Built in a Basement

My buddy Steve flew out this afternoon to visit and to drool over our new DA40. He showed up in his homebuilt RV-6, partially built with slave labor in a dank basement in Dayton, OH. As part of my extremely reasonable rent charges, I was politely "asked" to "help" my landlord (Steve) pound a few rivets now and then. At the time, homebuilding seemed like a real drag and a total waste of time, because it did not involve hanging out with girls. Now that I'm married, however....I think that a homebuild might be in my future. Someday, just not today. It'll be a good retirement/mid-life crisis project. Well, long story short, after roughly 5 years and 2300 hours of hard work, the RV emerged from the basement (see attached article).

I figured that my Dad would really appreciate a ride in the 'Six, which is about 1/2 the size of the DA40, and he did. Check out that grin! The big reason for that grin is that Steve had just performed a low approach over the runway at about 190mph, and pulled up sharply at the end to climb to pattern altitude in about....oh....2 seconds. Pretty cool and definitely guaranteed to put a smile on any kid's face. See below for my totally inadequate photo...

Hope to take my checkride this coming week! Stay tuned....