I started building my RV-6 in late March of 1997. My father had passed away in December and building the plane really took my mind off his passing. It only took me 4 weeks to finish the empenage, with help from my son and daughter, 11 and 10 respectively. They helped with the bucking of rivets in places I couldn't reach myself. Thanks guys.

I didn't complete the fiberglassing of the tips at that time, and if I were doing it again I would complete the fiberglass pieces at the end of each building sequence. This will save you from doing a lot of fiberglass work at the end of your project.

I ordered the wing kit in June of 1997 and received it in mid September. Of course by this time I had the wing jig ready to begin construction of the wings. I jumped right into the building of the wing and had the skeleton of the left wing complete by mid November. By the end of December I had the top skin drilled and clecoed to the skeleton.

I am not sure what happened next, but it seems that with work, kids and honey do's I just stopped working on the plane. Oh I would go out in the evenings and work on little items but I just didn't see much progress. This continued on until July 1999.

My wife and I met in Gillette, Wyoming back in the mid 80's and we always vowed to move back someday. Well my wife decided it was time. Her parents, and sisters live in the Casper area and she thought it would be nice if the kids could be around her Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles. So off we went to Casper, WY.

After getting settled in Casper, I went out to the airport to inquire about getting a hanger. I thought I'd set up my shop and finish the plane at the hanger. I was in luck and got a nice corner T-hanger with office, heat and lights for $120 a month. Sure beats Minneapolis prices.

After getting the shop all set up, I began to work in earnest on the RV again starting in January 2000, and by April 2002 the FAA was out looking my plane over and signing off on all the paper work that goes with building your own plane. I was lucky and the FAA person I dealt with was really great. I had contacted him in January 2000, so he knew I was working on the plane and would stop by the hanger every so often to see my progress.

During one of my initial engine runups, I noticed that the engine was running rough. I did a compression check and sure enough number 3 cylinder only had 20 PSI. I had purchased my engine from Wentworth, only had 2450 TT with 452 SOH by Penn Yann. I thought I was getting a pretty good engine. After 4 or 5 calls to Wentworth and no response, I ordered a new cylinder and had it installed within a week. The engine ran perfectly know, except number 3 cylinder ran warmer than the others. I thought this was because of the new cylinder, but after talking with other RV-6 owners it seem that this is typical.

During the last 6 months of construction, the hanger next to me became available. Charley Tyrrel who has an RV-6A moved into this hanger. I had known Charley for sometime and had ridden in his plane on occasion, but having his plane next door does wonders for getting some time built up in an RV. All I had to do was pay for the gas and Charley was ready to go flying. It helps to have a finished RV next door when building too. In all I got 35 hours of RV time in Charley's plane before mine was finished.

It was now time to fly my very own RV. Of course mine was a taildragger, so off I go to Longmont, CO. to get a tailwheel endorsement. I put in 4.5 hours in a Decathlon and was signed off.

I knew I still wasn't ready to pilot an RV taildragger and my Insurance Company (Nation Air) knew this too by requiring I get signed off by a CFI in a RV taildragger.I got on the Minn. Wing web site and found Tom Irlbeck. Gave him a call and sure enough he would do the first test flight and give me instruction.

Tom flew out to Casper and we spent the next 4 days (16 hours) mostly in the pattern shooting full stop landings. I know I scared myself and him quite a few time, but I want to thank him for his patience (I wasn't the easiest student) and perseverance. Thank Tom.

Evidently he did a great job of teaching me, because the plane is still in one piece and I don't scare myself anymore. Living in Wyoming, you become a lot better pilot I believe because we always have 20 mph wind, and 30 to 50 degrees crosswinds. We had told Tom of our strong winds, he probably still doesn't believe us because the whole time he was here it was calm.

The day Tom left the weather turned nasty, so I had to wait a week before I got to fly the plane myself. What a thrill. The takeoff performance was great without Tom next to me. The right wing was a little heavy but I would fix that when I got back on the ground. Flew for an hour then it was time for that first landing by myself. I was an OK landing, nothing to brag about, just flared a little high.

I've now got 81 hours on the Hobbs (9-10-02) and fly about 3 hours per week. I use it to fly to work. I am the Resident Inspector for an airport being built in Hulett, WY, about 9 miles north of Devils Tower which is in the NE part of Wyoming about 50 miles from Spearfish, SD. This project started last year and should be completed late 2003. The runway is 5500' long with provisions for another 1000' extension. There is provisions for a parallel taxiway but no money is available to pave this at this time.

My plane is unpainted at this time. I am hoping to paint it this fall. I've built a paint booth in the hanger which has ventilation and I have a fresh air breathing system made out of a small Sear shop vac, that works great and only cost $30.

Paul Irlbeck Prop (purchase from Tom Berge) This is a great prop, perfectly suited for my engine. Great climb and cruise. 2700 rpm, 24 MP @ 7000' 65 deg. F, I usually cruise and 2400 rpm, 21 MP @ 7000' and see 180 MPH on the GPS. I've flown a rectangular pattern twice and seen an average top speed of 199 MPH. Stalls are at 51 KTS w/flaps.

Taking off from Casper, elev. 5349' 65 deg. F on the ground, I've maintained 1500 fpm at 110 to 95 kts up to 12,000 ft., trying to maintain rate of climb your speed will drop off as you get higher. That is pretty darn good climb performance. I usually never have to worry about density altitude, I think about it on the takeoff run but never worry about it. Its common around here to have 7000 to 9000 foot density altitudes during the summer months. For you guys back in the flat and low country that fly out this way, please think about density altitude. There are always 2 or 3 people killed each year in this part of the county, usually flying to or back from Ohskosh, and most of these accidents can be related to density altitude.