The John Miller Project                      Photographs and narrative by Steven Reilly

The Completed Project!

   John brought the empennage kit up the Alcan with him after a visit to the factory last spring.  He started building it in April and had it pretty well completed shortly thereafter.  He took a vacation from building over the summer and started up again with the wing kit in November.  He now has most of the left wing behind him and with luck and a lot of perseverance, he hopes to have both of them completed by summer.

    John's shop is a model of what can be accomplished in a limited space.  A new wood stove keeps it cozy and the stabilizers and wings are assembled on a simple stand based on two floor-to-ceiling 4x4s in the center of the small room (one of the Van's construction tips).  Compressed air is very handily distributed through two coiled hoses suspended from the ceiling along each of the upright 4x4s.  The real beauty of the setup is that neither vehicle needs to be booted out of the garage to make room for the airplane!