Not sure if everyone knew, but this was my first SEFF. Many have followed my B-36 thread and had been begging me to bring the B-36 if just to show. I have a PZ F4U and was ready to just fly that, but as you can tell I really like big planes. So 3 weeks before SEFF while sitting in a hotel room (which I seem to be in a bunch as I travel for my company) looking at my laptop screen it hit me, my back ground picture on my laptop is a picture of my girl Emma sitting in my 1919 Vintage plane. My mind sparked a thought??? "what if I could make that vintage pig electric". I sent an e-mail to Mike at Hacker and asked if he had a 80Cc size electric motor, he said sure. So 3 days later I was pulling the 1919 Vintage plane out of my attic. I had put her up there as the 150Cc gas motor I designed her for just about shook her apart. So I cut the nose off, and add 11" to get the CG right, and worked like a madman to converter her to electric. Then the Thursday a week before SEFF I got my test flights done, and my AMA waiver as she weighed in at 70 pounds (actually 69.5). I was ready for SEFF. I hit the road on Tuesday at 4:05pm, took a nap in Chattanooga, and was at the field by 7am Wednesday. I have to tell you it was like winning the Electric Oshkosh lottery. Everyone I met was so nice, everyone I met was very friendly, the SEFF Staff was out of site great. Everything about my first SEFF was perfect.

I just wanted to share how SEFF touched a point in my life that I will remember forever. Most the time when I go to Oshkosh I am beat and ready for it to end, SEFF, I was beat, and didn't want it to ever end.

So to Mac, and all the SEFF staff, Birger, Jack, Hacker, Castle, ThunderPower, the guys on both sides of my tent, and all of those that were so cool, Thanks!

Attached is the photo on my laptop, and a photo taken a day before I left for SEFF. You can see how a few years went by, my little girl is much bigger now.

Damon

It was good to meet you, Damon - hope you get a chance to come back in the fall, with your completed B36!
..a

Damon did not mention this in his above post.....but he won BEST OF SHOW for SEFF 2010!

For me...the funny thing about the plane is he stole the wheels off their baby stroller. :-)

Damon,

I am impressed by your craftmanship and dedication to building such awesome aircraft! The Emmaselle looked and flew very realistically. The B-36 is a testament to MANY hours of fabrication and building. It will almost be a shame to cover it! (Have you thought about clear?!) Thanks for bringing them to SEFF! See you next year!

Steve K.

Originally Posted by Jeff Meyers

Damon did not mention this in his above post.....but he won BEST OF SHOW for SEFF 2010!

WAY TO Go, that's a great looking plane, i had no clue untill someone posted a video of just it what it was. I was confused I thought you built it for electric, but was gas that's cool, so how many years have you had it?

Originally Posted by Jeff Meyers

For me...the funny thing about the plane is he stole the wheels off their baby stroller. :-)

"Stole" is such a nasty word! He could always put them back if necessary, besides it's only stealing if anyone notices!

Jack

Just an FYI:
I started the 1919 in fall of 2004. I had a 3W 150 gas engine that was on my 50% Pitts S-1. I designed the 1919 around that engine. When I got the plane done in 2006 and tested it with the 150, the tail almost fell off. So she went into mothballs until I could find a better power system. And here we are with the electric version at SEFF. She flies great, and is really cool as I will never own another gas burner again.

The wheels were taken of my girls new stroller, wife had a cow, but that was 5 years ago and she still loves me.

And winning "Best Of Show" was unreal. I never thought when I was sitting in front of the TV with the wings setting on 2 saw horses sewing on the fabric she would win anything.

Thanks all, Damon

Damon,

I just have to tell you how much I enjoyed seeing your plane fly at SEFF. When Dad and I arrived on Wednesday morning, we were setting up our EZ-UPs down on the 3D end of the field. As we were working on unpacking and such, I happened to look down to the sport-flyer end of the field and saw your 1919 flying. I remember saying something like, "Dad, is that a real plane? That's gotta be a full-scale plane!" It wasn't long before we walked down there to check it out.

Seeing the 1919 in the air reminded me of several years ago when Dad and I were camping at Sun-n-Fun in Lakeland, FL. We woke up early one morning to the sound of a full-scale Bleriot puttering over the campground. Your 1919 had the same scale presence in the air. Very nice job, and I'm glad you won best of show...you earned it!

Andy

Damon-

It was great to meet you and see your big planes in person. IMO you definitely earned the best of show award. It was just wonderful seeing the Emmaselle flying throughout the event, and you are a real stick and rudder pilot in my book. Very impressive!

Kevin

Oh, I forgot to ask you, Damon... Tell us about your avatar picture. Looks mighty fun!

Andy

Originally Posted by dee-grose

Oh, I forgot to ask you, Damon... Tell us about your avatar picture. Looks mighty fun!

Andy

My Avatar is from a T6 ride. One thing I do every year or so is take clients up in AT6's. I can write their flights off as it happens during a huge convention in Orlando. The place that we rent the T6's at is called War Bird Adventures. The guy in the back gets it in the air, then once the gear is up he lets you have the plane. I have flown full-scale for over 20 years. The last time I went up the pilot let me take off. If I was rich I would get checked out in a T6, but as I am not it has to be a business write off, my clients love it.

AT-6 Flight (9 min 54 sec)

Thanks, Damon

Sounds like I need to become one of your customers! LOL

Originally Posted by dee-grose

Sounds like I need to become one of your customers! LOL

LOL,
I am lucky that I work with some really cool people. And some of them love aviation. It is funny how you can get some really quiet people to open up and became friends after letting them do some loops and rolls. Sales is networking, and after a T6 ride, they are usually in my network.

My dream is one day to own a T6, but that could only happen if I hit to lottery. I get my aviation high from building huge giant scale RC plane, and that's enough for me.

And I know this sound like a ton to some, but a 30 minute T6 ride from wheels up to wheels down is around $500.00. I know to some that sounds like a bunch, but taking a client out deep sea fishing for 2 hours is more.

Thanks, Damon

Beauty and Grace! No one else even came close for best of show.

Thanks for bringing it.