After going through several hundred dollars worth of balsa planes, I decided that I need to either find a less expensive alternative to the delicate balsa planes or get out of the hobby. Fortunately, I found out about SPAD's (Simple Plastic Airplane Designs) which are built primarily using 2mm and 4mm corrugated plastic - the plastic used for Real Estate signs.

I built and flew my first SPAD and was hooked! The fact that these planes are so cheap to build and virtually indestructible, for the first time in my short flying career, I actually enjoyed flying. The "Pucker" factor in flying a SPAD is almost nil. That means you can actually enjoy flying your creation instead of worrying about crashing it.

This is my SPA3D. This is a 3D trainer and was designed for low and slow utilizing high angle of attack flight. The one pictured is actually the rebuild of my original. After beating the crap out of it for a couple of years, it was showing signs of the wear and tear of learning to fly 3D. Over the past 4 years or so, I am now putting the finishing touches to my 4th SPA3D.

This is the plane that you will almost always find me flying at the field. This is a great bird to fly in the snow. With the GMS .47, this can be hand launched and harriered in. So need for skis. If you're interested in learning to fly 3D, this is the BEST way to go. If you want to see rebuild #3 in flight, check "My Videos". If you want to know how you can get your hands on one of these, catch me at the field.