So, I Built An Airplane! By Dan Loegering
Posted by Mitch Lutze-Morris on Dec. 22, 2025 / Subscribe 0
How do I even begin talking about this crazy journey of building a wood and fabric airplane that was designed nearly 100 years ago? I guess right from the beginning:
For as long as I can remember, I have always had a fascination with airplanes; I blame my parents for that! Born in Fargo, ND, and raised here in the early 70’s, our nightly entertainment was driving to Hector Airport and watching airplanes take off and land. This early exposure led to me building free-flight balsa and tissue airplanes through grade school and building many radio controlled airplanes into high school. It was sometime around here that our family began to go to EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, WI, every summer for our family vacation. I began my private pilot training as a junior in high school and received my license as a senior.
As I started college, my ability to rent airplanes diminished, along with my extra cash. I kept up with the radio controlled aircraft to satisfy my aviation itch as much as possible. During the next few years, I finished school, got a job, got married, and started a family. All of this definitely slowed down my aviation hobby, but the desire was always there. As part of my job, I found myself in charge of service departments located in various cities about 250 miles away from Fargo and needed a more efficient way to travel to those locations. I purchased a quarter share of a 1976 Cessna 177B and I was flying again!
Around the year 2000, I started looking into building an aircraft of my own and had a few criteria that I was looking at. First was cost; I knew I would not be able to afford a kit at that time in my life, so I began looking at plans built options. Second was building with materials that I was comfortable with and had experience with; this had me looking at wooden designs. Third was the overall design and mission; I wanted an older design that would be fun to take out on local excursions. And lastly, I wanted to be able to give rides in it. That really narrowed my choice down to the Pietenpol Air Camper. I ordered and received my plans on March 3, 2005.
So, what is a Pietenpol Air Camper?
It is a simple parasol wing homebuilt designed by Bernard H Pietenpol. The prototype first flew in 1928 with an Ace four cylinder water-cooled engine. In 1929 he mounted a Ford Model A engine in it and this became the standard powerplant for his design. The plans were originally published in a four part series in the “Flying and Glider” magazine in 1932-33. It is often considered the “grandfather of homebuilt aircraft”. Bernard's goal was to create an aircraft that was affordable and easy to construct for home builders and his design remains so to this day. It is constructed primarily of Sitka spruce and plywood and covered in fabric. Constructing it requires basic woodworking skills and tools. It will also need some metal fabrication work to make fittings to attach the wood pieces together and some basic welding is required.
My Pietenpol Air Camper was built over a 19 and a half year period, with a few starts and stops along the way. Constructed from mainly Sitka spruce and Birch plywood glued together with T-88 epoxy, it was a slow but very enjoyable project. With my background in building many balsa radio controlled aircraft, the decision to build a wooden aircraft was easy at the time and I knew I could learn the remaining skills needed as those challenges arose. Many visits to AirVenture were used to gather those needed skills and were all put to good use as my project slowly progressed. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) yearly AirVenture event in Oshkosh, WI, is not just a week long air show, there are many aspects to it including classes every day on just about any topic you can think of to learn skills needed to build an aircraft.
During my build, I followed the original plans as closely as possible, only making changes where modern materials and hardware were used instead of the original low carbon steel and solid bracing wires. I built it with the original style wooden gear legs and spoked wheels, because I like that era of aircraft and wanted mine to have that antique styling. One major change to the plans is I did not use a Ford Model A engine; rather, I rebuilt a Continental A-65-8 instead and it has performed very well. Using this engine did require changing the location of the engine to keep the center of gravity correct. Rather than adding length to the engine mount, I added two inches to the fuselage at the firewall. This allowed the lines of the plane to more closely match the original design and not appear that the engine was pushed forward.
The first flight in June of 2024 went very well and I followed the EAA Flight Test Manual and test cards for its phase 1 flights. This is a program that the FAA has approved as an alternative to just flying the plane around for 40 hours. The structured test flight program was very helpful in planning the flights and expanding the flight envelope of the plane, eventually leading to a written flight manual for the plane. Over the test period and into the first year of flying, I continued to work on the plane to finish all of the “little things” on it, to complete the plane to my liking. The full construction time to when I considered everything complete was around 2,800 hours of work. At this point, I was ready to bring it to Oshkosh and fulfill my life long dream of one day flying a plane I had built to AirVenture.
The AirVenture Adventure
The trip to AirVenture was definitely an adventure! First, the Piet is not a fast plane, so cross country flights require a bit of planning and hope that the weather systems do not catch you. Normally I cruise at about 80 MPH but with my front cockpit full of camping supplies, tools, tie-downs, and gust locks, I was only able to manage a blistering 75 MPH. My first destination was Brodhead, WI, for a Pietenpol fly-in that occurs the weekend before Oshkosh. I departed at 7:00 AM on a record cold day in July at 43 degrees! A great way to start a long journey! After four stops and eight hours of flight, I touched down at Brodhead and met up with my parents and wife, who had driven to Oshkosh to set up the camper the day before. After a quick supper and lots of questions on the plane, I was able to set up my tent and have a great first night camping with it.
