Let Your Flying Dreams Come True!

T.Y. Okosun likes to refer to himself as a Zenith Aircraft repeat offender. The reason for this is due to the fact that he just finished building his Zenith CH 650 and has started flying it, but he has also recently attended another Zenith rudder workshop to start building his CH 750 CRUZER! 
T.Y. didn't always have the chance to fly, but he had a dream:

"I was about six years old when I first saw an airplane fly over our house. It had two jutting wheels in the front and a small wheel at the back, and I wondered who could be flying such a thing. Years later, I discovered that these airplanes were called tail draggers and then discovered that there are also tricycle airplanes. I was hooked, but did not know how to meet people who owned and flew airplanes, let alone access training.

"At about 10 years of age, something profound occurred. An airplane made what I now know was an emergency landing on the road by our elementary school in Nigeria. I ran as fast as I could to go see it. The pilot looked very young, and Irish nuns who worked at a nearby hospital helped him get fuel. He fired up the engine, and oh what a sound! He taxied as far as he could go on the straight stretch of the road, and then the engine roared even louder and in short order he was off. The cheers from all of us kids running after it was deafening. I walked away very happy that I had actually touched the plane, and secretly believed that someday I would fly.

"After graduate school in Belgium and Canada, I eventually took my first flight lesson in 1994 with Tom Ferry at Ottawa Executive Airport in Zeeland, Michigan. Around the same time my growing family and work took precedence and further training was delayed until sometime late in the 2000's when I enrolled in a Part-141 school, Eagle Aircraft, in Valparaiso, Indiana. This is where I earned my private pilot's license. John and Joy Slegers, owners of Eagle Aircraft, gladly offered their planes for rental, but eventually I decided to own my own plane. I explored several certified options, but finally settled on building an experimental airplane."