing” data while trying to get the freshest data from the web service.

I’m working on a wide range of web sites with complimentary mobile and desktop apps.

I’ve posted some screen shots of the DonStegall dot com and RCPylonSuppliers dot com mobile apps. I’ve made progress on some aesthetic elements of the mobile screens. On the top of phone screens there is an element known as the StatusBar that shows various important status information like cell network connectivity. At the bottom of the phone screens on some Android devices there is a bar at the bottom for generic navigation like “back”, “show open apps”, “home”. On Android it is known as the NavigationBar. On iPhones, there is also a bar, but all it shows is the “Home” bar/button. It is known as the Bottom Bar (informally) on iPhone. These are handled completely differently on Android and iOS at the programming level. To have an app displaying consistent and complimentary colors, the StatusBar and NavigationBar need to be controlled by the app. And the way they are handled in comparison between iOS and Android requires platform specific programming code. Various developers have created workarounds, but the workarounds have their own quirks. But I have a workable solution now.

I had gotten my native Android apps using StatusBars and NavigationBars to show them in colors of my own selection or automatic color selection. Blazor Hybrid MAUI apps have portions of the projects that are platform specific within the one project, but the code can be different for the parts that need to be different. I’ve got that under control on two of my Blazor Hybrid MAUI apps. If you look at the StatusBar and NavigationBar on the DonStegall app, it has a somewhat navy-blue scheme with the icons and info base color as “LightContent”. The StatusBar and NavigationBar on the RCPylonSuppliers app are yellow with “DarkContent”.

I’m not mobile enough to be doing much model airplane work right now. I can work on software projects as long as I can get to my desk and sit for a bit. I can work on 2D and 3D CAD and design work. So until they get my spine and hips under control, I’ll do the things my mobility allows.

04/10/2024

The aortic aneurysm and regurgitating aortic valve is taking a bug toll on me. I had more blood tests in prep for the next phase which is a left catheterization. The plan for the part after that is surgery on the aneurysm and repair or replacement of the aortic valve. The possibility remains that I will not be able to have those surgeries. The constant pain on my chest is never ending reminder of what I'm facing. I don't always feel like talking, but if you have some free time on Friday or this weekend, it would be nice to just talk a little. Doesn't matter what the topic is .. airplanes, music, software.

27/09/2024

I've been working very hard on my Microsoft Blazor and MAUI skills since September of 2022. The driving force was that I can develop apps as web apps and use the majority of the code for mobile apps and as thick desktop apps. Blazor Hybrid in particular has been getting a lot of updates. Blazor Hybrid runs on the Microsoft .NET MAUI framework (Multi-platform App User Interface) I have created test apps that run in web browsers, on iOS, on Android, on Windows Store, and macOS.

My updated web site is actually a new framework I created for Blazor and Blazor Hybrid MAUI that allows me to share things like full pages and components between the web version and the mobile hybrid versions.

I almost have the Blazor Hybrid MAUI version of my personal web site ready to publish on Google Play Store. I'm having to do maintenance on my Mac Mini and my MacBook Air to be able to publish on the Apple App Store.

Here is the Blazor Hybrid MAUI version of the Don Stegall app. If you look at the bottom of the page and go to the https://donstegall.com/ home page in a browser, you will see that the apps are running on different platforms. The menu is different on the mobile version. At some point I'm going to get back to working on the mobile versions having flyout menus available. It is a bit of a challenge with some pages being shared and some not. Flyout menus may require that the pages are not shared or completely shared.

I have the new RC Pylon Suppliers website and mobile apps almost ready to publish as well. I was working on those in parallel with this. The biggest issue on that website and mobile apps is the formatting of images and fit of content on the home screen. I'll grab a screenshot and post it as a comment to this message

In the core of my framework, data is stored in the web site data web service. In the case of the mobile apps they get updated content when changes are made in the data web service. So the mobile apps don't choke when the internet connection in the device is running on is flaky or nonexistent.

As I posted about my health, I've had tons of tests because of the problems in my heart, and I've had a bad and weird bug (virus maybe) twice during this .. so my development effectively has been stopped for a month.

I'm going to fight to finish these projects and possibly make them public domain or add co-owners to the projects in GitHub so my work it can live on when I don't. Microsoft has already integrated part of my work into the Blazor Framework templates.

14/08/2024

https://donstegall.com/ is getting a lot of updates today and some of my other web sites as well .. some are down temporarily .. this is partially to facilitate deployment of the Android versions of the mobile app versions

Hello Everyone Welcome to my personal web site and app. My name is Don Stegall I will be sharing these things and more here links to my web sites as I bring old and new ones online magazine articles I've written videos I've made and new ones as I get them recorded and produced who knows what else Th...

14/08/2024

My Drill Bit Charts Pro software is starting to get a lot more downloads from the Google Play Store .. it also runs on Google Chromebooks as an Android app .. and can even run on Windows as an Android app .. my Windows Store version of Drill Bit Charts Pro is currently offline in the store .. once again, like the apps disappearing from Google Play Store because of Google Policy changes, some new Windows Store policy change has it knocked off for the time being .. unlike my Android apps being unavailable on Google Play for 2-3 years, I'll get DBCP back on the Windows Store very shortly.