Friday morning, I decided to change my plans and leave for Oshkosh a day earlier than I had intended due to the weather forecast on Saturday. I packed up camp, unloaded a few things with my ground crew and prepared for the “Fisk arrival” in to Oshkosh. This was my first time flying in to Oshkosh, and here I was flying a plane that is too slow for the approach, which is supposed to be flown at 90 knots. Knowing I was slow, I made one stop to top up with fuel and then started at the very beginning of the approach, even though others were starting near the middle of the approach. I wanted to be established so they would have a better chance of seeing me and passing by. This worked well as only six aircraft passed by me on the trek in. I would like to commend the last one to pass me in a V-tail Bonanza, he was doing an amazing job flying so slow off my wing until I pulled my throttle back a bit to let him by. Then the words every pilot wants to hear when approaching Oshkosh, “High wing half mile South of Fisk, rock your wings. – Good Rock!” and I was on my way to runway 36, cleared to land at the yellow dot. I would like to say I did a perfect landing in the middle of the dot, which technically I did, never mind that I was still five feet or so in the air.
The plane handled my terrible landing just fine and the ground volunteers directed me to my parking spot for the week, just north of the Homebuilt Headquarters building and right next to an elevated photography stand; what a great spot! I called my ground crew to let them know I had arrived safely and my dad started his long walk out to come meet me. I began tying down the plane and almost immediately had people coming over to ask about it and to introduce themselves. I eventually made it over to register the plane and was asked if I wanted to have it judged. With that taken care of, I met my dad back at the plane and gave him the best birthday present I could, arriving at a place we had been coming to for so many years on his birthday!
The next morning began an adventure that I could never dream of, and will never top again. The plane was constantly surrounded with people asking about it, talking about their experiences with other Pietenpols, and lots of comments about it. A member from the EAA homebuilders review asked if I would like to fly it in the airshow on Tuesday. I of course said yes, because how can you turn that opportunity down! EAA media approached me and asked if I would like to do an air-to-air photo shoot with it, and again, I could not turn that down. Photographers were stopping by, other EAA media videographers stopped by, news media stopped by, and even a YouTuber stopped by for an interview. I could not believe the interest generated by my simple airplane. It was in the daily Oshkosh newspaper three times during the week and was on the cover on the last day. It was a very surreal experience.
And then there was the judging. If you are having your aircraft judged at Oshkosh, you receive a small sticker with three check boxes on it, for the corner of your info tag, that you hang on your propeller. An aircraft is considered judged once three judges initial these boxes. My sticker ended up with 21 sets of initials! On Tuesday, I received a call from the head judge asking if I could meet his team at the plane. They were starting a new process where all of the judges meet with the builder so they can perform a more thorough inspection and if they have any questions, the builder is there to answer them. This was the first year they were doing this and it went well. We were at the plane for around 45 minutes and I answered their questions and they were also able to give me feedback. Ultimately, they all left and the head judge departed with a “nice job.”
By Thursday, I had gotten to know a few of the lead volunteers at the homebuilt headquarters and they stopped by to ask if I was sticking around through the end of the show. I told them that I had planned on it but will be watching the weather. They replied with a slight smirk and said maybe I would want to stick around. On Saturday, the day of the awards ceremony, one of the pilots I had flown with in the Tuesday airshow stopped by and told me to wear a nice shirt. At the awards ceremony, the table started out with a lot of plaques and Lindy trophies on it; I would have been happy with anything. As the event went on, the trophy count slowly dwindled until it was just the silver and gold Lindy’s remaining and the suspense was building. My plane was drawn for the Reserve Grand Champion Silver Lindy – Plans built category!
The Journey Home
I left Oshkosh on Sunday morning for my return trip. This took an additional 10 hours, five stops, two weather delays, and one night in a hotel in Brainerd, MN. The hotel and shower were amazing! I got home Monday afternoon, once the low clouds and fog burned off, and I could finally relax now that the plane was back in a hangar. A total of 20 flight hours, around 84 gallons of gas, two quarts of oil, four thunderstorms (one of which I stood out by the tail and bystanders stood under the wings ready to help as the gust front blew through), countless new friends, one trophy, and an amazing experience to a journey that has taken over 20 years of my life.
I am thankful for all of my friends and family that have been along for the ride, especially my kids and wife who put up with a lot of nights in the garage or hangar as this came together. All of this, because this crazy guy wanted to build an airplane.
First Flight, photo taken by Gordon Court of Kings Court Photography.
For more news / articles vist the North Dakota Aviation Association website for the online edition of the Fly-ND Quarterly.
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