Ryan Eiden stands next to his partially rebuilt 1948 Piper Vagabond airplane.

Ryan Eiden, Albany, loves to fly. He took up flying 11 years ago, and has been a licensed pilot for five years.

"I first became interested inn flying while working in Alaska," Eiden said, "watching all those airplanes going in and out up there."

When Eiden returned to Minnesota, he began his flying career in ultralite planes, which can be piloted without a conventional pilot's license.

Eiden flies mainly within the state of Minnesota. "I've gone to Brainerd and back," he says and adds with a laugh, "You just have to stay below 10,000 feet because that's were the big guys are."

His love of flying has led him to a new passion- rebuilding and restoring a 1948 Piper Vagabond airplane.

Eiden learned to fly and took his pilot's license test in a Vagabond. He has a love for the Piper Vagabond and always knew that some day he would own one.

Eiden is restoring the Vagabond at his place of business, Straight Line Auto Glass in Albany. He found the plane in Ohio nearly two years ago and traveled there Thanksgiving weekend, 2004. The wings were off, but other than that it was complete.

"I took it home and took it all apart," Eiden said, "and then it was on to the recovery process."

Eiden's previous experience as an auto body technician has come in handy while working on the Vagabond.

The fuselage of the airplane is nearly finished. It is primed and awaiting paint. Eiden is also restoring and cleaning the engine of the Vagabond, completely dismantling the engine and cleaning each part before reassembling. Before he is done, the entire plane will have been gone over and restored back to its original shape and look.

Soon after beginning the restoration of the plane, Eiden bought another Vagabond, this one in perfect working order.

"I realized I wouldn't have this one ready to fly very fast," Eiden said, "so about a year and a half ago I bought another one just like it that flies so I can refer back and forth."

"They call that a Norwegian blueprint," Eiden said laughing, "When you have another one to refer to."

The engine checked out fine, so the main work will be to restore the rest of the plane. Once the meticulous work of restoring the Vagabond is completed, Ryan hopes to have it inspected by the FAA and ready for flight this winter.

Buying and flying an airplane seems to be an expensive hobby. But Eiden notes that the Vagabond was priced very reasonably, ($7,500 for a restorable 1948 Piper Vagabond) and in terms of fuel is also economical. A Piper Vagabond will get one hour of flying time per gallon of fuel.

"The Vagabond is becoming very popular now with the price of fuel getting so high," Eiden said.

The Vagabond, with its fabric covered steel frame, weighs just 650 pounds versus 2,000 pounds for a car. Even though jet fuel costs about $3.85 a gallon, the fight time per gallon makes flying a reasonable alternative.

Flying is a passion Eiden plans to continue for the rest of his life. His family also enjoys it, so he sees himself owning and piloting airplanes for years to come.