One guy who seemed to get it right was Bob Barrows, designer of the four-seat Bearhawk. Some looked OK, some looked…well, not so OK, most were just blah…and a few caught my eye as just looking right. I’d spent a lot of time at Oshkosh watching airplanes go by. What to build? I already had an RV, and after three sheet metal airplanes, I was ready for something different. I took the resulting eye-roll as permission. Knowing that I’d be retiring in a couple years, I consulted my wife, The Violinist, about ways that I could avoid becoming a living room vegetable when I no longer had to go to work every weekday. I enjoyed flying the company airplane and needed some way to occupy my hands and mind, so I spent 18 months building one. It was a five-year project, but the result flew very well. Over the next couple of decades, I partnered with Ken Krueger to build an airplane he designed, a small VW-powered single-seater we called the KK-1. I finished that airplane and made the first flight on December 26, 1993. I rode my bike out to Van’s Aircraft and placed my order for their newest design, the RV-6. I wanted something that flew like that, and if I had to learn the skills to build it, so be it. Then Carl Battjes took me out in his Chard 6, and suddenly I understood what all the RV zealots were raving about. Besides, I knew nothing about rivets or sheet metal. I thought his airplanes, with expensive Lycoming engines, were out of my financial reach. I live near Portland, Oregon, and one Dick VanGrunsven was building a small but successful business nearby. Now known as the ForeverHawk, it is expected to fly in 2019.
Ken Scott works on the tail feathers of the scratch-built Bearhawk LSA. Follow the process others have taken to get to their perfect airplane-and we look forward to seeing what you got when we see you at the airport!
Aviation is a personal journey, and building an aircraft is something that will change your life. Enjoy their stories and use the guide to inspire yourself. What do they have in common? A love of flying and all things aviation!Īs you peruse this year’s guide, we hope that you dog-ear the pages looking for your own dream project and plane, just as our authors have found theirs. You read their work here every month-but what did they go through to get here? What choices did they make, what requirements were they trying to fill? Our authors fly a variety of airplanes, which reflects the variety of needs, opinions, and desires of a diverse group of people. We have many regular contributors to KITPLANES, all of whom have gone through the process of choosing an aircraft to build and fly. This year, we decided to show you our own choices. Giving you this broad perspective is important we want you to know as much about your choices as possible so that once you have settled into the cockpit of your new aircraft, the excitement never goes away. At KITPLANES, we maintain a directory that is as broad as we can make it, listing airplane designs that are new and those that are old so that you have the big picture of experimental craft.
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His latest projects are a Xenos motorglider and a soon-to-be-started SubSonex personal jet.Ĭhoosing a new set of plans, a new kit, or a finished airplane that is new to you is an important decision-one that is full of excitement as well as a big financial and lifestyle commitment. Although it and his collection of RVs are metal, he has also restored tube and fabric aircraft and dabbled in both wood and composite. Paul’s latest completion was the Dream Tundra (below), a bush plane used for exploring the wilds of Nevada.
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