Charlie really went above & beyond this time. He has already given me a complete plane last Fri. It is sort of a pattern ship/sport plane with a Fox .46 on it. It is an older plane but will clean right up as it is in very good shape. It will make a great aerobatic practice plane. Then yesterday he tells me to come by the shop because once again, he has something he wants to give me. Some of you old time builders will probably recognize the name "Royal". He gave me a Royal B-25 Twin Engine Bomber kit!! Talk about jumping in to the building pool with both feet.[X(]. He explained that Royal used to be one of the better kits on the market because they were so complete. Hardware & everything. It has all the guns, the canopies, gun turrets, a very detailed cockpit kit & even polished aluminum engine cowls. Very sharp looking. It has a 70.5 in. wingspan & a matching set of OS .46AX's should fly it nicely. Now I know this thing is going to be a major build but he wanted me to have something to do after my surgery next week because it may be a long time before I am able to fly again after next Wed. What a great friend huh?

So I called Dad to tell him what Charlie had just done. He came out of building retirement real quick! He was going to run off to the LHS to buy all new sheeting for it just in case the wood was too old. He recognized the name "Royal" right away & agreed with everything that Charlie had told me about them. He even told me that was a pretty expensive kit 20 yrs ago. So he has volunteered to come up & help me build it, so I guess I now have my first real Warbird. It's just going to take a lot of time & hard work to get it to the flight line. So now by this time next year, I too will know the satisfaction of watching something that I built from the ground up take flight.

But don't get any silly ideas guys, I'm still going to try & get my hands on that P-51!!![8D]