spadblog

Had a message from one of my more active customers recently. "Active" means this fellow had bought a large number of the SPADflyer and been building and crashing with regularity. One of the things that came out of this correspondence is the thought that the tailwheel wire (an option that some choose) could use some re-thinking. The design worked well for me, but as I kept producing it I began to make one of the bends less acute and this resulted in the design not working as well, particularly for new builders.

What to do? Well I just sent the new design off to the new builder that drew my attention to the problem to see if it does as well as I think it will. The SPADflyer should go together with a minimum of fussiness if it is to do the job I intended it to do. I think the new design will do this just fine, but I want to know if my customer will find assembling the design as "instictive" as I expect he will. The test is if he can install it without needing to ask any questions. If that is what we get, then we are in business!

When Chip and I started this thing it was intended to get Chip in the air with something at least as durable as the AirCore Colt that we destroyed. While we were at it we thought it should be even more durable. As we looked around we found many SPAD designs and we decided to invent our own. Thus was born the SPADflyer.. On the website we still have some pictures of the maiden flight of the original. We had my son-in-law do that first flight, and he was doing inverted passes at six feet by the time he made the second flight. A few modest changes to the fuse design and we started delivering to customers.

The whole point of starting this up was to deliver a low dollar option to people wanting to fly with an internal combustion (IC) engine without risking their retirement fund or sanity. Why internal comustion? At the time there was just no better way to make horsepower. It is still true today, even though you can build an electric that will fly just as well with the developments that have come along. The problem is, as you may know that you buy all your fuel up front when you buy the battery and chargers and other paraphernalia that have to be had. The cost (and learning curve) of IC is a little less intense and a bit eaier to understand than electric in many cases.

Well, as we have gone along there has proven to be a base of customers out there that just like the concept of the SPAD and its toughness. The SPADflyer has had a few changes in design as we have gone along and it is better for them today. Improvements can always be made.

One of the things I have resisted has been tricycle landing gear. I am usually a bit rabid on the subject of weight. Yeah, I know that seems a little short sighted when talking about a SPAD made with 4mm coro, but I expect to build something tough and still try to keep it light. Now after that sermon, I decided that maybe I should take another look. Did you know that the Nose gear for Tricycle gear weighs 3oz? That include a 2 1/2 inch wheel in the bargain. Stay tuned, I feel a change of attitude coming on.

Ed