Last Fall (2024) a fellow club member had the misfortune of seeing his Freewing T-33
disappear through the trees.
We found the model scattered on the ground, in the bushes, and in the trees.
Gathering everything in a garbage bag, I asked: "what are you going to do with the debris?"
He replied: "It's going in the garbage."
I said: "Give it to me, I'm looking for a winter project."
After a couple of weeks, I laid all the parts on my basement floor.
As I have done with other crashed winter projects, I Gorilla glued and stapled the fuselage parts
together from nose to tail.
The fuselage was in 7 pieces.
And after a lot of the "hot water treatment", I began filling and
sanding and got the fuselage to a 20/20 acceptance.
(At 20 feet away and at 20 mph, you can't see the repairs!)
In January of '25, Barry Parkinson and I travelled to Niagara Falls, NY to pick up my wing and model parts along with Barry's beautiful big yellow E-Flite T-28. I finished rebuilding the T-33 fuselage by March, then began painting the model in the 1970's RCAF T-33 fluorescent orange wing tip scheme. Callie Graphics decals gave the model its personality. This rebuild took 5 months and was an excellent winter project.
Last Friday (April 22, 2025) I took the model to our flying field to have Peter Krautter take pictures for this article. Brian Harrington was there as well.
The next day, Brian called and made me an offer. It's his!
Thanks to Peter Krautter for the pictures at our Field.
Cheers
Ted Pritlove
Ted Pritlove - rebuilder, Peter Krautter- photographer, Brian Harrington- test pilot