My Dakota Hawk

I stated in my first blog entry that I had built a Fisher Flying Products Dakota Hawk. There's a little history to that plane.

I went to Oshkosh 1996 - the same year that I finished my enlistment in the Navy. Oshkosh is the home to the Experimental Aircraft Association's Airventure. This is a weeklong experience - camping on the airport grounds, thousands of experimental and "spam can" airplanes fly in, vendors and dealers trying to sell anything that can be even remotely tied to aviation! It's the "Las Vegas Sin City" for the flying crowd!

Airventure is known for several weather extremes - hot, humid, downpours, lightning storms, wind, etc. And 1996 was no exception. It was HOT!

I was interested in building a single seat homebuilt airplane called the Minimax. The dealer for the Minimax had their booth right next to the dealer for Fisher Flying Products. And Fisher Flying Products had a high wing airplane right there, that provided a LOT of shade! So while I was hanging out, checking out the Minimax, I spent a lot of time sitting under the wing of Fisher Flying Products Dakota Hawk airplane.

After getting home from Airventure, I had money in hand to purchase the Minimax kit and begin building my own experimental homebuilt airplane. The Minimax really appealed to me because of it's all-wood construction, it's 3 axis controls, and it's low cost of construction. But I kept thinking about that plane that provided the shade for me. Hmmm... All wood construction, 3 axis controls, low cost of construction... And can carry a passenger!!!

Well, Long story short... I decided to build the Dakota Hawk.