11/11/2008 - Thanks to all the veterans out there that have served this country so the rest of us can enjoy our freedoms! Your actions whether wartime or peace are definitely appreicated from this family!

 My father was never much on words... one day when about to return to Castle AFB from leave, my 4 year old? nephew asked me why I had to leave, my Dad quickly answered to all that I had to return to help protect our country. He said it proudly. I will never forget that day. Thanks Dad!

Back to work - I am now over 500 hours according to the Hobbs. That is official in the garage, hands on work time. It does not reflect the countless hours reviewing plans, websites, asking other builders questions and especially the time to just think about what needs to be done! Double it for an accurate number....


11/1-2/2008 - Finally went flying. It was almost a year to the day that I had last went. I went up on Saturday by myself to get my confidence back. It took only a few touch and goes and it all came back. Wasn't long before I was greasing the landings again. Then I went up to PNT, circled and came back. Mainly messing with the GNS-430 in the DA-20. The next day, I took my wife Jo up for a ride. We had fun, did a high speed  (at least 20 knot tailwind so it was actually high speed hehe) low flyby of our friend Jack's place out in the country. Then just did some cruising and went back to BMI. A very bumpy ride as the winds were out of the south at ~18 knots or so. Greased the landing though!

8/5/2008 - Back from Oshkosh. Here are some of my favorite pics.

7/25/2008 - The Fuselage is here! Also, plans are underway for Chad Jensen, Brad Oliver and I to go to Oshkosh on  7/29-8/2! This should be fun but quite a new experience for me. I have been to Osh many times, but never camping. I haven't camped since I was a kid and then I only did it a few times. We will see how it turns out! Just wish the family was going ... that would be ideal...

6/22/2008 - Just back from vacation at Navarre Beach, FL. While there we seen a wide range of aircraft. F15's, F16's, AC-130 Gunships, Blackhawks, Chinooks, Huey's and even 2 Mi-8 Russian choppers! This was from the beach no less! Not only was all that cool but we got to see the V-22 Osprey a number of times.

We were close to the Eglin/Hulbert field ranges and we could hear the buzz of the AC-130's while orbiting whatever it was they were blowing up. Every night this occurred. Also the larger 40 MM and 105MM could be heard but the gatling gun sounded the most awesome!

Olivia and I also went to Pensacola to the Naval Air Museum to catch a free practice show from the Blue Angels - totally kick a$$ and no line for tickets, high cost drinks or food. Just show up walk a 1/4 mile to the bleachers and watch it for 1 hour. Olivia, Mitch and I also went to the Eglin Armament Museum.

5/24/2008 - Cooked at the local EAA Chapter 129. Also, got a ride in a GP-4 built and flown by Lyn Sheets. A very nice plane, well equipped and fast fast fast! We did a high speed 200MPH+ fly-by of Jack Holland's airstrip at very low level. Good lord that was fun!!

5/23/2008 - The fuselage has been ordered! As well as the Aerosun LED landing lights, misc tools and the LED Postion lights/strobes & tail position light/strobe!

5/11/2008 - Finally back at updating the website! Check out the latest for 2008... here.

3/10/2008 - Check out the new Agressor paint scheme.

3/10/2008 - Guess what happens when you move unsecured wings around in a wooden cradle? Well one may just fall out of the cradle. Then, gravity takes over and makes dents. This happened to me tonight while pulling on both wings to move the whole cradle back. One slipped (I didn't have it secured... you can bet it is now!!) and fell down and hit the wood frame then the concrete floor. I about cried after all the expletives. So now I have a little dent on the left wing root tank.. right on the leading edge. Not sure how it will get worked out but what is done ... is done.

3/7/2008 - The first airshow is coming up in April. Thunderbirds (I believe) will be at PIA. Olivia and I will be there for sure. She is all excited!

1/20/2008 - Started on something other than sealing tanks today! Deburring wing skins... check out the updates on the wings page. Also took pics of most of my tools. Check out the tools page to see them.

1/16/2008 - The tanks are done!! X the fingers and hope the leak test turns out OK!

