Grand Canyon

OK, now I've had a day of rest after hanging out on Catalina for a day and I got to stretch the legs a little by hiking around. Its Monday and time to go check out the Grand Canyon.

Flying over the Canyon is carefully regulated to make sure:
1. Tourist aircraft get the best possible views.
2. Private aircraft don't ever hit tourist aircraft.
3. Some areas of the Canyon remain free of aircraft noise.
4. Private aircraft have some chance of not hitting each other.

The tour operators get to fly helicopters below the rim of the canyon, you can't do this in private aircraft. Evidently flying below the rim is an amazing experience. Makes me want to quit my day job and fly for a living there. The tour operators have special flight patterns that are approved by the FAA. All the Private aircraft must stay above these routes. People Camp in and on the rim of the Canyon and deserve to do so without a constant stream of aircraft and associated noise for this there are Flight Free zones. To help private aircraft avoid hitting each other different areas of the Canyon have different frequencies that aircraft are supposed to monitor and announce when they are passing certain points. This is pretty normal: The same type of systems is set up at every airport that doesn't have an air traffic control tower which by a huge majority I mean most of them. The system works very well.

So from Long Beach, CA we depart for Kingman, AZ to get fuel, stretch our legs and maybe eat. about 2 hours to get to Kingman. Flight Service says that there are several reports of NASTY turbulence over Ontario airport which is on our route. I'm not familiar with the area and I ask what the best route was for a light airplane and the briefer suggested that I head Southeast and then east across Palm Springs then direct Kingman. I have been out to Mt San Jancinto before and Palm Springs and it's rather nice terrain so I decide to take that route.

Turbulence isn't usually a big deal but this time there a 2 reports of Severe Turbulence around Ontario one from a little plane, which usually I blow off as some guy who can't hold on to his lunch. The problem is there also report of severe turbulence from a business jet. here is the definition:

Severe: Turbulence that causes large, abrupt changes in altitude and attitude, and large variations in airspeed, with the aircraft temporarily out of control. Occupants are forced violently against their seat belts and objects are tossed about, with food service and walking impossible.

Now that paints an ugly picture. Light planes get tossed by turbulence much easier that Jets and the pilots are typically more experienced than your average Sunday driver so when they make reports like that you pay attention.

We take the long way and are rewarded with a smooth ride, good views of the wind Generators at Palm Springs, The Salton Sea, Mt. San Jancinto and the desert.

On the way to Kingman I start screaming a stream of expletives in the front seat and make my brother a little nervous. My sunglasses break and I'm a little Pissed off. Oh Well, That's why I look so screwy in some of the pictures. My brother thinks I look like the guy in Waterworld. He graciously loans me his sunglasses when I need them.

We land Kingman. It's something of a bone yard for United Airlines and USAir commuter planes. They are everywhere. We find the fuel pumps , get fuel and ask about the restaurant and it happens to be closed every Monday. We depart for the Grandest of Canyons with my brother's stomach rumbling and him grumbling. about 30minutes later we are over the Canyon and it's spectacular. Big, Deep ditch! Words can't do it justice, you have to see it. With My brother still whining about his hunger I call on the radio down to Grand Canyon West airport and Ask if they have food. I get a response from a tour operator pilot that they have food but you have to take a free bus to get there. Jackpot! I set up and Land Grand Canyon West. This means dodging a constant stream of helicopters and dealing with a mean cross wind. Good fun.

We taxi up and park next to an enormous plane called a Navajo which to most people looks microscopic... well anything is enormous compared to my plane. We park and ask about food. The nice guy says that the pilot was a little misleading: The bus rides are Free for the commercial pilots not us private pilots. We end up having to Pay $33 each for a bus ride to an overlook there there is Native American food in a buffet style. Well it's only money right? We cheerfully pay and take the ride to the overlook. It turns out to be a great view, right on the rim and the food is pretty good too. Obviously this is a tourist trap at $33 per person for a little bus ride and food but the view was spectacular. We get out and walk around Guano Point, named for the product they harvested from the cave under the end of the point. We throw a few rocks in the canyon and see how long it takes to hear them hit. There isn't much else to say. You just have to go and see it for yourself.

