It is my sad duty to report the passing of Mike "Sped" Spedaliere. There is a thread here on Stunt Hangar about Sped's Professor series of exquisite stunt models. I was mentioning that to my friend Tom Huff today as we were using one of Sped's building techniques on Tom's new Ryan's Eagle. Tom asked me if I had spoken to Sped recently and I told him that it had been about a month. I had been trying to get Sped back into modeling since he recently retired from his full time gig as the foreman of a large printing facility. I decided to call Sped with the idea of introducing him to Tom over the phone. His wife, Karen answered the phone and gave me the devastating news that Sped had a sudden and massive heart attack while at home. He was gone almost instantly.
I have never known a more gentle, kind, helpful, creative, and genuinely funny person than Sped. He was also among the three or four best model airplane builders I've ever known. I will miss him dearly. My prayers go out to Karen. Please join me in prayers for her as she is understandably devastated.
I have a ton of great stories about Sped, but right now I'm too numb to relate them. I will later on after I process this...
Bob Hunt