It is the end of the summer of 2005, and progress on the airplane has nearly stopped. From 20' away, the project looks like it should fly within 6 months. We are ready to begin wiring the panel, an exciting point in the building process. So, why the lack of progress?

Lots of extra time is being consumed by my work as a software engineer, but the pictures on this page show that some significant home projects are also under way. The water feature was Diane's project that only required a small amount of my time. Both of us really enjoy the sound of running water, and the back yard is now a truly restful place to be.

The hangar door has been a much larger project than I anticipated. The original door was very hard to open and did not seal the elements very well. The exising header was a 4x6, braced by some steel that allowed the roof structure to carry the weight of anything that was hung from the header. I was not pleased with the roof truss being tasked with the load that my new door would present and decided to reinforce the existing header with 8" channel steel. It was quite a job to install the steel, but with the welding expertise of Bert Pelca, the construcion knowledge of Mike WIlle, the common sense of Ken Foote (to say nothing of his tractor and all of the other tools of his that have found their way into my shop), and Diane's brother Ken and his wife Jan, who had the misfortune to arrive for a visit while all of this was going on, it got done over a weekend. Tell me I don' have the best friends in the world!

The result is a very stout structure that will have no trouble supporting the new door, which we bought from Dave Coolman of Cool-Air, Inc in Malta, NY.

....Click on an image to enlarge ....