How it all Started

Somewhere around 1986, my dad and I were at a model airplane fun-fly event at Mt. Petti Jean airport in Arkansas. About mid-day the models had to land to allow some "full-scale" traffic to arrive. Slowly but surely, two planes approached and landed together. One was a biplane and the other looked like nothing anyone had ever seen.

The planes taxied up, parked, and the pilots left the modelers to browse over their planes. Of course, I had to go look. Emblazoned across each plane below the canopy was the word "EXPERIMENTAL." I asked my dad what that meant. He said, "Son, I think that means that these are homebuilt planes." At that moment I was totally awestruck by the concept that you could build a real plane in your garage. It was then that I knew I would do it someday.

We later identified the planes as a Christen Eagle and a Rutan Long-EZ (the infamous John Denver plane). The image of the Long-EZ stuck in my mind for years. It looked like it was moving while sitting still. I saw many other homebuilt planes in the following years, but I always swore that it would be the one I would build.

Fast forward to the present time...

I continued to daydream about a plane but always felt that it was just out of my reach because I didn't have a place to build it yet. Hanger space is expensive to purchase or rent, and I was living in a duplex with a single car garage.

Then along comes my friend Doug. Doug is a pilot and a homebuilt enthusiast. I told him the only thing holding me back was space. His immediate reply was something like this: "You've got enough room here to build a plane. You can build it right here in the living room. You should build a Kolb. They have folding wings, so they will fit in your garage when you are finished." The Kolb line had always been on my top three list of light planes to build.

It was inevitable. The ball had begun to roll and it wouldn't stop until I had purchased a plane. Two weeks later we both picked up planes at the Kolb factory in London, KY.

...back to the Long EZ.

The EZ will be my next project. It requires a lot of space to build and is considerably more expensive. Click here to see why it is so captivating to look at.

(...by the way, John Denver's death was no fault of the plane. He forgot to put gas in it.)