Good Morning from South Bend!

Good Morning from South Bend!

Postby Flynic3 » Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:30 am

Hello SonexBuilders.net! My name is Nicholas Dawson and I am originally from Dayton Ohio. I grew up surrounded by aviation and was extremely passionate about it. My grandfather and father both were pilots however neither of them flew when I was growing up. I was fortunate enough to have an amazing neighbor named Bill Hatton who first got me involved in model aviation. Later on when he purchased an airplane I was lucky enough to fly along and learn from him. I accumulated time in a small Grumman Trainer and then a little later on he purchased a Grumman Tiger. I really enjoyed fixed wing aircraft however my real passion always was helictopers and rotorcraft. Fortunately for me, Bill Hatton was also the lead mechanic for the local hospital’s care flight helictopter. When I spent a day job shadowing him, I was hooked and from then on all I thought about were helicopters. I mean he was working on a $9 million dollar Eurocopter Dauphin and I was just blown away! I really wanted to follow in his foot steps and enter my local Vocational High School’s A&P program. It was 1997 and was also the first year the school offered a Computer Information Technology program. Everyone pushed me towards that program as I was also good with electronics. I foolishly listened when being told that computers were the future and if I really wanted a job in the future than this was the class I needed to take. Looking back on it now I truly wish I would have went with what I was passionate about! Over the years life gets in the way and I slowly drifted away from my passion for aviation. Fast Forward to 2018 and I am now finally back enjoying my passion for aviation again! I have slowly drifted away from working in the IT field and into manufacturing. I currently operate a 3 axis CNC mandrel tube bender and I am looking to get into Aviation manufacturing. I am building the interior components and stanchions for New Flyer city buses. I have recent applied with an Aerospace manufacturer and am hoping I will soon be working with my passion daily! I am also interested in obtaining my LSRM certification and am actively working on my Sport Pilot Gyro rating along with fixed wing rating. I am extremely active in my local EAA chapter 132. I am PRA member and would like to become active in the Indiana PRA Chapter. I was involved with the Civil Air Patrol as a teenager and I am looking to get involved again with my local squadron. I look forward to meeting and speaking with everyone here at the SonexBuilders.net. I am interested in building a Gyro and a Waiex in the near future. I have been looking into building a Waiex with either a Jabiru 2200 or UL260i! I woukd like to start with the Jabiru 2200 and install EFI from SDS/Edge, then eventually a VVT turbo setup from Edge performance. I know this would be quite the extreme install that would take some extra work... that being said I would more than likely do the upgrades in to the engine slowly. I am curious what everyone experience is with the Jabiru 2200 engines and alternatively the UL260i. You could easily do both upgrades to the Jabiru 2200 and would cost about the same as the UL260is when complete. Now that I have written what may be the longest introduction on the SonexBuilders.net I am all done!...

Best Regards,

Nicholas Dawson
Flynic3
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:36 am

Re: Good Morning from South Bend!

Postby GordonTurner » Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:49 am

Hi Nicholas. Welcome. Now start building :)
Waiex 158 New York. N88YX registered.
3.0 Liter Corvair built, run, and installed.
Garmin panel, Shorai LiFePo batteries.
GordonTurner
 
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Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:14 am
Location: NY, NY

Re: Good Morning from South Bend!

Postby Bryan Cotton » Sun Jan 14, 2018 11:06 am

Welcome to the forums Nicholas! I'd suggest getting your ratings first and then jumping into a project. Good luck!
Bryan Cotton
Poplar Grove, IL C77
Waiex 191 N191YX
Taildragger, Aerovee, acro ailerons
dual sticks with sport trainer controls
Prebuilt spars and machined angle kit
Year 2 flying and approaching 200 hours December 23
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Bryan Cotton
 
Posts: 4957
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 9:54 pm
Location: C77

Re: Good Morning from South Bend!

Postby Flynic3 » Sun Jan 14, 2018 11:45 am

Good Morning!

Thank you for the warm welcome and I greatly appreciate the advice! I agree with you completely Bryan and don’t plan to start the build until I am finished up this summer. I would be further along in my FW training however I held off until I finished my gyro training. I was advised by numerous individuals to start with the gyro lessons as it will require less flight training in the end. I am currently attending the PRA ground school which will conclude in March. I plan on hopefully starting my Flight training with a Gyro-CFI in April. I am hoping to finish up my Gyro and FW flight training by the end of the summer. From there I will be deciding on whether or not to order the entire kit or build in stages starting with the tail kit. I am very fortunate that I already have an amazing Technical advisor/DAR named Lowell Farrand who is a part of my local EAA chapter 132. He has experience assisting with and inspecting almost 100 Sonex Aircraft... this was ultimately why I chose the Sonex Waiex as my project!

I have so many questions though and a lot of research ahead of me which is what lead me to this forum...

Thanks again for the Warm Welcome!

Nicholas Dawson
Flynic3
 
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:36 am

Re: Good Morning from South Bend!

Postby Titanium Cranium » Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:39 am

Welcome Nicholas! I live in Dayton, so I'm not too far from you. I'm a Waiex owner and always looking for an excuse to get some cross-country hours, so if you ever want me to head to your neck of the woods on a weekend, just let me know.
Tom Hilsdorf
N37YX
Dayton, OH
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