But this middle-aged white guy building a plane in his garage is different!
I've always sorta viewed the experimental aircraft world with skepticism - mostly driven by innate desire to not die, let alone in a giant fireball of my own creation. But, as it turns out, even self-preservation has a price - and that price is somewhere near that of the $150K clapped out 182 built before man walked on the moon.
Let me back up.
I started flying when I was 16 (~1996), with the goal of going to the Air Force Academy, becoming a fighter jock, transitioning to the airlines at some point, etc. etc. That was before I got "Little Miss Sunshined" with a colorblindness diagnosis during my USAFA physical. I was eventually granted a SODA from the FAA that gave me the green light (which I could see, btw) to move forward with a civil aviation career. But this was pre-9/11 when you needed perfect vision and a moon landing to get on with even the crappiest regional, and I had been given some decent scholarship coin to go to college, so flying fell out of focus.
After three years at Texas Tech and another two-and-a-half at Ohio State for graduate school, I moved to Florida with the girl who would become my wife with the goal of getting back into flying, perhaps pursuing an airline career. But every time I committed to following a career pilot path, someone died. Five people in fact, and a cat (stories for another time, but unfortunately not kidding here), before I finally realized that I had a moral obligation to pursue a different career.
After 10-years away from flying altogether, save some flight simulator cockpit building projects, and a new career in airport management, I got the itch again not long after moving to the Raleigh-Durham area. That led me to join a flying club with an SR-20, which I fell in love with. The problem was that everyone else loved it too, and getting to actually fly the plane between other people scheduling it, and constant maintenance downtime on account of how frequently it flew, meant the plane wasn't useful as a family SUV. That led me to consider buying my own - but with the used GA market where it presently is, with a first gen SR-20 going for $200K (and the aforementioned clapped out $150K 182) taking on the cost of a manufactured aircraft is wholly unreasonable for a 40-year old with a wife and two young kids.
I belong to the local EAA chapter, mostly out of a desire to do Young Eagles flights again, which led me to explore the various Vans builds folks are doing. Hearing more about it, my concern shifted from safety to whether I could build something so complex. I'm decently handy, but my two liberal arts degrees speak to my philosophical rather than engineering mindset.
But looking at what I have (time, a garage, some money) and what I don't (enough money to buy an aircraft outright, patience for certified aircraft maintenance costs), the idea of building my own plane started to sound more appealing. Combined with the depth of local resources from my EAA chapter (#1114 in Apex) the idea has grown on me. That's led me to where I am at the time of this writing - deep research and evaluation.
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