divad_strebor
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2008
- Messages
- 100
G-day,
My name is Dave Roberts, and I live in Wangaratta, Australia. I've been keen on flying since I had my first joyflight at age 5. I've been designing, building and flying R/C models since I was around 10, and have decided its time to move on to the real thing.
I've been looking around at what is available in the kit built aircraft market, and to be honest, I haven't found what I'm looking for. I'm after an aircraft that is all metal (steel/cro-mo frame fuselage, allu wings, etc) roughly the size and weight of a kitfox for example, STOL, but will cruise around the 100 - 120kt mark. Slepcev Storch fits all the criterior except cruise speed... It needs to have cleaner lines.. ICP savanah has reasonable performance I guess, but is pig ugly (IMO).. Kitfox has wood bits in the wings (yuk) and silly slat type ailerons that only seem to produce drag, and in the case of the skyfox gazelle that I've been training in, has a fuselage frame rail right where my knees need to be (I'm 6'4") I came to the conclusion that I need to design from scratch.. But I'll get to that in another topic... I have lots of questions..
My fullsize flying experience (at this stage) consists of lots of passenger seat stickwork with my Dad over the years, and bits and pieces of flying with friends... whatever I could get my hands on. I did a year of theory to Private Pilot standard but that was a couple of years ago and doesn't have the logged hours to go with it. Officially I'm almost solo. And trying to get myself organised to take up regular lessons again. I really need to sell all my R/C stuff to remove the distraction, but anyway.
My technical background is this: I'm a trade qualified Fitter & Turner (not sure how that translates to American... Machinist I think.) with a fair amount of welding experience in MIG, TIG, ARC and Oxy. I'm self taught in the use of AutoCad from designing model aircraft, and again... I'll get to that in another post. I spent 3 years building hotrods for a living and did a reasonable amount of sheetmetal work in that... I know, steel is very different to aluminium, but the basics are there. I also have a few close friends in the aerospace industry, with expertise ranging from aerodynamics, to structures, to avionics and a whole lot in between. So I have help if I ask nicely enough.
Sorry if I've been a bit long winded, but I tend to get a bit carried away with these things... Looking forward to getting to know everyone here, and I hope I can be a valuable addition to the forums :grin:
My name is Dave Roberts, and I live in Wangaratta, Australia. I've been keen on flying since I had my first joyflight at age 5. I've been designing, building and flying R/C models since I was around 10, and have decided its time to move on to the real thing.
I've been looking around at what is available in the kit built aircraft market, and to be honest, I haven't found what I'm looking for. I'm after an aircraft that is all metal (steel/cro-mo frame fuselage, allu wings, etc) roughly the size and weight of a kitfox for example, STOL, but will cruise around the 100 - 120kt mark. Slepcev Storch fits all the criterior except cruise speed... It needs to have cleaner lines.. ICP savanah has reasonable performance I guess, but is pig ugly (IMO).. Kitfox has wood bits in the wings (yuk) and silly slat type ailerons that only seem to produce drag, and in the case of the skyfox gazelle that I've been training in, has a fuselage frame rail right where my knees need to be (I'm 6'4") I came to the conclusion that I need to design from scratch.. But I'll get to that in another topic... I have lots of questions..
My fullsize flying experience (at this stage) consists of lots of passenger seat stickwork with my Dad over the years, and bits and pieces of flying with friends... whatever I could get my hands on. I did a year of theory to Private Pilot standard but that was a couple of years ago and doesn't have the logged hours to go with it. Officially I'm almost solo. And trying to get myself organised to take up regular lessons again. I really need to sell all my R/C stuff to remove the distraction, but anyway.
My technical background is this: I'm a trade qualified Fitter & Turner (not sure how that translates to American... Machinist I think.) with a fair amount of welding experience in MIG, TIG, ARC and Oxy. I'm self taught in the use of AutoCad from designing model aircraft, and again... I'll get to that in another post. I spent 3 years building hotrods for a living and did a reasonable amount of sheetmetal work in that... I know, steel is very different to aluminium, but the basics are there. I also have a few close friends in the aerospace industry, with expertise ranging from aerodynamics, to structures, to avionics and a whole lot in between. So I have help if I ask nicely enough.
Sorry if I've been a bit long winded, but I tend to get a bit carried away with these things... Looking forward to getting to know everyone here, and I hope I can be a valuable addition to the forums :grin:
