What?

You have got to be kidding right? More than a year has gone by without a single post!?!

Life has been busy and sometimes tough. But lets see what 2010 shall bring.

to be continued...

Holy Cow!

Holy Cow what a year! Busy busy busy!!! Between my work and our home business I didnt even fly this year! I should go to jail for that one.

My wife's business (that I help a lot with) has taken a bunch of our time. We have had a pretty good year in terms of orders and things keep picking up. Which is very good considering there are many people that are not doing to well. We started selling online, here is a link to that...

Waking Bear Studio

Currently it looks like I may get some plane projects worked on in February. Seems like that will be our slowest month.

Well have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Bad Link

Seems I had a bad link for Gary's Corsair plans. I fixed it and you should now be able to get the .pdf file. Sorry for this taking me so long to fix.

Gary's Corsair Plans Added!

With permission from Gary himself I have added Gary's Corsair plans! Gary sent me an email and offered some additional info on this bird. Here is the email:
"Rick,
Feel free to use those plans and instructions any way you want. I haven't updated those plans at all. The elevator and rudder are regular plastic push rods and the ailerons are dual HS81's mounted in wings. The coro firewall is a real weak point so if I made any more they'll have a 1/4 ply firewall capping the 4mm coro forward fuse. The 4mm fuselage is wrapped around a 3/8" square cutting board ring that's glued to the coro and butts up against the back of the firewall. The firewall screws into the ring and is removeable for quick field repairs. Tank leaks are common after a bad crash. I have 4 of those Corsairs hanging in my laundry room ready for the 2008 combat season. It isn't as fast as the inline engine fighters the other guys have but it turns and loops on a dime at full throttle without snapping out.
I still have the original production model from 5 yrs ago. It spun into a perfect landing once after the wing failed.

Gary"

If you build this bird send me a photo and I will post it on the blog! Send it to rpage at shol dot com

Enjoy!!

Download Section Added!

You will notice I added a download section! I will put hard to find plans for download as I run onto them. I will be adding Gary's Corsair plans very soon! Right click on the link and do a "save target as".

Almost spring!

Well spring is just around the corner (I hope!) and I need to start posting on this blog again! Winter has been tough on my father, his health still on the decline. Work has been nonstop and building has been nonexistent. Need to try and get a little bit back on track. I have a scratch built SE5A in the works that I hope to complete sometime this spring. When it is further along I will post images.

Make sure to get that field box sorted out and batteries charged!

Not such a good summer...

This summer has not been very good on the home front. My father-in-law past away from COPD. It was a two month battle that drained him and all of us.

Now my father is in the hospital for the same thing. Although he is not doing to bad, he is also not doing real well. Every time things start looking up something else causes another problem. We spend as much time with my father as we can and pray every day that he will get better.

My flying time has been almost zero as well as my building time. I will get back to this blog and posting updates. I am just not sure how soon. For all of you that keep checking back from time to time, thank you.

The Blue Devil flies!

Well it has been a long time coming, but my blue devil (demon) had it's maiden flight today. The winds were very strong today, OS 46 LA wide open into a head wind and the plane just sorta hovered! That is some serious wind!

I am adding a few more photos of her. You will see some strips got added to the left wing when I got home. Seems an all blue plane is tough to tell direction with from a distance! LOL

Ok, so it's not a spad...

or a plane for that matter. It is called a "Pintail 12" and is in the footy class of sailing. Figured i would show you what I worked on over the winter months.

Wow

It has been some time now since I have posted into my blog! The combat plane pictured below is completed. Sadly the blue devil is not. However, I do now have all the items I need to finish. Someday soon.

I should be a bit more active now. 2007 has proved to be busy.

Happy flying!

Mike is at it again, have a look!

Since my building is at a stand still because of work interfearing with my play time, I have decided to share Mike Yanosky's newest build, the spit!

Here it is...






Master SPAD builder Mike has done it yet again! Nice job Mike!

Month of illness

November was a month of illness. Between my wife and myself someone was sick the whole month. Things seem to be getting back to normal now. I am still fighting the end of a cold and my wife is still fighting some thyroid issues. They are not as bad as they were, but still some things for her to get through. Thanks to everyone that keeps checking in! Sorry for the lack of updates, but maybe we can change that some here in December!

Take care all!

Hey! Looks like combat is in my future!

It would appear as though Mike really wants to combat bad! The above red version of his combat plane he built for me! Geez Mike, now Don needs one!

Can't wait to get my gear in her and see what she can do! Thanks Mike!!!

Combat anyone?

mike yanosky of our club built this 36 inch wingspan combat plane. seems he now has to build one or two more so he has someone to fly against! lol! as you can see, another A1 plane by mike! when is mine going to be done mike?!

busy busy busy

I can not believe how busy we have been! Geesh, I have not flown in what seems like forever! On top of that my daughter got married this past weekend! So much going on.. hope it slows down soon!





Here is my daughter Alishia and my son Tim. Alishia asked Tim to be in her wedding. It was nice to see them getting along. They where not super close growing up. But recently they have gotten a lot closer. It is nice :)

Bob O'Conner memorial

As mentioned in the last post, we where asked to build a memorial that will be located in a cancer/lymphoma center in Pittsburgh, PA. Also I said in my last post that I would try to put up a picture or two. Well here they are.... the completed piece and a closeup of the pedestal...

Flight time!

I was able to fly last few days. Ran about 11 tanks out of the FX-Cirrus now that I have Roberts original Thundertiger Pro 36 installed. Flys fast and is a bunch of fun. On my 5th tank today, I was making my last landing and I cut the approach to wide and clipped the top of a 30 foot pine. She went in hard and made one heck of a sound. Beside breaking the prop, it broke all 4 wing bolts and both gear bolts. Other than that there is not even a scratch on the plane. And of course I only had 4 bolts of the 6 I needed or I could have tossed on a new prop and flew again. Man I love SPADs!!!

Anyway, off to the HB shop tomorrow for some bolts.

Have been working on a big project for my wifes company (www.wakingbearstudio.com) so my time next few days will be limited once again. We where asked to build a memorial out of steel for the late Mayor of Pittsburgh, Bob O'Conner. Bob passed away suddenly with a rare form of brain cancer. We where honored when we were asked to create the piece. When we have the piece completed I will try to post a picture of it here.

Back and Busy

Will I have been back from vacation for awhile now. But have been very busy. Today was the first I made it to the field in a good while. Had some engine trouble so I was unable to fly. But fellow flyer Don showed up with his cloud dancer and I enjoyed watching him scream thru the air! I think I can see the light at the end of the current work tunnel. I should be able to post more often soon.

BTW, the plane I took was the FX-Cirrus. Finally got all the linkage in and an old os 40 installed. Turns out the os 40 needs rebuilt, or at the very least cleaned up. Will try to mount the TT 36 on the Cirrus this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

On vacation

Will be away until August 23rd. Wife and I are traveling to Manitoulin Island in Ontario. Updates when I get back!

The FX Cirrus

Work has begun to get the FX-Cirrus pictured above flight ready. The wing shown mounted actually had a broken spar. That was fixed this evening. In addition, a new dark blue elevator was cut and control horn was mounted. Robert, the guy I bought the plane from, had an extra light blue wing and elevator. I will be keeping those as spares.

This plane will have an OS 40 FP mounted to the nose. Will keep you posted.

The Blue Devil (Demon) has also had some recent work done to it. The wing is now bolt on and has some extra reinforcement added to it. Mike from the club folded his demon wing on a hard landing. Mind you, that was with the gear mounted in the wing. Since mine is now mounted in the wing, he suggested the reinforcement.

So many projects, so little time (sigh)...