Larry Flesner wrote: > I just read the article and I don't think I can find a > hat that big. :-) :-)
Thanks for all the kind words, guys. I'd been wondering where the EAA got the idea to write that article, and then today I was talking to a local Long EZ builder at Moontown and now I think I know. Jon Moore tells me that Greg Laslo is either somewhat local or his mother lives here, and he visits Moontown on occasion. He found Jon building on his EZ (getting close after something like 18 years of building) and asked him what was going on with experimental planes in the area. Jon told him about me and my airplane, and the Greg started looking into it. Jon Moore was featured in last month's Sport Aviation. We both agreed that we really like Greg's warm demeanor and his writing style, and his efforts to turn the EAA spotlight back on the builders who persevere and eventually realize their dream. I was at Moontown to deliver the prop duplicator that I finagled for our EAA Chapter, 190. Carl Vought, a kindred spirit I met a few years ago while researching UAV engines, died a couple of months ago. He was cheif engineer at a local engineering firm, and creator of the Buddy Twin ultralight engine. I knew he had a Bridgeport mill and a lathe, and I contacted his wife about buying them. They were in great shape, and they now live in my basement (another dream realized!). He had built a prop duplicator from plans, and it was simply a work of art. She wanted $500 for it, which was a bargain, but now I'm running out of places to put things, especially something 3'x6' and 3' tall, even if he did have a workbench top built into the top of it. I came up with what I think is a stroke of genius...she could donate it to the EAA for a tax write off, and I would still have access to it, and best of all, it wouldn't be in my basement! She loved the concept that Carl's duplicator would be used by many to help build a lot of aircraft builders take to the air, or at least get back in the air quicker after something like the prop strike that I had last year. The neat thing about the donation is that it seems to have sparked a conversation about building a hangar to store this sort of thing in, as well as create a local EAA hub of activities like teaching fabric installation, composite techniques, and that sort of thing. Something to think about... Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net --------------------------------------------------------------
