Bill James’ flies a highly refined example of Burt Rutan’s VariEze. He built the airframe per-plans, and his innovations enhance the efficiency and “operational friendliness” of his high-performance aircraft. He has owned a Cessna 120, a Berkut, and now flies the VariEze N95BJ and an Experimental Category Kolb M3X.
Bill grew up near San Antonio, Texas. He flew Marine helicopters, worked cattle with helicopters, did some commercial helicopter and fixed-wing work, and instructed on the Boeing 757 and 767. As a 15-year Northrop Grumman F-35 pilot-systems instructor Bill watched the first nut go on the first bolt on the first F-35, and after retiring watched the first F-35s employ into combat.
He holds an ATP Airplane and Helicopter rating, the Wright Brothers 50 Year Master Pilot Award, is a Society of Flight Test Engineers Member, has a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and an English degree from Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Tx. Bill and Claudene have 4 children and 17 grandchildren.
He saw the 399 lb VariEze N7EZ on Air Progress magazine when he was flying Marine helicopters in Japan. He ordered the plans and immediately began absorbing everything about canards. He started building in 1992 and recounts the severe sacrifice of the build, giving up five years of Laverne and Shirley and The Simpsons. Once airborne he found himself in the middle of the EZ pack. As the internet developed, Bill was drawn into the inner sanctum of comments, emails, forums, private notes and opinions about canard airplanes, and began interacting on how or why canard airplanes did or didn’t do this or that. The notes developed into essays. At one point Bill agreed to write 40 EZ Chronicle stories in 40 weeks, published weekly on the ez.org canard site. This prompted responses and questions from near and far and Bill continued to post more essays and stories.
One of Bill’s favorite communications came from a pilot on layover in Shanghai. He wrote, “Bill, I’ve had my dinner and a shower and now there’s a glass of wine on my nightstand and two of your stories printed out. Cheers.”
Bill’s EZ Chronicles now span five decades of flight, from an apple-crate airplane in a pecan tree to building an airplane that would carry him to the airlines, aerospace -- and into the minds of some truly unique, gifted, and interesting people.
Bill has switched gears a little. His stories are now being loaded at http://ezchron.com. A couple of novels are in-work and are previewed there. That first book will be done in about . . . two weeks.
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