ROGER CIRCLE'SDonna Bushman

Kl FOXA FIRST TIME BUILDER AND NEW PILOT MAKES IT TO THE BIG SHOW . . . OSHKOSH!

As noted in the article on the newKitfox Speedster, Denney AerocraftCompany (DAC) has sold some 1,700aircraft kits, almost half of which havealready made it to the flightline. As faras anyone can determine, the Kitfox iscurrently the top selling fixed wing air-plane in the world today.

Though the age range of Kitfoxbuilders has run from teenagers to afew people in their 80s, most are in the45 to 60 year old bracket. A lot ofthese people had youthful encounterswith Piper Cubs or T-Crafts orAeroncas, and nearly all of them buildtheir own airplanes to realize a dreamthey've harbored most of their lives.

This was the case with RogerCircle who, as a student pilot, gotsigned off to make the trip from hishome in West Lafayette, IN toOshkosh. He had to come up beforethe Convention NOTAMs kicked in,however, and couldn't leave for homeuntil the Fly-In was over.

BY DAVID GUSTAFSON

We interviewed Roger duringOshkosh '91 and heard a familiarstory from someone who seems totypify the spirit of homebuilding. Ifthere's such a thing as a generic kit-building story, this is it.

Roger's father, who had done littlewith flying, gave in to his 6 year oldson's repeated requests and rented aJ-3 at the local airport. Originally, theidea had been to send Roger up alonewith the pilot, but there was room forthree in the J-3 without over-grossing(much), so Roger went up in his dad'slap. He still has vivid images of watch-ing the tires stop rolling after takeoff;he can close his eyes and see the let-tering for Muncie Airport on the roof ofa large building on the field. It madean impression that would follow himthrough life.

According to Roger, it was an expe-rience that more children should beexposed to.

Growing up, he went through the

radio control end of airplane model-ing, but had little to do with full sizestuff until 1976. He had been readingabout homebuilts all along, keepinghis dream alive.

The cost of sending his kids throughschool and college slowed down therealization process, but he took a bigstep in 1976, when he bought an IcarusII hang glider that someone else hadbuilt. Shortly after purchasing theIcarus, Roger, who was then 33, readabout the experiments John Moodyhad been conducting in adapting a lit-tle McCulloch MAC 101 engine to anIcarus and foot-launching the poweredhang glider from a frozen lake.

Roger persuaded a pilot friend of histo fly them both up to Milwaukee tomeet John Moody and learn moreabout powered hang gliding. Rogerwas so impressed with what he sawthat he gave John a check for anengine installation even though Johnwasn't quite ready to ship engines.

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About a month later a box arrived withJohn Moody's first sale ... it was SerialNumber 1. And it was the beginning ofa new era.

Shortly after John flew his Icarus,two brothers in Arizona flew a poweredhang glider of their own making. ThenRoger bolted on the Moody conversionand became the fourth person in theworld to fly a foot-launched, poweredhang glider.

He flew it, but he didn't like it much.It scared him. His wife wouldn't comeout to the airport and Roger neverencouraged her to come along. Hesold the Icarus to someone locally,who promptly put on a landing gearand added elevator control. The pro-ject had turned into a light aircraft andRoger saw it flying in the local area foreight or nine years after that.

Roger's kids were in junior highschool when he got involved with theIcarus. When they finally went off tocollege and he and his wife were rat-tling around in their empty nest, thedream of flight came back to him.

"I felt like I had the time and was get-ting to the age where I didn't want to

delay a whole lot longer to fulfill thisdream," said Roger. "So I went to thelibrary at Purdue Aviation Tech, lookedthrough some back issues of SportAviation, and found articles on the Kitfoxand several other light, experimental air-craft. I knew I wanted a two-place, so Icould take my wife along.

"Well, I sent away for informationpackages and explored a number ofpossibilities. I liked the Kitfox the most... it was in my price range . . . and itreminded me of the J-3 I'd first flownin, so I bought one. Had never seenanything but pictures of them, but Iwent ahead and bought it anyway. Iguess I was attracted to the designmore for aesthetic reasons. I liked theappearance of i t . . . it fit with the kindof flying I had envisioned doing andthat I had remembered doing fromwhen I was six years old: a high wingaircraft, real light, which flies slow, canbe used on a grass strip . . . that wasthe kind of flying I was interested in."

When Roger ordered his Kitfox, hewas the 421st builder to do so. Hethen sat back for several months towait while the factory processed his

order, welded up the fuselage andpacked everything into one largewooden crate. It was a Model II Kitfox.

The call finally came from the freightcompany - his Kitfox had come in.Though Roger had been waiting withsome feeling for when it might arrive,he nevertheless experienced a thrillingrush when he finally knew it was readyfor pickup. It turned into a wild day.

Borrowing a flatbed trailer, he wentinto downtown Indianapolis, loaded hiscrate and hauled it home to his drive-way. It took a while to wrestle thehuge box into the space he'd clearedin his garage, but he prevailed andused the plywood from the crate tofloor in the attic in his house. (Makesyou wonder where else those boxeshave wound up.)

After Roger dismantled the crate, heran the inventory check as the factoryasks all builders to do right away. Hefound the kit was complete to the lastbolt and screw.

His single car garage was now anaircraft factory and the recipe providedby the factory for putting together theobject of his dreams was easy to fol-

20 APRIL 1992

low. "I found the instructions very ade-quate. During the constructionprocess, the factory was continuallyupdating the instructions and sendingout more photographs showing howthings went together."

Roger had never built anything onthis scale before, so there were a lot ofquestions, some of which he felt mightborder on being silly, but he'd developa list of four or five inquiries and thencall the factory. "I probably calledthem ten times during the course ofconstruction. The answers they gavewere always good and I was impressedwith their patience ... they never actedlike my questions were silly."

