F2 builder in Los Angeles
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:26 pm
Hi there. My name is Peer. I currently live in Los Angeles with my wife Kelsey. Unlike most of the people I have met on this journey, I have no real history with airplanes to speak of. I spent my youth looking at the skies every time I heard an airplane engine overhead, or riding my bike to the local airport near Millbrook, New York. There I would lean against the fence in hopes that a local pilot might be taking off or landing, always too shy to actually enter the airport and strike up a conversation with any of the local flyers.
I built a lot of rubber powered airplanes, and eventually graduated to RC planes, but the hobby was short lived; I moved to Los Angeles and focused on my schooling. The dream never left me, however. I managed to scrape together a few bucks here and there, and take flying lessons in a Cessna 172 out of Van Nuys airport when I was in my early twenties. Lessons were few and far between, however, and life got in the way. The dream had to be shelved again.
It wasn't until recently, when I managed to pay off my house here in LA, that I decided to reward myself by buying a kit ultralight. I had realized that the Ultralight community was experiencing a resurgence of sorts, and it seemed like the practical way to go. I needed something relatively inexpensive, that didn't require an annual inspection or expensive engine rebuilds, and that could fit in my garage. I stumbled across the Badland website, and decided that was the UL for me. It checked all of the boxes: folding wings, high wing design, tail-dragger...basically bush-plane styling (and possibly capabilities, in the right hands).
I'm now closing in on the finish line with my build, but it doesn't end there. Flight lessons will have to resume, and I need to also build a trailer. So it may be some time before I'm in the air. In the meantime, I continue to tinker on the (nearly completed) plane in the garage, dreaming of the day I first run the engine, first taxi, first take off.
Until those times come, I'll be quenching my thirst for flight with online flight instruction, online videos, and, of course, this forum.
Hope to see you all in the skies.
I built a lot of rubber powered airplanes, and eventually graduated to RC planes, but the hobby was short lived; I moved to Los Angeles and focused on my schooling. The dream never left me, however. I managed to scrape together a few bucks here and there, and take flying lessons in a Cessna 172 out of Van Nuys airport when I was in my early twenties. Lessons were few and far between, however, and life got in the way. The dream had to be shelved again.
It wasn't until recently, when I managed to pay off my house here in LA, that I decided to reward myself by buying a kit ultralight. I had realized that the Ultralight community was experiencing a resurgence of sorts, and it seemed like the practical way to go. I needed something relatively inexpensive, that didn't require an annual inspection or expensive engine rebuilds, and that could fit in my garage. I stumbled across the Badland website, and decided that was the UL for me. It checked all of the boxes: folding wings, high wing design, tail-dragger...basically bush-plane styling (and possibly capabilities, in the right hands).
I'm now closing in on the finish line with my build, but it doesn't end there. Flight lessons will have to resume, and I need to also build a trailer. So it may be some time before I'm in the air. In the meantime, I continue to tinker on the (nearly completed) plane in the garage, dreaming of the day I first run the engine, first taxi, first take off.
Until those times come, I'll be quenching my thirst for flight with online flight instruction, online videos, and, of course, this forum.
Hope to see you all in the skies.