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Plane Speaking The ultimate test of do-it-yourself confidence is to build an airplane and then fly in it. And that's exactly what five Miramar College aviation maintenance professors do in their free time.
With more than 11,000 hours in the air and nearly a century of combined years building and maintaining their own aircraft on the ground, Miramar College aviation maintenance faculty really know the ups and downs of airplanes. Currently, five professors of the eight-member aviation department are either building or have built their own planes for personal use –– all kits from Vans Aircraft. They fondly refer to their hobby like parents would their children, proudly giving birth to their “babies” after devoting more than 3,000 hours on average to their construction. With a life span of 30 to 50 years and a price tag for “quick built kits” of $30,000 to $60,000 and up, their hobby resembles the care and feeding of live offspring. The average cost of an airframe runs about $25,000, the engine another $25,000. It’s the avionics that can send the total price tag sky high. Options include cup holders to auto pilots, GPSs to stereo systems, intercoms to Palm Pilots — bells and whistles that can run upwards of $50,000. Steve Adams says his RV-8 kit, tail wheel version, will be his first completed plane. Adams hopes to name and christen his baby in about six months and has plans to take his wife for a “hundred dollar hamburger” now and then, and on trips cross country when they retire. With a plane that can travel at approximately 200 mph, this modern-day kit plane is considered high-end. The “hundred dollar hamburger” is a widely recognized term in the aviation industry, referring to the “fly in” restaurants at or near general aviation airports. Local destinations include spots like Palm Springs and Catalina Island. There’s even a website and book (in its second edition) of the same name, providing a Pilot’s Guide to Fly-in Restaurants and a “cockpit friendly rating system” that judges location, food, service, ambiance and price. Wheeler North has been teaching aviation maintenance at Miramar College for quite a few years, but flying since he was a child, accompanying his father on marine kelp forest aeronautical surveys. “Piper Rose,” North’s scratch-built RV-6 was named after a family friend’s new daughter and was literally built from scratch. It took eight years of cutting parts, bending metal, and machine tooling the entire plane before she took her inaugural flight in July of 2001. She’s been across country before, and this summer North plans to journey cross country once again, revisiting the “mother of all air shows” in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. According to North, it takes about 10 hours total flight time and three field stops to make the trip. This year, North is hoping to be joined by colleague John Shablow and his new plane, soon to be completed and yet to be named. Shablow, the “senior” builder in the group, has been constructing aircraft for more than 25 years, when he caught the bug while attending Northrup University in Los Angeles. His first home-built was a Hiperbipe stunt plane, authorized for unlimited aerobatics and local shows. That first plane has since been taken apart, providing parts for the new RV-8A nosewheel version in construction and an airframe that he donated to the college program for valuable instructional use. Larry Pink and Reuven Silberman are the most recent Miramar faculty to catch the building bug. Together, they have formed “Wild Things LLC,” pooled resources, and are working on a RV-7A side-by-side nosewheel model. According to these instructors, it’s not unusual for pilots to enroll in aviation maintenance programs and for technicians in the field to become pilots while building their own planes. Shablow said students sometimes assist with work at the hangars and that a recent Miramar College aviation grad and airline pilot, Dave Sterling, now has a hangar adjacent to his own and is building his own plane. “Dave took the program specifically to gain the skills to build his own plane,” said Shablow. Once kits are finished, an FAA designee inspects for airworthiness and issues certificates. Knowledge of guidelines and passing FAA requirements pose no challenge for these “fly boys.” The Miramar College aviation maintenance technician program is the only FAA-certified program in San Diego County. |
SKY KINGS. Clockwise from top right are Wheeler North, Larry Pink, Reuven Silberman, Steve Adams and John Shablow. |
