Ryan Brennecke / The BulletinMike Custard, standing with a Titan T-51, owns and operates Summit Aircraft, an experimental aircraft builders-assist shop and maker of aircraft skis in Bend.

When Mike Custard, at the time a painting instructor for Seattle truck manufacturer Kenworth, applied for a job with Lancair in Redmond in the early 1990s, the employment service tasked with new hires turned him down as unqualified.

Not one to take a step backward, Custard, now 53, found work instead as a subcontractor helping to build the kit-plane company’s latest prototype, the Lancair ES.

“And we built that plane in 74 days, from basically sketching out some drawings on a napkin to the actual flying,” Custard said recently. “And that’s (company founder) Lance Neibauer for you.”

Eventually, Custard parlayed years of experience helping Lancair and other kit plane, or experimental aircraft, buyers into his own business. First called Advanced Aviation, and now Summit Aircraft LLC, both were located at the Bend Municipal Airport. Along the way, he gathered stories of worldwide travel worthy of at least a page of aviation history.

Like the time he built a Lancair IV for the son of a well-known general in the Dominican Republic. Years of traveling and assisting Lancair owners in Florida, Puerto Rico, Brazil and The Philippines led to a job helping Oscar Imbert, son of Gen. Antonio Imbert, build the only kit plane in the island country, Custard said. Gen. Antonio Imbert, told the BBC in May 2011 that he personally shot dictator Rafael Trujillo to death during a coup there in May 1961.

Any red tape Custard encountered getting the Lancair IV certified was swiftly severed with a call by Oscar to his father, Custard recalled. “We’d go out for breakfast or brunch on a Saturday (with the general) and we’d be surrounded by armed guards,” he said.

Summit Aircraft, which Custard formed about two years ago after deciding to downsize from Advanced Aviation, specializes in helping kit-plane owners build their aircraft. Custard estimates he’s assisted owners of more than 50 kit planes, many of them Lancairs. Through Summit, he also builds and sells a brand of lightweight aircraft snow skis specially designed by Custard and made of carbon fiber.

Custard, who wanted skis for his own plane, a RANS S-7, decided after a search that he’d rather build his own. Today, Cub Crafters, another kit-plane maker in Yakima, Washington, offers Summit skis as an option for its aircraft. The skis are also available through Summit.

“Maintaining our brand and stature in the market place is very important to us,” said John Whitish, Cub Crafters marketing manager. “If it’s on our order form, it’s got to stand up to our standards.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Q: Where do you see the business in five years?

A: It’s hard to say. General aviation isn’t as big as it used to be, but … a lot of people push for it, and a lot of people still fly. With experimental aircraft, there’s always somebody coming out with a better mousetrap. When you have that, that’s what really stimulates general aviation. You take Cessna and Piper, Mooney, they don’t come out with anything new. They’ll have a new model with a new paint job and a new altimeter, but it’s really not a new airplane.

Q: From the day the employment service said you weren’t qualified, you learned to fly, became an expert at assembling kit planes and built your own business. Do you ever look back and think, ‘What if I had just gone away?’

A: I don’t have that mentality. One of the biggest reasons I left Kenworth (was) there was not room for me to advance. I needed a place to grow.