Homebuilt aircraft community bands together after crash

COLUMBUS, Ind. — Local aviation enthusiasts have formed a tight-knit community whose members watch movies together, restore vintage aircraft and provide help for people building their own planes.

About 40 of the local flight devotees attend monthly meetings of the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association. Some of them like tinkering with motors and machines, some have flown planes for decades and others simply love the more romantic aspects of aviation and its allusion to independence, freedom and exploration.

So when members of that community come to harm, as they did in an accident in Columbus on Thursday, the community tends to react with uniform sadness, said Mike Foushee, a local pilot and retired Cummins mechanical engineer.