So we take pictures, some of me acting like I'm a jackass about to fall in the Canyon... Then we take the bus back to the airport. We depart, fly over the canyon some more and then head west back to Long Beach.

Along the way I call Flight Service on the radio and ask for updates on the weather and especially the turbulence situation. I get the green light. No reports of turbulence and smooth sailing. Sweet. 1:30 later we are passing back into the the LA basin, over the mountains and suddenly my physical model of how the world works ends. The plane is tossed gently at first but abruptly gently turns to a good solid violent thrashing. Things are flying around the cockpit, the attitude of the aircraft is all over the place and I don't much feel like a pilot but a steerage passenger. As soon as I can I turn the autopilot off, slow the plane down and ask if Matt if he is OK. He bumped his head through the padding of the headset but is otherwise fine. Ouch. This was probably a scaled down version of what we would have experienced that morning if we didn't heed the earlier turbulence reports. I'm exaggerating a bit it really wasn't that bad but still not a good experience.

30 minutes later we are in Long Beach and I take the Line service guy for a ride. CJ, employee of Long Beach Air Center, was a super standup guy getting my airplane parked and taking care of us even though they usually don't have small aircraft on their ramp. He is a pilot with a few hours of flight time and so I install the rear seat stick so he can fly the plane. We take off about 15 minutes before sunset and fly around Catalina Island and watch another day end. Spectacular!

Catalina

I have spent the past 2 days riding around in my little plane and really don't want a long trip today. It's Sunday, day of rest so we set out for Catalina Island. They call it the airport in the sky since the island is a continuation of the mountains on the mainland. The airport is 1600 feet above sea level; for an east coast guy this is really high but I'm not too worried since I've been into Leadville! The Island really does look like a mountain top as you are approaching it. Fascinating.

We land, pay the $20 landing fee, get hiking permits and set out to see what there is to see. the place is very dry and to make matters worse they are experiencing a drought. There are a few lakes and watering holes but due to lack of rain they are mud holes. During our hike we come across some researches who are taking soil samples and they direct up to a reservoir where they saw Bison. We walked over and found the Bison. We didn't see much else. Cacti and dust... Rough place to carve out an existence. Evidently the island had a trade with the mainland a long time ago by making cooking utensils out of soapstone. This has long since ended but evidence of this still remains.

After a 2 hour hike we go back to the airport Cafe and have a bison burger: We got to see it now we got to eat it. pretty sweet.

We got back in the plane and headed back to Long Beach.

Good fun

Leadville and Beyond!

OK, so before I went to bed Friday night the Flight Service people didn't have any good news for me. Snow, mountain obscuration and Ice would be the weather I was going to wake up to. In case you didn't know that's not good. Snow means bad visibility, mountain obscuration means you can't see the mountain tops and Ice means your airplane gets covered with Ice if you enter the clouds. The Ice is a double whammy: It destroys the lift of the wings while adding drag and adds weight to the plane. Ice is nasty stuff. Stay away!

I get more weather info in the morning and the story isn't much better. Leadville, 70 Northwest is showing good weather but when I look outside it's snowing and I can't see the mountains around me. Crap. Well I have nothing better to do so I head to the airport and see what the weather is doing. The basic deal I get from Flight Service is that if I can get to Leadville I'll be able to get West and on to my destination... Long Beach, CA... Which seems like an awfully long way away.

As I'm sitting looking at the light snow fall on my plane I notice a tumble weed blow across the airport. I thought they only existed in TV commercials. After a few more roll across I realize that they actually do exist and I also notice that the snow is starting to end and I looking at the local Radar it is shows a band of snow has moved through and that I may have a chance to escape. The weather continues to improve as I can see up the valley. 40 miles away is Salida which is reporting good weather according to their automated weather system that you can call on the phone. Leadville is showing good weather too.

A little more on Leadville: Small town in the Colorado Rockies at 10,000 feet above sea level and it also happens to have an airport that is the highest in North America. Aircraft performance degrades as you go higher in elevation since there is less air for the engine to make power with and less air for the wings to make lift. This all means that getting in and out of Leadville airport is much more challenging than most airports. Leadville is something of a legend. Most people never fly higher than 10,000 feet, landing at 10,000 feet is unheard of... Except at Leadville. The name for airplanes at least is fitting.

