Audio Building into the sky (story audio) Jim Grist talks with MPR's Bob Collins and Dan Olson about building his biplane Photos Jim Grist arrives at Lake Elmo A meeting of homebuilders It's fabric! View full slideshow (8 images) More from MPR Vintage planes recreate National Air Tour (09/07/2003) Resources Experimental Aircraft Association Flying: Just Plane Fun book publisher Steen Aero Lab: for Skybolt plans and supplies Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Building into the sky
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
October 23, 2003

Jim Grist arrives at the Lake Elmo airport after his two-hour flight from Waupaca, Wisconsin. (MPR Photo/Dan Olson)

Homebuilt aircraft enthusiasts often cite the Wright brothers as their role models. One hundred years ago the Wright brothers designed, built and flew the first homebuilt aircraft. These days there are more than 23,000 homebuilts licensed by the federal government, with 1,000 more being assembled every year. A Wisconsin man's homebuilt aircraft is the focus of a new children's book on aviation, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of flight.

Lake Elmo, Minn. — James Grist is a tall, lanky pilot from Waupaca, Wisconsin. Years ago, the retired welding company businessman started work on his home-built biplane. "Ordered some metal, ordered some wood and started whacking away," Grist says.

The result is a stylish yellow and white, open-cockpit aircraft called a Skybolt. The family watched as Jim Grist devoted countless hours to the task. He says it took about eight years and cost around $10,000.

	A meeting of homebuilders

His daughter Julie Grist said construction eventually moved from the basement and took over the garage.

"Once, he was in his tuxedo ready to go to dinner," she says, "hut he was out there waiting for my mom and putting one of the gauges in the cockpit, and I remember snapping the picture and thinking, 'Holy cow, this is a passion he has.'"

Julie Grist has written a book about the experience. It's for younger readers, and it's titled, Flying: Just Plane Fun.

James Grist volunteered to make the two-hour hop from Waupaca to the Twin Cities recently to show off his homebuilt. Another homebuilder, Minnesota Public Radio's online editor Bob Collins, came along. Seconds after shaking hands at Lake Elmo airport, Collins and Grist waded into the minutiae of homebuilt aircraft assembly.

Collins was curious about a picture in his daughter's book chronicling the building of the biplane. There's Grist, his arm around the waist of his wife in their Waupaca driveway, smiling, standing next to the metal frame of the half-finished aircraft with the motor roaring.

	It's fabric!

"The engine is running and the propeller is on," Collins says. "Why isn't that thing running away from you?"

"I had it tied to the house with a very stout rope," Grist answered.

The only wedge into a conversation between two homebuilt aircraft enthusiasts is to suggest an airplane ride. In an instant, Collins donned goggles and headphones and was strapped into the front cockpit of Grist's biplane.

After a short flight over the scenic St. Croix River valley, Collins returned flushed with exhilaration, which he could only express in more pilot jargon.

"Boy, you can make wonderfully short approaches in this, can't you?"

Translation: Grist's biplane is highly manueverable and doesn't need much room to turn to approach a runway.

	The panel

Feet on the ground, Jim Grist told the story of his airplane. The Skybolt was designed by Lamar Steen nearly four decades ago.

"This guy, Lamar Steen, was a high school teacher in Denver," Grist says, "And he got an idea it would make a good class project to build an airplane."

The now deceased Steen started a company that still sells plans and parts for building the aircraft. There are nearly 600 Skybolts in the air in the United States.

Grist says the aviation bug bit him as a child growing up in Wisconsin, when he went for his first biplane ride.

His daughter Julie Grist says she decided to write a book about her father's homebuilt after her son went for a ride.

"It was his turn to take a flight, and he had a great time up in the air," Julie says. "Then he had all these questions: 'How does this work, why does this stay up, does it get pushed or pulled, or how does it happen?'"

The book, Flying: Just Plane Fun answers those questions and others. People interested in learning more about home built aircraft can get in touch with the Oskosh, Wisconsin-based Experimental Aircraft Association, or one of the organization's 31 chapters in Minnesota.

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