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Yet another but more serious approach to start a kit plane project.

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pilotarix

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2012
Messages
47
Location
Hummelstown, PA
Hi all,

as I already mentioned in my introductory thread, my Kit Plane dream is now more than ten years old. In the meanwhile I made several more or less serious attempts to start a project, I never did. Looking back there were a lot of different reasons, from friends at the airport who always argued against Kit Planes because they could not understand that not only the finished product but also the way there is important. Via a housing situation with not enough space through to not enough time secondary to a busy job. Ironically money was never one of the issues.
After three years of abstinence from Kit Plane dreams and also from flying, it is time to make a decision, whether I wanna go for it or not. I probably don't have more time but I can better plan and in December we will move in a new house I put some extras on, so there will be enough space to build a Kit plane. Enlarged garage and stairs from the basement to the garage. Most parts can be made in the basement, so no heating or cooling problem for the most time. The stairs from the basement to the garage are wide enough, so that even a complete wing could be brought out of the basement. Only the center section will probably be to wide, but even that is not sure yet. The garage itself will be high and big enough to rig up the whole plane.
Easy to imagine that those extras are truly connected with some extra costs, but taking into the consideration that otherwise I had to rent a hangar or some other kind of workspace, including the costs for driving, and (very important) the traveling time, they are worth it. Time is still a very important factor, and having the ability to build at home, might be an important part for success.

The details:
There is not much about details, it will be a very well known Kit Plane, either Vans or Zenith, so probably no excitement and nothing new.

Other than years ago, when I thought that building time almost doesn't matter, now I wanna build in a reasonable amount of time. Even though the building process is a big part of this project, I also wanna fly. This could probably result in ordering a quick build version of the fuselage. Unfortunately in theses days QB fuselage is only offered by Zenith aircraft, but I would assume that there will be this option for the RV12 in the near future.

There is still something that should be done, before I go ahead and order alumnium aircraft parts.

- enough space at home, already done

- medical, even if I might not need a medical for LSA I personally think that it is good to have one.

- get LSA license

- get some practice back, after 3 years not flying.

- test flight at the company....
OK not easy, both companys are not right around the corner. In terms of the RV12 I would not expect any surprises in flight characteristics, I have seen a lot RV's and I have some experience with stick controls , Rotax engine (actually some bad experience) and constant-speed propeller in a Diamond Katana DA 20.
This is completely different with the Zenair CH750, never seen one in real, STOL concept, special kind of flight characteristic, here is definitely a visit and test flight necessary.

thats for now, but there is more to come

Chris


P.S.
If everything fails I can still continue on this one....Baubericht Piper PA18 Rumpf in Stahlrohr Bausweise - nach Plaenen von Piper ;)
sorry no english...
 
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