The sky is calling AEDC's Larry Wilhite

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  AEDC's Larry Wilhite recently got to combine his love of engineering and powered flight to take to the sky in a plane he literally assembled himself.

From an early age Wilhite has been passionate about mathematics and fascinated with anything relating to science, especially computers. Combined with his fascination for aircraft, he had always enjoyed the hands-on aspects of science and technology.

"There's a neat Dilbert cartoon that talks about having the 'knack,'" said Wilhite, who is the section manager for ATA's control and data systems development branch. "I think most people who are sort of like us, left-brained people, [see] those kinds of talents start coming out, the ability to fix things early on. I've always wanted to be an engineer and work with computers and luckily enough I was able to get there."

Around 32 years ago the Bolivar, Tenn., native also took flying lessons and earned his wings as a private pilot while completing undergraduate studies for his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Auburn University.

"Summer was coming. I was taking lighter course loads, so I thought I'd go out and learn how to be a pilot. I'd always wanted to do it," he recalled. "So, I went through the Auburn School of Aviation to get my pilot's license. I had to work a second job to get money to do that. Of course, it was a lot less expensive then."

In 1976, Wilhite earned a graduate degree from Auburn in electrical engineering. He then worked for the Federal Aviation Administration, traveling all over the Southeast and installing en-route radio systems. For the next few years, he rented planes and flew when he had the time and money. This provided a unique opportunity to both see a variety of planes and get the opportunity to fly some of them.

Shortly after, he gained employment at AEDC; and before long, he was married and raising a family.

Wilhite said with each passing year, dreams of taking to the sky seemed to be mere memories of the past, rather than visions of the future.

Five years ago a combination of events brought Wilhite to a major decision.
His adult children, Jake and Haley, were leaving home and gaining their independence.
There finally appeared to be time to consider tackling "a big project."

"A co-worker named Brent Morris was building an airplane, a Vans Aircraft, RV-9," Wilhite said. "I [was] talking to him about it and how much it cost - got to thinking 'Was that even possible for me to do something like that - get back into flying? Brent and I went to Oshkosh, 'The Greatest Aviation Celebration in the World', looked around and all these people were doing what I wanted to do and most the same age as I was," Wilhite recalled. "I saw these airplanes, put my hands on them. I saw these people and I said these people are just like me. If they can do it, I ought to be able to do this."

Wilhite wanted to do more than buy a plane and renew his pilot's license; he wanted a challenge. He wanted to build his own aircraft from a kit. Wilhite was trying to figure a way to bring up the idea to his wife Teresa when an opportunity arose.

"I set up our next vacation in Oregon," Wilhite said. "It was a ruse to get her there because I wanted to go by Van's Aircraft and I wanted to go sit in this airplane to make sure I could fit in it, and she could fit in it, that we'd be somewhat comfortable in this smaller airplane."

The visit worked as planned and helped to win his wife over to the idea of Wilhite getting back into the pilot's seat and building his own plane. Five years later, he had finished building it, which was no small feat.

Wilhite said putting the plane together was a great adventure, but "a big job" that took him approximately 2,500 hours to actually do the material preparation and assembly. He acknowledged the time was considerably longer when it came to all the planning and problem solving required with a project of such complexity.

"It was probably [closer to] 30,000 hours involved, trying to figure out all the different options, because the kit is really just the airframe," he said, explaining that the other components were purchased separately. "So you still have the avionics to deal with and the engine and prop, etc."

In the process of building his plane, Wilhite attended a week-long class provided by the company that supplies the airplane kit. There he learned how to work with metal and some of the finer details of fabrication.

"I went to that school and [among other things] I learned how to rivet," he said. "There's about a million of them in this airplane. I can set a rivet just about any way there is, now. And I know how to drill them out, too. Because if I put in 900,000 I probably drilled out 200,000 because I didn't do them all right."

On Sept. 2, Wilhite took his new airplane for its maiden flight, with his wife in attendance to witness the event.

"I had a little trouble with the startup, I had to come back in and change a spark plug," he recalled. "I went back out and this time it started up right. So, I said, 'Okay, I'm going'. I throttled up and before I knew it, I was up to flying speed, pulled back on the stick a little bit and it leapt right off the runway - I've played that over in my head a 100 times."

Wilhite kept the plane in the air for about 25 minutes until he was certain that all the gauges in his plane were functioning properly.

"[Then] I made a pretty good landing and rolled [the aircraft] up to the hangar there. And I couldn't even get out of the airplane, I was so spent. I couldn't budge. It took me 20 minutes to get up the energy just to get up - all that adrenaline, tension, and of course, in my head I'm going over and over again all the things that occurred during the flight."