Pioneer Pastimes

My six year old son loves to make paper airplanes. He will come into the home office early every morning and one of the first things he will say is, “Dad, help me make a paper airplane”.  He has been into this for literally years and it is still one of his favorite activities.   We have tried all kinds of airplanes and will write articles about several of the neatest kinds we have built.

For this article we are going to talk about some really fun planes that look very realistic and are a ton of fun to fly.

Finding 3D Model airplane plans

The first step is to get the plans.  There are several ways to do this, some free, others that cost a little.

My favorite is a site called Fly’N Things they have a bunch of WWII planes that look very realistic and fly very well tethered or just thrown.

Another source that my son has built a ton of fun and excellent flying paper planes from, is the book Aviation Legends Paper Airplane Book by Ken Blackburn and Jeff Lammers.  Most of these are a little bit simpler to build than the Fly’N Things plans so you will spend less time helping the younger kids with their projects.  There are two ready to make copies of each plane.  This book also gives an excellent short history of aviation and also  one or two pages of information on each of the planes.

Another site is Fiddlers Green they have a ton of very realistic paper models that are a lot of fun to build but a little on the complicated side for young children. This is a great site for any airplane buff. For each of the plans they sell they also give a very complete history of that airplane and a lot of good pictures.  The one feature I always look for is the picture of the plane wrecked at the bottom of the page.Most of their plans are under $5 and you can just download and print on your printer.  I just went over to their site and they have 3 free models to download for just signing up.

I’m sure that a little searching could bring up some other great sources. So if you have a favorite book or website I would love to hear from you, please leave a comment.

Next post we will walk step by step through building one with plenty of tips and tricks for the first time builder.

Now that you have found the perfect plane to build, whether it is a P40 from Fly’N Things or the space shuttle from Aviation Legends Paper Airplane Book. If you haven’t read our post on where to get good models than read it first.

The first thing you will need to do is print out all the sheets for your plane.  I use a little bit heavier (24#) paper, it makes the folds and forming easier and the planes fly better when done.

I’m going to give some tips that help me, if you are experienced at all you will be thinking “I’m not stupid” but these are all things that I’ve learned to do while helping my son.

Tips

• Score all the fold lines with a dead pen (one that is out of ink.)  This really helps the accuracy of the folds and makes difficult assemblies much easier.
• Use a cutting mat and a sharp crafting knife for all the tight internal geometry.  Cutting a plane out with a crafting knife is a lot faster then with scissors and with a little practice much more accurate.
• When trying to glue up the fuselage  and other round tubes roll the paper up tight and then let it relax into the correct shape, then apply the glue and push the sides together.
• Use a pencil with an eraser to work on the inside of the plane when your fingers won’t get in there.  You can also use the pencil to as backing when you are holding a glued joint together until it dries.
• White glue works great for most of the airplane but when gluing pennies or dimes into the front of the plane use rubber cement and clean the money for good adhesion.
• This isn’t exactly a tip but I really like the tabs on the planes from Fly’n Things.  It really helps to pull everything into place when doing glue ups.  Just one hint, put the glue on after you have pulled the tabs through the holes or the paper gets soft and sticky and it’s really hard to get the tabs through the slots.
• You can fly your plane in a circle by tying a thread to the end of one of the wings and the other end to a short stick.  Swing it around your head and with a little practice you can do loop-d-loops and other fun stuff.

One last tip, don’t stress it, I have yet to make one with my boy that was perfect, but everyone has been fun and we enjoy doing the project, it’s a great opportunity to spend some quality time with your kids doing something fun and educational.

Some of the members of our family have trouble with gluten so Miss Roo will show you how to make gluten free cookies that are quick, easy, and delicious.

Enjoy the Video.

This is another great activity you can have fun doing with with your child ages 3-18.  It’s easy to learn, you see results quickly and you have something beautiful and functional when you are done.  Enjoy the video