Cold war vet building his own plane
Peter Davis is a Vietnam veteran and a veteran of the Cold War. He came out to Pahrump to retire, but for Davis retirement is not sitting on the porch reading the Pahrump Valley Times.
Davis has a love for the “great outdoors.” He wouldn’t characterize himself as a thrill seeker, but he is pretty close. He rides motorcycles, he is a certified diver, and he has climbed mountains. In one climbing trip with his wife Lori he went up to Nepal and hiked up to 18,000 feet. He hasn’t jumped out of a plane yet, but he has flown them and that is where his interest lies. He has over 200 hours of flying various small planes. And now his newest thing is he is building his own plane in his backyard shop.
His wife said she loves doing everything he takes on.
“I am definitely a thrill seeker,” Lori said. “I draw the line at jumping off the plane, but we do everything together and we always have a good time together.”
This passion for thrills comes from his upbringing. Davis comes from a family of military veterans. Both his mother and his father served in World War II. His father, Robert, served in the Army and then went into the Korean Conflict. His mother, Dorothea, served in the Navy. His older brother, Michael, served in the Coast Guard and his middle brother, John, served in the Marines.
“My dad ran the house like a military camp and with respect. When he said something you did it or suffered the consequences. That was his way, the military way,” Peter said.
Peter started thinking about military service in high school, where he was a wrestler and in the band.
“I went into the Air Force,” Peter explained. “I was actually interested in going into the Army band to play the trumpet. I was accepted into the Army band, but I also talked to the Air Force and I liked the fields they offered me. They told me I would do well in intelligence and I passed the test. I went in Sept. 1973 and my first duty station was San Antonio, Texas and I finally ended up in Beale Air Force Base in California. At the time I was a photo interpreter.”
It was in the Air Force where Peter developed a passion for flying. He took flying lessons and even went as far as applying for jets for the Air Force. He passed all the tests, but old wrestling injuries kept him from flying for the Air Force. Despite that setback, he still got his pilot’s license when he was only 19 and learned to fly the following planes: a Cessna 172, a 205 and a Piper Arrow.
“The big advantage of airplanes is flying line of sight,” he said. “It’s exciting being up in the air. Everything looks so different and it’s amazing. While I was working in the Air Force in intelligence.”
Lori said her husband always told her stories about flying.
“He always has had a passion for flying since he was young,” Lori said. “Anytime he can fly he will do it. I remember he told me he begged his commander to get trained for altitude training in a B-52. He also once ran out of gas flying in a plane. He was 19. He had rented a plane from California to Washington state and he miscalculated his fuel. Upon his approach he ran out of gas, but he was lucky he had a cool head.”
For Peter the end of the Viet Nam War came and the Cold War started to heat up even more.
“The Cold War was very real to me,” the Air Force vet said. “My first work in the Air Force was building bomb bags for the B-52ss. These were all of the routes and targets for the B-52s. With Russia, in the Cold War, the Soviet bloc had a mentality of fear of being attacked. They knew that if they launched on us we would launch on them and there would be a complete destruction of their military infrastructure.”
Peter was in the field for three years and then he went to Germany and worked on some intelligence projects. They were highly classified and he still can’t talk about it. While working, he caught the eye of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI). This was the start of a new career for him.
From 1979 to 2006, Peter worked for the OSI in counter-espionage, and he spent a good time in Europe. This was after achieving the rank of E-6 in the Air Force. OSI had the mission of investigating major crimes against the person and property, major economic crimes, counter-intelligence, counter-espionage and protective services. He said he wasn’t exactly James Bond. He had no shoe phone or decoder ring, but still things were serious. His mission was to thwart enemy spies, a purely offensive mission.
Although he said he never feared for his life, he still had an immense amount of stress on him. The job took tremendous amounts of organization. OSI was a big influence on Peter. He said it taught him perseverance.
“It was detaile oriented, but I am that kind of person anyway. It also taught me dedication for sure,” he said.
The Russians never got to Pete. What finally took him out of the game was his romantic side and a bad back.
“I met Lori in 2004 and married her in 2005,” Peter said. “I wanted to retire. If I had not met Lori I might have stayed longer. I was ready to retire because I had some really bad back problems, which required three surgeries. I have screws and plates in my lumbar and I have smaller screws in my neck.”
After settling down in Pahrump, he was finally able to turn his attention to his second love, flying. While online, he happened to see an article on building airplanes as a hobby. That was all it took. He was hooked.
“About $14,000 later, the next thing you know it a plane kit arrived in my front yard. They had to use forklifts to bring it to my shop.”
The kit said it would take just 500 hours to build. Peter was in heaven. As he slowly dove into his new project though he has found the kit was embellishing the amount of hours it took to complete.
“I really don’t think anyone who has never built one could build it in 500. I think maybe by someone who has made a few airplanes before. I think I will spend more than 500 on this one. It will take me another year to get the air frame done and then I will be looking for an engine and the avionics.”
So far he has invested over a year into the project and has 35% of the plane crafted. This has got him to just the wings and the tail section. When completed he will have a plane that will require an 80-horsepower engine, (engine didn’t come with the kit), that can take off on a 50-foot runway with two people. Its gross weight can’t exceed 1320 pounds. The plane falls under the light sport category. He will only fly it in clear weather for he won’t have instrument flight capability.
When his wife was asked if she had any problem flying in the home-built plane, she replied, “He does border on OCD. He never takes a shortcut. Especially with the plane. Everything is perfect. He is super meticulous. I know that plane would be perfectly put together, so I have no problem flying in it or with him.”
As far as the plane consuming too much time, she said it never does.
“The plane is time-consuming. He does not let it come in the way of God and family. I have a studio outside where I do some craft work where I work beside him so we are together,” Lori said.
Peter is happy building the plane and wouldn’t have it any other way. He has complete faith that it will be done in a year or two.
“I have saved a lot of money by building my own plane. A bottom of the line Cessna can cost up to $125,000. I hope to fly my plane to the state of Washington in the summer. My wife is not terribly excited about flying in small planes, but she trusts me.” he said.
Peter said this is the most complicated thing he has ever built because it requires such precision and accuracy. He had to teach himself to work with aircraft aluminum and riveting this material. When he has a problem, and there are many questions, he says he calls the plan engineer at the manufacturer of the kit. Peter has called them 10 times so far.
“I have found that when I do have a question that I can get my answer by just sleeping on it or studying it more carefully. Everything is in the plan,” he said.
Peter plans on spending as much extra time he has carefully putting his plane together and he said he will contact the PVT when it is done.
