In 1957 while recovering from knee surgery I made a
model of the Howard Ike. These racers of the 30's always fascinated me. I thought that it would be great to build and fly something like this. I had dreamed about building my own plane as long as I could remember. That got me doodling on a scratch pad. From the scratch pad to the back of a brown paper bag. I thought why not make it two place. The drawing then was made on another brown paper bag. The plane was built from those drawings. I still have them. I did not have much money with raising a family so I started to scrounge around the airports. I found an old Cessna UC 78 twin engine military trainer fuselage, all my tubing came from it. All my fabric was leftovers from dope and fabric jobs that I had done. The spruce for the spars was found in a lumber yard that let me pick my lumber. Most of the hardware was bought surplus by the pound from sales at the local Air Force base. The wheels came from an L2 military glider. There was still a lot of surplus around then. My total outlay of "cash" was 287.00. The rest I either traded or scrounged. The ribs were built on the kitchen table and all the welding was done in my one car garage. It came time for an engine. I found a Ground Power Unit (GPU) that had an air cooled Lycoming engine in it. I got it surplus at the AFB and converted the engine to use in the plane. Added a second magneto and different carburetor. The propeller came from a wrecked Tri Pacer and could not be used on a certificated aircraft. It was shortened and balanced and did fine on the plane. I could not afford hanger space so I made swivel attachments so that the wings would fold and I could keep it at home. It took about fifteen minuets to unfold it after trailering it to the airport. The first flight was May 2, 1961. It was one of the biggest thrills in my life. I flew the "Tuholer" for sixteen years before selling it. It is still flying and is in Utah. I had sixteen wonderful years with her. The name, Oh Yes. It is officially "The Spezio Sport DAL 1". The president of the Experimental Aircraft Assn. came by to visit when I was building it. As he opened the door to the garage he remarked" A Two Holer" that meant that it was two place. It caught on and everyone called it the "Tuholer" It was one of the few two place homebuilts that he had seen.