Education
I worked in George Applebay’s sailplane shop during high school and college. I worked on the Mescalero and Zuni projects where I learned machining, welding, drafting, and composite fabrication. I also met Jon Sharp who was our shop foreman. I crewed for Jon beginning at his first air race in Mexicali, Mexico in 1978. I earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1981.
Soaring
I built a hang glider from plans at age 15 in 1974 and taught myself to fly it. I flew it off of Sandia Crest 3 times then bought a professionally built one. I flew these aircraft all over the western US until 1995. I started my sailplane training in 1978 and got soloed but quit to concentrate on hang gliding until 1997. I finally got my sailplane license in 2004. I bought a DG 600 in 2007 and put 542 hours and 34,490 cross-country miles on her until 2015 when I bought an ASG 29. I fly out of Moriarty, New Mexico.
Formula One and Aerobatic Propellers
I built composite racing props from 1988 to 2017 which won Reno National Championship Gold from 1991 through 2017. The first ones had carbon fiber skins with a unidirectional fiberglass interior. Jon Sharp flew my first prop at Reno on his Cassutt Aero Magic in 1988. In 1991, I switched to all carbon fiber construction for Jon Sharp’s Nemesis race plane using unidirectional tapes in place of fiberglass. In 1993 I standardized on a unidirectional carbon fiber roving interior and developed a semi-automatic filament winding process. These props won every Reno Gold Championship from 1991 until 2018. This process yields repeatable results with good out-of-the-mold static balance. Eric Dienst of Rev’d up Composites (815-970-3716) now makes the propellers I developed.
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