Wonderful flying machines

LEIGH - Amateur aviator Paul Muhle, 50, of Leigh has brought home the Gold for the third time since 1994 - the Grand Champion Gold Lindy award that is. Muhle received the prestigious award for his ‘plans-built' Pitts experimental aircraft at the internationally acclaimed Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture fly-in in Oshkosh, Wis. The annual event held July 23-29 this year is the largest such event in the world, according to the association.

Muhle's first win was the Reserve Champion - Silver Lindy in the plans-built category in 1993. He then won the Gold Lindy in 1994 and again in 2000 in the same category.

“Paul Muhle is the first person ever to win three Gold Lindy awards in the plans-built divisions,” said Dick Knapinski, public relations officer for the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). “To win three Gold Lindy awards, and each with a different aircraft, is unprecedented in this category and is a very, very impressive accomplishment. It shows Mr. Muhle to be a very dedicated aviator who truly enjoys the challenge and accomplishment of relying on his own skills and abilities to build his own aircraft.”

Knapinski said the Lindys have been awarded since 1970 and is the toughest award to win.

“Gold Lindys don't come easy,” he said. “Mr. Muhle has won his third Gold Lindy award out of a field of about 200 entrants in the plans-built division this year, and that's no small feat. The judging standards for a Gold Lindy are the highest possible standards and keep getting more difficult each year.”

Paul said the win is always unexpected because the competition is very strong.

“I never expected this, and I certainly won't deny the award,” Paul said. “It is a nice validation of the hard work it takes to complete a project like this.”

Muhle explained that safety is the most important criteria in winning the Lindy awards.

“The judges inspect the aircraft, looking at everything you can imagine,” Muhle said. “Then it comes down to quality of workmanship, attention to detail and the overall look of the plane.”

Muhle's brother, Duayne Muhle of Duncan, returned from this year's event with a third place Bronze Lindy for the refurbishing work he did to his one-place or single seat Acrosport experimental aircraft in the plans-built division.

The two came by their love for flying through their father, Duayne Sr., who had a student's pilot license at the age of 16.

Paul and Duayne both got their pilot's licenses in the mid 1970s and enjoyed flying rental aircraft. Then in 1980, Paul, Duayne, their father, their brother, Kurt, and cousin, Rich Briza, all bought a plane together.

The two remember attending the Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in events in Rockford, Ill., with their father when they were very young.

“Those were just small fly-ins back when we were kids, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger as it went along,” Duayne said. “Finally, it got so big the city government in Rockford didn't want it to be held there anymore, and it was moved to Oshkosh, Wis. This year they estimated that the EAA AirVenture was six times busier than O'Hare Airport in Chicago for that week of the event. There really is nothing like flying.”

Paul remembered his first time piloting his aircraft alone.

“I remember my first time up,” he said. “The hardest part of my first solo flight was finding my way back. The next hardest thing was looking down and seeing that tiny target of a runway and thinking there's no way I'm going to be able to hit that.”

Paul logs about 80-100 hours per year in the air and Duayne about 60 hours of flight time each year.

Both of the brother's planes that won this year are known as “tail draggers” because the third wheel that steers the aircraft is on the rear of the plane rather than the front. This configuration requires a different way of handling the craft on take off and landing.

Duayne pointed out that the way a tail dragger is constructed when you touch down, you have no forward visibility.

“You only have peripheral vision in a tail ‘dragger,” Duayne said. “Taxiing a tail dragger out to or from the runway makes it look like the pilot is on a real drunk because you have to keep zig-zagging on your way in order to see where you're going,” Duayne said.

Paul said a grass runway is more forgiving for a tail dragger than an asphalt runway because the surface is softer. None-the-less he would rather land on asphalt because in his opinion the conditions are generally more predictable.

“Landing on a grass runway is always a little stressful because on a grass runway you never know what you're getting into when you come down,” Paul said. “It could be soft or wet or muddy, and you won't know it until you touch down.”

Duayne was the first to begin building his own plane. His first is a two-place or two-seater RV aircraft he started on in his basement about 17 years ago. He says the project is about 95 percent complete and he hopes to have it in the air within the next two years.

“That project got put on the back-burner after I started it,” Duayne said. “Not long after I started it I bought an Acrosport, refurbished it, sold it and with the profits I got my next plane, which was a step up.”

Meanwhile, Duayne said progress on his RV made it necessary to move it out of the basement and into his garage.

“I wouldn't be this far on the project without my wife's encouragement,” Duayne said. “Carol has always supported me and is looking forward to me getting this one done so she can go up with me.”

Paul has built three planes from plans. The difference between plans built and plane kits is that kits include most of the tubular materials cut to length and only assembly is required.

“The FAA defines the homebuilt aircraft as any amateur experimental aircraft where at least 51 percent of the major components are manufactured by the builder,” Paul said. “The difference then between kits and plans-built is that for the plans-built aircraft the builder is finding their own materials, and actually cutting and manufacturing the project themselves.”

Paul's first project, an Acrosport two-place took seven years to complete. He started it in 1985 and flew it for the first time in 1992.

He said in his case he purchases engines that are ready to use but does most of the other work himself.

“The process is slow,” Paul said. “What you do is complete one component and then celebrate that small victory for awhile before you go on to the next. Constructing the fuselage is one component, hinge brackets are another and the control stick is not a minor project. It's a long process that takes a lot of work.”

Paul's next two single-place aircraft took him just five years each to complete.

“I just want to thank my wife, Sandy, for putting up with all this for all these years,” Paul said. “I love to fly, and I enjoy everything about amateur aviation, and I couldn't spend the time it takes to do all this without her support.”

This info is from the EAA web site

Experimental Aircraft Association 2007 AirVenture Oshkosh, Wis.

More than 10,000 airplanes descended on Wittman Regional and overflow East Central Wisconsin airports July 23 through July 29, among them the aircraft piloted by Paul Muhle of Leigh and his brother Duayne Muhle of Duncan. The six day event, including 2,647 showplanes, 985 homebuilts, 1,014 vintage aircraft, 365 warbirds, 136 ultralights, 117 seaplanes, and 30 rotorcraft. There were nearly 800 exhibitors, 900 media representatives, and overall attendance was estimated at 560,000, up about 3.2 percent over 2006, including close to 40,000 campers.

Maintaining its global popularity, approximately 1,700 international visitors registered from 60 nations. (As this number represents non-U.S. visitors who register at the International Visitors Tent, the actual international contingent is undoubtedly larger.) Poberezny observed that EAA AirVenture is now mentioned in the same breath as the large European air shows at Farnborough and Paris. “Not that Oshkosh is bigger, but that it is as important to aviation.”