Fidot has caught the building bug when he first saw an RV-8 in Watsonville, and wanted to build one ever since.

He likes giving people rides though, and he likes having more than one victim in his plane, so, after many hours of deliberation, reading through VAF forums, and researching designs, he settled on an RV-10, since that was the only 4-seater RV. It had to be an RV, of course, since it is the best !/$, it is the most popular design, and it looks so much like his Grumman Tiger that he just loved (and still does, even though he had to sell it).

All that until he got a ride in a Stearman. After that, he was 100% hooked on open cockpit, biplanes, and aerobatic -- and by then, he also has researched much more, realizing that he wants to build to build, and therefore, scratch-built was a way to go.

Choosing between various 2-seater bipes, Skybolt came in natural, since he believes that that's  the prettiest biplane (well, second-prettiest, to be exact, after Stearman, naturally).

For a long time he hasn't had any means, place, or tools to build, so he did the second best thing to building -- he started redrawing the plans in 3D CAD, building his plane virtually. That helped him understand the plans and make sure things fit if done to plans' dimensions w/o actually wasting any material.

His builder's log (b-log) is online at 79ft.net

He plans to make his first rib very soon :).

href="/images/eaa/projects/fidot-skybolt/aileron.png" title="Aileron ribs on spars, alignment check">

href="/images/eaa/projects/fidot-skybolt/compression-strut-model.png" title="Compression strut">