So with the weather getting good enough to depart comfortably from Canon City I set out for Salida which is also showing good weather. A mere 40 miles away, 15 minutes by air. I can't go above the mountains because the tops are in the clouds so I follow the road out of Canon City up the valley to Salida. I'm so nervous on this part of the trip: more nervous than any other part. Every pilot I know warns me to be wary of mountain weather and here I am up to my eyeballs in it. I Know the weather is good where I am, I know it's good where I'm going and its not that far between... from looking at the radar if I have to turn back I don't have any reason to believe the weather is going to turn south in the 15 minutes. Still this is a little nerve racking.

I follow the roads, up the valleys, see Salida airport in good weather just as advertised. From there I can see the next airport, Central Colorado, and from there it's only another 30 miles north to Leadville. I turn north and pass Central Colorado Airport and a few minutes later Leadville airport comes into the windscreen. Sucess!
Where I am now the mountain tops are covered in cloud but to the north from Leadville I can see Blue Sky! I'm home free.

I land Leadville, fuel the plane, call Flight Service and they verify what I already know: Leave the valley to the North, turn west and you've got good weather all the way to Long Beach. Not only am I going to make it to my destination, I got to land at Leadville! Jackpot!

I get a free certificate from nice lady at Leadville to certify that I landed at the highest airport in North America! Then I set out for North Las Vegas airport for cheap fuel.

The takeoff from Leadville wasn't normal by any stretch: Normally I'm off the ground and climbing in 300 feet but at Leadville the plane struggles to get off the ground in 1000 feet. For this altitude getting off the ground in 1,000 feet is amazing.

The picture with the Ski Trails is Aspen Resort and if you Click on it you'll see a long range radar in the foreground.

From Leadville I head north for a few miles then west past Aspen, then Grand Junction, Moab, Bryce Canyon, Lake Mead, Nellis Air Force Base(home of the high priests), and land North Las Vegas.

Until about 50 miles from Vegas there isn't any sign of haze but as you get closer to Vegas the temperature starts to rise, the air can carry more moisture and there is some component of air pollution. This makes Haze. Nothing too bad but Haze none the less. Interesting to see changes like that.

I fuel up and North Las Vegas, call my brother and tell him when I'm going to be there and depart for Long Beach.

While waiting for departure at Vegas I peel the tape off my air vent, it's getting warm and it will be warmer in the LA basin. After I peel the tape off I hear the incredible sucking sound. I'm a little startled that that kind of noise is coming from the air vent. I cover it back with my hand and it doesn't go away. Now I'm really spooked. What the hell is going on? then I look behind me and there is a 4 engine jet bearing down on me waiting to depart as well. I'm relieved but halfway worried I'm going to get sucked into his engines. I don't get sucked in and all is well.

A little over an hour and I'm getting ready to enter the LA basin. Surrounded by mountains to the north and east and water everywhere else LA sets up some interest weather. The Desert outside of the mountains has no clouds and a small amount of haze. In the basin there is plenty of Haze, clouds at 5000 feet that I will have to pick through and airspace that is so complicated that you need a PHD to understand it completely. Try to picture an upside wedding cake with 5 tiers: That would be the forbidden airspace of LAX. Then for good measure pack 2 more 3 tier cakes under the first cake and finally pack another 7 or so short cylinder type cakes under the first cake. The airspace that I'm allowed to fly in is outside of all of the cakes. Fun Huh?

So I pass over the mountains, ask for clearance into the wedding cakes, get denied and commence picking my way down through the most complicated airspace I've ever seen. Painful but all went well. I landed Long Beach at 2 PM the day after I left from DC. Not Bad. Good fun too.

I eat a late lunch with my brother and then take him for a ride. I probably should have rested but he wanted a ride... All went well.