Though he'd had a little air timewith his Icarus hang glider, Roger hadyet to log any formal dual instruction.He didn't have any time table or spe-cific date in mind for completion, sohe took his time with the project, devi-ating little from the plans, except inthose areas where he knew hewouldn't compromise the strength ofthe aircraft: e.g., the instrument paneland the upholstery. He invested con-siderable time with both thosefeatures and it clearly shows. Theextra upholstery he set into the doorand side panels of the fuselage givethe aircraft a much more finished look.He added sunscreens from Target tocover the overhead windows . . . it justso happened that the colors availableincluded a burgundy that perfectlymatches the rest of his color scheme.The screen is one of those that youcan see out of, but can't see into.

The paint scheme is another pointhe labored over for a considerableperiod. Roger got a lot of advice fromhis local EAA Chapter on painting; infact, one of the members loaned hima "really nice compressor." He boughthis own spray gun and got somebooks at the library on auto finishingto learn about spray patterns and noz-zle adjustments. Then he practicedbefore finally pointing the gun at hisown airplane. Again, his diligencepaid off in a finished product that anygroup of professionals would be hardpressed to surpass.

In the 17 months Roger "gave upChicago Bears football and ChicagoCubs baseball", he logged between1,000 and 1,200 hours of effort devel-oping his skills and building his Kitfox."Actually building my Kitfox was neaterthan either football or baseball. In fact,I was kind of sorry when it was finishedand we had to haul the airplane out ofthe garage."

Roger called on Carl Fuller, an EAAmember with a lot of taildragger time,to make the test flight in the aircraft."He had confidence in my airplane andI had a lot of confidence in him. Heacted like it was an honor to be asked."Roger stood on the ground and videotaped the first flight. Carl was better atflying than Roger was at video work . ..turned out there was nothing on thetape. After about four hours of wring-ing out the Kitfox, all of which passeduneventfully and without any adjust-ments, Roger got started with his flightlessons . . . in his own Kitfox.

For September and October of1990, the two months before Rogercompleted the Kitfox, he had startedtaking flying lessons in a Cessna 150.But then he switched over to the Kitfox,which he considered "very different."

He recalled that when he first saw itflown, "I had this overwhelming senseof pride, knowing it was something Ihad built and put together. I had thatsame sense of being overwhelmed andextremely satisfied and full of pridewhen I got to ride in it myself."

By the time Roger flew up toOshkosh, his Kitfox had 82 hours onit. He's convinced his instructorwould rather use the Kitfox than theCessna 150 for training. "It requiresmore attention to fly it. It is a rudderairplane, the 150 is not. The tech-nique you use when landing theKitfox is more critical than a 150 ...you have to be more precise. Myinstructor told me on several occa-sions, and for a while I thought hewas just bolstering my confidence,but now I can see what he was get-ting at, and that's this: a plane likethe Kitfox really produces a betterstudent, someone who has more of afeeling for flight.

"I still enjoy flying the 150, but it'slike the difference between driving aplain sedan and a peppy sports car.One is just a whole lot more fun todrive than the other. . . that's a goodway of comparing a Kitfox with a fac-tory-built design. I really love flying theKitfox. I'm not in a hurry to get any-

where . . . I just like flying for the sakeof flying and looking down and enjoy-ing the view.

"I am anxious to get my license so Ican take my wife and my family. That'sreally something to look forward to.My sons are in college and old enoughto enjoy flying off someplace for break-fast. I'd like to fly up to MackinacIsland and land there and rent a horse.

"A lot of things have happened asa result of this project. I've met a lotof pilots I didn't know before and it'sbecome apparent that they're a differ-ent breed of person. The older pilotsseem much younger. Flying mustkeep them young. Pilots are also areal positive, enthusiastic group. MyKitfox has enabled me to be in theircompany and to come to Oshkosh.My instructor signed me off for thetrip and it was a thrill.

"Oshkosh is a great place to comeif you're thinking about building aplane . . . you get so many ideas andyou have the opportunity to meet somany people. I got to meet a lot ofKitfox builders here and I talked toeveryone who was interested in thedesign. I really enjoyed that. I nevertired of talking about it, because every-one was so enthusiastic. I got out anold address book and wrote down a lotof names and addresses of people Iam sure I will see again.

"At the time I started on the Kitfox,I thought I was buying a vehicle. Littledid I realize that I was buying into afraternity that is exciting and satisfy-

ing. Hopefully I'll get to fly for a lotmore years. My only regret is that Ididn't get started sooner . . . but Iguess I got started as soon as it waspossible."

This is a story that has been told atOshkosh thousands of times. InRoger's case, he came to the Fly-Inand went home without any of the EAAtrophies, but he did take home some-thing he considers very valuable: hewas judged the best Kitfox at the Fly-Inby other Kitfox builders and membersof the DAC factory.

As a follow-up, it should be pointedout that Roger earned his Private pilot'slicense on August 28, 1991 . . . in hisKitfox. That night, he took his wife upfor her first Kitfox ride over the localcommunity. She was dazzled by thelights which she had never seen fromthe air before. Shortly after that theyflew down from northern Indiana to anEAA gathering in Kentucky. They havealready firmed up plans to fly down toLakeland, FLfor Sun 'n Fun '92. Rogerwas recently elected secretary of hislocal EAA Chapter and has been instru-mental in planning a "70 Knotter" tripto Mackinac Island for this comingJune. He's already got 138 hours onhis Kitfox and is eager to share his fly-ing stories with anyone who's evenmildly interested.

Roger really built a quality copy ofthe Kitfox. He takes pride in his work-manship and he's enjoying the resultsof his efforts. It's a classic example ofwhat EAA is all about. •*

22 APRIL 1992