Full Bio
High School / Early Years
For as long as I can remember my family has owned a business. My father's business, which was started in the early 90's, was Pretoria Transit Interiors. It was during this time as a kid I grew to enjoy business and engineering. While his business grew, so did my knowledge of CAD dating back to AutoCAD msDOS. During high school I welded farm equipment to make money in between doing CAD work for my father. Junior year of high school I got my private pilot's license. After high school I attended college for 2 semesters before going to ATP flight school to further my flight ratings to CFI, CFII, and MEI.
Murfreesboro Aviation
In 2009, I started a flight school with one aircraft and one instructor. Throughout the course of my 3 years as owner I enjoyed the challenge of growing Murfreesboro Aviation to become one of Tennessee's largest flight schools. In total, the aircraft were flown on average 100 hours each month. It was during this time I was able to attain approximately 3000 flight hours in a wide variety of aircraft from float planes to business jets. I sold the company in 2011, shortly after my father’s passing, with 7 aircraft and 5 full time employees, 3 of which were instructors flying 8 hours a day. My decision to sell was based solely on the fact that I had not finished my engineering degree and I wanted to pursue my late fathers work.
Motorcycle - Father
In 2009 my father had a horrific work accident which would see him in a coma for a week, 17 surgeries, and an amputated right leg. The road to recovery was unfortunately bleak as he was also diagnosed with melanoma. During the remainder of 2009 and most of 2010 my father struggled through reconstructive surgeries and cancer treatments. After fighting hard for over a year he passed away in October 2010.
Round The World
With my father's passing and selling of the flight school I decided to take a motorcycle trip around the world. In May 2011 I would set out from TN heading east and if all went as planned would arrive back to TN 25,000 miles later. As I write this bio it's so hard to describe the trip so briefly as the trip itself has enough stories to write a book about (currently working on that). I'll say this however, the trip was an experience of a lifetime! I came to see the world through a new lens. I would ride some the twistiest roads in the Pyrenees, climb some of the Alps tallest peaks, camp under the stars in Mongolia, crash multiple times, traverse some of the most dangerous roads in Russia, break down and fix the bike with limited supplies, and make it all the way back to TN with the most incredible stories that will best any fishing story at a bar.
College Years
Once home from my motorcycle trip I began the journey of finishing my engineering degree. During school I worked on various engineering projects including but not limited to the SAE BAJA Racer and the SAE Formula 1 Car. While going to school I was also working part time at the local motorcycle shop fixing and repairing motorcycles. In 2013 I had an internship working for Chip Yates and Electrospace as a Flight Test Engineer. Chip is the current world record holder for the fastest electric aircraft at just over 200 mph. This flight was achieved by shoehorning 400 pounds worth of batteries into a Long-EZ with a 300 HP liquid cooled electric motor. After that internship I began working for a small business startup, Inntor Mfg in 2013. Inntor was responsible for building electric wheelchair service lifts using stamped steel and electric lift solenoids. I worked closely throughout the entire process with the CAD renderings, prototyping, assembly, and final QA and shipping.
Nissan
During my last semester in school, I was hired at the Nissan Smyrna TN automobile plant as the lead quality engineer in charge of the all electric Leaf. In December of 2014 I graduated from MTSU in the top of my class in Mechanical Engineering. I worked at Nissan from 2014 until 2018 leading warranty claim reduction by implementing and designing new tooling and processes. Many of my tooling designs were adopted by the Nissan/Infiniti Global brand for company wide plant improvements. In addition to the quality improvements, I was also the lead on the “Digital Innovation Initiative.” In this group I led the implementation of smart technology such as Google Glass, smart vision cameras, 3d printer and scanners for the Nissan plant.
