Why the RANS Coyote S-6 and who are the Dreggors?

Born in 1962 and growing up in rural South Georgia, my childhood and lifelong friend Glen Patterson and I decided we would fly. After a few jump attempts in his backyard with surplus flare parachutes, we concluded that we needed something to fly in. Sometime in the mid 70s at age 10-11 or so while doing a stint in the Boy Scouts, we discovered the Hover Car in the back of Boys Life Magazine. Somehow we were able to acquire a set of plans. My memory is poor but I suspect that Glen was able to fund the purchase of the plans although we were equally resourceful. At some later date I was able to purchase the fabric skirt required and we sawed my mothers Electrolux Vacuum in half and managed not to pay any consequences for our actions. The hover car was assembled and tested but did not fly. The craft was relocated to our shed to rot but our dream to fly did not die with it.

Many years of stopping by local airports to watch and many years of buying Kitplane magazines the dream stayed alive. Not long after the birth of my daughter Elizabeth in 1996 I discovered that she too had the dream. At the age of 3 she would marvel at the airplanes passing overhead and her favorite Sunday afternoon request was to be taken to the local airport LZU in Lawrenceville, GA to watch the airplanes come and go. My desires and dreams were rekindled and soon afterward by chance at a lake outing, I met a young CFI named Becky Lussier. On 6/04/2001 at the age of 38 I became a private pilot. Becky has an unusual love for teaching and she has a unique way of going about it. As a matter of fact everything about her is unique. Thanks Becky. Counting Becky, I now have two friends. Just kidding.

To build or not to build? You either have to build or you just go out and buy an airplane. I have to build. What to build? A Zodiac? An RV? It has to be metal, it has to be fast, it has to haul a lot of stuff, and it has to be cheap or does it?

My wife Jennifer and I made a trip to Sun N Fun in 2005 where we briefly visited the RANS booth without much interest and then made our way out onto the flight line where we saw a beautiful example of a RANS S-7 and met the most gracious pilot and builder of the day, Frank Beeler (www.justplanefrank.com). Frank explained his selection process and talked about the quality and completeness of the RANS kit and before long Jennifer and I headed back to the RANS booth.

Jens, a RANS COMPANY guy, greeted us and he promptly had us seated in the demo S-6. Once we were his captive audience he began to preach of the many virtues of the RANS kits. We were impressed and felt as though we had made another friend. A couple of months later on June 15th 2005 my daughter mailed the check for our RANS Coyote S-6 II 116 wing with a 912 Rotax engine.

It is now June 23, 2005 and while waiting for the arrival of the kit we, at Elizabeths request, are getting our website in order to document the building process. Liz has been helping dad get the shop in order and Jennifer who is an incredible wallpaper hanger has fully committed herself to heading up the fabric covering. Liz takes after dad being mechanically inclined and very much interested in how things work. To build an airplane with the support of my two favorite people and to fly something we have created has become my new dream of flight.

Thanks to Randy Schlitter and all of the folks at RANS for helping make our dreams a reality. A special thanks to Grace for her prayers and always to God for giving us the ability to DREAM REALLY BIG!