I was at Oshkosh when he debuted the Vari-eze prototype. That was back when it had a VW engine. He (with his brother flying) was trying to set some kind of record with the plane during the convention. The VW engine burned up partway through the record attempt.
I watched him and his brother change out the old engine and replace it with a donated one in one of the convention workshops. The crew all had “glass-backwards” T-shirts on. They were good — and fast. His brother went out the next day and set the record.
He certainly has gone on to bigger and better things since then.