I've always been fascinated with airplanes. I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where there were barely any roads. The main road out of our area wasn’t paved, and during the rainy season it would become flooded and muddy. When my sisters and I walked along the flooded road to school, I’d see airplanes flying above us. I’d be envious of whoever was in the plane because we were down on the ground, walking in mud.
My family moved to New York City when I was about 12. At that time, I never imagined I would be flying planes. None of my friends or family members encouraged my obsession with planes, and still when I fly, I don’t see many pilots who look like me. When I was in my twenties, after I met my wife and we moved to California together, opportunity arose. I read about this 15-year-old girl who flew herself across the country. I said to myself: It’s now or never. That girl’s story made me realize I had no more excuses to give.
I went up for the first time the week of my 26th birthday, and now I’m building my own airplane. For most pilots, flying on your own is unattainable because it’s really expensive. Even just getting your pilot’s license costs a lot of money. But that’s nothing compared to buying your own plane.
My dream plane—it’s actually on my dream board, this collage of aspirational images I keep in my office—is a four-seater kit plane from The Airplane Factory called the Sling TSi. It’s a major financial commitment—$200,000 to $250,000 if you want all the bells and whistles—but by building the plane yourself, you save tons of cash. It takes about 1,500 man-hours to assemble the TSi. When you build your own plane, you’re basically trading time for money.
The heart of any plane is its engine, and the TSi comes with a great one. It’s the Rotax 915 iS, a turbocharged 1.35-liter four-cylinder unit that can provide full takeoff power up to 15,000 feet. The Rotax’s forced induction allows me to get full power (141 horsepower) even at altitude, where a standard engine might see a significant reduction in how hard it can push. The TSi is also strong on fuel economy (7 to 8 gallons per hour of standard automobile fuel) and comes with all sorts of computer wizardry to help me, the pilot. A Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system helps control fuel burn, blade angle, and other aspects of engine performance, which makes my life much easier. It has room for four adults and can go 800 to 1,000 miles in one shot, and best of all (depending on your point of view), you get to assemble it yourself.
I looked at other kits, but the TSi just felt right. I took a flight in one with my wife, and afterwards she said, “I can see you flying that airplane.”
You don’t need a ton of skills to build an airplane, but it’s a good idea to take a class or two. There are aviation workshops in most big cities, and when you find the right people, the community can be incredibly welcoming to newcomers. The aviation community is also very small, and you’ll always be able to find people who have been through the process. I’m using a build-assist program, which adds some cost but gives me a dedicated facility to build the plane (it takes a lot of room!) as well as a lot of expertise from experienced builders. There’s no room for error in aviation, so having someone who has built a plane before to hold your hand is a great comfort.
With my build, we started with constructing the empennage—the tail— and worked forward from there. You have to run electrical wires through every part of the plane, being careful to route everything safely and avoid sharp edges that could damage the wiring down the line. You have to be particularly cautious when working with the flight control surfaces, such as the horizontal and vertical stabilizers at the back. Those are critical to safe flying.
Inside Mike's Kit
After the body is assembled, we’ll wire up the avionics and electrical work, mount the engine, and set up the computers, radio, antennas, and everything else. I’m most excited for the avionics. I learned to fly behind the Garmin G3X system, and that's what's going in my plane. I'll be wiring it all up, hooking up backup batteries, and connecting the autopilot.
Then there’s the parachute. The TSi’s parachute is not like a skydiver’s chute: It’s a giant ballistic parachute that can bring the entire aircraft safely to the ground in case of a dire emergency. It’s reliable, but there’s one catch: I can’t test my parachute ahead of time. I just have to hope it works. So that’s one thing I absolutely have to get right, because you literally only get one shot.
4 Kit Planes to Tackle in 2020
The relationship between pilot and plane is always intimate, but it’s more so when you’ve built the plane yourself. As a pilot, you have to be ahead of the airplane or you’re in trouble. In a kit plane, whether it’s in flight or on the ground, you’ll always know exactly where an issue is because you’re the one who assembled it. There’s a level of pride in whatever you’re flying, too: I built this. I’m still assembling, so I don’t have that full sense of attachment yet, but once I sit in the pilot’s seat, it’ll hit me.
I have a newborn at home, so now I’m going through all of this with safety in mind. All the decisions I’m making come down to feeling capable. If I don’t feel capable, I’d rather find people who are more experienced to perform the task. For example: I’m hiring a professional test pilot for my first flight with the TSi. You have to stall the airplane, test the maneuvering, take it up to max speed, and verify everything the manufacturer tells you the plane can handle.
These days, I’ve made planes my life. I’m a full-time aviation YouTuber. Most people don’t know how to build their own airplane or what getting a pilot’s license entails, and I hope that by documenting what I am doing on YouTube I can attract more people to kit planes and aviation. My channel was taking off before I decided to build the plane, and my wife asked if I’d still choose a kit plane if YouTube didn’t exist. Absolutely. Ever since I earned my license, my goal was to build a life around flying. It took me 20 years to reach this point.
One of the best things about building a YouTube channel has been the community I’ve entered. I’ve had people from all over the world reach out to me and say my channel inspired them to start doing some type of aviation. It encourages me to keep doing this more and more. I want to feel like I’m representing more than Nigerians or immigrants, like I am speaking for anyone who has ever wanted to fly. I don’t want to get on my channel and say, “Hey, look at me, I’m a Nigerian immigrant reviewing airplanes.” I’m doing it for everyone who has ever looked to the sky, seen a plane, and thought: That’ll be me someday.
—As Told To Jordan Golson
