About Us
About the Team @ SPA
Dan Weseman – Designer and Owner – SPA
Dan@FlywithSPA.com
904.626.7777 x403
Dan is the guy “living the dream” at SPA. He has been flying and involved in aviation his entire life. He has flown over 30 types of aircraft from ultra-lights to fast glass. He enjoys sport aerobatics, and formation flying. Known as an aggressive, yet conservative, pilot he enjoys the 3rd dimension flying offers while taking care to minimize risk.
He has worked for over 20 years in industrial and technical manufacturing, in fields from CNC machining to medical and laboratory environments. While not a licensed engineer, he has spent his life studying structures and aerodynamics. He has learned CAD design, and acquired a vast “library“ of knowledge, information, and contacts needed to design light aircraft. He uses conservative techniques and testing. He is not afraid to depart the “norm” if it has technical merit.
Dan feels his most important work is as a husband and father, so chooses to lose sleep to “live his dreams”.
At SPA Dan designs, builds, tests aircraft, engines and components. He also handles tooling, CAD work, technical customer service and production.
It is important to Dan for SPA LLC to be a positive addition to the sport aircraft community. He values low overhead, excellent customer service and a friendly environment to both work and play in.
Rachel Weseman – Team Coordinator, Financial Officer, Web Master and Videographer/Photographer
Email: Rachel@FlywithSPA.com
Phone: 904.626.7777 x402
Rachel handles the business side of SPA including accounting, marketing, website, IT, orders and most of the customer service for SPA.
For the last 20 years Rachel has been an integral support engineer in the Information Technology field, specializing in all organizational structures from small businesses to top Fortune 500 company enterprise messaging systems.
In addition to the above skills she also builds fuel tanks and sheet metal parts, handles photography/videography, and does just about anything to make things go well. She is serious when needed but also fun and friendly.
Rachel always puts family first – but in her spare time also enjoys running, crossfit and trivia.
Her organizational and project management skills are a great asset to SPA. Her enthusiasm and dedication to doing things right and providing superior customer service are pivotal to Team Panther and their success.
Cole Williams – Production Welder
Cole graduated from North Florida Technical College in 2019 and joined our team in Jan of 2022. Cole is a talented welder and fabricator, he is meticulous with his work and a pleasure to have in our shop.
Cole is a Florida native and calls Starke, FL his home.
Cole is also a seasoned motocross rider and has won many competitions over the years.
Cole is an excellent addition to the SPA team.
Paul Salter – Consultant – Aerospace Engineer
Paul earned both a BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from the legendary Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology (The school holds FAA air certificate #1) For the last 18 years Paul has been a Civilian Engineer for the US Navy on the EA-6B Prowler. His assignments on the EA-6B are in the Structures, Design and Special Projects divisions, and he occasionally assists with Avionics and Electrical issues.
Paul’s taste for challenging aviation projects started in his college years. He was the lead engineer for Park’s highly successful SAE Heavy Lift Aircraft Competition. In the years since he has always kept a hand is flight projects beyond his work for the US Navy.
Paul defies the stereotype of engineers as educated but impractical. He is equally at home developing a CNC code or rebuilding the Powerstroke Diesel from his F-250. His input on a project starts with the critical eye of a professional engineer, his contributions reflect his practical background from personally building countless mechanical devices from electronics to his 4,000 sf hangar. He is licensed pilot and owns 1947 415-CD Ercoupe. He is a resident of Haller airpark.
Paul’s other passions include the Space Program, Astronomy and Astro-photography. He purchased the University of Florida’s observatory and moved it to his property at Haller where is is restoring it to house his 10″ telescope.
Paul has been an excellent asset to the Panther team, lending his extensive knowledge of structural engineering and problem solving skills. Paul is known around the hangar as “Super Salter”. He earned this nickname after repeatedly showing us that if we had a challenge he was on it! It wasn’t long before we all agreed that Paul had the innovation, dedication, determination and engineering skills to tackle just about any task we came up with.
Bob Woolley – Panther Sport Beta Builder and Panther Test Pilot
Bob Woolley is one of the Panther Beta Builders and is building the first Panther Sport version.
He is an extremely accomplished homebuilt builder and a retired Air Force pilot with time in fighter, trainer and transport aircraft with over 1500 hours of instructor time.
Bob has been an EAA Flight Advisor for over 20 years and been actively flying and building airplanes since his retirement. He has conducted over 20 first flights on experimental airplanes ranging from Stewart S-51, Glasair I,II,IIIs, Lancairs T-18, RV’s Cubs and Ultralights.
His first experimental was a Pitts Special with a follow on Thorp T-18 and finished up a Busby Mustang II,. He has 2000 hours of tail wheel time and over 1200 hours in Glasairs. He also spent some time in certificated airplanes such as the Yak 55, 450HP Stearmans and Decathlons. He teamed up with Jeff Ackland (Legend and Radial Rocket designer) while he was finishing up his Glasair and they built a Glasair III together. After retirement in 1991 he went into a building frenzy and finished up four more Glasairs, an F-1 Rocket and an RV4. One of the projects was a Glasair 1 with a 260 HP Lycoming 540 and the Glasair IIS is super-fast, with a 300 HP Lycoming 540, which he owns and flies today.
Bob is a great asset to Team Panther and we could not have asked for a better test pilot or beta builder. He is an objective, yet enthusiastic pilot and his write-ups regarding his flight testing are an excellent asset to Team Panther and it’s potential pilot/builder community.
Bob is missed every day.
