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I've Come To Praise The SPAD
Mike "Unca Mikey" Valabek
February 23, 2002
I've come to praise the SPAD... not to bury it. Contrary to comments made on this website, I have a warm (OK, so it's luke warm) spot in my heart for the SPAD. Easy to build, inexpensive in the extreme, tough as nails, will turn on a dime and give you nine cents change... whats not to like?
IT'S UGLY!! IT'S HEAVY!! Flys great... as long as you use a V-8. It's not for nothing that we refer to any arival on the ground as a SPAD landing!
I feel as if I am biting the hand that fed me... many of my cuts/kills have been with a SPAD. Of course my discontent wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that I aquired these SPADs by being the recepient of the "Most Spectacular Crash" award, after splattering another fine flying BALSA combat airplane against a Plastic Fantastic SPAD. No... I'm above all that. "Revenge is a dish best served cold" a quote from STAR TREK the Wrath of Kahn. My revenge comes in form of a "foamie".
TOUGHFLIGHT produces a kit that will go toe to toe with a SPAD and get the job done. I had to use building techniques and materials I had never worked with in my 20 years of R/C experience, but the end result is an airplane that has the Moxie to cut a head size hole in the SPAD wing, and shatter its fuselage... purely by accident you understand! (yes I've done that)
A Flying Wing design, it has NO frontal area and little drag...hence a weak or worn engine still pulls it around at a very respectable speed. Teflon/nylon parts in likely impact areas make it hard to kill. Being a tailess design it can be set up to turn on a dime and give you 11 cents change! I've only made one convert so far, the vast majority of my competition flies SPADs...very worthy foes indeed...but don't look to get in a collision with me...you'll lose.
Unca Mikey
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