Hello Everyone,
We experienced a serious issue this morning with our website. It was down for about 8 hours due to a plugin that updated and crashed the website hard. We restored to a previous backup. As far as I can tell we did not lose any data. If you experience any issues with the website, please let us know as soon as possible so we can fix the issue. You can find our contact form by clicking HERE.
Thank you for your understanding.
Lee
Category: blog
Operating as Normal
Wind Catcher RC operating as normal.
Starting tonight at midnight, our governor of Michigan issued a stay at home order. Luckily, I run Wind Catcher RC out of our house and work shop behind the house.
Last week in anticipation of something like this happening, I picked up another large order of EPP foam from my supplier. I have #1.3 in white and black, #1.9 in white and black, and #2.8 in black (experimental right now). In the next week or two I will process the foam and have more sheets available in the foam section of Wind Catcher RC (click here).
If you would like custom thickness sheets of EPP, please let me know so I can cut it for you.
We are expecting our latest shipment of Carbon Fiber to be here soon. When the CF arrives, I will update the quantities in the carbon fiber section (click here).
Shipping
UPS stated on their website today that they will continue to pick up and deliver. Here is their statement: “UPS operations are considered to be critical infrastructure by the Department of Homeland Security and will continue to pickup and deliver, even in restricted areas.”
As of the moment I wrote this, USPS did not have any notice about service disruptions in Michigan. Please see USPS for up to date information about deliveries in your area.
Still Concerned?
Before the pandemic, I worked out of my house and workshop staying at home 95% of the time. My exposure to the public has always been limited, so for me, this is business as usual at home. If you are concerned about the transmission of COVID-19 when receiving things being shipped to you, please see the CDC’s recommendations. You can also research how long the virus stays alive on surfaces.
Shipping your items out might be delayed by a few days due to unforeseen circumstances here at our house, workshop, and in Michigan. I will do my best to get orders out as soon as possible.
Stay safe, wash your hands, stay hygienic, and we’ll all get through this eventually.
More updates to the site and business. EPS, Carbon Fiber, The Toledo Show, and more.
I have a lot of updates for you. The business was quite busy this last month. Keep reading for more information about the Toledo Show, Carbon Fiber, and more.
Looking for EPP foam and Carbon Fiber?
CLICK HERE to go shopping.
The Toledo Show
I will be attending the Toledo Show.
You will find me on the second floor in the swap meet area. I am not sure the exact location until
Thursday afternoon. It is my
understanding that the tables are first come first serve. I plan to get there early to get two tables
that are side by side. I am planning to
bring a variety of carbon fiber, EPP foam, 24″ – EPS 2412 wings of various
chord, and Spec Wing kits.
If you have specific foam sizes and quantities you would like me to save for
you, please let me know before the show so I can set it aside for you. If there are any other special requests,
please let me know ahead of time and I’ll do my best to help you out.
Carbon Fiber additions
I am expecting my latest shipment of carbon fiber to arrive on
Friday. I am expanding the varieties
that I carry. All carbon fiber is 1000mm
long. The website will be updated soon
with the following sizes:
Rod: 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, and 6mm
Tube: 3mm x 1.5mm, 4mm x 2mm, 5mm x 3mm,
and 6mm x 4mm
Strips: 3mm x 0.6mm, 4mm x 0.6mm, 5mm x
0.6mm, 6mm x 1mm, 7mm x 1.2mm, and 10mm x 1mm
If there is a size you would like me to carry, please contact me. I cannot guarantee I will get it, but I can
see if my supplier has the tools to make it and possibly add it to my next
order.
#1.9 White EPP
You asked for it, I got it. #1.9 EPP is now in stock. Some of you already found it. Thanks for your business. I plan to carry #1.9 EPP from this point forward. I currently only have 2″ thickness in stock, however this Summer I’ll be able to cut it any thickness up to 2″. More on that further down.
Spec Wing
I
am doing my best to release the Spec Wing kits.
