Blind ambition

For 31 years, building better airplanes has helped Khoua Thao provide life’s essentials for his family. Now, the Textron Aviation mechanical engineer is turning to part of an airplane to provide recreation and, he hopes, a tighter bond as a family.

“I would love to have my kids get more involved in the outdoors, so I wanted to build something to get out of the weather, where they could come with me and be more comfortable,” said Thao, 52, as he worked earlier this fall to get a large chunk of airplane fuselage converted into a “wildlife observation station” for his three children and friends. “I just want them to see some of what I see when I am outdoors. I want to share that with the people I love, at this place that I love so much.”

“This place” is about 57 acres Thao has purchased near Independence. Small by Kansas standards, it is more than twice the size of the the place his family of seven farmed for subsistence in Laos before communists over-ran his country, about the same time they did the same to South Vietnam in 1975.

“My people fought the communists, so when they came we had no choice but to leave,” said Thao. The chunk of unwanted airplane he’s using for a blind is bigger than where his family lived after being forced from their homeland.

“We lived in a tent for year-and-a-half in Thailand, in a refugee camp,” said Thao. “That’s where I studied English, to get ready to come here.”

They ended up in Selma, Ala., in 1976. Like so many he knows who immigrated from southeast Asia, he has wasted little time trying to better himself after arriving in the southeastern U.S.

Thao got his mechanical engineering degree at the University of Alabama. A job offer with Beech Aircraft brought him to Wichita. His specialty has become working with propulsion systems, a career that has served him well enough to buy some property in northern Arkansas about seven years ago.

“The hills, and the clear streams, really reminded me of my homeland in Laos,” said Thao. “Seeing deer tracks on that land got me to thinking that if I have a lot of deer there, I might as well learn to hunt.”

An avid angler since his youth in Laos, Thao admits he is still facing a steep learning curve when it comes to hunting. His first hunting season in Arkansas he never caught even a glimpse of a live deer. But he liked what he experienced so much he decided to buy property closer to his home.

He bought the land near Independence in 2014, where he has worked hard to improve the wildlife habitat and improve his hunting chances by adding tree stands and, eventually, his rather unique blind.

Thao got the idea of creating such a blind when Textron announced they were auctioning off parts of some planes. The section he bought came from a Hawker 4000 mid-sized business jet.

“Airplanes are in my blood. They are what I do,” he said. “I took one look and thought this was a good way to use part of what I do for a living and use it for what I love to do as a hobby. The thought just got me so excited.”

Thao admits he’d have saved a lot of time and money buying a $100, tent-like pop-up blind. It wasn’t an option that appealed to him.

“As an engineer, I always appreciate the way something is made,” he said. “If I pick up a can, I think, ‘wow, somebody made that,’ and I start thinking how it was done.”

Making sure everything was done to his exacting standards meant Thao invested about 200 hours converting the carbon-fiber fuselage into a blind for his property. He prefers to not say how much he’s invested financially.

The money and the equivalent of five work weeks of labor includes rebuilding the dilapidated trailer he used to get the fuselage to his land. Most of the materials used are what he already had laying around.

“I found that brass knob in a drawer,” he said, pointing to a thumb-sized knob on a door. “Engineers don’t throw anything away if we think it might be useful sometime. Almost all of this, I already had.” That includes the white carpeting on blind’s floor.

End caps were made from plywood, and have been painted to look like a woodland scene. Ever a perfectionist, he even added patches of shadows to simulate realism. The main part of the fuselage is now covered in a camouflage cloth, as is the trailer that has had its wheels removed. He used the blind once a few weeks ago, and had both deer and turkey close by, and is hoping to shoot his first deer from the blind in the on-going firearms deer season.

“Look at this, isn’t it perfect size?” said the man who is 5-foot-2, showing how he can stand comfortably in the blind. “All of these windows are at just the right height for me to shoot my bow or a gun.” A small heater may be added as well as comfortable seating.

“I have plenty of room to do about anything I want,” he said, looking around the interior. “I hope my kids might want to bring a friend. They have some friends who are into hunting and the outdoors. Maybe they’ll find out about it and that will make my kids want to come with them and see what it is all about.”

Ideally, Thao would love for his kids to someday try hunting. Mainly, though, he would be thrilled if watching wildlife from the blind gave them an interest in the outdoors and, particularly, the property where he loves to spend his time.

“This is my piece of heaven, and I love being here so much, even if I’m not hunting or fishing,” Thao said. “I work hard out here, but that work is all part of the hunting experience for me. I just feel so rejuvenated and good when I am out here. I’m learning so much but I still have so much to learn. It’s just really good being out here and seeing everything in the woods. I would love for my family to experience some of that.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Blind ambition."