The idea behind homebuilt.com began on November 11, 1990. On that day, Evenstar's Empennage [AKC DL354967/01] was born of Leodens Sunset on the Rocks [AKC D915457] and Lorilee Snelling's Evenstar Rare Character [AKC D518343].
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Empennage \äm - pe - näzh\ n [F, feathers
of an arrow, fr. em- en- + penne feather, fr. MF -- more at PEN\ (1909):
the tail assembly of an airplane
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Empennage was named after the tail structure of an airplane. The idea came to me because the famed airshow pilot, Art Scholl, named his dog Aileron as did my good friend and fellow flight instructor Dorothy Fujimura. Do's Aileron and her other dog, Flaps, are Shelties, the same breed as Empennage. In fact it is because of Aileron and Flaps that I decided that a Sheltie would be my choice for a dog. And since Aileron and Flaps are named after parts of an airplane's wings, it made sense for me to name my dog aeronautically. I chose Empennage even before I picked out the best dog in the world.
Empennage is very well trained. He does all of the standard obedience skills like come, sit, down, and stay, but he also has some special tricks that Dorothy and I taught him. He can snap roll on command. If you tell him, "contact!", he will shake hands with you. There are also some tricks he taught himself. He barks and goes crazy whenever the telephone rings. If I sneeze, he barks three times. It sounds like he's saying "God bless you." Then there are the times when I'm sure he understands what I tell him ("pick that up", "don't leave that there"). If I ask, "Who's the best dog?", he barks twice. If I ask, "Who's the dumbest dog?" he looks right at Spinner.
Shortly after I got Empennage, I noticed he had a very strange habit. [I can't believe I'm telling this story] Whenever he goes to the bathroom (#2), he turns in circles several times as if choosing the perfect place to deposit his souvenir. As he grew older he developed another nervous habit. Whenever I leave the house or even look like I'm going to leave, he starts running around in circles in the dining room. As I get closer to the door, he gets more excited, the circles become tighter, and he moves his circles over to the front door. He's in a complete frenzy until I close the door. Then he starts jumping so he can see me through the windows in the door as I leave. That's when I realized I should have named him "Spinner". It was too late to change Empennage's name, so I saved the name for my next dog.
On June 22, 1991, Homebuilt Spinner [AKC WP377281/11] was born. She's the daughter of sire Emperor Maximilian Li [AKC WG368697] and dam Lucy Von Rott Anderson Davis [AKC WG042860], owned by Rick Sanders of East Bay K-9 Training of Castro Valley, California (where Empennage and Spinner got their training).
| Spinner \spi ner\ n: a conical sheet metal fairing
that is attached to an airplane propeller boss and revolves with it
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Spinner was the most lovable Rottweiler you'll ever meet. She was trained to protect me, Empennage, and our home, but as soon as I let her know that you're a friend, she would love you to death. She didn't do as many tricks as Empennage (imagine a 95 pound Rottweiler doing a snap roll too close to a china closet!), but she was very well trained in the standard obedience skills, off leash control, and protection. She was also delightful to have around. We lost Spinner in the Fall of 1999.
Homebuilt dogs have their kennels that they consider their own private place inside our home. We call the kennels their hangars. If I tell them to get in their hangars, they go directly to their kennels, get inside, and lie down. They will bark if I instruct them to squawk.
I have a deal with The Great Ones (my collective title for my dogs -- apologies to Jackie Gleason) for New Year's Eve. I stay home with them. This began a few years ago when I didn't have any plans for New Year's and decided at the last minute not to go out. I was sitting on the floor of the family room watching the ball drop, and about ten seconds before midnight, Empennage and Spinner got very alert, looked at each other, looked at me, looked back at each other, and ran to me and smothered me with kisses just as the New Year came. I don't know how they know about the special time, but I look forward to the poignant moment every year now.
In the Summer of 1991, Mike Busch, Editor of AVweb, asked Dorothy if she would do a seminar for Cessna Pilots Association. He didn't know Dorothy very well, so he asked me for interesting tidbits about her he could use when he introduced her. I suggested that he could say something about her dogs, Aileron and Flaps. The conversation went something like this:
Mike: She has Aileron and Flaps, and you have Empennage and Spinner?
Chuck: Right.
Mike: Are they all Shelties?
Chuck: All of them except for Spinner who's a Rottweiler.
Mike: Are they all males?
Chuck: Spinner's the only female.
Mike: Well, you'd better be careful when Spinner goes into heat, or you'll end up with some strange homebuilt to fly!
I still hadn't sent in Spinner's AKC registration papers, so it wasn't too late for me to add "Homebuilt" to her AKC name. When Spinner had her puppies on April 4, 1993, it became natural for my kennel name to be Homebuilt Kennels. All of the puppies have "Homebuilt" in their AKC registered names. When I registered my internet domain name, homebuilt.com was available, so I snapped it up.
Spinner died in October, 1999 of bone cancer. A couple of months later, Mystic-Isle Chandelle was born, and she joined homebuilt.com in February, 2000. Aileron and Flaps joined Spinner in 2000 and 2001. Later in 2001, Dorothy invited Cessna to join her family.
Chandelle had puppies in April, 2002. Just for identification, I gave the pups names at birth: Orville, Wilbur, Charles, and Amelia. Orville, Wilbur, and Amelia went to new homes a few months later, but Charles stays with homebuilt.com and will forever be known as Homebuilt Lindburgh's Rudder. Rudder is learning to be an agility dog so he can compete with Cessna.
Update on Rudder: He cut agility class far too many times, and he has given up his agility aspirations. His cousin Cessna, however is a Master Agility Champion, two times over. Congratulations, Cess!
Seahaven Amelia Air Heart (Amy), a tricolored Shetland Sheepdog, joined the homebuilt home in 2004. She's hoping to become a champion in the conformation world.
Empennage died in April, 2006 of old age. He was almost sixteen years old, and his vision and hearing were failing him. Arthritis made walking very difficult for him. He was the best thing to come into my life, and I miss him a lot.
Studio shots of Empennage, Spinner, Aileron and Flaps by Jim Payette of Payette Photography in San Ramon, California. We've lost touch with Jim over the years, but we love his work. If you know where Jim is now, please let us know using the webmaster link below.
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