“It’s an efficient way to get around - there’s no traffic, and the routes are so direct.”

The plans for the plane hes building are in front of Steve Semenuk, and a piece of the plane is behind him. Photo by Candace diCarlo

---

STEVE SEMENUK

Position:
Senior budget analyst, Office of Budget and Management Analysis

Length of service:
3 years

Other stuff:
Likes running, hiking and other outdoor activities, but hasnt had much time to do them lately, thanks to this project.

---

---

Tell Steve Semenuk that he has his head in the clouds, and he might agree with you.

Ever since he was a child, he has had an interest in flying, helped along in part by his aviator uncle, who often took him along on flights. A few years ago, he acted on that interest by getting his pilots license.

But he soon discovered that renting airplanes limited his ability to fly when and where he wanted, and buying a factory-built plane was out of the question because of the high cost. So about a year ago, he decided to join the small but growing ranks of amateur pilots who build their own planes.

Semenuk now spends his weekends in the basement of his Wilmington home, where his experimental two-seat plane, a Vans Aircraft RV-6, is slowly taking shape from a kit supplied by the designer. We asked him about his plane and his passion for flying earlier in the summer.

Q. Why is this plane called experimental?

A. The term goes back to a point in time when the FAA was setting rules for manufacturers to do testing of avant-garde airplanes. But it also allowed people to build their own airplanes.
   As a combination of recession and litigation and insurance prices and demographics in the aircraft industry has kind of killed the light-airplane manufacturing industry in this country, the experimental category of licensing has become very important. Theyve never changed the name; they probably should. Its just a relic of the regulations.

Q. In light of the news about John F. Kennedy Jr.s death in a factory-built plane, I cant help but ask: Are these kit-built planes safe?

A. Their safety record in practice is the same as for production aircraft. If youve read much about the Kennedy accident, youve probably reached the conclusion most people have reached, which is that the accident was not caused by the plane, but by pilot error.
    In an airplane, theres much less room for error. Its very tragic, especially when other people are involved. I know Im going to go through all the inspections and certifications before I take anyone else up in it.

Q. Do you take anyone up with you when you fly?

A. Yeah, I take kids up quite a bit. Up to this time Ive pretty much done it only on an informal basis, because its difficult for me to get a rental airplane when [the local Experimental Aircraft Association chapter is] having formal events to fly kids, but when I get this airplane built, Ill be able to participate a lot more in the formal Young Eagles events [sponsored by the EAA] where we take kids for rides all day for free.

Q. Whats the furthest youve flown?

A. Id say its about 400 miles. Ive flown as far south as Kitty Hawk, N.C., and Ive flown up the coast to Rhode Island, and this summer Ill probably be taking a trip up to Maine.
    One of the things thats always attracted me to flying is that, especially in the crowded East Coast, its an efficient way to get around theres no traffic, and the routes are so direct. For example, when we lived in Washington, we could fly to Kitty Hawk in two hours, and a typical car on a lucky traffic day would take seven to eight hours to do the same trip.

Q. I see some people have done amazing things with these planes, like the guy who flew his plane around the world twice. Do you have any ambitions along that line?

A. One of my big dreams is to circumnavigate the 48 states, just go around the perimeter of the country, take a week or two and kind of fly the coastline, as much as I can. Theres some military airspace in a couple of areas that prevents you from flying the coastline the whole way, but I think that would be a real spectacular way to kind of see the map from above.

Q. If youre flying across the country and you land at a small airport overnight and youre looking for a place to stay, is there usually something like a motel nearby?

A. Airports typically its hard to believe in this day and age, but many of these little airports have free loaner cars...or even if they dont have a loaner car, the person who operates the airport often will drive you into town and take you to a hotel or motel and tell you about all the great little restaurants, so theres a real friendly camaraderie at a lot of these small airports.
    Many sites allow you to camp on the field. You just take your tent with you and camp out overnight, and one other thing that a lot of pilots do is get a folding bicycle, so if you land at a small airport you can ride a couple of miles in to whatever town youre visiting. So its not usually an issue of being too far from some place to stay.

Front page for this issue | Pennsylvania Current home page