Thanks for the advice all.
No I did not have a buddy box.

I have to say the crash was unfortunate. I felt qualified to fly without a instructor since I had been through several trainers several years back all with a instructor. I did fly the Nexstar sucessfully the day prior.

I severly misjuged the distance the plane was from me and the distance the tree was from me. It was a half hour till sunset so I wonder if the lighting conditions played a part in my eyes. Is there anyway to practice depth percepton so this does not happen again?

I will look closer to the spad. I am a woodworker so building from plans is not foreign to me and I have many tools for the job.

Thanks agian for the positive comments.