Throughout my childhood my father took me to airshows all over Southern California. From that point forward all I wanted to do was fly, and was totally obsessed with airplanes. Ultimately my goal was to fly aerobatics like I had seen Bob Hoover, and Art Scholl do. My first aerobatic ride was at age 16 in a Pitts S2A that I won a raffle at an airshow in Van Nuys, which is were I would end up learning to fly on 16R and 16L.

Not having the financial means to pay for flying lessons at 18 I would bang on all the flight school doors at Van Nuys airport looking for one of them to trade me flying lessons for washing their planes. After several months of being in their face, Bharat Patel of Sussex Aviation gave me the opportunity. That was 1986

It was not until the late 90’s that I had the financial means to peruse my dream of aerobatics. Living in New Jersey I joined the local International Aerobatic Club (IAC) chapter 52 were I met Kathy Jaffe the chapter President who was instrumental in intruding me to the right people in the area to get proper aerobatic training.

The first order of business was to get tailwheel instruction I did so in Piper Cub at Andover Flight Academy that specializes in tailwheel bush flying in the North East. With my tailwheel complete I wasted not time in taking aerobatic lessons in a Super Decathlon. It was all about loops, spins, rolls, and hammerheads the aerobatic basics.

It was at this time I went to my first aerobatic contest as a volunteer and observer in Springfield, VT. That was the contest that really sucked me. I can remember the surge of adrenalin, and escalated heart beat coming over me in a warm rush, just from watching. I thought only beautiful woman could do that to me so I knew I was in trouble. That thing that had the biggest impact on me there was watching Michael Goulian fly. He was on a totally different level than anyone else. His wing rocks alone were magical. Years latter I am now working with the same coach Michael worked with back then, Sergei Boriak perusing that kind of magic.
Once I became proficient in the Decathlon I quickly moved to the Pitts Special flying a S2A. However my first contest flown in an Extra 200. I later joined a partnership in another S2A. In 1999 I relocated to Tampa Florida for a job opportunity that left me without a plane. I rented a couple of Decathlons in the area, and pursued partnerships, but nothing was working out.

It was at this time I decided to buy my own single whole Pitts. At Sun & Fun 2000 I met Debby Rihn-Harvey and she told me that she had 2 Pitts for sale at her place in TX. 2 weeks later I am in TX, struck a deal and bought a Pitts S1T. 2 years after that I did a recover job on it and painted it to look like Art Scholl’s Pitts the one Cox made a control line of back in the early 70’s.

Flying the S1T in contests in Florida is how I met Chris Meyer, the designer of the MX2, and owner of the company that manufactures the MX2. When I met him the MX2 was not much more than an idea he had.

He began development of the plane in 2003 and spent 2 years doing flight test and development with the proof of concept prototype. 2005 is when the second airplane was built using the new production molds. The airplane is the production prototype. This airplane went through another year of flight tests before it was time to start manufacturing and selling these planes. The production prototype became the factory demonstrator, and later my plane. In the summer of 2005 I was to pickup the plane outside of Houston, Texas and fly it to Oshkosh and then back down to Florida.
The plane was in Houston getting painted by Geary Monkton of Angel Fire Aero. Before this I had never flown the plane at all, so I was in for a great adventure. When I got to Houston they were in all out scramble mode, like what you see on the Monster Garage show. The plane was not finished being painted and was in a million pieces, and I had to leave in four days to make Oshkosh in time. They were glad to see me when I got there and instantly turned me into shop boy. For the next few days I turned wrenches, wet sanded parts, lifted, held, ran errands, pickup lunch, and Red Bull, what ever mindless job was to be done I was the guy.
The day finally arrived for me to get some flights in before I had to head off to Oshkosh. I got into the plane taxied to the end of the runway; adrenaline was surging through my body. Everything checked okay, it was time to do it. Bringing up the power I instantly know this thing was going to be a blast. It pinned me to the back of the seat like nothing I had ever felt before. It was 380 raw horsepower ripping the plane down the runway at a blur. In a nanosecond I was airborne, and Oh my god this thing was sensitive. I had to lock my elbow keep it wings level. With other aerobatic planes if you think about rolling, they roll. The MX2 knows your thoughts before you do and does it before you think about, and then you’re sitting there wondering who moved first you or the plane. It is an absolutely amazing thing. One thing that really sticks in my mind about that first flight was the sensation of acceleration in the air. From a normal power setting for aerobatics to bringing full power back in you get shoved back in the seat every time. The sensation of speed flying down the runway is amazing, and takes a while to get used to. The green MX2 became my drug of choice that day.
Later that year Chris let me fly the plane at the US National Aerobatic Championships. At that time I was flying in the intermediate category. I arrived at the event the day before my category begun with no practice time. I was supposed to get there 3 days earlier and get a few good days of practice in, but Chris found a Giles 202 in California that looked like a good deal. I opted out of practice to look at the plane, even though I was not looking. Needless to say my flights at Nationals were less than desirable but I still managed to finish in the middle of the pack, which is not bad for flying a plane that I had very little competition style aerobatics in.
I ended up buying the Giles 202, it was a deal I could not pass up. I flew it home from Northern California to Tampa Florida in a day and a half. For 2006 I flew the 202 in several contests, and the MX2 in a couple.
By the end of the 2006 season I could not take it any more and had to have an MX2 of my own. I found a buyer for the Giles 202 within a couple of weeks of listing it. From there I had to put a tremendous amount of pressure on Chris to sell me the demonstrator. We struck a deal and I bought the plane in January 2007.