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Mud Duck "Swag" Now AvailableJuly 14th, 2009 "Swag" (another word for t-shirts, jackets, stickers, pins, mugs, etc. with our designs on them) are now available through CafePress.com (CP). Check out our storefront on CP at: www.cafepress.com/mudduckaviation. All the items available in that store are printed "on demand", meaning they are produced when you order them, they are not in our possession at Mud Duck Aviation. They are also sold through CP, charged to your credit card through CP, and shipped from CP. This means that those items can not be combined with items from The Mud Duck Store for shipping discounts or charged to the same order. Currently CP does not take PayPal, so you can only order via a credit card. We apologize the inconvenience this creates for some of our customers that prefer to only use PayPal, but it is the only way we can offer these items to our customers right now. The new "Racing" design is now available in the store and available in on many products. Most of the items are double sided and have a small logo on the front left and the larger "racing" logo on the back. We recommend checking both sides of a garment before ordering. If you would like something not currently available in the store, let us know and we can probably design a version like you wish within days. We also have our traditional design now available again but in a greater selection of products. And we now also have a group of products with the "Mud Duck Aviation" design. Besides the new items in the CP store, you may be interested in our new embroidered Mud Duck Aviation hat or if you want one of our remaining screen printed t-shirts in 'large" size, you can always order one of our Classic Mud Duck t-shirt's! Greg.
Mud Duck Apparel ComingJune 15th, 2009 We have only had a limited amount of Mud Duck t-shirts left and those are only "large" in size. We have had many requests to get more shirts in stock so we have chosen to make shirts available again. We brought an old friend back out of retirement to help us; Tom Chipley, the original Mud Duck Man himself, is currently working on artwork for a few new t-shirt designs! So not only are we going to have shirts for you to wear to show off your pride and joy, you will have a selection to choose from! Until the new designs are available, you may be interested in our new embroidered Mud Duck Aviation hat or if you can't wait for the new t-shirts and think you can squeeze (I personally like a nice loose shirt) in to a "large" you can always order one of our Classic Mud Duck t-shirt's! Greg.
Kits Are HereJune 10th, 2009 Thank you for your patience, We have begun to pack Mud Duck Sport (complete) kits and Mud Duck MkII and Agri-Duck semi-kits as of this week. Due to limited space we are currently only packing a handful of kits at a time and in most cases we are filling kit orders by packing them as they are ordered. This results in up to a 3 day delay before kit orders ship, but we are making every effort to keep any delays to a minimum. Thanks again, Greg.
New AddressJune 2009 Please note that our address has changed. We changed are no longer using our Post Office Box since the economy has forced not only our Post Office but all other near locations to reduce open hours. This has made getting to our PO Box difficult so we are now using our physical address. If you will be mailing a payment please direct it to the address below: Mud Duck Aviation, Inc. 949 North
Concourse Please note: If you are a local customer and wish to pick up your order rather than pay for shipping, you must make arrangements beforehand. We are not regularly available to accept visitors or walk-ins unannounced. Thank you for your understanding.
Kits Coming Soon!April 26th, 2009 Thank you to all of our customers for your past support. Since I have owned the company I would estimate more than 90% of all inquiries were for the timeframe until we would be releasing kits again. Due to a lack of capital and space, I was unable to make the investment into producing kits in the past. My customers support and their willingness to build from the plans instead of waiting, had provided me with the ability to acquire the necessary financing to begin kitting again, so thank you all again! We have the bulk of our kitting materials and are waiting on only a handful of items to begin. We will be offering the Mud Duck Sport kit and Semi-kits for the Mud Duck MkII and the (full-size) Agri-Duck. The Sport kit will contain all the foamboard parts pre-cut, all the light-ply parts pre-cut, all the needed hardwood dowels, all the necessary balsa sheet and stick stock, preformed wire landing gear, BIG 7.5" Foam wheels, hardware package, entertaining and fully illustrated building manual, and full color graphics package! Optional 8" Air Tires are available to add even more cushioning for your rough field or just to get that full-size Mud Duck look! The Semi-kits will contain all the light-ply parts pre-cut, all the needed hardwood dowels, all the necessary balsa sheet and stick stock, preformed wire landing gear, BIG 10" Air Tires, hardware package, entertaining and fully illustrated building manual, and LARGE full-size templates/plans on 3 sheets for cutting out the simple (and limited) foamboard parts. Everything you need to build your BIG Duck except the foamboard which is readily available locally. Save yourself extra shipping charges on the oversized package and get your foamboard locally; all it takes is a razorblade and a couple hours to cut about the parts. Optional full color graphics are available to compliment your big Duck whether it be a Mud Duck or an Agri-Duck! We will post an update as soon as we have a release date for the kits and semi-kits. Thanks again, Greg.
