His eyes darted to the expanse of blue sky, wisps of white clouds -- and two little wings, vibrating against the atmosphere.

"They looked very small," Doble said.

He rethought every rivet he fastened, every wire he attached. Reviewed everything he'd learned in pilot's school. With 450 miles to go, he took a deep breath and trusted himself to complete the journey in a plane he built from scratch.

Three hours later, his Mustang 2 pulled into a Fuquay-Varina hangar. He and his creation were home.

Today, in that same hangar, Doble is nurturing his latest creation: Aviator Brewing Co.

The craft brewery operates on a simple premise: People like beer. People like airplanes. Putting the two together seemed like a good idea, he thought. And, like he did in the cockpit, he trusted his instincts to make it work -- even as the economy was in a tailspin.

Doble's brewery was launched last November. A detailed plan, a thrifty mind and some engineering know-how have helped his new venture thrive.

Doble, an electrical engineer, spent about $75 on parts to design a system that would likely cost another brewery thousands. "We leverage technology," said Doble, 42.

He Frankensteined together equipment from all over the country. He built the controls that monitor temperature, and the system that feeds the data to his iPhone, which uses software he created.

Today, his beer is swilled in some of the most popular bars in the Triangle: The Flying Saucer, Tir Na Nog and The Hibernian.

And on Sept. 26, Aviator expanded with its own taproom in downtown Fuquay.

Doble started the business last June, collecting brewing parts from all around the country and applying for permits. By November, he was in full operation -- meaning 12 barrels, himself and two volunteers, brewing, kegging and selling beer.

That December, they sold two barrels. In May, they were up to 40. Last month, they did about 60.

But the barrel sales weren't the only part of the business gaining in numbers. Crowds of people started showing up to the brewery for free tastings on Saturday afternoons. On opening day, Doble had 150 people.

They wanted to stay past 8 p.m. and keep drinking.

Doble knew it was time to open a tap room.

He leased a spot at 600 E. Broad St. -- a long, rectangular room built in the early 1900s, perfect for a tavern. He built the bar too, out of African mahogany, and all the tables with the help of a couple friends. He plans on hanging donated airplane parts on the walls for decoration.

He's keeping the concept simple, just like his brewery. No food, except for maybe some snacks. His volunteers will tend bar, hopefully earning enough to become regular, full-time employees. He'll have live bands on the weekends looking not for pay but exposure.

He's trying to think of ways to set himself apart from the other breweries in a state that has had a 20-year love affair with craft beers.

For example, he's buying a limousine from a used-car-dealer friend, wrapping it with the bar's logo and offering free pick-ups and drop-offs. Since the 1980s, when Jarvisburg-based Weeping Radish became the first local brewer allowed to sell directly in the state, more than 40 breweries and brew pubs have sprouted.

More people became interested in darker, deeply flavored beers. The boom was aided in 2005, thanks to a grassroots group called Pop the Cap, which lobbied the state to change its law that limited beer to 6 percent alcohol. Doble's brews go all the way up to 9 percent. "The higher the alcohol, the better the taste," says Doble.

That interest hasn't waned, even in the economic downturn. About 121 craft breweries opened last year -- the most in any year since at least 2000, according to the Brewers Association, a Boulder, Colo., trade group. Meanwhile, only 55 breweries closed -- the fewest in any year since 2000.

And Aviator is the latest brewery to sprout in Western Wake, where it is competing with breweries that have several more years and thousands more barrels under their belts.

John Shuck, co-owner of Carolina Brewing Co. in Holly Springs, opened in 1995 with brother Greg Schuck and partner Joe Zonin.

Fourteen years later, he said turning a profit is still difficult to measure, when you factor in loans to pay off and investors to repay. But they're up to 4,000 barrels and distribute to six counties. "If you can pay everyone's salaries, you're profitable," he said.

Schuck doesn't think the high-alcohol law has contributed to their success.

Their best seller is their pale ale, which comes in at 5.1 percent alcohol.

"With high-alcohol beers, you can't drink many of them," he said. "When you drink something that's 10 percent alcohol, you drink a couple and fall over."

Doble thinks the pint sales from the tap room will bolster the company, which can't currently support him, his wife and four children. Perhaps earn him enough to expand even further, which he hopes to do with a second brewery and tap room in the Fuquay-Varina area.

For now, he continues to keep his day job as an engineer, juggling his new life as brew master and cubicle dweller, rising at 2 a.m., sleeping an average of three to four hours a night.

He's been working on landing Raleigh Durham International Airport as a client, and if they accept, he already knows how he'll deliver his kegs. "We're going to fly them in," he said.