My Spezio Tuholer

I have been interested in flying since I was young and was inspired by Richard Bach’s book, Illusions. I imagined landing in a remote field, taking people for rides, and flying into a beautiful sunset. I was inspired by the freedom, the adventure, and the beauty.

In 2006, I decided to buy an antique aircraft and start taking people for rides. I bought a Spezio Tuholer, the experimental aircraft shown above. Open-cockpit, two seater… perfect for the barnstorming that I dreamed of. I had no idea how hard a journey it would be.

First, I couldn’t find an instructor who would teach me in the Spezio. It was a tail-dragger (tailwheel in the back, rather than nosewheel in the front), communication between the cockpits was tough because of the windnoise, and most people couldn’t fly the Spezio. When I finally found an instructor, he didn’t fit in the front cockpit because it was designed for much smaller people — way back when!

So, I ended up learning in a Citabria. I found an aerobatic instructor and we learned a lot together — off-field landings, emergency procedures, and more. Because my instructor was aerobatic, he’d put the aircraft in all sorts of extreme and unusual attitudes, and then say, “Ok, Jason, you got the controls.” I’d have to get us out of it. We even did unusual attitudes when I could only look at the instruments. Imagine, opening your eyes, looking at 3 instruments trying to figure out what’s happening. Airspeed 150 knots (which is fast), altitude dropping quickly, turn indicator all the way to the left… ok, I’m in a spin to the left diving to the ground… throttle to neutral, left foot on the pedal to stop the spin, gently pull up.

Well, my relationship with my instructor didn’t end well. We crashed March 8, 2008… the day before my birthday. Luckily, we both walked away alive, but I was left with a neck injury I will be managing for the rest of my life. 

I kept flying after the accident. I was committed to getting my license, which I earned to start flying the Spezio. I had some grand adventures in that plane — I flew it to Burning Man, where I took 25 people for rides, and then on to Colorado. But, alas, the story of the Spezio ended sadly. My mechanic lost control of the aircraft on the ground, and I had to run for my life to get out of its way. The airplane was destroyed. 

And then another scary incident happened when I was flying another experimental aircraft I was considering buying. The engine cut out over Estes Park, CO. I didn’t know if we’d get out of the mountains, but we had enough altitude to glide to a landing at Longmont with about 1000 feet to spare.

After that, I switched to gliders and earned my glider certificate.