Departure

OK, I've got 11 days of my work schedule cleared to do this trip. This trip will be done with good weather only meaning that I won't fly through clouds. Friday is my first day off and the weather doesn't look cooperative but at the same time doesn't look like a complete shutout. A cold front is on it's way, and for this particular front this means:
strong headwinds
cold temps
snow
some cloud cover.

My other problem is that there is a nasty snow storm moving East Northeast that will engulf Eastern Colorado all the way to St Louis. This system will take days to pass. If I don't get into the Rockies by sundown Friday night I will be stuck for several days in the plains of the Midwest with nothing other than bad weather and books to keep me company.

Thursday Night: I called flight service and they don't say good things but they don't say bad things either. The mountains of West Virgina are going to get snow(bad visibility) and the cloud tops will be near 10,000 feet. 10,000 feet isn't too bad I can get over the snow but will be battling serious headwinds...

Friday morning, 5 AM: I called flight service again. Most stations across the route are reporting OK weather. Mountains of West Virgina are getting snow. I've got the day off anyway and so with all my stuff for the trip I leave for the airport. By sun up at 7 AM I've got the plane off the ground and I'm flying west in to gale force headwinds. I can't stay low out of the strong headwind because of lousy visibility in snow and the risk of getting trapped between rising terrain and lowering clouds in the mountains of west Virginia. Ouch. I take the less painful option of flying into a 50 knot headwind at around 10,000 feet. Thanks to the winds I end up having to shorten the flight distance by 90 miles. The flight is beautiful, smooth and in the sunshine over the clouds. Below me there is a may lay of wind and snow that will become my demise should my engine decide to stop turning money into noise.

My cheat sheet from www.airnav.com says that "Rough River" airport has cheap fuel and it happens to be on my route. I change my destination to Rough river. 100 miles away from rough river the undercast starts to break up just as it was forecast to and I descent down under the clouds. The air under the clouds is turbulent. This flight so far has been smooth but I've only been doing 110 knots across the ground according to the GPS. Below the clouds my ground speed come up to 130 knots, only a 30 knot headwind instead of 50 knots but the price I pay is having my little airplane tossed around by continuous turbulence. This is welcome trade.

After nearly 4 hours and 450 NM of flying, I spot The airport, land, taxi to the pumps, notice they say "out of order" and call the number listed on them. I tell the woman I need fuel. She says they don't have any and aren't planning on having any for a while... ouch. With an hour and a half of fuel on board I fly 10 miles away to the nearest airpot and they've got fuel albeit expensive fuel. I fill up , get the green weather light from flight service and depart for Ellsworth, KS.

Ellsworth is by Salina, which is by... not much else. Smack in the middle of Kansas. Cheap fuel. I don't see much other than Ice in the trees giving way to snow on the ground later on and lots of flat land. It still is pretty scenery but scenery that I'm familiar with. I've flown in this part of the country before.

another 4 hours of flying and this time 545 NM and I land at Ellsworth municipal airport in Ellsworth, KS. It is listed in airnav.com as "assisted self serve." Not sure what that means but I'll find out.

I taxi to where the fuel pumps are and you need a key to make them work... I enter the building and there is a phone with several numbers to call. I call the first and they say someone will be right out to fuel my plane. They were right; less than 10 minutes later a nice gentleman shows up, fuels me up and with a few pleasantries and talk of experimental homebuilt aircraft I depart for Canon City, Co. nestled in a canyon just inside the Rockies. The "N" in Canon is supposed to have a "~" above it so it sounds like Canyon.

From Ellsworth, KS, elevation 1,600 feet the terrain remains flat all the way to Denver and Colorado springs except for the fact that the elevation rises to more than 5,000 feet. During this flight between the plains and the Rockies somehow my little plane almost completely by itself maintained 1500 feet above the ground for the two hour 350 NM trip. Even though I know it was just coincidence it seems like gravity and the lift of my wings were in perfect equilibrium as I inched closer to the rocky mountains. From 1500 feet the view was spectacular. I could see details in all the little streams that generated small canyons and see how the powerful Northwest wind had forced snow into perfect lines as it whipped past "L" shaped lines of trees that form wind breaks around farms. And then, out in the distance more than 120 miles away I could see the scenery that I had come for. The Rocky Mountain Range was coming into view. Massive mountains stretching up nearly 10,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. I passed Pueblo, CO went up the Valley to land Canon, City.


