As I sat down to figure out what to put in this section, I tried to think about who exactly would be coming to the About Us page of our website. Would they be curious about what type of people we are? Would they already know us and just want to see what is here?
How about I give you a few simple facts and then tell you a bit of a story about the moments that lead up to us building a plane? Everyone likes story time!
At the time of writing this, Brandi and I are both in our late 20's. We live in Marietta, GA. Both in the IT field and newbies to aviation. I just received my private pilot license this year (2009) and Brandi wants to get hers one day too. We're jumping right into the middle of this project with no real mechanical skills or experience to speak of but with all of the motivation and determination that is required.
I always envisioned restoring some old car one day. My dad was a 'fix it all' type of guy and I grew up marveling at his ability to fix the washing machine, install a ceiling fan, tile the floor, or whatever the chore of the moment was. I spent more than once as chief tool fetcher. I just knew that he would one day teach me all there was to know about everything. The only problem with that was my parents separated and we moved across the country when I was young.
I used to love playing video games. What 10 year old boy didn’t in the age of Nintendo? My passion for video games spilled over to computers since one could play games on there too. At age 14, I spent a summer working with my dad at a power tool repair and hydraulics shop. I upgraded to chief part orderer and earned a healthy under the table wage. I was rich! At least, in the eyes of a 14 year old I was. I earned enough to buy a PC and, as a side effect to getting video games to work on it, I happened to learn a thing or two about how it ticked.
The more I got into computers the farther away I got from more mechanical things. That was fine with me. I was good with computers and I was a pro at getting all of the latest eye-popping games working on them. Something subtle was missing though. I remember when the show ‘Home Improvement’ was on the air – you know, Tim Allen shouting “More Power!” – I used to think how over the top awesome it was that he was building a hot rod in his garage. So, I set my mind to that. One day I would build something awesome in my garage. That was around age 20 or so. It’s been a nagging sensation ever since.
With a little bit of background out of the way, now we can get to the good stuff. I like flying airplanes. I never grew up around aviation or thought a whole lot about it but I did discover that it’s something I love. Next, I will outline the general thought pattern that I went through which lead me to where we are at today, which is with a gigantic tail cone of an airplane sitting in our garage.
Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sure would have liked to fly there from Atlanta. Too expensive. Wanted to rent a plane and fly to Santa Fe from Albuquerque. Too expensive and I would have to hassle with getting checked out. My practical nature always gets the best of me, darn it. Wait a minute – if I had my own plane then the cost/hr to fly it would be much less than renting and it would be less hassle!* BINGO. There are plenty of old used planes out there that aren’t that much money. Requirements? Lets see, what kind of plane do I want? Something… FAST! Ok, something fast and it has to have four seats so I can take company with me. I am on a roll here. Wait a minute... airplanes that have at least four seats and are fast ARE that much money! Ok, well I guess I could settle for not quite so fast. Wait another minute... Planes that are not quite so fast that have four seats that are not 50 years old seem to be more than I thought they would be too. Arrg!
The lofty dream of skipping along the tops of puffy little clouds was dimming. I had to do something! I must keep the dream alive! How can I go 200 MPH without winning the lottery and buying a Cirrus or attracting attention driving down Interstate 85 trying to reach 200 MPH? Queue the moment I stumbled upon the idea of a kit plane. Aha! For 1/3rd the price of the plane I want, I could just build it. Problem: I don’t know anything about building a plane and never did get back around to asking dad to unlock the mysteries of the universe to me. Wait, I'm an idiot! This is my ‘old car’ to restore! More power! Now get out there and sell this thing like you’ve never sold before. What selling am I referring to? Well somewhere between age 14 and mastering all that is PC I got married. That means that all large purchases, scheduling, and any other items of any importance must first be approved by the boss. She had been supportive of me taking pilot lessons. Maybe there’s a chance? So, I put on my best clothes, got all neat and groomed, hell, even a little dab of cologne. We’ve got a plane to sell here folks! Ok, I was ready. So I called her up from Albuquerque. Cold called even. She never saw it coming. Wait a sec – all dressed up for a phone call? Hah. Yes. I wanted plenty of straws to grasp at. I needed each and every one of them. “Hi honey, miss you lots, etc etc.” Ok, primed and ready. FIRE. “So what do you think about us building a plane?” Mister “I’m awesome because I can sell ice to an Eskimo”, STEP ASIDE. SOLD. This bird needs a commission based job apparently. So many Eskimos and so little time.
So now we're building a plane. Dont let me fool you though, Brandi is stoked about the project and is quite crafty so I will in fact be helping her build our plane. When being officially congratulated on my 5 year anniversary at my current company I was asked a bit about myself. So, of course, I had to disclose about the plane building. I mentioned how Brandi and I were going to work on it together. I was asked by my coworkers how that would work. Would she build the front half? The passenger half? She'll build "the better half."
*Its a silly notion that by buying and building a plane we could save a few bucks. In reality it depends on how much you fly and owning your own plane is much more about the convenience, satisfaction, and community than about money.