PERRY, Ga. — The Canard Air Show at the Perry Houston County airport will kick off on Saturday with about 40 airplanes ready to take to the air.
About half of those planes are going to be experimental, which means they were built at home. Air Force veteran Mike Beasley has spent 19 years building his plane.
"I was in the Air Force 20 years as an aircraft maintenance officer," he said.
Beasley says he knows what people are thinking, because he's said it himself.
"I distinctly remember saying, 'there is no way I'd get on an aircraft I built,'" he said.
That didn't stop him from starting the project in his living room in Germany, almost two decades ago.
"Perfect is the way to build it, and anybody can do that, it just takes learning and persistence," he said.
He says he didn't think it would take him this long to get the plane he affectionately named Scooter, out on the tarmac.
"I say it's about 200 miles an hour on cruise, it scoots," he said. "It is by far the largest thing I've taken on in my life."
He says he had to learn every inch of the plane to build it, and then he had to learn how to fly it.
His wife Sherry wasn't thrilled at first, especially because he has had to consistently write checks for parts, but she's on board now.
He finally put his wings in the air last year.
"I pushed the throttle up in excitement, and when the wheels lifted up off the runway it was everything I had dreamed about for almost 19 years, and it was surreal looking out thinking, 'Wow I built this, and we're in the air and it took this long but we're up here,'" he said.
What began as a dream, is now a reality as this military man is flying high, on a machine that has his fingerprints on everything.
The show runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday at the Perry-Houston County airport.
Beasley says experimental plane pilots love talking about their machines and the work they put into them. He added they hope to make this an annual event.