Last Thursday evening, May 29, Matt Tomsheck, of the CLE FAA MIDO office, came to my hangar and conducted a public inspection of my RV-6. He was open to hosting a quasi-EAA Chapter meeting and let other builders see how he conducts an aircraft inspection. We had about twenty people attend the inspection and everyone got something out of the evening.
I began the construction of this project in March, 1996, and while my two sons were growing up, I coached approximately twenty-five of their sports teams. So after the initial building spurt, I quickly slowed and did not make fast progress each year until the boys were out of school. Many thanks to Dave Ross, RV-4 builder and this year's recipient of EAA's Tony Bingelis Award, for being very patient with me, allowing me to rent space at his farm for twelve years and work on the project. Dave was also a great instructor, showing how to use tools and look at problems from different perspectives to arrive at a solution.
I moved the project a little closer to home to Jeff Paden's shop six years ago and my construction time really took off! Jeff has built a Lancair IVP and a Titan T-51 Mustang. Jeff was my fiberglass guru and gave me a great deal of confidence in working with the 'dark side' material.
It has been great to surround myself with guys like Dave and Jeff, as well as many other Chapter members willing to give their time to my project. I conducted the first flight two days later, May 31! Photos to come.
Now I can say: "Keep bucking those rivets!"