Hello everyone. My name is Rick.
I've been lurking for a while trying to rejuvenate interest in resurrecting my firebolt project.
I want to start by thanking everyone here who built and contributed to the forum over the years. It truly is one of nicest, most useful and genuine forums I've seen. The amount of knowledge willingly shared on this forum speaks highly about all of you. Thank You!
Back in 1988 my wife ordered me a set of what she thought were skybolt plans for Christmas. She ordered them from Mac McKenzie and turned out, they were firebolt plans. I called Mac and said WTF! He quickly explained the differences so I started building. I was in Southern California at the time flying for Uncle Sam and worked on it every minute I could. I swore I would NOT be one of those guys who lets life get in the way and take 30 years to build the thing. Well guess what? Life got in the way, 30 plus years have gone by and I have become one of those guys. The plane was almost finished when I moved to Texas 20 years ago. It has been stored properly in a climate controlled environment with low humidity. It is now time to finish it. I have watched, with great interest, the problems develop with the charger cantilever gear and all the attempted fixes. It pains me to start cutting the gear fittings apart, but it's that or watch it sit for another 30 years. I plan on adapting the grove gear and move forward from there.
I have talked to a lot of you over the years at Oshkosh. I look forward to tapping into the vast knowledge base here on the forum and sharing what ever knowledge I can when appropriate.
Thanks again to everyone.
Respectfully,
Rick Kozubek
I've been lurking for a while trying to rejuvenate interest in resurrecting my firebolt project.
I want to start by thanking everyone here who built and contributed to the forum over the years. It truly is one of nicest, most useful and genuine forums I've seen. The amount of knowledge willingly shared on this forum speaks highly about all of you. Thank You!
Back in 1988 my wife ordered me a set of what she thought were skybolt plans for Christmas. She ordered them from Mac McKenzie and turned out, they were firebolt plans. I called Mac and said WTF! He quickly explained the differences so I started building. I was in Southern California at the time flying for Uncle Sam and worked on it every minute I could. I swore I would NOT be one of those guys who lets life get in the way and take 30 years to build the thing. Well guess what? Life got in the way, 30 plus years have gone by and I have become one of those guys. The plane was almost finished when I moved to Texas 20 years ago. It has been stored properly in a climate controlled environment with low humidity. It is now time to finish it. I have watched, with great interest, the problems develop with the charger cantilever gear and all the attempted fixes. It pains me to start cutting the gear fittings apart, but it's that or watch it sit for another 30 years. I plan on adapting the grove gear and move forward from there.
I have talked to a lot of you over the years at Oshkosh. I look forward to tapping into the vast knowledge base here on the forum and sharing what ever knowledge I can when appropriate.
Thanks again to everyone.
Respectfully,
Rick Kozubek
