My name is Zach and I'm from rural northeast Iowa, live on the small family farm (5 generations!!). I earned my PPL (2022) and Instrument rating (2023), don't have any plans as of right now for additional ratings, just build time and become more proficient. Wife and I have two boys (7 and 9) and have been flying to our vacations or to on airport restaurants as much as possible! I am part of a great flying club that has 3 Pipers (Cherokee, Archer, Dakota) and without the club none of this would have been possible. However, the main issue is I live about an hour away from the club, so when I want to go flying, I always have plan for that extra travel time, which the older I get the more valuable that time is. My town does have a small airport that is about 10min away, so this would be ideal, though hanger space is an issue at this point but I'm on the list for all the small airports near me
. Also, with the club, we do have great board and members, maintenance is kept up on very well, but having said that, I really want my own plane, so I know the ins and outs, can do the maintenance, know how it has been flown and not abused especially when I have my whole life in the 3 other seats.I have debated back and forth on whether to buy or build so much so that my wife's daily Facebook messenger messages went from dogs and chickens to airplanes for sale!! I think she was getting tired of me talking about it?!
Ultimately wife, and I landed on building a Sling TSi. It fits our mission for every stage of our lives as well as fits our, 'we do not want DEBT lifestyle'! The plan is to do the slow build process and ordering the kits as I am getting ready for the next. This will help the wallet and keep our money in our pocket, not the banks! If something were to change with jobs/life, we would not be in debt and would be able to pivot if needed. I ordered the empennage kit about a month ago, and now I'm debating if I should get the wings coming too so I'm not sitting waiting. I will be building in machine shed (30' x 40') and have talked briefly with local EAA club about moving to EAA hanger for final assembly and first flight when the time comes. This forum has been and will be really helpful especially when I start digging into the details more. I just want to say thank you to all that have contributed and spent time out of your day to help others, like me! I may try and document using timelapse and maybe post on YouTube in the future, we will see
