I wasn’t really sure whether to write something here as I’m not really the person that likes to be in the limelight but here goes.
Having grown up in the centre of Belgium I’ve always been fascinated with aviation aerospace and aviation from a very young age and even classmates remember me doing presentations on the space shuttle in elementary school. I’m a kind of the early 70’s which means by the time Iron Eagle and Top Gun came around I was instantly ready to go and F-14’s were THE Cadillac of the skies.
Having applied to the military academy to follow up on my flying dreams I got my dose of reality as non-perfect eyesight made clear I was never going to get myself into that F-16 cockpit. Period.
Finishing economics study I was soon off to go for my pilot’s license at a nearby aero club. Just as many others, I soloed on a Cessna 152 and got to fly some of the other aircraft at the aero club. About a year later I also added my helicopter license and flew a few hundred hours on anything from Robinson R22’s to H500, Bell B206 Jet Rangers and the Enstrom 480
I had the opportunity to develop my career in another part of the world and relocated to Russia and eventually spent over 10 years working on Chemicals supply chain and engineering projects for the petrochemicals industry while occasionally having a go with a Yak-52 but as with many people, life and family obligations have a tendency to get in the way and eventually my pilots licenses expired.
Flying never went away and it was always somewhere in the back of my mind. I didn’t want to be that pilot who flew 10 hours a year and live from proficiency test to proficiency test to keep my license valid while not being able to do the thing that I really wanted.
Now at a later age, I’ve come to the point where I’m no longer ready to put off and postpone the flying part. It’s time. Time to pick up on that one thing that has dominated my life and given me so much joy and which has allowed me to meet so many interesting people.
Building an aircraft has been in the back of my head for many years. In the late 90’s I ordered information kits on many aircraft from the Van’s Aircraft RV series to Lancairs and I even still have the information video on the Bede-10!
I’m obviously not an aircraft mechanic but I’ve always liked to fiddle with things. At a young age I used to build stuff with Lego, build plastic aircraft models and of course build the unavoidable IKEA cupboard. I’m absolutely sure that I haven’t got all the skills it takes to take this project, but I do have the conviction that I will learn, that with perseverance I will be able to complete this project as so many others have done, but just as much as I’m looking forward to draw imaginary corkscrews through the skies I’m looking forward to building this aircraft and seeing it grow from a few pieces of aluminum.