I was out working in the garage today when I heard an airplane overhead. It appeared to be a Glasair, but I wasn't sure. So I turned on the aviation scanner and continued to work. Soon I overheard '321DF' downwind for Miller. That was all I needed to hear, I knew exactly whose plane it was. I didn't know which of the two partners was out flying. I jumped in the car and drove about 4-5 miles out to the small local airport. There sat the beauty.

I met Sam several years ago at a wedding he was photographing; my wife was a bridesmaid. We are both photographers. He has about 30 years more experience and is full time, where as I do it part-time. We somehow found out that we both have an interested in Aviation. We've kept in touch since then. He has since photographed our wedding and I still contact him for business & photography advice.

Sam and his partner have spent something like the last 13 years and 11,000 hours building a Glasair. Sam and Randy do nothing unless it's to perfection. They approached the plane the same way. Sam commented once, if they where to do just an average job, they might as well buy one.

Well it paid off big at Oshkosh this year. They won one of the prestigious Outstanding Workmanship award. The plane is absolutely magnificent I saw Sam & his plane at Osh and then again at a local air show. Each time Sam told me he'd take me up when our scheduled agreed. Today they did.

I showed up at the airport. A couple people were standing around the plane, Sam still in the left seat. I approached the plane, and he gave a warm welcome. He didn't delay in offering a ride; I would be second in line to his nephew. He was curious how I knew he just landed. :)

Soon I strapped in and off we went. I have to say the plane flys very nice. Extremely stable and well balance controls AND FAST. Sam took off, but he quickly turned over the controls over to me and didn't touch the controls until on final. He showed me all the gadgets in his plane. He has a fully certified IFR panel, even has a lighting strike detector. I asked about if he considered a glass panel. He said 9 years ago when he laid the panel out, there was nothing on the market. Besides they purchased a wrecked airplane, had the instruments checked out and then sold the rest. Even after buying the AP and engine monitor they only spent $8k. If I remember correct, they have dual navcoms, DME, ADF, GPS, etc. It was an absolute delight to fly.

Would you believe I remembered to grab the camera, but didn't grab the memory card?


Added 11-9-05:
I just remembered that I took a pic of his plane at Osh. That is Sam standing facing the camera.