The back garden of 78 St. Alban’s Park, Sandymount was filled with friends and neighbours on Saturday night, 22nd August last.

Everyone was gathered around to see Dave Ryan’s baby fly the nest.

Fifteen feet long, eight feet at its highest peak and with a wing span of twenty-six and a half feet. Kevin Murphy’s crane lifted the aircraft from its home of fifteen years into a specially designed trailer to bring it to Waterford airport. It was an evening that
Dave Ryan will never forget.

Dave fell in love with flying when, aged ten, he was taken on a trip around Dublin in a twin-engine craft.

“ I felt as if I had been hit over the head with a hammer. From then on I was fascinated,” he says.
In his thirties, Dave married Betty and they had three children, David, Gillian, and Robbie.

“I still wanted to fly but thought that it was rather dangerous with a young family,” he says. But, in the early seventies, he started to take flying lessons and finally got his wings in 1973.

While reading in bed one night, Dave came across an article about a Long EZ aircraft, designed by a Mr. Rutan. Thinking the aircraft was light years ahead of its time, he began to make enquiries and eventually he bought a reduced set of plans from Andy McLoughlin in Scotland.

“I built the plane using plans and newsletters, rather than buying an actual kit. The newsletters update the plans, so if anyone encounters any problems, others can avoid a similar mistake.

“There were 148 changes in the plans from the starting point.The plane was composite, built from foam, fibreglass and resin. It must be strong enough to stand on.”

“Over thirty amateurs are building aircraft around Ireland. When you decide what want to build, you apply to the Society of Amateur Aircraft Constructors (S.A.A.C.).

“Over 500 types of model aircraft can be built. You’re given a logbook and allocated a licensed engineer. You must be signed up at each stage and then, at the last stage, inspectors check the aircraft and give it a five-hour airtest.”

Dave Ryan is the treasurer of SAAC. Amateur aircraft construction requires unyielding stamina.
“You need to be as persistent as Einstein,” he says. “It demands you do your best and nothing less.”
Dave juggled plane construction with the demands of his own microfilming business and family life.

“If I went away from the plane for more than a week, I’d dodge going back so I’d pick up a brush, start sweeping around it, and soon I was hooked again.”

He spent three years sanding the aircraft before it could be painted. The last six to twelve months were the most concentrated.

“To be honest, when I first saw the aircraft fly, it was hard to believe. When I flew it myself, it was the realisation of a dream,” he says.

Dave has flown his plane around Waterford, but he intends going to airshows in England and possibly France. The Long EZ is built for high performance, economy and long-distance flying. It can be flown around the world.

“When flying a plane, there’s a freedom that you don’t get anywhere else. You’re totally in charge of your own existence. From the moment it lifts off, you’re in awe. No matter how often you fly, no two parts of scenery are ever the same. It’s like your own personal IMAX theatre. You are part of a vast plateau of land with wings on your shoulders

“Bad weather can get you into cloud suddenly and your mind goes into paralysis; if you were a mathematician you wouldn’t be able to add,” says Dave. “I’ve had some bad trips, but I never wanted to give up flying. I would be lost without it.”

Dave Ryan in his back garden to see the completed plane being lifted in sections over the garden wall