I've been working with Microsoft's .NET Blazor and .NET MAUI since September of 2022 very diligently and those development environments have been advancing nicely .. I've been using Blazor to publish web sites on the Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform but haven’t published any Blazor Hybrid mobile or desktop apps so far .. the main reason is that my Mac computers are all down .. I've been working to get new hard drives (SSD, NVMe) in them and should be back online for developing on Mac's soon .. then I'll be able to publish to iPhone, iPad, macOS, as well as Android and Windows Store with apps that share a lot of code with the web versions of the apps.

This guy, James Montemagmo, is an excellent instructor .. I wouldn't be where I am without his videos .. even if you aren't a programmer / developer, this video may be of interest to you so that you see what developers do at the basic level .. it will give you an idea of what I really do as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t2zzoW4D98

I'm not going to be able to return to working contracts until I have the spine surgery .. As soon as recruiters and managers hear that I have pending spine surgery and that I'm disabled, job opportunities vaporize instantly .. I'm continuing to try to do some model airplane work and some guitar work, but the limited mobility is severely challenging for the model airplane work .. even just picking up guitars and the equipment needed to work on them is a challenge .. but I expect to be making guitar work recordings almost daily.
My personal web site (DonStegall dot com) is currently offline .. it and RC Pylon Suppliers dot com are getting new version drops today and tomorrow. I will be making a lot of announcements over the next week if I can stay reasonably healthy.

Links:Install Guide: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/maui/get-started/installation.NET MAUI Release Info: https://github.com/dotnet/maui/wiki/Release-Vers...

03/08/2024

Posted on the AMA Pylon Racing Page by Paul Bizard ...

"The World Models have some nice EP 400 models. I had the Rambler, Piper J3, Ultimate... all flew well. I swapped the original motors with brushless motors."

03/08/2024

I’ve been flying some of the P-51 EP Mustangs that were produced by The World Models for a long time .. the originals had Speed 400 brushed motors and a gearbox with them .. I’m not sure I ever flew one with a brushed motor .. The World Models had some Speed 400 size brushless motors with a turned down 2.3mm shaft that fit in the gearbox and used the same pinion gears as the brushed motors in the gearboxes .. I know I flew my P-51 EP so hard and continuously one day at Charlotte Aeromodelers that the ESC caught on fire .. I saw smoke coming out of the canopy as it passed me on the downwind .. I got it on the ground quickly and extinguished the flames .. it didn’t do much damage .. But I switched to a direct drive Turnigy SK motor of I believe 1100Kv and 3826 size .. I flew it that way on an APC 8x8E prop .. I eventually switched to a 1500Kv and an 8x6E prop .. always running on 3S1P and 2200mAh.

There were a bunch of the yellow model P-51 ARF kits without motors available on close-out from AirBorne model at one point and I bought a big batch .. I was going to sell them on Amazon, but that was before the pandemic and before I got sick .. I still have at least 8 that are unassembled including two of the Miss America .. I actually gave a yellow one (Rockwell International) to one of my doctors this week to build as a static model .. or put equipment in it as a demo .. he’s never had an R/C airplane but has listened with interest in our appointments .. I have some equipment from crashed airplanes and a transmitter I’m going to give him so he can have it move the control surfaces if he wants .. even an out of date motor and ESC maybe.. I hope to get him hooked on R/C so I can have doctor house calls if needed.

I worked with Fai Chan at AirBorne Models to improve the plane from the non D-tube wing with open bays and a plastic cowl to having the original fiberglass cowl, a D-tube wing, and the Voodoo canopy on the 2nd Voodoo EP version .. the retracts of the day were mechanical .. I had mounted a servo in my Voodoo EP 2nd version before the pandemic .. when I hooked up the wing to a servo driver sometime in the past 2 years, I used a 5 cell NiMH battery .. I forgot those servos were limited to 4.8V and 4 cells .. it burned up the servo immediately .. I kinda threw it aside but had brought it downstairs to maybe work on getting the plane ready to fly .. I have found some 5 cell compatible servos I want to switch to anyway.

One of my long-time plans had been to sheet one of the wings with 1/32” balsa .. I think the wing loading can handle it .. but I also wanted to find retracts because I had flown one without a landing gear and it just looks so much better with no wheels sticking out while in the air.

I’ve been working on another Warbird project .. it involves the XP40Q that was an experimental variant of the P-400 that was raced at Reno .. while AMA 422 Q40 doesn’t allow retracts, RCPRO Warbird Racing does .. I’ve found retracts that would be suitable for a XP40Q for scale Warbird Racing .. Steve Baker had done the XP40Q for Q40 and that topic arose sometime in the past two weeks on Facebook.

I had also found some little electric retracts that I thought might be suitable for the P-51 EP planes earlier in the year .. on Amazon Prime Days on July 17/18, the little retracts that were in my cart showed as a Prime Day sale .. they were below $20 and I decided to take a chance even though I knew from photos that the struts were too short.

Well I got lucky .. the 3mm structs are held in with two easily accessible 3mm set screws .. and the retract base mounting is an easy conversion .. I have also come up with some strategies for custom retracts that I’ll be sharing .. I went ahead and drew up the primary dimensions of these retracts .. more will be coming on this topic soon .. bottom line is the Voodoo is getting electric retracts .. I will pull molds from the gear bay before doing the full conversion and getting at least another wing done.

I’ve been working on getting back to making production videos and using multiple cameras. I’ve also been working on getting back to writing and am working on articles for some magazines. I’m going to document my project with this P-51 Mustang Voodoo EP and other small planes like it. This will be in photos, words, and videos. It’s not a big deal kind of project. I prefer to practice on things that are disposable.