This is a picture of Sandi & I in San Francisco in the Fall of 2003.
This is a picture of Sandi & I in San Francisco in the Fall of 2003.
Matthew:
I don't recall ever having a desire to build an airplane. My father was a pilot when I was a child, so I spent some time in small airplanes as a youngster, flying to western Kansas to visit
my grandparents. I always had a desire to get my pilots license and even wanted to join the military to be a pilot but my poor eyesight prevented that. I never followed through and didn't earn
my private pilots license until I was 32. It was really Sandi that got me to do it. The local community college offers ground school for $100, which I thought was a deal. Sandi told me to just
go do it if I wanted to. I finished ground school and studied hard for the written and passed with a 96. Next stop was to find an airport and instructor to teach me how to fly. I wanted to find
a small rural airport where I could find an old-timer to teach me. I ended up at Gardner Muncipal (K34). My first flight was with Chris, an former Alaskan bush pilot. The ceiling was about 1,000 ft
and misting. We flew a couple of circuits around the pattern in a C150. I few with Chris a couple more times before he turned me over to Glen. Glen was the old-timer I thought I was looking for
but just his looks scared me and I heard he was pretty cranky. Turns out he was a great instructor and never got cranky with me, which seemed to surprise everyone. (Given my lifetime interest in
aviation, I had a pretty good understanding of flying and how to do it.) Unfortuntaly, Glen had liver disesase and passed away about 10 hrs into my flight training. The flight school was undergoing
a change of ownership and Chris really didn't want to take me on as a student. The new owners (Micki and Greg) had a son (Joe) who had just got his CFI and was looking for students. I wasn't really excited
about being a CFI's first but I thought I'd at least go fly with him. (He was only 23.) As luck would have it, Joe too was a great instructor. He was flying before he had a drivers license, knew
aerobatics, etc. After a couple of hours of flying with him, he solo'd me. I went on to finish my license (took a year) with Joe.
Somewhere along this time, I decided that if I had a pilot's license, I'd need a plane to fly. It didn't take long to discover that planes are expensive and the ones that I might be able to afford were 30+ years old. Somehow I stumbled on the idea of building my own and after a few months of research decided on building a Van's RV-9A. The rest of the story is in progress. I'll let Sandi tell her side of the story, as it probably differs from mine. :-)
Personal Info: 34 years old, born and raised in NE Kansas, mostly on the farm. Spent a year at the University of Kansas learning the facts of life. Married Sandi in May of 1998. We currently reside in Ottawa, KS (50 miles southwest of Kansas City). I'm employed as a Information Technology Manager for Integra Realty Resources. Building an airplane is my hobby.
Sandi:
Ok... My story... .Well, Once Upon A Time... Seriously, though... I NEVER had the desire to fly in an airplane, pilot an airplane let alone build an airplane. I was always scared to death of flying; used to have to take Valium to get on a commercial jet. Had NEVER flown in anything smaller than a jet and didn't wanna. Then, one December, I met this gorgeous man named Matthew. We started dating and got married in May of 1998. Over the years, I heard private pilot stories from him, his mom and his dad (who was a private pilot) about small airplane flights. This did not help my inability to enjoy flying. Matthew started talking more and more about flying and getting his pilots license. I discouraged him as any good, loving wife would. I wanted him to be around for many, many, many more years and thought this would surely shorten our time together. Finally, I gave in and told him if that's what he wanted to do then go for it, I would support him as much as I could!! He did…YIKES!!! He would come home and tell me stories about his flight instruction and I would just cringe. After flying a while with Joe, Matthew asked me to go to a fly-in with him, Joe and Joe's wife. I did...and jumped and yipped at every little "bump in the road" (Matthew's phrase for turbulence). Not a pleasant experience. About half way through his instruction, Matthew approached me with building an airplane. I was horrified!!! No way, No how, Wasn't gonna happen. He explained his "logic" behind building and airplane vs. buying an airplane. I wasn't falling for it. He kept talking to me and showed me the "options" for home builts. Still wasn't falling for it! Then, while at an EAA meeting, he met a local guy who had an RV-6A. Matthew called and told me to come look at it. I did. I asked where the remote control for it was. A couple weeks later, I was up in that little plane. Hey, this isn't bad at all. I agreed to Matthew's building the RV-9 and agreed to help as much as I could.
At some point, I decided if we were gonna be up flying around in this plane, I should probably learn something about flying. Atleast what the instruments were and what they did and probably how to land it in case something happened to Matthew in the sky. I scheduled some flight time with Joe (Gardner Aviation) and was off and flying. OH MY GOSH!!!! No-one who knew me could believe I was doing this. After about 3 hours in a Cessna 150, I was hooked! Loved it! Couldn't get enough. About 20 hours into my instruction, Joe moved out of town for the military and I found Rhet who became my new instructor at Johnson County Executive. Got my private pilots license October 4, 2003. Now, I go through withdrawals if I don't get to fly occasionally and waiting for this airplane to get built and in the sky is driving me nuts. I am sooo ready to go!!
Personal Info: 36 years old, born in Kansas City, MO and grew up in Illinois. Moved back to Kansas City in 1989 and have been here ever since. Married Matthew in May of 1998. I am employed as an Office Manager/Registered Dental Assistant. Building an airplane is testing my patience (which I have little of) and I JUST WANNA FLY
