Hello Everyone,
It’s been a while since our last update. I apologize for the delay. A lot has happened since the last post. We have been quite busy which has kept us from posting new updates. It’s time to get some new information out to everyone.
We are coming to the end of 2021. Thank you to everyone who helped us get where we are today. Wind Catcher RC is growing thanks to all of our customers, friends, and family who support us. We appreciate each and everyone one of you.
The Bad News
We have good news and bad news. I will get the bad news out of the way first. Due to inflation, the price we pay for the products went up significantly, especially the EPP foam and the carbon fiber. We did not raise our prices on EPP since we started 3 ½ years ago, however we have to raise them for the first time starting 1 January 2022. Carbon fiber prices have slowly increased over the past few years, but usually only by a little bit. This past year we had a huge increase in both shipping and material costs. The retail costs will go up slightly, however we are changing our wholesale prices for those companies who are purchasing for R&D, manufacturing, and reselling. We will continue to provide affordable carbon fiber for our retail and wholesale customers.
The Good News
We Moved
Now that the bad news is out of the way, let’s share the good news. Some of you know we moved over a year ago. Luckily for us the move was only a few miles away from our old house. We moved from a home and garage in town to a 10 acre farm outside of town with two pole barns, a dedicated office, and a larger home. We are in the process of converting the pole barns for the business. A furnace is being installed in the foam shop so we can work all winter with comfortable heat and keep the inside above freezing. I’ll explain later. The dedicated office is a separate building that is about 1000 sq/ft where we are currently doing our shipping and receiving. Shipping and receiving will move out to one of the barns in 2022 after we get the room built and insulated. The office will be used for R&D, administration, and some logistics. Comparing what we have now to what we had at the old home, we more than quadrupled our work and office space for the business. We are looking forward to the improvements to our buildings for the business in 2022.
New Products Available
If you haven’t checked out our website recently, take a look at all the new products we are offering at www.windcatcherrc.com. Please let us know what you would like to see in our stores. Is there a specific type of motor from Emax? APC prop size? Or a size of carbon fiber we don’t carry yet? Here are a few name brands we are now selling: STARBOND CA ADHESIVES, EMAX, APC PROPS, DU-BRO, and TATTU GENS ACE BATTERIES.
Kits and R&D Progress
The Gladiator kits are now available. We finished development of this tough plane and have several kits available and more will be produced in the near future.
Spec Wing kits are available. The current version is called the ReSPECt. I’m doing some R&D on part of the build techniques to make it a bit easier for the builder to make the build process more accurate, faster, and more reliable. Once I get through this R&D, I’ll make up more kits for sale.
A 48” wing is in development too. Check out the renderings below which were done on Fusion 360. We don’t have a name for it yet. Do you have a suggestion? It is expected to fly with a 2212 motor at 2200kv on a 4s battery. I have some local friends who requested the plane and will help with the R&D and build. When we are done with the R&D I will make the kits available.
A 3D plane is also at the beginning stages of development. I am calling it the Wind Dancer. I’m working with a customer who does excellent work building planes. He has hundreds of builds under his belt. This plane might take a bit longer to develop because we want to get the precision along with ease of building. Some compromises will need to be made. I’m thinking we might do a normal version and a PRO version. The PRO will require more work and attention to detail to build, however it will be a lighter plane.
There are many other planes in the R&D process. Here are a few in various stages: Cub, Citabria, Bi-plane with unique swept wing design, Cessna, B-17, the Cyber Plane (inspired by the Tesla cybertruck), the Ugly Wonder (inspired by the FT Bloody Wonder), and many other unnamed planes in various stages of R&D.
CO2 LASER!!!
We are acquiring a new piece of equipment for the foam shop. I am scratch building a CO2 laser. The expected work area will be 1400mm x 900mm (55.12” x 25.43”). I’ll be putting a 100w CO2 laser tube inside the machine, however the way we are building this, it will be easy to upgrade as needed in the future. The laser tube requires a water chiller to operate. This is the reason we are installing a furnace in the work shop area. We live in Michigan where the winters can get fairly cold. If the water freezes, it breaks an expensive laser tube. We have to keep the room above freezing at all times. Besides that, it’ll make working out there in the winter that much more comfortable while processing foam with our other equipment.
If you need any laser work done, please contact us for a quote. I’ll start accepting work after we get the laser tuned and I have some practice using the new machine. I’m hoping to start accepting laser work by spring of 2022.
TOLEDO SWAP 2022
We will be at the Toledo Swap Meet again in April 2022. Let us know what you need. I’ll reserve your products so it will be available for you when you come to pick it up. Check out their website HERE.
THANK YOU
We are growing and excited to continue providing a service to this hobby. Thank you to everyone who has helped us get where we are today. You are all awesome!
