Hello Luc.
It was great to meet you at last weekend’s Great Homeschool Convention in Ontario.
By far, the AeroRacer’s booth was the highlight of our visit. Charlotte built and colored her pink and purple Prop Diver Shark while we were still in our hotel room. David could NOT WAIT to open his Mistral glider and evaluate the plans and read the instructions. We were not able to hold him off from starting construction on his own. He began building the tail surfaces on the hotel desk. I then advised him the put the completed tail pieces back into the package to safely transport home. I got to spend Fathers Day helping him complete his first balsa-and-tissue glider! Something I have dreamed of doing for a very long time. Your informative and educational approach to creating these exciting products launched a strong motivation in both of my kids to complete these models.
About a year ago, I purchased a rubber-powered Guillow’s “Build-by-Number” Piper Cub. I remembered building and flying all of the models in that series as a kid. When I got the kit home for David, he was immediately discouraged by thin die-cut parts that would easily break as he tried to punch them out. Those thin part sheets and the site of the many balsa sticks to cut-to-length over the plans seemed to be a bit overwhelming for him. He lost his motivation and we never completed that model. In fact, it barely got started as he aborted the project in frustration as he broke his third die-cut part by step 3.
Both of us perked up when we met you and discussed how at no time would he be holding a razor blade or hobby knife to cut ANY parts to complete the Mistral. You may not have known how important that was to us when you said it.
Using thick, gap-filling C/A glue, we were able to complete the entire model in one short afternoon building session on our back patio table. We brushed a water-thinned white glue solution on to the airframe parts to secure the tissue paper covering. Since Fathers Day was also the June Solstice, we had enough day-light time to go to the local school yard and test-fly his new glider!
The hand-launches into the moderate evening breeze gave us some pretty impressive flying! We had to return home at dusk, as I had to pack and prepare to leave town for a week of business in San Diego. I had one of the most enjoyable Father’s days ever, and we are really looking forward to breaking out the High-Start this weekend when I return.
We will also be going to the local pool on Saturday to launch the Pink and Purple Shark-Shaped Prop-Diver!
Attached are a few pics of the completed Mistral glider. Not bad for his first one! I am SURE it won’t be the last!!!
Thank you again for all of the time you spent with my kids and demonstrating your very fun and educational models!
Respectfully,
– Joe
