"A foolish moment," he laughed when recalling the decision to again head for the garage to build a microlight designed to resemble a vintage 1926 German sport biplane.
"My wife actually bought me the plans for Christmas," he said.
The work involved would be extensive as it effectively meant building four wing pieces.
"But I like woodwork and a lot of it was wood so I thought yes, maybe I could do this."
Which, over the next seven years, he did.
"I'd spend an hour here and there working on it and it came together very well."
Apart from the four-cylinder 2.2 litre air-cooled engine, he effectively built everything from the intricate plans, and when it came to delivering the final touch — the paintwork — he took some local inspiration.
"Because of where we are I used some Art Deco style and colours."
Mr Anderson said there were a couple of others of its type in the country but they were in more traditional German colours and style of the mid-20s. It will be part of an impressive line-up of aircraft set to take to the runways at the Bridge Pa Aerodrome.
"The aircraft range from the very simple — as simple as an aeroplane can get — to the very sophisticated fully electronic glass cockpit and with instruments to match — from the slow and the low to the very fast fully IFR (instrument flight rules) capable," Mr Anderson said.
The Sport Aircraft Association NZ is devoted to promoting and assisting the private aircraft builder and flier and there are about 320 "amateur built" aircraft on the register. However, with amateur built helicopters, gyrocopters and microlights not identified on the register, the number was about 700 — which per capita of population would be the highest number in the world.
The fly-in is being staged on February 19 and 20.
