I remember my first flight very well, It was an X-Wing fighter from the Starwars movie. I flew this "space-craft" for many years before moving up ( or would it be considered coming down?) to the little die-cast metal fighters. Taking off from my parents bed, sometimes my sorties would require flights deep into the living room, encountering many bogies along the way. I fought many battles in my house, some even in my bedroom closet. My closet, also know as the Star Crusher, was the best fighter ever! I had it all, just the like the real thing! It was equiped with a stick, a throttle, a missle launch button, and a machine gun trigger; that was all I needed for hours of entertainment. I did not log these flight times (stupid me) guess I had somewhere near 600 hours of in-house flying.
As I got older, I can remember the F-4 Phantoms that use to fly out of McConnell AFB. I loved watching them! The sound of that jet engine as it roared across the sky; it just gave you goose bumps all over. It was about this time I realized my father had some rather large (to me, anyway) model airplanes with "real" mini-engines on them. These models were the ones he built while in high school. He decided to get them up and running again, since, by now I was old enough to understand, and possibly even fly them. The planes he had were "control-line" planes. They had real engines on them, and were controlled up and down with a line. But flying these planes in circles was short-lived. It was not long after this, I discovered the Radio Controlled Airplane.
After buying, and crashing (many times) the R/C planes, I finally got the hang of flying them. They were a load of fun! I flew these planes for about 7 years. Most of these R/C planes come as a kit where you needed to build the entire plane out of balsa wood. The ones I had were considered Almost-Ready-To-Fly versions, also known as ARF's. These had minimal assembly, with very quick "box-to-air" time. I kept building and flying these while in the military, but about this time I bought my first computer. I was going to school at the time and needed a computer; but I was more interested in buying something I had my eyes on for a long time -- a Flight Simulator Game!
I flew my computer for hours & hours at a time. The simulator came with a small air-map (Sectional Chart) that you used to navigate around. It seemed really accurate! I learned about the instruments and how to use the navigational equipment just like the real planes use. It was the closest to flying I have ever come! Once out of the military I went back for more schooling. This is where I met a girl who's husband was a pilot; he was not only a pilot, but he was building a plane at their home! This is where I first learned about homebuilt aircraft and the EAA.
This guy took me flying in his homebuilt Challenger II airplane. It was the most fun I ever had. We did Touch & Go's at Hamilton Field and Cook Field, then he let me fly it. "I was hooked!" After that flight, I told him I was going to get my Privat Pilot's License. He kind of gave me that, "sure-you-are" look. Well, I did. I went out to Jabara Airport and flew in C172's until I had my ticket. Took me about 6 months to complete. After getting checked out and renting several planes at Jabara, I finally decided to make the plunge and build myself a Challenger.
My father and I took on the Challenger II project and completed it in about 1 1/2 years. It is more of an assembly then an actual build, but the time spent working on it was still a great learning adventure. As of this writing, I now have 263 hours on the Challenger, and flying it has been everything I expected, and more! (Nov 2007)
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