Sunset after Mark’s first flight in the Charger on October 6, 2008.
covers for control cable and fuel
line exits. She agreed to the task,
and he purchased an industrial sewing machine for her on eBay. Then,
instead of buying an entire hide for
leather, Mark turned once again to
eBay, where he “bought red leather
skirts and pants that I could get
cheap and cut them up for pieces of
leather.”
A subtle, yet distinctive bit of
embroidery exemplifies the Charger
theme. One of Mark’s coworkers drew
the outline of a charger—a man on
the back of a horse in shining armor,
with a lance in hand—and Mark had
the design embroidered in red thread
on the pilot’s headrest.
Rollout and First Flight
August 23, 2008, was a noteworthy
day. Mark recalled, “We had this
rollout party to let family and friends
see the big pieces of the biplane all
put together. It was hangared at Mike
Finney’s, and I was still painting parts
that morning. When I went over to
his hangar, he had it rolled out onto
the grass, and it was really the first
time I saw it outside. It was holding
its own wings up and was there in all
of its glory—it was pretty emotional
for me.”
Mark first flew the biplane on
the evening of October 6, 2008. “I
had offers from Mike Finney to do
the first test flight because I had
invested so much time and energy
into it,” recalled Mark, “and there’s
always some question that if something begins to happen…am I really
thinking about saving the airplane
or preserving myself? If you’re not
attached to the airplane, then maybe
you’d make different decisions.”
Yet Mark felt confident in his abilities, due in part to the manner in
which he prepared for the flight. “I
had been up in my son’s Taylorcraft
L- 2, and our local airport instructor
has a flat-engine Great Lakes, and
then the chapter members offered
their Hatz biplanes and a radial-engine Great Lakes to help me get
really acclimated to flying a biplane.
I invited my friend Mike Finney,
who was our technical counselor
and flight advisor; Jim Wright, who
is the EAA technical counselor in
Anderson, Indiana; my good friend
Jon Hubbell; and my family to be
there for the first flight. We had
fire extinguishers available when we
started the engine and a chase plane
to fly along with me to observe the
biplane in flight. We’re out in the
farm fields of Indiana, and I was
wearing a parachute and had lots of
options and places to go, other than
returning to the airport.”
That first flight lasted 40 minutes.
“Everything went fantastic, other
than when I took off—I had a ball
cap on under my headset—and when
I raised my head up, my headset
landed in my lap!” laughed Mark.
“But I kept flying the airplane and
went up and circled the airport. The
three-point landing on Finney’s grass
field couldn’t have been any better.
All those years, waiting for those two
moments, and it really couldn’t have
gone any better.”
Crowning Glory
After nearly two decades, Mark’s Marquart Charger symbolizes many lessons
learned. Brett and Jama certainly have
had the principle of “If it’s worthwhile,
then it’s worth finishing” thoroughly
