A Good Friend, Richard Steeves, Passes

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Richard Steeves, a good and dear friend has passed, known for his achievements in medicine and among his friends for leading a long-term aviation club and even constructing a Coot Amphibian and electric ultralight airplane. Many will know him from his leadership of the Coot Builder’s Club, a group of enthusiasts who build and fly Molt Taylor’s design.  The organization publishes a newsletter that Richard edited for an astonishing 50 years.  He became great friends with Moulton (Molt) Taylor, the designer of the Coot, and wrote books and articles about the amphibian.  Now, with Richard’s passing, Andrew Wayne will take over running the organization and publishing the newsletter, which promotes the continued building and flying of this craft. In the early days of aircraft home-building, enthusiasts had to find plans for their intended craft, materials, and if possible, supportive local help.  This made building a Coot especially challenging.  Managing construction of a complex airplane with retractable landing gear, and mastering …

Coots and e-Gulls at Oshkosh

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Aircraft Components, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 3 Comments

Lead image shows Mark Beierle in the Soaring Gull of his design with which he accompanied Richard Steeves to Oshkosh. As many readers know, Richard Steeves, a physician and teacher at the University of Wisconsin – Madison is also a builder and long-time advocate for an amphibious aircraft called the Coot.  He publishes the Coot Builders Newsletter and stages a recurring AirVenture event, a yearly get-together of fellow Coot builders.  Recently, he got into electric aviation and has built and flies Bravo, an e-Gull designed by Mark Beierle.  Richard’s newsletter now features articles about amphibians and electric flight. Mark showed up at Richard’s hangar at the Sauk Prairie Airport, a lovely stretch of green bordered by hangars and bisected by a concrete runway pointing south toward Madison and north toward the Wisconsin Dells. Beierle “worked very methodically and precisely to optimize Bravo beyond my dreams,” according to Richard. The Coot Builder’s Newsletter reports, “Mark Beierle showed up at the Sauk …

Another e-Gull takes flight

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

Richard Steeves is an oncologist in Madison, Wisconsin, on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and has hosted your editor’s visits to AirVenture in 2013 and 2014. He recently took delivery of the e-Gull he helped finish at Mark Beierle’s airport workshop near Santa Margarita, California.  The airplane was a pre-owned craft that was rebuilt for electric power in Mark’s shop.  Richard had been a speaker at a symposium on thorium reactors, a subject important to this cancer-fighting radiation specialist, and then vectored over to Mark’s field to see his “new” airplane. Multiply skilled, Richard previously built a beautiful example of Molt Taylor’s Coot amphibian, and spent many happy hours flying along the Wisconsin River near his home.  He writes and edits the Coot-Builders’ Newsletter, and has published three books intended to help newcomers to the Coot family – The Coot Story, The Coot in a Nutshell and The Essential Coot.  His interest in electric aircraft …