DATE: February 24, 2006
I have recently returned from the state of Washington after another builder assist session at Darrell Peterson's facility at the Toledo airport. My friend Jeff Guziar and I worked with Dan Roundtree (former B.A.supervisor for Express A/C) for a solid two weeks on both of my wings. We are now ready to close both wings (install the bottom skins) as soon as the aileron torque tubes are available from Steve Furjesi's welding/fabrication shop.
Although this is an expensive way to build (especially after paying for everything that I need a 2nd time), we are able to make great strides during these sessions that would otherwise take me months to do on my own. Dan is an invaluable source of knowledge and expertise. Because he has worked on a number of Express projects (as well as Glass Air, RV's, etc.), he leads the way with the speed and confidence that would otherwise be unattainable for me. I don't think that with the manual that was provided to me (very hard to read and interpret the drawings), I would ever get this project completed on my own. Marshall Whipp, who works in the hanger next door, is also an excellent source of knowledge and technical genius. If a part doesn't exist, he will find it or make it himself. I intend to return to Washington in April for another week or so to be followed by a two-week visit in July. By then, we should be able to start thinking about assembly of the major components to make the project look like an airplane. If we can continue to find the people that make what we need and acquire these parts to keep the project going, I hope to have the project flying by the end of 2007. Prior to my trip to Washington, I had made arrangements with Barry Henthorn (Exosphere) to come down to Toledo and meet with Darrell, Dan, Marshall and me. Late in the first week of my visit, I called and left a reminder message for him and followed it up with an e-mail several days later. I never heard back from him the entire time that I was in Washington. I know that I have been playing the devil's advocate for a long time. But from what I can see, very little progress has been or is being made toward putting EAC back on its feet again. I don't know if Mr. Henthorn is just too busy, has lost interest, cannot raise the money or what might be the problem. But there are several signs (at least for me) that things are not going very well for the Express project as a whole. Mr. Henthorn invited all of us to contact him with our questions and concerns. But just try communicating with him and you will see what I mean. You can leave messages until the cows come home and seldomly will you hear back from him. Consider that right after the big announcement last year, composite parts were supposed to be available for order. That never happened. There was initially a bunch of "excitement" about getting the Express web site back up after it went off line last year. Two of our Express builders had made the entire back up of the company site available to Exosphere for rehosting. But that never happened either. Mr. Henthorn told me in the one conversation that I did have with him that Roy Davis has not been paid yet as the company books don't seem to be enough in order to even ask an accountant to do a proper audit. So that must mean that Exosphere doesn't even have their hands on anything that it takes to make composite parts. The following two bits of information must be qualified by me as rumor as I have come by this information second hand. First, I have been told that Exosphere is going to sell stock in a newly formed company in March. I assume that it would be the intention of the stockholders to make a profit. If that is the case, ask yourself if you would "invest" in this company knowing what we know at the moment. Me either! Secondly, I have been told that Exosphere was supposed to have been paying the interest on the EAC line of credit. That bank facility was secured by a $100K certificate of deposit owned by Roy Davis. Evidently when the interest payments were not made, the bank seized the CD. That must have made Roy real happy. Anyone on the inside that really knows the facts is welcome to straighten me out if they care to do so. I would love to hear the real story. I don't want to dash everyone's hopes for the resurrection of EAC by Exosphere. But I think that it is past time to get realistic about what is going on. In my opinion, there is no reason that the company assets should not be immediately transferred to those of us who are the creditors. Those of us that are owed parts, engines and avionics, are the real owners of these assets! If these assets were in the hands of a responsible group of business people, I believe that the liquidation/transfer of the same could be accomplished in short order to allow the new owners to start making components available again to those of us that need them to complete our projects. Right now the price of anything that is needed to complete a project is pretty high as these parts are being made one and two at a time. That of course is the expensive way to do things. So if those of us that are the creditors would seek a settlement with EAC as a group, Roy would either have to agree to a transfer of the property (by order of the court) or put the company into bankruptcy where eventually the assets would be sold at auction. This "wait and see" approach that has been taken since last July just seems to be getting us nowhere. At least somewhere down the road, parts would be coming out of the pipeline again for the benefit of all of us. If a deal was structured properly with some company like Wick's or Aircraft Spruce, eventually we might even be lucky enough to recover some of our money from the new owners who could pay us back out of a portion of future profits from the sale of new kits. There are still a number of potential customers for the Express as this aircraft still out runs most of the others in payload, distance and speed. If this rumored stock sale does not come about by the end of March, there are several of us that are ready to push the button to get things moving again. Please contact me at ghw@wolfelt.com if you would like to participate. If you are a "wait and see" sort of person, don't bother writing to me as I am out of patience now. GHW