1/14/2008 - I am sick of tanks and sealant! The end is in site though. One more baffle then it is on to fun things like deburring and dimpling thousands of holes in the wing skins! Some day this thing will fly. That will be the day that all this sealant, deburring and dimpling will be worth it. I just need to remember that!

12/6/2007 - Help from Mitch.. see the shop page.

11/4 /2007 - Took Olivia flying today in the DA-20. We had fun... she took the stick for a while and I think she made me a little sick (I learned today that I will eat before flying ... no more empty stomachs!). She likes to dive and bank really steep.. laughing the whole time. Oh.. not sure if I was reading the GPS correctly on the way back but it showed 176Kts ground speed! One heck of a tailwind I guess... it was quite windy out today but 176Kts??

11/3/2007 - Got my BFR done today. Also got checked out in the Diamond DA-20 at Image Air. Sweet airplane, nice and quick to .. at least better than the C-152.

10/29/2007 - Back from Hawaii! Sure am glad to be back to the corn fields and my cubicle at work! Seriously though, Hawaii truly is paradise. Can't wait to go back. Probably won't be able to work on the plane until Nov 1 though... too many things going on this week.

10/13/2007 - Treated to an impromptu air show of sorts today. I was just starting to work on the leading edge inboard ribs when I heard a faint 'whoosh'. It was faint but the trained ear of a former Air Force puke told me that was the sound of a high performance jet engine in a turn. (Yes, seriously that's what I thought I heard). I ran outside to catch a glimpse of 2 F-16's about 2 miles west. I lost them behind the houses in my neighborhood. So I ran back to the garage and got my binoculars. I then ran to the back of the house and up onto the pool deck. I watched them fly about a 5 mile race track pattern a few miles north of town for about 10 minutes. Then 2 more showed up! Man this was cool... but what the heck were they doing here. The MOA is down to the southwest about 50-100 miles away. The only thing going on in town was the ISU Homecoming. Certainly they weren't here for that??!!

So I watched them for another 10 minutes. Just circling, seemed to be killing time or something. Then I lost sight of them. No longer in the race track. I got the sad face on as I thought they were gone. Then another faint whoosh sound. So I ran back onto the deck and holy crap.. here comes all 4 in formation down low heading for the stadium!! How cool is that! ISU must really rate to have a 4 ship formation of '16's flyby for a homecoming!

All I can say is Sweet Ass Sweet!!

10/12/2007 - I asked my daughter what kind of plane she is going to fly when she gets older and she say " Daddy, I am going to fly the RV-7!" She's 4 by the way! I usually get an answer like the "space shuttle",  "Tomcat" or "fighter plane". To hear RV-7 was the best though!! 

10/04/2007 - I just thought of something while updating the wings section. I have more hours building this plane than I do flying! Hmmm... the thought of 200 Mph cruise is why that fact doesn't bother me!

9/23/2007 - Well it has been a long week. We had Luke, our oldest, move out a little over a week ago. That freed up a room. You know what that means then... work. We moved Mitch to Luke's old room, Liv out of Jackie's room and into Mitch's old one. I had to paint her room pink. She also got a new (well new to us anyway) bed frame which needed painting too. So no work on the airplane all week except for 9/18 when Chad Jensen and I put up the wing stands. See the shop page for pics.

9/16/07 - Rib deburring and fluting are officially done!

9/13/07 - Finished up the second section today! Woo Hoo! Next up is deburring gobs and gobs of ribs. I think I would rather watch paint dry.. oh well.

9/9/07 - Finished the first section today! 14. 75 hours total plus a lot of cleaning and putting tools away. Oh and the going to Chad and Brad Oliver's websites to make sure I'm getting things done correctly.

9/7/07 - I was all intimidated by the spars and this wing project in general. So far (I know I will regret this) it is freaking cool! I am totally enjoying this project short of Van's not providing the wing tie downs (not sure why they are "optional" as they only cost $4 from them). My Hottie Wife Jo and Olivia have been helping. I guess that is why I am enjoying it so much right now!