Mud Duck Store ReopensOctober 23rd, 2008 Thank you for your patience in the last couple weeks. My surgery was a success and I am able to begin filling orders again for what items are currently in stock. The inventories in The Mud Duck Store have been updated so orders can be placed again. Thanks again, Greg.
Mud Duck Store Orders Temporarily Suspended in OctoberOctober 8th~24th, 2008 We will not be accepting orders for approximately 2-3 weeks beginning October 8th 2008. We apologize for the inconvenience. Since I (Greg) basically operate MDA solo, I will be unable to fill orders for a short period while I recover from a very invasive surgery. If you are curious and want to know more I will post my progress on the MDA forums. All inventories have been set to zero in the store so an order can not be placed, until I am able to get around and begin taking orders again. Setting the inventories to zero allows customers to still view the store and even add items to their cart. You will have a cookie added to your computer that will remember what you put in your cart during your visit. Next time you log in, and if I am taking orders again, you can just checkout; no need to add all the items to your cart again (if you regularly erase your internet history you probably delete your cookies too and will lose the order memory).
Lower Prices!September 1, 2008 Mud Duck Aviation now produces its plans sets in-house with our own wide-format equipment. This has allowed us to reduce costs and we are now passing that savings on to our customers effective immediately. The Mud Duck MkII, Mud Duck Sport, Agri-Duck, and Agri-Duck Sport plan set prices have all been reduced. Check The Mud Duck Store for more info.
VACATIONAugust 2008 Mud Duck Aviation will be closed from August 2nd until August 11th for vacation. I will be checking mail and posts during the evenings while on vacation. Builders - Modelers who are currently involved in the building or finishing process of their Ducks and have any questions can still email me and I will respond as soon as I can. As always the Mud Duck Aviation Forums are available to post questions or comments where I can answer them or possibly another modeler that sees it first may offer up a suggestion as well. Shoppers - Customers looking to make a purchase from The Mud Duck Store during this period can do so at any time. The order will be placed, payment processed, and as soon as we return we will pack your order and ship it out to you ASAP. If you have a question about any items before placing your order, just email us and we will respond within 24 hours. Thanks!
NEAT Fair 2008July 2008 We have officially registered and made all our reservations for attending
the 2008 NEAT Fair
http://www.neatfair.org/index.php.
Coming Soon: Custom Sized Mud Duck Aviation PlansJuly 2008 After getting familiar with our new wide format equipment and having almost limitless adjustability of our prints on demand, we decided to offer the option of ordering plans in exactly the size YOU want. Tired of trying to find an aircraft you like and will also fly on the power set-up you just pulled out of your last airframe? Tired of always wanting a plane that only happens to be, say... 108" w.s. but only have a workshop the size of a broom closet? Well, you tell us what your looking to build in size or power and we will adjust our plans in scale to your requirements right from the start! No more buying a set of plans only to bring them to the copy shop in order to spend more money to shrink or enlarge them. Keep an eye out for more details soon. You can see how our progress is going by checking the "news" category in the Mud Duck Aviation Forums; it will be updated more often than here.
Equipment UpdateJuly 2008 Printing Equipment - We purchased used printing equipment and basically got what we paid for: sub-par equipment. So back to the drawing board. We acquired a newer set-up of wide format scanner and wide format laser printer. This equipment has been testing out very well and promises to offer us better options for our customers. CNC Router - Most of the upgrades are done and the modifications have been made. We experienced some lengthy delays in receiving a couple of specific parts but we should be able to begin testing the router later in August. You can see how our progress is going by checking the "news" category in the Mud Duck Aviation Forums; it will be updated more often than here.
