This page is dedicated to aviation, rotary engines, metalworking and other interests. Welcome and enjoy!
Aviation
I have always been fascinated by airplanes. In about 1992 it became an obsession after I started volunteering in the restoration department at the Southern Museum of Flight. I have since earned my Private Pilot Certificate on May 29th 2000 and my Instrument rating on April 10th, 2002.
If you are interested in learning to fly, I have a list of common questions and advice to prospective pilots at this link.
For those of us with limited funds and a smattering of mechanical capability, the solution to the high cost of flying comes in the form of homebuilding. Contrary to the image conjured up of a bunch of local hardware store lumber and bolts powered by a modified lawnmower engine, modern homebuilt airplanes are very sophisticated and can easily outperform anything in the same class currently offered by the few remaining manufacturers. To find out about my Mazda rotary powered Q200 homebuilt, go to the Q200 page link.
The Wankel rotary piston engine was developed by Felix Wankel in Germany prior to WWII, but became popular due to further improvements made in Japan by the auto maker Mazda. They installed it in the RX-7 series of sports cars beginnning in 1977 and continuing to the present, although it hasn't been imported to the US since 1996. The key features of the Mazda engine are lightweight, high power, high reliability, and compactness, all of which make it ideal for aircraft applications. There are currently about a dozen homebuilt aircraft flying with the Mazda engine and many more in the works. My Q200 is getting a Mazda transplant and I will post pictures as the project progresses. For more info on the Wankel and its aviation conversion, go to the links below.
This is the Mazda 13B being adapted for use in the Q200
I have owned my 1976 Suzuki RE-5A rotary powered motorcycle since 1985. The RE-5 and later RE-5A were only built in 1975 and 1976, but they were never very popular. This was largely due to rumors and myths (many of which still persist) about the Wankel engine during its first few years of mass production by Mazda in the early 1970s. To see my RE-5A and find out more about these very rare and intriguing machines, go to
I became interested in metalworking about the same time I got involved in restoration at the museum. A friend loaned me some books by Dave Gingery on how to build your own machine tools. Although I didn't actually build my own machine tools from scratch, the Gingery series shows how each piece of the machine is made and fitted, so it gives a very firm foundation for beginners. I started playing around with the little Logan lathe in the restoration shop and then modified a little benchtop drill press into a crude, but fairly decent vertical milling machine. This soon led to the purchase of a 9x20" Jet metal lathe and I was totally hooked. For more, go to my metalworking page.