After landing The nice guy that worked at the airport fueled my plane and got me squared away with a courtesy car and gave me directions to the local Holiday Inn Express. Living in style. I went to eat at and had a Beer. Got settled in at the hotel and called Flight Service for weather. The news wasn't good. The storm I was trying to beat was going to be my nemesis tomorrow...

To the Left Coast and Beyond!

OK, with the 40 hours of test flying out of the way and virtually no problems with the aircraft during the testing phase it was time to stretch the legs of the silver stallion.

My brother is living in Huntington Beach, CA. he's been there for 18 months and I have not visited him once. I'm In DC. Originally he was going to get moved to South Africa with his job before I finished my airplane and so flying out to see him wasn't going to work but alas his relocation got postponed and the opportunity to fly across the entire continent with a purpose was there.

I also had a good friend living in Park City, UT. It's tough to pass up flying to a premier snowboarding destination when there is a free couch to crash on.

So the plan is fly to the West Coast to see my brother for a few days then fly up to Utah and see a good friend... in a homebuilt aircraft!

Flight test

OK, with the first flight out of the way it was time to get on to the nitty gritty of flight test. Technically the first flight is part of the flight testing but it feels completely different. Per the FAA rules my plane needs 40 hours of flight test time before I can carry passengers or exit my designated test area.

My assigned test area is 50 nautical miles around Cambridge airport in Cambridge, MD. This allows me to get over to the Delaware shore and over Seaford, DE where I grew up. Not bad but still the airplane can easily cross 50 nm in 20 minutes... Pretty limiting but those are the rules.

Right away I start talking with my Guru's about fixing my "can't slow down problem" They don't think it's a big issue but they also think it needs to be corrected. The fix turns out to be easy. I swap out a shim under the horizontal stabilizer the original shim was 1/8 and the new shim is 1/16. I do this and now the airplane slows down just fine. More aft weight or a more aft center of gravity has the same effect but I don't want to carry ballast unless I have to. The shim fix works just fine.

The test flying consists of flying the airplane in every imaginable condition that you would encounter. Climbing, Gliding, stalling, loops, rolls and many other maneuvers. I did all these things. The airplane design is well documented. There are over 800 of the same model flying and nearly 5,000 of the same make flying so I wasn't worried about how it would perform. Lots of the test flying became verification of how it was performing.

The one thing I paid special attention to was fuel burn rates. I wanted to know exactly how much fuel the plane would burn at different cruise altitudes. The reason for my concern was that I had some major trips planned in this plane and when you want to travel and stretch the range of your bird you must know positively how much fuel you have at all times. no questions, ever. Insurance companies feel so strongly about this that if you EVER run out of fuel in a aircraft you may be uninsurable for life. Ouch!

Test flying went well. No major problems, the aircraft did what it was supposed to do. Now armed with 40 hrs of flight experience in the airplane and good knowledge of how far it could go it was time for a trip.

First Flight

So finally after nearly 3 years of building, 6 years of preparation and a lifetime worth of dreaming it was time to fly the homebuilt.

November 18, 2006. Early morning flight from Potomac Airfield. For those that don't know Potomac is about 8 miles Southeast of the Washington monument. This close proximity to the "brains" of the US government makes a few people nervous. The airport requires a United States Secret Service background check. The other painful part of this airport is that there are only 2 modes that they want to see you in when flying there: coming or going. Some people think "they " don't even want to see those modes but that's another subject all together.

First flights are dangerous. Serious business. There are no two ways about it. Untested airplane, untested engine can have disastrous results for both the plane and pilot. For this reason I really want to stay over the airport during my first flight.

During the time getting ready for my first flight I called the FAA controllers in charge of the airspace around Potomac airfield and got stone walled. They told me there was nothing they could let me do other than fly south outside of the flight restricted zone. This meant beyond glide distance of the airport and if for some reason my engine decided to quit I wouldn't have a prayer of getting back on the airport.

