ROAD TO THE
FLIGHT DECK

Built in a Garage

Today, N18TA is owned by four friends: Stratford, Dee, Doug and me. But the story of the airplane began long before I became part of it.

Stratford, Dee and Doug, together with their friend Russell, purchased one of the early Glasair Sportsman kits and set out to build their own airplane from scratch. What followed was a project that would span approximately seventeen years.

For much of its life before becoming a flying airplane, N18TA lived in Russell's garage. As an Experimental Amateur-Built aircraft, it wasn't rolling down an assembly line somewhere. It was being created piece by piece by the people who would eventually fly it.

Every component fitted, every system installed and every decision made became part of the airplane's individual history. Life continued around the project, years passed and the airplane slowly took shape.

That history is a large part of what makes N18TA special. When you sit in the cockpit today, you're sitting inside something that friends spent a significant part of their lives creating with their own hands.

From Subaru to Lycoming

N18TA was originally powered by a Subaru-based aircraft engine conversion — one example of the freedom experimental aviation gives builders to explore different solutions.

The idea ultimately didn't work out as hoped. After a series of malfunctions, the group decided it was time for a change. The Subaru was removed.

The solution came through their friend Rick, who had a used Lycoming O-360 in exceptional condition. The group purchased the engine, giving the Sportsman a proven and traditional aircraft powerplant.

Today, that Lycoming O-360 turns a 74-inch Hartzell propeller and is equipped with dual P-MAG electronic ignition.

The two electronic ignition units provide dual-ignition redundancy while bringing modern ignition technology to the traditional Lycoming powerplant. It's a combination that fits N18TA particularly well: a proven aircraft engine paired with technology selected by the builders for their own airplane.

A Modern Experimental Cockpit

N18TA may have spent years taking shape in a garage, but the airplane that emerged is equipped with a remarkably capable cockpit.

At the center of the panel are Grand Rapids Technologies HX EFIS displays, providing primary-flight and multifunction-display capability.

Navigation is centered around a Garmin GTN 650 GPS/NAV/COM, with a Garmin GTR 200 providing additional communications capability and a Garmin GTX 327 handling transponder duties.

A Trio Pro Pilot provides autopilot capability, while a PMA8000BT audio panel manages cockpit audio and communications.

Together, these systems make N18TA a capable platform for cross-country and instrument flying while retaining the individuality and flexibility that make experimental aviation so interesting.

More Than an Airplane

I joined N18TA's story later than the others.

I wasn't there for those seventeen years in Russell's garage. I didn't install the first components or experience the long process of watching a collection of parts slowly become an airplane.

But today I have the privilege of being one of its four owners and helping write the next part of its history.

That's one of the things I love about experimental aviation. An airplane can carry much more than passengers and baggage. It can carry the fingerprints, decisions, frustrations, ingenuity, friendships and memories of the people who built it.

For Stratford, Dee, Doug, Russell and everyone else who played a part in getting it into the air, N18TA represents years of work that eventually became a flying machine.

For me, it has become something else as well.

It's the airplane in which I'm building experience, exploring new places, becoming a better pilot and continuing my own road toward the flight deck.

Seventeen years went into building N18TA.
Now we get to fly it.