John Steigelmeyer says it's a thrill each time he flies the plane he built, Miss Underestimated."
The way John Steigelmeyer often views the Vinton Airport -- from above.
Miss Underestimated goes back into her hangar after Saturday's' flight to Dubuque.
The view of the Mississippi River from John Steigelmeyer's plane.
The GPS uses a purple line to show the pilot the direct path to his destination.
John Steigelmeyer taxis back to the hangar in Miss Underestimated.
John Steigelmeyer spent many years building this plane after retiring from TWA as commercial pilot.
Miss Underestimated's engine area and propellers.
This is how John Steigelmeyer loves to see the earth, from nearly a mile above it in his plane.
Parachute enthusiasts were landing as Steigelmeyer was preparing for his flght on Saturday.
FAA guidelines require that all passengers be warned that an amateur built the plane they are in.
He steps on a thin bar behind the left wing, and then onto a thin black pad near where the wing meets the fuselage, then onto the seat as he squeezes into the cockpit of the smallest plane he has ever flown, an RV-7A (wingspan 25 feet; length 20 feet, four inches. total weight, 1,250 pounds).
“It’s a thrill every time I fly,” said the pilot, Capt. John Stiegelmeyer. “Now, I am flying for myself and not someone else.”
Stiegelmeyer spent many years flying for others. He piloted an Air Force KC-135 refueling tanker which could carry 200,000 pounds of jet fuel. He later became a commercial pilot for TWA flying Boeing 717 jets with a passenger capacity of 106.
And for the past year, Stiegelmeyer has had more time to fly.
He had spent most of the previous several years building that plane and putting it through the series of inspections required for such projects.
The kit from Van’s Aircraft arrived in 2001; Stiegelmeyer finished Miss Underestimated near the end of 2008.
The captain said he still does not know if he would build his own plane again. He advises those who consider building their own plane to not do it on their own. He had technical assistance from more experienced builders, and he spent a week at a sheet metal school, learning how to bend the metal and attach all of the thousands of screws and rivets that keep the plane together.
When the kit from Van's Aircraft arrived in 2001, Stiegelmeyer spent a week at a sheet metal school for plane builders in Georgia. A member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, Stiegelmeyer worked with EAA technical advisor Tom Olson. Along with Olson, government inspectors from the FAA were actively involved throughout the building process.
Stiegelmeyer had much help on his journey from pilot to plane builder to pilot again. Son Scott, who had encouraged his father to build the plane, helped with some of the building. The Internet allowed Stiegelmeyer to learn much from other plane builders, and to find ideas for the paint design of his plane.
The pilot built Miss Underestimated from what is called a quick-build kit. He said that he spent about as much time reading and re-reading the directions has he spent in building the plane. If a builder makes a mistake, he has to undo what he did and start over on that part. So Stiegelmeyer made sure to continually check to make sure that every section was finished correctly. There are thousands of screws and rivets holding Miss Underestimated together.
While he said he never considered giving up before finishing the plane, Stiegelmeyer said there was "always a problem to solve."
The pilot points out one barely noticeable blemish on Miss Underestimated. While Stiegelmeyer was tightening the last screw on the canopy, the screwdriver slipped, scratching the Plexiglas. When he called the builder to explain what happened and ask what to do, the reply he heard was, "We made a lot more mistakes than that on our plane." Stiegelmeyer was advised to simply cover the blemish with a sticker, which he said he will do.
Miss Underestimated went through its taxi test in March of 2009, while there was still some snow on the ground. The plane passed that test, but there were more inspections, including weighing the plane and measuring its center of gravity, before the first flight could take place.
Every pilot remembers his “first flights,” the first time he took off and landed in a different kind of plane.
And for Stiegelmeyer, the first flight in Miss Underestimated was the most challenging, even though it is only a fraction of the size of the other planes he has flown.
Why?
Because, he explains, before flying each of those large jets, he spent a lot of time in a flight simulator, learning from very realistic screens what would happen when he actually manipulated the controls of each plane.
But when it was time for his first flight in Miss Underestimated, there were no simulators to prepare him for his first flight in the first plane he ever built.
The only way to find out how well a new plane flies is to take off from a runway in it. And while Stiegelmeyer loves flying, he said there were too many challenges - including an engine with overheating problems - for him to say his first flight in Miss Underestimated was "fun."
"A lot of bad things can happen on a first flight," he said.
In an email sent to friends and relatives before his first test flight, Stiegelmeyer said that it was important to him that the risk of making the first flight in the plane he build was all his.
With his family, including wife Sharon and son Scott, watching from the ground, and Randy Brubaker piloting a chase plane, Stiegelmeyer taxied Miss Underestimated to the runway on Aug. 29. He radioed instructions to Brubaker, about what to do if he needed to abort the takeoff.
Earlier that year, Stiegelmeyer had a friend fly him over the area east of the airport to look for fields where he could land in case of emergency.
With his family on the ground at the airport and Scott recording the event with a digital video recorder, Stiegelmeyer took off without a hitch as his family cheered. He later landed safely and very smoothly at the Vinton airport. He has since made a few more flights in Miss Underestimated and will continue, weather permitting throughout winter and spring.
"My first landing that day was my best," he said.
The only significant problem he encountered during his first flight was the engine overheating, which he said is a fairly common problem for an RV-7A. He and others are working on solutions to that problem, finding ways to add larger radiators to the engine.
Stiegelmeyer said he would like to fly to the Black Hills sometime soon. He now flies his plane several times a week, often taking his wife, Sharon.
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