Flipping the script

“Field of Dreams” is a movie with a prodigious reputation. What starts out as a story about baseball in an Iowa cornfield turns out to be an emotional tale about the complex and often challenging relationship that exists between fathers and sons. 

The famous tag line from that film is, “If you build it, he will come.” The reference is to a baseball diamond and a fondly remembered giant of the game. By building one, the protagonist of the story will get to experience both. Comedy and drama ensue along the way, as is so often the case in real life.

Roughly 1,200 miles southeast of greater Des Moines exists the surprisingly busy and eminently attractive Massey Ranch Airpark, in Edgewater, Florida. The single runway sees plenty of use during an average day.

But the day I stopped in wasn’t an average day by any means. Dreams were being launched faster than the Cessnas and Pipers rising from behind the hangars. Skills were being taught, confidence was booming, and physical objects were coming into shape.

This is what happens at a rudder building workshop. It is truly inspirational. I’ve been a participant and an observer. It’s absolutely worth the time it takes to attend.

Sebastien Heintz is the instigator of this festival of manufacturing and mirth. As the owner of Zenith Aircraft, Sebastien has always been active about supporting and encouraging the idea that pretty much anyone who wants to build an airplane kit can build an airplane kit.

As the owner of a kit manufacturing company based in Mexico, Missouri, that may seem self-serving, and maybe it is. But he’s done more to put tools in the hands of neophyte builders than anyone I know. And those newbies come away from their workshop with aircraft components that are truly airworthy and ready to be installed on an airframe.

Sebastien is one of the good guys. One of the really, truly good guys. For years now he’s hosted workshops on a monthly basis at the company’s home base in the heart of the mid-west.

But it’s cold in Missouri this time of year, so Sebastien looks south. His host this time around was Herman Eshuis, a skilled builder who offers his services to help others complete their kits should they get tight on time or just want to have the confidence of working with someone who has put together airworthy aircraft time and time again. Herman is the owner of Wheels and Wings, based out of a hangar at Massey Ranch Airpark. Hence, the workshop I attended.

It was a match made in heaven. 

The builders are all matched up with a simple but entirely practical workbench, a small selection of hand tools, and a collection of sheet metal and various fasteners. Within a matter of a few hours, their reward will be a fully functional rudder designed to fit onto the Zenith aircraft of their choice.

No complex procedures are required. No special tooling is necessary. The holes are already pre-drilled in the right places by CNC machines, which makes the components essentially self-jigging. The entire procedure from start to finish is well thought out and executed, the intent being that the builder should be supported and set up for success.

That’s not what most folks expect when they consider the idea of building an entire airplane on their own.

Over the course of my career I’ve met literally hundreds of people who proclaim, “Oh, I could never build an airplane.” An idea borne almost entirely from a combination of ignorance and a lack of confidence in their own abilities. Virtually everyone I’ve ever encountered at a workshop has come away with the opposite impression and a successfully built component.

Building an aircraft kit doesn’t have to be difficult. There will be challenges, sure. But help is always available, by phone, by email, face-to-face, or perhaps just sitting there staring back at you from the pages of the instruction manual. 

In Herman’s hangar, on this day, with Sebastien and his crew at the ready to supply parts, offer instruction, and stand back when it’s appropriate to let the builders build, a wide variety of folks were busy throughout the morning hours. 

There were folks from the US and folks from south of the border. There were new pilots, old pilots, professional pilots, and hobbyists. They all came with high hopes. By the end of the day, nobody was disappointed. Big smiles and finished rudders filled the hangar and spilled out onto the ramp. 

Tom worked diligently away on his sheet metal masterpiece near the hangar door. A former Rusty Pilot, Tom is current again. Back in the left seat and working on his instrument rating, he figures it’s time to build the airplane he wants to fly. We met in Naples last year at an event I attended there. As is so common in general aviation, Tom greeted me like an old friend. And I guess we are, now that we’ve bumped into each other at various airports around Florida and interacted jovially in hangars here and there. 

Rick is learning to fly and getting a jump on airplane ownership by building one of his own. His plan is to put his on floats so he can enjoy the pleasures of being a seaplane pilot by just walking out his back door, jumping into the aircraft, and making it happen.

It’s not much of a stretch of the imagination to see the parallel to Field of Dreams. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons, all building their own airplane, in their own time, in their own garage.

It can happen. It has happened. Pretty much anyone who wants to give it a go can do so with a fairly high level of confidence that they can work their way through all the way to the finish.

I’ve still got the rudder I built, stored away in my hangar, ready to go should I take the step to build the remainder of that airplane. And believe me, I’ve considered it very seriously on more than one occasion.

Perhaps this is my year. Perhaps this is your year. It’s sure Tom and Rick’s year, along with their newfound hangar full of kit builder friends. I envy each and every one of them.

Good luck, one and all.