This turned out to be rubbish. With a flight planned filed, the plane and pilot ready for departure on a land line I called the controllers for permission to depart, the conversation went like this:

Potomac Tracon: Mount Vernon Flight Data
Me: NXXXX at Potomac
Potomac Tracon: NXXXX, what are you doing testing your engine?
Me: No Sir, First flight of a homebuilt aircraft. I would like to stay over the airport.
Potomac Tracon: Oh, I see. Yes, you are going to stay over the airport. Sqwak XXXX
Me: Yahoo!

So from that exchange I was totally relieved that I wasn't going to have to worry about being far from the airport and out of glide distance from the airport. This was great. Thanks to who ever that was that had a clue what I was up to.

First flights of homebuilt aircraft are rare events and often difficult to witness. Why? Builders who have their heads screwed on right don't tell a soul about the flight unless they are essential for the flight. People that are essential are not numerous but maybe 3-4 people to man fire extinguishers and one person with a plane that can come and look for you if something happens. That's IT. My girlfriend wanted to be there, my airplane partner desperately wanted to be there, the friend who let me help him finish his plane wanted to be there, I wanted my Dad to be there. So a small list anyway. The reason is that if you invite everyone and their brother you have a wee bit of undue pressure to fly and you don't need anything pressuring you to fly an unproven plane. Nuff Said.

By the time the plane and I were ready to go there were about 25 people standing around the airport with nothing better to do than watch a my baby go down in a ball of flames... oh well, I didn't know most of them and if I delay my first flight I won't worry the least bit about disappointing them.

Of the 42 gallon capacity, I only put 15 gallons of gas aboard for the first flight. For many reasons but two major ones:
Less fuel to burn at the scene of a crash.
Less weight aboard.

The first one is obvious the second I'll explain. With less weight I can take off shorter and climb faster. The sooner I'm off the ground and away from the ground the sooner I'm out of the what I'll call the "Danger Zone" where I can't land on the remaining runway infront of me because there isn't enough and I can't turn around and land because I don't have enough altitude to execute the gliding turn back to the airport. So anyway less weight means more options sooner should something go wrong. This is the case for every airplane, every takeoff.

I allowed the oil temperatures to warm up above 75 F. I did one test run down the runway to verify that the airspeed indicator was working properly. Then I taxied back and pushed the throttle all the way in...

300 feet down the 2600 foot runway.
60 miles per hour
Rotate and fly off
right turn continued to a 180 degree turn over the airport and I'm passing through 1700 feet!
The clearance I have only allows me to go to 1400 feet. CRAP! Beg forgiveness rather than ask for permission, right?

Switch from the airport frequency to Potomac Approach.
I check in and don't mention my altitude... They see it anyway but why highlight it?
Right away the controller clears me to 3000 feet over the field. Thank you!

While I'm at 3000 feet the controller is actually alerting and maneuvering jetliners headed to National airport around my little 1000 pound airplane. Wow!

I climb up to 3000 feet in about 45 seconds and start to do a few maneuvers. The aircraft responds the way it is supposed to except for slowing down. I have the stick all the way back and can't get it to Stall.

This is a normal maneuver that you do when you want to land. Basically by pulling the stick back and bringing the nose up you fly the airplane so slowly that it stops flying. If you are 3000 feet above the ground the plane falls 50 or so feet, gains speed from falling and starts flying again. If you do this a foot or less above the runway you get a nice pretty "full stall" landing.

My problem now is that I don't think I'm going to be able to go slow enough to land the plane!!!

After flying with the stick all the way back and being patient for it to slow down I can get the plane to slow to about 70 knots. 65 would be better for landing but 70 will probably work OK. Still fast but what the hell else am I going to do?

15 minutes has passed and with the limited fuel supply on board I tell the controller that I'm headed back to the airport and thank him for letting me tread on his hallowed ground!

I fly over the middle of the airport at 80 knots, make a right turn for downwind, put full flaps down, make a right turn to base leg, another right turn to final with and with the plane as slow at I can go I fly down final approach, land and taxi to the fuel pumps. What a relief! The Girlfriend comes running over to the pumps and in tears gives me a big hug and kiss. Well worth it!

