G'day

A bloke turned up at our club about 18 months ago. He was in his mid sixties and keen as all mustard. He wanted to build a plane and learn to fly so I sold him a three channel trainer kit I had, suggested some other gear which he bought. In the meantime I took him out to our field and started to teach him using my similar trainer. Initially he was totally hopeless but eventually he started (with intense lessons) to get the plot. He built the trainer and before long we were using his plane with a buddy box system. His building of the trainer was basically OK but it was a bit rough and needed some tidying up before it could fly.

He was slow to learn, as I expected, but he was soon keen to build something else. He decided it had to be a four engined WWII bomber. No amount of talking could persuade him to build some more simple kits first, it was going to be a four engined bomber or nothing. This cost him a fortune as most of it was imported.

Meanwhile we kept on the lessons and after about 12 months he did manage to fly solo. His flying was OK - mostly - but sometimes he would loose the plot but the stable trainer generally saved him even when he totally lost it and it flew away and landed its self when he ventured out by himself.

He eventually finished the bomber. It is very heavy and has a number of basic faults. I would not dare to try to fly it as I am pretty sure it will come apart in the air. There was no spar in the horizontal stabilizer at all! I did try to keep him on the right track but ultimately, he is responsible for his own actions though I would never allow this plane to be flown at our club in its present condition. It is just not airworthy.

I am prepared to help anyone who asks me but there are some people who simply cannot be helped.

Mike in Oz