| Why build an Airplane???
Well, if you've read my 'About Me' Section, you know that I recieved my license in April, 2004.
During my training, I started looking into purchasing an airplane. I loved the thought of being
able to wake up on a nice day and decide that I'm going to fly to breakfast. While this is possible
renting a plane, it is much harder. Also, going on a long flight and staying somewhere for any
amount of time costs you lots of money...even if you aren't flying! With that in mind, I started
looking at the options that were out there. I could stay with my training aircraft (Cessna 152) and
spend about $25K, or I could go for a more expensive Katana...or I could spend a little more and get
a 172. As I was going through these thoughts, I started looking at the performance, and the age of
the aircraft. Excluding the Katana, most of the planes that I was looking at were almost as old as
I was, and were on the low end of the cruise speed realm.
Talking to one of my college buddies, (yeah, that's you Joe!) he told me about this company called
Van's who makes real cool and affordable kit planes. Well, I looked at their website, and immediately
gravitated to the RV-9A. Not only was it pretty quick, but it also had a stall speed almost as low
as the 152! Being a low time pilot, I wanted the additional margin that a low stall speed aircraft
provides. Comparing the other aircraft with the RV-9A, I could see that there were so many benefits
to the idea of building my own plane.
After initially writing off the idea of owning a plane (let alone building one) as a impractical and
unaffordable prospect, I realized later that if I made a few sacrifices and watched what I spent, I
could afford to build/buy a plane. Going to Van's sealed the deal for me. I was going to build a plane!
All I had to do was sell my baby...no not really, but I had to part ways with my car...my Honda S2000.
Knowing that I would rather sacrifice having a cool car for an airplane, I listed it in the paper
and sold it within two days! I then placed my order for the QB Wing and Fuselage, and took home my
empennage kit the same day.
And the rest is history!!!
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