OSHKOSH, Wis. — Standing next to a beautiful, red aircraft, EAA AirVenture visitor Dave Nason explains “everybody’s gotta build something.” He built his two-seat, single-engine Falco F.8L himself.
“None of it came out of a can,” he said through a laugh.
A long tradition of EAA AirVenture is the homebuilt section for aircraft made by hobbyists. They run the gamut. Ultralights with a small engine, wing and tail are parked next to more complicated builds like Nason’s.
It took him 5 years to construct the Italian-designed aircraft, primarily out of wood.
RELATED: Airborne Uber & Supersonic Flight: NASA Projects on display at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh
“You kind of don’t know you’re close until you’re done,” he explained. “You’ve got it all together and now it’s time to go. Now it’s time to fly it.”
When that time came, Nason, who hails from Seattle, admits he was nervous. The retired Air Force pilot fell back on that experience as he took to the skies for the first time in his own plane, 25 years ago.
“They let you fly jets with no time in the service,” he said. “Go home and fly the dumb thing! So I did.”
Nason has been flying into EAA’s annual convention for two decades:
“There’s so many friends that we meet out here, I just can’t not come.”
TOP HEADLINES FROM THE 620 WTMJ NEWS TEAM:
- Matt Arnold is ‘open’ to considering trade after Yelich injury
- “We have to do this.” Summer Olympics a bucket list item for local couple
- Bradford and South Shore beaches closed due to elevated bacteria levels
- Milwaukee Public Schools releases long-range facilities planning website
- Harley-Davidson Homecoming: watch for road closures and parking restrictions
READ: EAA AirVenture offers “big, fast, wiz-bang stuff” as federal agencies investigate Day One crash
