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My airplane was model of the month in July of 1997. I have built several airplanes since then that were model of the month winners but I have elected to withdraw myself from this competition so the others might have a chance to win.
This airplane kit was given to me by my sadistic children as a Christmas gift in December 1996. I had never built an airplane from a kit before and I think my kids just wanted to watch me suffer through the building process. I was very impressed with the quality of the kit and I started the building process with great enthusiasm. And then I noticed that the instructions called for a fuselage jig. I could not find one anywhere so I decided to plunge ahead without the jig. As soon as I had the fuselage sheeted I noticed that it had a curve not unlike a banana. So I ran a string from the top of the rudder to the tip of the cowling and realized I should have looked a little harder for that fuselage jig. However, I did have a saw - so I sawed off the offending curve and filled in the offending void with some scrap balsa and sanded and sanded and sanded and then finally I did a lot more sanding. Most of the months of January, February and March were spent doing the kinds of things fine craftsman do when there're building a flying work of art. In April I began installing the engine, a Morris .45 and this took most of the month. In May and June I did more of the fine craftsman building flying works of art stuff. My building mentor, John Clark had advised me to have the airplane ready for the July model of the month contest. John noted that in July most of the flying club members are on vacation and there's a very strong chance that the model of the month contest will consist of one airplane. So in July 1997, only six months after construction began my Morris Hobbies Balsa Nova won on its first attempt at Model of the Month! I have now retired from Model of the Month competition but I have fond memories of those days of being a fine craftsman building a flying work of art!