Rick’s Rants and Raves

This past weekend, my son really wanted to build an airplane. Not a real fly-in-the-backyard airplane–just a toy. Initially he wanted to build one that a stuffed animal could ride in. Eventually it morphed into a plane that a Playmobile person could sit in.

I don’t particularly like building stuff. I know how to use most hand tools, and a fair number of power tools, but I’m not good with them. So, as the boy kept begging to build an airplane, I just kept thinking of my own limitations. At one point during his pleading, he confided “I just want to spend time with you.” Oh boy. So I sucked it up, faced my limitations, and agreed to work on the airplane.

I began with a ready-made fusilage-the “Blockhead” car from our recent pinewood derby. He insisted on a bi-wing, so we cut some dowels for the supports, and cut a couple of pieces of plywood from some scrap for wings. The same plywood served for the tail fin and wings. The front wheels came with the car, and we glued a small piece of dowel for a rear wheel. We cut down a pair of popsicle sticks for the propeller, and put a screw through a hole so that they could spin. The finishing touch was the steering wheel, which was another scrap of dowel.

As the pieces started to come together, he exclaimed “this is gonna be great!”. As soon as it was done, he rushed upstairs to show his mother and older sister. Then then reappeared in the basement and said “Oh, I forgot to tell you, Thank you very much!” He’s very proud of his plane.

Now he wants to build a garage for it…