It is my intention to have several kits ready by the Toledo Show. FPVWRA also ordered ten kits for their online
website. These kits will be certified by
FPVWRA to be within spec. I am planning
to have several kits at the table in Toledo for sale if all goes well. My newest design for the carbon fiber spars
is working out better than expected. I
have to redesign the 3D printed motor mount.
I have two prototypes being printed as I write this article. I am also planning to make the winglets a bit
smaller and lighter.
I am way behind on R&D due to an illness in our family. More on that further down.
Slicer
I am purchasing my own slicer. It will be capable of slicing any thickness between 3mm up to 2″. I am expecting delivery of the slicer sometime in June. This means more accurate cuts and I’ll be able to better keep up with demand with any thickness. The slicer will only be able to cut up to 24″ wide EPP of any length.
EPS
I have a supplier for EPS foam and plan to offer custom cut wings in EPS. EPS is Expanded Polystyrene or as most people know it, Styrofoam. It is not as durable as EPP, however the benefits are that it cost less, more rigid, and is lighter compared to EPP.
We are currently negotiating a price. I hope to have this in the store within the month.
Custom Cut Wings
In
the next few weeks I will have a form available on the website to help with
custom quotes for wings. Lately I’ve
received a lot of messages from people looking for custom cut wings and
fuselages. I find myself answering the
same questions often. I’m hoping this
form will help answer the basic stuff and get all the needed information for me
to write up a quote in a timely manner.
This should help make it faster for both myself and my customers as well
as get the information to my customers as soon as possible.
As an FYI, I’m currently able to accurately cut airfoil thicknesses within +/-
0.03″ in #1.3 EPP foam.
R&D and Family
R&D
is behind on several models. One of the
several reasons is due to my granddaughter, now 8 months old, having
cancer. She is currently receiving
chemotherapy and after over 45 days in the hospital was allowed to finally go
home last week. She has ten more months
of chemotherapy, if it is working. I am
spending more time with family in support and visitation when I am able which
limits the amount of free time available for research and development of the
various models I am working on. Thank
you to everyone for your donations, understanding, thoughts, and prayers for
our family. We really appreciate the
support from all who are able to give.
To give you an idea of what I’m working on, here is a list of various kits I
hope one day to have available. This
list is in no particular order:
WC Spec Wing (almost finished) – Designed for FPVWRA racing.
Das Krieger – 36″ Wing designed for full contact combat and FPV flight.
Citabria – Slow flying and designed for general aerobatics and FPV flight.
iWonder – My own designed inspired by the FT Bloody Wonder. Currently 6 prototypes out of XPS have flown
great and are a blast to fly. I need to
convert it to EPP and test.
Cub – One prototype cut out of XPS, but has not been assembled yet
Lofty 48 – Very light weight 48″ wingspan designed for indoor/outdoor
flying. Current prototype out of XPS and
partially assembled.
Dragonfly – Biplane of own design.
Currently only on paper. Unique
design.
Sky Dancer – 3D plane currently only a thought, but I intend to make an EPP 3D
plane eventually.
Wind Catcher RC priorities
Wind Catcher RC is currently a sole proprietor. I am currently doing everything on my own. Shipping out products, ordering, and R&D all have specific priorities. I am getting product shipped out as soon as possible which is usually the next business day. Ordering new product, answering customer questions and quotes, and sorting product all take priority over new RC plane kits which is another reason I am behind on R&D. I am working towards being more organized so my time can be used more efficiently. I recently rented a local storage unit and built one set of shelves. This is used to keep some of the extra EPP foam, but will also hold other equipment and materials to free up space in my workshop so I can better focus on this business over anything else.
Your Pictures
I am looking for pictures to place on my website of projects you do not mind sharing. I would like to post what other people are doing with the EPP, carbon fiber, and RC plane kits.
Website Pictures
I have several new items on the webpage that need pictures. I expect to get to these sometime in April. For now, you will see blank pictures for these new items and menus. Thank you for your understanding.
January 2019 update on Spec Wing kits and more.
