About me

My name is Brian Chesteen otherwise known as "Brantel" on most forums I participate in.  I am an instrument rated private pilot and have been flying since I was 14 back in the eighties.  I was taught to fly by the world famous Evelyn Bryan Johnson.  I have a beautiful wife and three daughters and one dog.  We live in East Tennessee and I work as a plant engineer at Bush Brothers & Company (Roll that beautiful Bean footage Duke!).  On 03/20/2010 I completed the first flight on our Van's Aircraft RV-7 that took me 10 calendar years to build.

In 2013 I found myself morbid obese with 3 stents in my heart. I decided to have bariatric surgery and lost ~140 pounds thru diet and exercise.  Since then I have taken to running as a way to help with the weight loss and to keep it off.   I have completed countless 5 & 10K's, a few 15K's, seven Half Marathons and three Full Marathons.  I have completed the Dopey Challenge at Disney World twice.

I am known as sort of a tech geek.  I have been taking things apart and building electronic stuff since I was a toddler.  My entire career has been focused around automation, computers, programming, and engineering.   Working with, integrating and wiring experimental avionics is fun for me!

I am a very challenge driven person.  When I take on a project, hobby, or something I know nothing about, I try to learn as much about it as possible.  If someone says it can't be done, that is like pouring gas on a fire for me.  Building one airplane in your lifetime is a challenge.  Building two will be more so!  Bring it on!

Update:  We sold our beautiful RV-7 in November of 2022.  Did not take me long to start looking at building a smaller, lighter, simpler, E-LSA the RV-12IS......

The Family

The RV-7 I built and Sold in November of 2022

Were we have been in the RV-7.  Hope to someday add pins to this map with the RV-12IS!