Our building group, which started as two, Brutus and Dee, within two weeks grew to three with the addition of Stratford, a fellow pilot Dee knew from the Wingnuts Flying Cub LLC based at KFCI. As you can see from the photos, luckily, we are building in Brutus and Nancy Russell's 3-car garage. One of the first things we did was buy an electric heater and hang it from the ceiling with steel angles. Later, the next summer we installed a window air conditioner. In addition to this, we sometimes enjoy a tasty lunch courtesy of Nancy! Wow! In good weather, Brutus breaks out the grill.
Maybe four years after we commenced building, Doug Hanson showed up and began helping. After some months it was obvious this retired Navy man was just what we needed, a whiz in electrics and electronics. So we invited him to join our LLC, which he did.
We have had a deposit on a hangar at KOFP, Hanover County Airport for a number of years (there is always hope!). Once or twice a year Dee gets a call saying a hangar is coming open...but so far we are not yet ready to move to the airport. Our plan is to finish building at the Russell's, have the DAR inspect our plane there, and then trailer N18TA to either Hanover Airport, if there is an empty hangar at that time (not likely) or to KFCI, Chesterfield County Airport where there seems always to be hangar space open.
We are proud to be very, very careful builders with high standards. That is one of the (many) reasons our Sportsman is not flying as of July 2020. But when we are ready for the DAR and pass his inspection, the plan is to hire Dan Dudley, a professional test pilot from Michigan, to make the first flight and then teach us how to fly her safely. And then we will do out extensive test flying following the guidance of the EAA Test Flight Kit which we have purchased.