Entries by

A fun fuel run

The summer sun is filtered through the scattered clouds, and rays of light stream across the hazy sky. This evening’s mission is a simple one—fly. Oh, yes, I need to get fuel, but the real mission is a flight in an aircraft I built—pure and simple. The grin on my face seems permanent these days.

August 21, 2024 /2 Comments/by

The friends I do not know

I glance off to my left at the area along the south end of runway 18. He’s there. The friend I don’t know, yet we have become friends because I fly to OC8 often. He and his dog are always there. The dog never runs onto the runway, yet races around happily. I envision him as a Border Collie, though in truth I have no idea.

October 30, 2023 /44 Comments/by

Cross-country to T25 in my Sonex

I climbed to 5,500’ after leaving Rolla and, as I crossed the Mark Twain National Forest, I saw a groundspeed rise to more than 160 mph. KARG was one of my original planned stops and my planning paid off well. The FBO let me rent an old hangar to house the Sonex and invited me to use the  courtesy car. The camaraderie in aviation never ceases to amaze me.

October 23, 2023 /7 Comments/by

Building a Sonex: what it’s really like

As a young man growing up in Wisconsin, I was exposed to what was, at the time, the annual EAA convention in Oshkosh. Long before it became AirVenture, it was an aviation event of epic proportions that etched itself in my soul and led to the lifelong dream of building an airplane and flying it to Oshkosh for the show. On October 10, 2015, phase one of this dream came to fruition.

March 2, 2017 /10 Comments/by