Stick by stick, pandemic project an exercise in patience, precision

Corporal Francis Ross, an aircraft structures technician in Greenwood, spent his off hours during the pandemic building to scale a A10 Warthog from scratch. Photo by Sara White, Aurora Newspaper

Sara White
Aurora Newspaper
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When 2020 brought about a lockdown, it also brought about plenty of spare time, which meant people rediscovering unfinished projects.

For Corporal Francis Ross, he always wanted to build a model of an A10 Warthog, his favourite aircraft, but he knew it would take a massive amount of time.

“And it was,” he admits. “Right at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, I dragged my piece of plastic up on the kitchen table, with all the little squares marked on it for scale, and started. It was on the kitchen table for months. It sat on the table, then on a stand. I’d work on it for 15 minutes and then leave it to let the glue dry.”

Cpl Ross spent 13 years at 14 Wing Greenwood as an aircraft structures technician. As the pandemic took hold, he was working at 14 Air Maintenance Squadron. He spent a few initial days of the first lockdown at home, and then worked all the way through 2020’s upheaval. He was even a member of the wing’s Operation Laser team, one of several dozen personnel tasked to train and be on call in case of need anywhere across Canada. He most recently transferred to 405 (Long Range Patrol) Squadron.

His model A10 Warthog was built with hundreds of Popsicle sticks, white glue, bits of wood and toothpicks, and even the springs from inside ballpoint pens to act as wheel shocks. Total cost, $100.

There are moving parts – the wheels, the engine compression blade, a chute pack compartment at the plane’s tail end, and hatches where you can peek in and see the engine parts he crafted.

“I have it all in proportion, except, if you really look at it, the wing span is a bit too wide. I had to add the wing tips, and it would have been too much to get that length back and the wood all tapered. These are just some of the things I’ve noticed; it’s as accurate as I could make it with wood. And really it’s still not done. I’m thinking of weapons systems, making bombs and missiles for it so it’s fully loaded. And then maybe I’ll hang it from the garage ceiling when it’s done.”

Cpl Ross grew up in West Gore, Nova Scotia, and spent time as a kid attending every air show possible at the small Stanley airport or in Greenwood. He’s got all kinds of aviation books and aircraft specification guides.

“I grew up loving this plane, the Warthog. It was specifically designed for air support for ground troops. It’s not a multi-purpose aircraft. It just had one job.”