Jim Rea is not new to the world of aircraft. He has been flying since he was around 14. Rea got his pilot’s license in college, and served as a radar operator in the navy.
More recently, however, Rea has been dabbling in building his own aircraft, including a helicopter he completed in 2006 and his current project: building a high wing, single engine, two-seater airplane.
Rea is building his airplane from a kit manufactured by Flightworks-Capella Aircraft. The frame of the fuselage and a few other parts came already welded from the factory and a few aluminum pieces came stamped, but Rea has been working since 2008 to create and assemble parts of the plane and still has a ways to go in completing the necessary steps in his project.
More than just a simple assembly, the kit came with most of the materials needed but the instructions are sketchy and the company that produced the kit is now out of business, Rea said. Luckily, Rea has contact with a man in Utah who has completed one of the kits and has photographs and expertise to share.
“It’s sort of like being a kid with a big erector set,” Rea said of the process.
Once completed, Rea said the plane will likely be classified as an experimental, amateur-built aircraft which means future owners could possibly fly it under instrument flight rules as well as at night if it were properly equipped.
Rea has nearly completed the wings of the plane, but will have to mate the wings to the plane and install them, install the engine, enclose the fuselage, and perform innumerable other tasks before the plane is ready for an inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration.
After the plane is complete and cleared to fly, Rea will be able to fly it off a nearby grass landing strip in the subdivision where he lives.
The subdivision was named Flying Farmer Estates after the land’s previous owner, Bob Weymouth, Rea said. Weymouth used to put on comical “flying farmer” performances at airshows before dying in a flying accident, Rea said.
As a part of the estates, owners have access to both the airstrip and a small hangar on the property, Rea said.
Now retired from the Department of Conservation, Rea works on his plane at his own pace. He says if he chose to really concentrate on the project, it is conceivable he could be done by the end of the summer.
“It’s like anything you build, 80 percent done and 80 percent to go,” Rea said with a laugh.