DAVID’S PROJECTS
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This special guy is a first class, avid model builder. He does a spectacular job crafting vintage model airplanes, boats, weathervanes and whirligigs.
To view all of David’s boats, planes, whirligigs and other projects, please visit his website at:
Note: The above url automatically redirects to http://stickandtissue.weebly.com. The site is not completed yet, so you may get a ‘Site not Secure’ message until I publish it. There are lots of vintage model airplanes and pictures of radio-controlled boats on in the above link. (The planes are on the first page, and his radio controlled boats are on the second page. David is certainly a master craftsman!
Many years ago David was a member of the Flying Aces Club located in Ottawa Ontario. The members used to travel to Gananoque, Ontario to hold their flying competitions at an abandoned airstrip located on the outskirts of the town. The planes were called ‘Stick and Tissue’ as they were made from light balsa wood and tissue paper. (The club disbanded shortly after the property was sold to a developer.)
The planes were powered by tightly intertwined strips of multiple rubber bands cut to a specific length to create the ‘motor’ that powered the plane. The rubber bands were twisted to the required torque then attached to a small, pre-installed hook. The dethermalizer would be activated when the fuse burned out. The tail would drop and the plane would gradually come down. Unless it had been caught in an updraft. An updraft was not a good thing as often the rode the updraft until it was out of sight rather than slowly come to a landing, as it was supposed to do.
Before the plane was launched, the rope fuse was ignited using a small lighter. The plane was launched by tossing it skyward. At launch, the timer was started. The plane rose slowly in the air, flying in ever enlarging circles.
When the fuse burned out, the tailpiece would drop and the plane would begin its descent. The object of the competition was to see which plane stayed up for the requisite time, or longer. That is how the winner was determined. (Although sometimes the planes escaped into the bright blue yonder, never to be seen again, which was a great loss to the owner after all the work that went into building it.) What an amazing sport, and now, an almost obsolete one.
When the old Gananoque Ontario airport was sold, David turned his hand to making Scale Model Boats, Weathervanes and Whirligigs; not to mention a modified motorized racing car that he designed and built on a commercial chassis.
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