We have a several exciting things to tell you about this month.
We have not made any announcements in the past few weeks due to a lot happening and couldn’t talk about it until we were sure. A lot has come together this past week. We are excited to now be able to tell you about it.
Spec Wing update
Full kits of the Spec Wings are being put together this week.
FPVWRA recently let us know our kits meet spec requirements. Hurray! Thanks FPVWRA! Discussions are now taking place to have our kits carried in their store so they will be certified for racing. We will also sell the kits directly on our website. You can find the link HERE.
We sent out several kits for review with Shelby Voll (link) and Rotor Ranch (link). A huge thank you to those gentleman for accepting our request to do a review. I encourage everyone to click on the links and subscribe to their channel.
These kits are targeting the beginner pilots. We designed these planes to take several hits and hopefully stay together well enough so you can pick it up and keep on flying with no repairs needed. We are using #1.3 EPP foam along with a carbon fiber spar system that we developed between myself and Donny at ThrustFPV (link). I have purposely crashed my Spec Wing over 20 times in various ways to test the rigidity and durability. I’m not saying they are indestructible, however they should hold up well to various crashes. In time they will require some maintenance, however it is our hope you will be flying longer and repairing less.
Website moved
Due to unreliability, we moved to a new host provider recently. We hope the website will be more reliable and provide a better shopping experience for our customers. Please let us know if you notice anything not working or if the page does not load properly.
Live broadcast with ThrustFPV
We did a live broadcast on 10 January 2018 with ThrustFPV talking about our new Spec Wing (link). You can see what the kit will look like and all the details about it. Subscribe to Thrust on Youtube and check out their other videos. They are also doing some build videos for this kit.
Toledo Show
We will be at the Toledo show (link) on Friday and Saturday (April 5 and 6) in the swap meet area. Come check us out! If you have any special requests for kits, foam, carbon fiber, or anything else I can provide, please let us know so we can have it ready for you. Spec Wing kits, several different sizes of sheet foam, and carbon fiber will be available.
Custom Wings
Recently we have been getting a lot of requests for custom cut wings. I will design a form for people to fill out to help expedite the process. Yes, we do cut custom wings. Due to how my CNC hotwire cuts, there is a deviation of about 0.0625″ from actual dimensions. Most of the time I can get this down to less than that. I do my best to get on target with the expected dimensions. My CNC can cut up to 48″ long x 24″ wide. Contact (link) me for a quote.
#1.9 EPP
Two inch (2″) #1.9 EPP sheets will soon be in stock. The sheets will be 36″ x 24″.
Other kits
Our next kit we are working on will be a combat wing setup to take the hits and keep on flying with minimal repairs and maintenance. It will be designed for full contact combat in mind. The combat wing will use the same sparing system as the Spec Wing, however where it will be different is the combat wing will have a thicker asymmetrical air foil. The first few prototypes will also have a foam live hinge we will test. The name for this combat wing is not finalized, however for now it’s code named Das Krieger, which in German means The Warrior.
The Citabria is still in the works. There has been a lot of interest in this plane. We didn’t forget about it. The Spec Wing was the easiest kit for us to get ready for sale and there was a huge demand for it. We wanted to have it ready for the 2019 racing season, so the Citabria had to be put on hold until we were finished with the Spec Wing. The Das Krieger is very similar to the Spec Wing, so that will be a quick kit to design and get ready too. After those two are readily available on our website, we’ll focus on the Citabria again.
New Logo
Wind Catcher RC now has a logo. Let us know what you think. We will update our website with the new logo soon.
FPVWRA Spec Wing cores with balsa elevons.
We finally have the FPVWRA Spec Wings ready for sale. To get started, we are selling the #1.3 EPP wing cores with elevons only. This is not a complete kit. We are working out the details for the complete kit which should be finished very soon. Our first kit put up for sale for the 2018 year… just hours before 2019. 🙂
To check out what is FPVWRA, click HERE.
To go shopping and buy the first several Spec Wing cores, click HERE.
