Building for high flight

When considering what “kits” one might have lying around the house, first aid and bicycle repair models probably are among the first which come to mind.
But for local residents Gord Melville, Phil Gavel, Bob Thomson, and Walter Seis, the “kit” that’s first on their list involves a hobby with wings.
The men, all licensed pilots and members of Chapter #1012 of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), are building their own aircraft from a kit containing hundreds of parts and costing anywhere from $12,000-$20,000 (not including the engine, instrument panel hardware, propeller, upholstery, and paint)
And while each is at a different stage of construction, all four share a common thread of purpose–throwing self-doubt and impatience to the wind in exchange for a homemade flying machine.
“It will be very exciting to know I built it,” enthused Gavel, 39, of the day he can fly his “Kit Fox Series 5” aircraft now under construction in his garage in Alberton.
Gavel, who owns North Auto, bought his kit about a year ago from a manufacturer in Idaho and has spent as much time as possible building it since.
By the time he’s done putting things together for the fabric-covered plane, which will use a Subaru 1800 cc car motor, well over 1,000 hours will have been spent on it.
“I’ve had it for a year and I try to faithfully come out every night and work on it for a couple of hours,” he said Monday evening. “There’s a lot more to it than I thought . . . but I’d do it all over again.
“In fact I believe that once it’s all done, I’ll miss it,” he added.
Gavel’s choice in motors isn’t an unusual one for the type of aircraft he’s building, and it helped cut the original price nearly in half.
“The ‘Rotex’ [aircraft] engine comes in around $10,000. This car motor was quite a bit cheaper than that,” he smiled, noting the 14-year-old motor had less than 10,000 km on it.
“The biggest changes I had to make to the car motor were in its carburetor and to make it prop-adapted,” he said.
< *c>A time for learning
Thomson, 44, owner of the Dairy Queen here and vice-president of the local EAA chapter, is building a standard “Van’s Aircraft RV-6A,” with more than 1,250 hours already sunk into the project over two years.
He’s hoping to have it flying by next summer.
“I’m a first-time builder and I learned by reading a lot,” he noted. “It’s a very intense project [and] my interest in it is to gain more flying experience and to get further [aviation] ratings.
“Flying is a continual learning experience,” he stressed.
Flying experience is something Seis, 54, knows all about. The real estate agent has had a pilot’s licence since 1969, and was the first of the four to complete and fly his kit plane.
Seis built the same model as Thomson but chose a “Quickbuild” kit, with some parts already assembled upon purchase.
“It still hasn’t sunk in that I’ve flown it,” he said last week. “It’s was like when I first learned to fly . . . it’s the ultimate accomplishment.”
< *c>Years in the making
Meanwhile, it won’t be much longer before Melville will get the official nod to fly his “Hyper-Bipe” (Bi-plane) Pitts Special, which is ready to go up after 20 years in the making.
Unique to his story is the fact that no pre-cut parts were included with the kit in 1978. Today, the aluminum parts are pre-cut and pre-punched.
Melville, a pilot/engineer for Abitibi-Consolidated, had only raw materials to work with–and had to manufacture everything from the wing ribs to the door panels.
“I don’t think anybody figured that it would take this long to do,” he chuckled, noting the long process was a combination of career commitments, intermittent frustration with the project, and a tad of procrastination.
“I’ve probably put in close to $45,000-$50,000 [in costs] over that time,” he estimated. “If I had to do it again, I would buy a quick kit so I could get it done and fly it.”
Melville said he knows of only one other Pitts Special like his and it’s in California. “It’s the same colour as mine but I don’t think we’ll run into each other,” he laughed.
Once built, all kit planes must be officially registered, and the planes have to pass inspection before they can take to the skies.
Their pilots also must complete 25 hours of solo flight in the aircraft within 25 miles of the airport here before taking passengers or flying off on any cross-country adventures.