This seems to be my most common question to date, and my answer would be quite easy to understand if I could put all of my feelings about flying, building, knowing how things work and love of good engineering into a .pdf file for you to download but I haven't been able to find that browser plug-in yet so here is the best I can do in this space. ;-)

I have loved planes as long as I can remember and have always been drawn to and fascinated by places where they and those who fly them congregate. Heck, I became an Air Traffic Controller. I saw them all day long and never got sick of them. It probably all stems back to when I was a child and got to make trips to the airport at Port Columbus, Ohio to pick up my dad from business trips. Those were the days when you used to get on and off the plane via a stair truck (Like the President) and those that came to welcome home or see off the lucky flyer watched from an open-air pier-like structure that jutted out over the ramp. The experience was full of the noise of jet engines, the smell of kerosene and the feeling of excitement from far off places being brought home by those waving as they came down the stairs after passing through that amazing portal to other lands.

I have flown fairly consistently since the age of 18 when I received my private pilot license, and like all pilots, have always dreamed of owning a plane that was original, beautiful, quick and filled with reliable new technology. Not long ago while my wife was out of town ;-), I sat at my computer toying with the thought of owning this dream plane when I came across the web site of someone building a Cozy Mark IV. I realized that I had walked by a whole row of these very aircraft at Oshkosh a year earlier and spent a bit of time looking at them in wonderment that people actually built these beautiful machines. I was immediately sucked in and continued research led me to the cozyaircraft.com web site where Nat Puffer (the designer of this Burt Rutan derivative aircraft) did an excellent job of describing the process of building and the plans. (If you haven't been there, go and look around.) I gave him a call and he suggested that I join the Cozy Mailing List found here, and talk to some builders and research with EAA. All easy and Free. So I did. I joined the list, spoke with other builders and continued research. It wasn't too long before I was totally in love with the idea of building and becoming part of this amazing community. Well, what could I do!? The plans are of an original, beautiful plane that is quick and made of composite material like the new brands of aircraft being manufactured by Cirrus Design and Lancair. A quick call to the wife (still out of town) to approve the funds being spent (not what it was for though. That surprise came later when she got home), then a call to Aircraft Spruce to purchase the plans and that was the beginning. This site will describe the rest of this story as it happens.