Ryan,

  Welcome to the Fly Rotary List. Much good information here. Many flying rotaries, and much experience with rotary engines. Many times there is too much information to digest in a day, so make use of the archives, they are a wealth of info as well.

   I am in Flanagan IL, so just about an hour and a half south of you. I am building an RV7 with a Renesis engine. Looking for a first engine start very soon. (though I have been saying that for a while now, I am actually making progress)

  Look me up sometime if you are headed south of the city.

Blue Skies,

Ben Schneider

--- On Tue, 10/20/09, Ryan Wilkins <ryan@deadfrog.net> wrote:

> From: Ryan Wilkins <ryan@deadfrog.net>
> Subject: [FlyRotary] New to the list
> To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
> Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 5:36 PM
> Hello All.
>
> I'm new to this list and wanted to take a (hopefully) brief
> moment to introduce myself.  I'm Ryan Wilkins and I
> presently live in the burbs of Chicago (near Schaumburg)
> with my wife and two young kids.  Flying has always
> been an interest of mine since very early in life.  My
> father flew Lear Jets, my mother obtained her private, and
> my step-father is currently a Captain on the 757 / 767 for
> Continental Airlines.  I followed in the family foot
> steps by starting my flight training in 1999 and working
> gradually through my Commercial Single.  I came within
> a hair of getting my Multi but the airplane broke on my last
> ride before the check ride, and it broke hard.  I ended
> up moving to Chicago from the West side of Cleveland, OH
> before the airplane came back online and haven't flown
> since.  That was almost 3 years ago.  A flying
> career was my goal but gradually fell out of love with that
> line of work.  How someone can start at the bottom of
> the pilot seniority list and expect to be able to live is
> beyond me.
>
> What brings me to the homebuilt aircraft industry are my
> parent's and my wife's parent's plans to move away from the
> Cleveland area and my desire to get back into flying. 
> Somehow I have this delusion that flying SouthWest will be
> really expensive for all of us to go visit relatives and
> that it'd be better to fly ourselves.  I was also
> intrigued by the ability to build an airplane the way I want
> it and with what I want in it without incurring a
> prohibitive cost.  Being a reasonably mechanically
> inclined person, I also really like the idea of being able
> to work on my own airplane without investing in an A&P
> license.  I feel that building and flying my own plane
> opens unique opportunities to me and my family that the
> majority of the public do not have available to them. 
> In addition, I'm always yearning to learn something new and
> I feel that undertaking a large project like this will
> afford me knowledge and experience that I otherwise would
> not attain.  Of course, the sense of accomplishment and
> personal satisfaction that will come once the kit flies
> can't go without mention.
>
> The criteria that I used to find a kit started with cruise
> around 200 MPH (I've had enough of flying a 172 around the
> pattern.. not a bad airplane.. just want to go somewhere
> else and faster. <g> ), ability to take 5 people (2
> adults + 3 kids), ~1000 mi range (the kids will never last
> that long), total cost around or under $100k excluding
> labor, and the ability to certify for IFR flight (mainly
> looking to punch through low cloud decks and not kill a day
> at an airport waiting for clouds to open up).  The 5
> seats seemed to really limit my search.  After finding
> a number of airplanes, I've settled on the Velocity
> XL5.  Will probably do the fixed gear model because of
> insurance reasons.  Also interested in not spending all
> of my budget on an engine so that's why I'm here.  As
> it turns out, I've got a business meeting in Orlando on
> 4-Nov so it offered the perfect opportunity for me to hit
> the AOPA Aviation Summit in Tampa and also take a demo
> flight and tour the factory at Velocity in Sebastian,
> FL.  Having spent a lot of time researching the
> Velocity, it seems that a lot of people are happy with the
> plane.  My guess is that's what I'll end up buying and
> building.  I'm also in the unique position to have an
> office located on DuPage County Airport Property (KDPA) at a
> former heliport.  The previous tenants operated an air
> ambulance service and did some or all of their maintenance
> at the facility.  While we don't have direct runway
> access, the building has an abundance of climate controlled
> space where I can build the airplane and not get in the way
> of other work related projects.  I've read from
> numerous people that just the travel time between home,
> work, and building area if not at home or work takes a big
> toll on the project.
>
> Well anyway this has turned out to be longer than I really
> want it to be so I apologize for monopolizing your
> time.  I look forward to interacting with all of you on
> the list.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ryan Wilkins
>
>
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