Purchasing Equipment to Reduce PricesMay 2008 CNC Router - We have acquired a 3-axis CNC machine that was originally used for printed circuit board manufacturing and we are converting it to a CNC Router. Converting to a laser is too difficult and expensive for the small work area. The work area is small but will allow us to cut the wood parts so we can begin supplying semi-kits again. The work area may be adequate to produce some "Micro" Mud Duck kits soon as well. Printing Equipment - We have also begun to purchase used printing equipment and are refurbishing them as well so we can cut costs on printing plans and manuals and make it easier for R&D on new designs with CAD. What this means to our customers - The goal is to do as much production "in-house" to reduce operating expenses, with cheaper expenses I can reduce prices to make the Mud Duck product line more affordable for everyone. In addition to better prices, out of stock items can be replenished almost immediately, eliminating any back order and getting the orders to the customers faster! You can see how our progress is going by checking the "news" category in the Mud Duck Aviation Forums; it will be updated more often than here.
New Business Phone Number/Laser Cutter ShoppingApril 2008 PHONE - We have a new business phone number 732-441-3727, you can leave your name, number, and a message and we will return your. As always, you can probably get a quicker response by sending an email. LASER - A laser cutter is the best option to return our kits to the market. Due to the size of our parts, it requires a large (cutting area) laser (24" x 50") minimum to cut all our parts and such lasers are quite expensive. We are currently evaluating a couple different systems, and keeping an eye out for a used laser cutter with a 24" x 48" minimum cutting area to cut most of our parts. If you are aware of a used unit available for sale, we would be happy for the lead.
Website Overhaul / Mud Duck Aviation, Inc.March 2008 The website has been being overhauled offline for the last few months. In fact the changes noted below in February 2008 were not evident on the live site but were implemented offline. This extended offline overhaul has provided MDA with the opportunity to research and trial many software systems to integrate into the website, but not tying them to the online (live) web which would only confuse or frustrate visitors during the R&D period. I am happy to say the the site is nearly ready to go live (as you see it now) and will be online in March with all the new sections live and operating. The Forums and FAQ section that was settled on in February, has been set up and checked for bugs and glitches. Both of theses sections are set up with a basic infrastructure and will grow with the contributions of visitors and modelers that make a presence there. Finally, the storefront segment known as "The Mud Duck Store" has been selected and has been set up with a simple selection of products to start. Before getting to crazy in setting up more "bells & whistles" in the store, we are going to let it operate in a real-world environment. If all works well we will upgrade the shop to offer more products and features to make your shopping experience more enjoyable. Here is a little more info and a link to the storefront:
Mud Duck Aviation was Incorporated on March 10th and is now legally "Mud Duck Aviation, Inc.". This Incorporation should help us to build more and stronger credit and allow us to expedite the goal of offering kits and possibly ARF's* by purchasing new production equipment. * ARF's would be limited to new, smaller designs capable of being shipped partially built.
Website OverhaulFebruary 2008 The website is being overhauled to reflect changes in our products and remove outdated content. Photo's from builders found in the archived (hardcopy) MDA files, freshly scanned and now added to the galleries. In addition to these changes and a fresher look check out these new features:
!!! New Address !!!April 2007 Please note that our address has changed. We changed Post Office locations purely for the convenience of counter hours. Our previous PO location, which was closer by a couple of miles, reduced their counter and lobby hours last year which made it difficult to get there with my work schedule. Our new PO has extended hours most days of the week which should allow for checking the PO box for orders and getting orders out more timely. (removed to
avoid confusion)6/2009
Build From Plans - New Content ComingMarch 2007 I will be adding pages to this site in the coming days and weeks. Included will be more galleries of built models, as well as more building information. Just added are "Mud Duck Building Videos" available in low resolution for dial-up internet users and higher resolution for broadband users.
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