About Us

My name is Art Freeman and I am your host and webmaster for the Challenger Building, Tips, and Technique web site. It is our endeavor to hopefully bring you a web site which will answer all your questions and assist you in whatever you need. Whether you are looking for a Challenger dealer near your area, trying to find that hard to find part, tips and tricks to assist you in building your own Challenger or some of the best modifications that will help make your Challenger the plane you always wanted it to be.

My background is quite varied covering several areas of experience. Was a part-time instructor at a local community college in California until Proposition #13 passed and was laid off due to cutbacks in the secondary school system. Owned and operated a metal shop for twelve years. Found a need to return to college to further my own education, graduating with a degree in Computer Integrated Electronics in 1992. Throughout all this time, I have worked on my first love, historical research, now at twenty plus years and am considered an advanced researcher. In this time, I have created two web sites for myself in the area of restorations of historical documentation on two Civil War units, one Union and one Confederate. In doing so, I have been awarded a rather prestigious "Academic of Excellence Award" from "Lightspan StudyWab", a site composed of teachers, instructors and university staff of our educational system in the US. Award was presented to me primarily for accuracy and authenticity of my work and is now recommended reading in many of our schools and colleges. Have also constructed many web sites for others wishing to have their own web presence on the Internet.

Am now semi-retired and work part time at the Sedalia Memorial Airport, Sedalia, MO as an airport attendent. Finished my Challenger II on November 11, 2005 and FAA inspected on November 18, 2005. Unfortunately, due to medical problems and huge medical bills, had to sell my plane in July 2006. However, if you would like to see what my plane looked like, click on Art's Challenger II
To help make this site one of the best for the Challenger community, we have put together an Advisory Committee from highly experienced individuals and dealers to the new owner / builder to compliment each other and viewpoints. All of which are Ultralight pilots and builders of their own plane or have built several planes over the past several years. Let me introduce you to our Advisory Committee members.

Advisory Committee Members

G. P. "Bud" Connolly - June 2003 to July 2011
Turned 65 in February 2003. I fell in love with airplanes sometime before age 10 and built models and later started control line flying. I started private pilot training back in early 1957 in both the Piper J-3 and Aeronca Champ. I later went on through the ratings in order to pursue a career in commercial aviation. I now hold a Flight Engineer Turbojet rating, and an Airline Transport Pilot rating. I have flown a lot of the past generation transport category airplanes such as Douglas DC-8 and DC-10 plus Boeing 727, 707, 747. I also have a lot of time in single engine and multiengine general aviation aircraft such as Cessna, Piper and Beechcraft. I retired from commercial aviation at age 60, as per FAA requirements, and am now again interested in the more pleasurable sort of flying that is available with the Challenger.

Mike Harrison: - April 2003 to Present
I was born and raised in central Illinois between Springfield and Decatur, IL. My love of flying started pretty early. I remember building the Wright flyer out of Lego blocks and taking it to show and tell. I was always fascinated by anything that could fly. I even tried to convince my brother that we could indeed safely fly off the roof of the house so long as we tucked Mom's best bath towels into the back of our shirts just like Superman. It took a little more time to convince him that those were just "baby teeth" and they would indeed grow back. As a teenager, I used to make hot air balloons out of newspapers folded into a 4-sided diamond shape and then secured with toothpicks. I would light all four corners of the newspaper and then marvel at the massive fireball that would rise into the sky. I ceased making the hot air balloons on the day the fire trucks showed up to put out a grass fire that strangely erupted across the street at the National Guard Camp. The neighbors swore that it had to be spontaneous combustion. I was pretty certain that it was Bic combustion but didn't find it neccessary to share my hypothesis. I don't think they ever discovered the true origin of that fire.

After high school, I joined the ARMY and started flying hang gliders in my spare time near Ft. Gordon, GA. I ended up going to Germany and was fortunate enough to see the 1985 World Championship Hang Gliding competition in the Bavarian Alps. After returning home from Germany, I got involved with some of the early ultralights like Quicksilver weight shifts. After progressing through various ultralights, I stumbled upon the Challengers. My first flight in a Challenger was with Dave Goulet in his Challenger II Special in Moline, Illinois. I purchased my first Challenger II Clipped Wing Special back in 1988 and became a Challenger dealer for Central Illinois. I moved out to Phoenix, Arizona about 4 years ago and found myself busy enough to go full time with the airplane business. Quad City just celebrated 20 yrs. in business and in the same week, my company, Skyes the Limit! celebrated 15 yrs. of business. Most of my days are spent building Challengers and custom accessories for these wonderful birds. It's amazing what can happen when a hobby gets way out of hand.

Jim Hayward: - April 2003 to Present
Have been flying the C-2 my wife and I built, since Oct 2000 and have about 335 hours on it. I had 587 GA hours prior to getting the C-2, mostly in Cessna 150's, 152's, 172's, and 177's. I got my PPL while in the Air Force in '68 but quit flying around '75 due to it's cost. My present wife got me interested in flying again in '93 and I have a KR2-S project with the fuselage and spars built but currently on a "back burner" as I'm having way too much fun with the C-2. We flew it to Oshkosh in 2002. My Air Force career was in aircraft communications and I worked in a 2-way radio shop for a couple of years and, along with my wife, obtained my ham radio license. I was transferred to Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City in late '79 and have lived here ever since. The past 13 years has found me employed with SD Public Broadcasting as a broadcast engineer maintaining TV, FM, broadcast transmitters and terrestial microwave systems. I'm far from an expert but know enough to get myself in trouble with those who are. However, I do have an extensive database of posts from the Fly-UL list when I belonged to it as well as the past few years on the Challenger list. They are grouped into many different catagories and I'll happily share them with anyone.

George Hurt: - February 2003 to Present
By trade I am a Certified Master Diesel Mechanic. At 40, I went back to college for a degree in Trade and Industrial Education. I worked at this and back in the field for several years and was involved in other business in Fairbanks along with my wife. I have been retired from all but Adventure Aviation full time for the past 11 years.

Bob Robertson: - June 2003 to Present
Aero Controls, St. Albert, Alberta, Canada

Ralph Shultz: - April 2003 to Present
I am a relatively new Challenger II builder, owner & flyer. My Challenger II, N443SR, was signed off in Dec. 2002. I have been flying since 1970, have a commercial pilots license, with multiengine and instrument ratings. I have been "in awe" of all things that fly since early childhood. I am a retired Aerospace liquid rocket engine component designer. My hobbies seem to revolve around, of all things, AIRPLANES. I enjoy the designing of homebuilt aircraft and the making of simple spreadsheets on various areas that interest me. Although I don't fly as often as I would like I still enjoy taking a spin around the “patch”.

Robert Victor: - October 2006 to Present
Miracle Antenna, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

FORMER MEMBERS

John W.Davis - November 2003 to July 2006
Clarence "Doc" R. Green: - April 2003 to July 2006