Ryan Vaughan's Falco builder's log

I've always been in love with aviation. It's the main reason I chose to major in Aerospace Engineering while applying for college. The funny thing is, at that point I had never flown in anything but a large airline before. I was always interested in engineering and it was the only thing I could imagine being interested in to learn more about after high school. I wanted to eventually fly for a living in some respect. I even joined ROTC while in college to attempt to start the process. When it didn't look like I was going to get into flight school I decided to get out of ROTC.

Since then I got into space technology, and after school ended I started working as an engineer with space mission concept development. Now I work for NASA building spacecraft. The aviation dream had morphed into hoping someday I would have the financial ability to have aviation as a hobby. I had always dreamed that one day I would be rich enough to build an airplane. Little did I know how accessible this actually was. When I discovered the homebuilding industry, the fire inside me was lit.

I've realized what I really spend my free time and interest doing are interactive mental and physical projects. I like to create things with my hands and interact with the world around me. I love to cook, I'm pretty decent on the guitar, computers are my mental projects, and video games are both mental and (subtly) physical. I love sports such as basketball, baseball, and ultimate frisbee, and I like doing maintenance on my car. What better interaction with the physical world than flying. What better project than to create such a complex and harmonious machine than building an airplane.

I knew that I wanted to build with wood and I had researched what was typically involved in the building of a wooden aircraft. I researched tools and space requirements. I had read some Bingelis books, and wood aircraft building books. I read and read and read. I could not afford to go full boar into the project and I also didn't have a garage to assemble large structures. In order to start the journey I decided to take advantage of my youth and spend time to build the wooden parts in order to save money and to familiarize myself with the project. To make a long story short, I chose to build the Sequoia Falco F.8L. I ordered the plans in March 2005 and started to prepare myself for the mission I was to embark on. It all starts with a little woodworking project...


Some day, in the far away future...this is the goal...(the Hanson Falco)

I've pretty much just thrown this website together in order to have a public forum for people to check out what I'm up to on the project and serve as a builder's log for me. Maybe someday I'll make this site aesthetically pleasing. But for now, enjoy. MAKE SURE TO CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR LARGER VERSIONS.

• First Phase - Wooden parts assembly

Click on the structural sections to see how I made those parts!

Or Click here...

Prep (March - April 2005)
Fuselage Parts (May 2005 - December 2005)
Tail Parts (December 2005 - November 2006)
Wing Parts (December 2006 - February 2008)

• Second Phase - Airframe structure assembly

Empennage (March 2008 - May 2009, 2014, May 2024 - Current)

• Links

Falco Dimensions
Falco Specifications and Performance
Sequoia Aircraft Corporation - Info on other builders and owners, plans and kits for the F.8L Falco
Jerry Mulliken - Blog of a Falco builder in Nebraska
Luigi Aldini - Italian Falco owner's website
Falco Forum - An online Falco forum
Current Local Weather

If you have a question, comment, or just want to say hello, drop me a line: