Hello All.

I'm new to this list and wanted to take a (hopefully) brief moment to introduce myself.  I'm Ryan Wilkins and I presently live in the burbs of Chicago (near Schaumburg) with my wife and two young kids.  Flying has always been an interest of mine since very early in life.  My father flew Lear Jets, my mother obtained her private, and my step-father is currently a Captain on the 757 / 767 for Continental Airlines.  I followed in the family foot steps by starting my flight training in 1999 and working gradually through my Commercial Single.  I came within a hair of getting my Multi but the airplane broke on my last ride before the check ride, and it broke hard.  I ended up moving to Chicago from the West side of Cleveland, OH before the airplane came back online and haven't flown since.  That was almost 3 years ago.  A flying career was my goal but gradually fell out of love with that line of work.  How someone can start at the bottom of the pilot seniority list and expect to be able to live is beyond me.

What brings me to the homebuilt aircraft industry are my parent's and my wife's parent's plans to move away from the Cleveland area and my desire to get back into flying.  Somehow I have this delusion that flying SouthWest will be really expensive for all of us to go visit relatives and that it'd be better to fly ourselves.  I was also intrigued by the ability to build an airplane the way I want it and with what I want in it without incurring a prohibitive cost.  Being a reasonably mechanically inclined person, I also really like the idea of being able to work on my own airplane without investing in an A&P license.  I feel that building and flying my own plane opens unique opportunities to me and my family that the majority of the public do not have available to them.  In addition, I'm always yearning to learn something new and I feel that undertaking a large project like this will afford me knowledge and experience that I otherwise would not attain.  Of course, the sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction that will come once the kit flies can't go without mention.

The criteria that I used to find a kit started with cruise around 200 MPH (I've had enough of flying a 172 around the pattern.. not a bad airplane.. just want to go somewhere else and faster. <g> ), ability to take 5 people (2 adults + 3 kids), ~1000 mi range (the kids will never last that long), total cost around or under $100k excluding labor, and the ability to certify for IFR flight (mainly looking to punch through low cloud decks and not kill a day at an airport waiting for clouds to open up).  The 5 seats seemed to really limit my search.  After finding a number of airplanes, I've settled on the Velocity XL5.  Will probably do the fixed gear model because of insurance reasons.  Also interested in not spending all of my budget on an engine so that's why I'm here.  As it turns out, I've got a business meeting in Orlando on 4-Nov so it offered the perfect opportunity for me to hit the AOPA Aviation Summit in Tampa and also take a demo flight and tour the factory at Velocity in Sebastian, FL.  Having spent a lot of time researching the Velocity, it seems that a lot of people are happy with the plane.  My guess is that's what I'll end up buying and building.  I'm also in the unique position to have an office located on DuPage County Airport Property (KDPA) at a former heliport.  The previous tenants operated an air ambulance service and did some or all of their maintenance at the facility.  While we don't have direct runway access, the building has an abundance of climate controlled space where I can build the airplane and not get in the way of other work related projects.  I've read from numerous people that just the travel time between home, work, and building area if not at home or work takes a big toll on the project.

Well anyway this has turned out to be longer than I really want it to be so I apologize for monopolizing your time.  I look forward to interacting with all of you on the list.

Cheers,

Ryan Wilkins