Building

After Helping a Friend on the same plane for nearly 3 years I'm reasonably well prepared for tackling the extremely frustrating, tedious, expensive, time consuming and finally rewarding process of building a plane.

I buy a house on October 29, 2003 in Cheverly, MD. What better day to become a homeowner than the annerversary of the 1929 stock market crash. I feel real good about where my down payment is going... the overriding factor in selecting this house is that is has a garage large enough to build the airplane I want to build.

here is a quick rundown on the process:
Christmas 2003 FedEx Ground is kind enough to drop off boxes containing all the parts needed to build the tail feather or more professionally know as the "Empannage" this is the rudder, elevator, Horizontal and Vertical stabilizers. Around $1,400.

Tools:
Well you need tools for this. I spent around $1,500 right off the bat.

Time 2 years 6 months building at the house and then I get a hangar at Potomac airfield and have to take a Hiatus from building to sell my house. The DC real estate market is getting soft and I need to get out during the Summer. I end up getting out with a tidy profit, then buying another house in Arlington, VA. I closed on that house October 27, 2006. All this buying and selling of houses didn't leave much time to finish the plane...

October 2006 I was finally ready to have final inspection of the airplane by a FAA designated inspector. All went amazingly well and I received a certificate of airworthiness for my plane. At this point I should have been ready for my first flight. I had been flying the Citibria regularly and reading accident reports from RV-8 crashes. I was ready.

Getting there

June 2000 I earned a Private Pilot License and called an insurance broker for a quote on the homebuilt plane I wanted to build. The quote was nearly $10,000/year. Ouch. The only solution for this problem is either pay the money or get more experience.

Aircraft ownership although expensive is much cheaper if: You fly enough, have some clue as to how mechanical things work and are willing to get you hands dirty.

April 2001 I along with a partner buy a 1953 Piper Pacer. I log 15 hours and my partner ground loops(wrecks) it and it is considered a total loss. I did have the foresight to insure it for $4,000 more than we paid so we actually made money on the deal but still I'm back at square one with no plane.

I go back to renting a Citibria for the next year.

9-11-01 6 AM, I depart the DC Area in a rented 172 for Ocean City, NJ to pick up my French Cousin and Her friend. We depart Ocean City at 8:30 AM and head back to DC. Georgous day, cold and windy but not a cloud in the sky. Due to the headwind it's 1:45 back to DC and coming across the Chesapeake Bay I start talking to the controllers at Baltimore. It's 10 AM, one of the controllers asks an airliner "did you hear what happened?" they respond, "We heard it on the AM, We heard it was an American." Many Airliners have the capability to listen to AM radio. Baltimore controllers hand me off to Andrews controllers and I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. 20 minutes from College park my portable GPS stopped working. I started the timer and maintained heading to College Park. While flying I saw a narrow column of smoke across the Potomac and thought nothing of it. When I landed the airport manager filled me in on the happenings of the past 1:45.

Not much flying for a while.

I fill my time Working on a friend's homebuilt RV-8 learning the tricks of the trade.

March 2002 a new partner and I purchase a 1950 Cessna 170A. This plane cost exactly twice what the Pacer costs. one year later and my taste in airplanes has doubled. Ouch!

This plane turns out to be a real workhorse. East to fly and reliable. Not fast but I'm trying to gain experience here. Hours of logged time mean experince.

December of 2003, While working at the Centennial of flight celebration in Kitty Hawk, NC I fax in my order for the first parts of my RV-8. My friend that had been building for 7 years has finished his and it's time for me to start mine. At this point I have the experience to build the plane but don't quite have the flight time to get reasonable insurance: now the insurance quote is $3500/year. Not bad but still expensive.

The concept

OK:
So getting out of college in '99 as an engineer I realized I had to build and fly my own airplane. A little bit of research revealed that you can't just go do this all at once. Here are a few of the things necessary:
1. Pilot's license (Bullshit!)
2. Flight experience (I am the greatest, what do I need that for?)
3. Know how (I'm and engineer Dammit, I can build anything!)
4. Money (this crap isn't cheap...)