Ken's Flying Page

1968-1976  Model airplanes

This is when I started building paper airplanes, balsa wood airplanes, model rockets, paper hot air balloons, and kites.

1976-1991 Ultralight Aircraft

In 1976 at 13 years old I had my first hang glider instruction at Kitty Hawk Kites, a great place to learn to hang glide.  Two years later I bought my first hang glider, at this point only flying from small hills and sand dunes.

In 1982 I got my first powered ultralight, A Pterodactyl Ptraveler.  I also met a local hang glider/ultralight pilot Tommy Thompson.  He helped me to safely learn to pilot both powered ultralights and hang gliders for several years.

In 1988 I got my private pilot's certificate, learning to fly a Cessna 150 at the Wentzville, Missouri airport. 

In 1990 I spent 6 months in California, and got to hang glide on a regular basis.  My last hang glider flight was a nice one hour flight in Tennessee.  I ended up an intermediate hang glider pilot with a total of 25 hours of flight time.  My longest flight was 3 hours.  I have not flown a powered ultralight since the mid 1980's.  Total time was 50 flight hours in about 6 different ultralights.

1991-Present General Aviation

My first aircraft was a Grumman Yankee.  In 1991 I bought 1/2 share in the airplane with my friend Chuck Coleman. In the same time frame I began work on a homebuilt motorglider, a Monnett Moni.  In 1996 I sold the Yankee, and bought a flying BD-4.  In 2001 I sold the BD-4, and bought a finished Moni (I never finished the other project, and sold it).  After a year of the Moni, I decided I needed a good basic general aviation aircraft, sold the Moni, and bought my current airplane, a 1982 Piper Warrior.

In the early 1990's I added a glider add on rating, flying a 2-33 sailplane in Wentzville, MO.  My instructor was Kevin Kochersberger, who about 10 years later became the pilot to recreate the Wright Brother's flight at Kitty Hawk, NC on Dec 17, 2003.  I only acquired about 12 hours of glider time before the glider operation moved from Wentzville, and I have not flown a glider since, but hope to again some day.

In the mid 1990's I became interested in Formula 1 air racing.  First I became a crew member for Aero Magic (#43), and later began to design and build an original design aircraft with Chuck Coleman.  I did the aerodynamic design, and Chuck did the structural and systems design.  After about a year and a total of 5000 hours work, Chuck test flew the airplane, named Varuna, in 1997.  After several test flights and minor systems changes, we decided the plane would need a new tail to have the stability and control we needed.  We each became busy with our respective jobs, and have not revisited the project.  I transferred my 1/2 share in the plane to Chuck when I moved to Florida, and hope the plane will eventually fly around the pylons at Reno.