Today, 01 April 2025, marks 13 years since I took over Shorty’s Basement (2012) and then converted it to Volare Products. It is still a one-man shop and I work on it every day that I am at home.
A lot of water has passed under that bridge, including three different shopping carts, a few web-hosting hiccups, the procurement of Superior Props, the TEMPORARY demise of Superior Props (95% my fault). Some other stats that are rather impressive; to me at least: I have produced just under 150 laser-cut kits/variants, with over 9,500 kits sold, and over 68 THOUSAND total orders (that is about 2.5 orders every day)!
Superior Props WILL be back. The move to Michigan from Ohio proved to be a challenge. Expertise was lost and modifications have had to be made. I have one more bracket to make for the prop machine and then it “should” be ready to pump out the props again. We’ll have to make sure the operation is running per expectations (it’s not a simple process).
Of course, I’m not sitting still. There are more kits in the pipeline (I work on these new designs nearly every day) and I am sure there will be new or revised 3D-printed items coming, too. Free Flight Model Aviation is what I do; not only this business, but I am on the Council and Board of the Flying Aces Club (FAC), I collect and tabulate all FAC “kanones” (contest wins), I run the FAC website, manage the FAC and Cloudbusters Facebook pages, and am one of the Contest Directors for the Cloudbusters contests. You can find me at nearly all of the Cloudbusters Indoor and Outdoor contests, along with the FAC Geneseo and Muncie contests and the AMA Outdoor Nats.
I am truly appreciative for all of my customers and friends – thank you for these 13 years and however many more there are to come!
Thanks, George for what you do! If not for Volare products and all other suppliers and model aviation experts like you, it would have been hard to get started on this hobby. I imagine others like me would also stumble into this hobby and discover the wealth of information available to a beginner. I have a few more of your kits and you’ll be seeing me in your order inbox a few more times!