Scaled Composites
In 2015, I began working for Scaled Composites as a composites technician on the Stratolaunch aircraft . I had previously interviewed for an engineering position but was unfortunately told that due to my lack of an aerospace degree I was not a top candidate for the position. However, because of my skills in engineering, I began working as an engineering technician. Due to my traveling in 2011 and even more recent travels outside of the country, I was ineligible to obtain a DoD security clearance. Because 80% - 90% of Scaled Composites’ projects require security clearance this limited my future within the company. However, I was so thankful for the experiences and knowledge I gained from my time there.
Opener
My desire and passion has always been in aviation and my most recent career job was as the mechanical structures engineering manager of www.Opener.aero I was with the company from 2018 till 2020. While there I was responsible for new design development and testing. This included but was not limited to: Leading an engineering team of various disciplines from composites design engineers to manufacturing engineers. Operated as single source expert for new mechanical designs and mechanical design needs from various other teams. Design, build, and prototype tools and aircraft parts in a variety of materials from carbon fiber to aluminum and wood.
Pretoria Engineering
A few years after my father’s passing, I took over and revamped his engineering business. It has been a slow process to rebuild but as of now we are a product design and consulting company that specializes in turning “napkin sketches'' into reality. I am able to quickly provide customers with prototypes at a fraction of the cost of big design companies by using the latest technology in CAD and additive manufacturing. Additionally, my experience in manufacturing, production, and distribution gives me the edge in helping customers from the beginning of a project to the end. Currently I am actively pursuing new projects to add to my resume and job experience. Through Pretoria Engineering, I have worked on a wide variety of projects from Red Bull Flugtag to patented workout systems for autonomous vehicles. Many of my most recent projects have been aviation oriented with numerous designs being modeled in CAD and X-Plane flight simulation for various companies and even a Red Bull Air Race team. I have an extensive background in machining and fab shop work and therefore build many of the prototypes and tools in house for my customers. (more info at www.pretoriaengineering.com)
Eddies Molecule
Eddies Molecule (www.eddiesmolecule.com) was the first product that I took from the concept / prototype stage through to the kickstarter campaign. The puzzle is much like a Rubik's Cube in that it's a physical brain teaser that needs to be manipulated to transform the puzzle from a parallelogram to a tetrahedron. Although the project was unsuccessfully funded it has been the springboard to many other Pretoria Engineering projects.
Stand Up Desk
In 2016 I started StandUPTN which is a company that makes custom wooden stand up desks built to order. What made my desks unique is that they are built per user specifications. Additionally, my desks have no complicated mechanisms to release to raise or lower the desk, like many similar desks on the market. A very simple "cam over center" mechanism keeps the desktop rigid in the raised position. Many of my customers were local people at Nissan. Demand was low and not profitable to continue, as such I have moved on to other projects.
G-Meter
After finding no suitable G-Meter that I could install in my Rans S9 aircraft project, I set out to make my own. I was able to create a G-Meter Light Bar which displays certain color LED's during certain regimes of flight by using some advanced math and arduino processing. The project is currently being used by one of the Red Bull Air Race teams in his Edge 540. (photos and info at www.pretoriaengineering.com)
Sim Your Plane (patent pending)
One such project that has emerged from the work I did for the Red Bull Air Race is the flight simulator system. In the simplest form possible, the flight simulator system allows anyone to use an existing aircraft (flying or non flying condition) and turn it into a USB input for use on flight simulator programs like X-Plane or MFS2020. The system is completely removable and does not have anything that modifies the aircraft and as such is completely removable. The sensor can be wired or wireless and does not matter the aircraft size. Sim Your Plane has since also moved towards custom flight simulator design focusing on hardware and software integration for aircraft and helicopter operators. Bridger Aerospace, Rotor-Blade, University of Nebraska are just some of the companies we have worked with. More info can be found at www.simyourplane.com.
Personal
My wife and I have been married since 2014 and have 3 children. We all enjoy a variety of outdoor activities such as hiking and biking. We love to travel when we can and are looking forward to being able to travel with our kid when they get older. Prior to being a stay-at-home mom, my wife was a nurse.