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What to build?

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John Slade

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2003
Messages
157
Location
West Palm Beach, FL
Builders
It occurs to me that prospective builders might use this forum to help them decide what to build, so lets give them some help.

First let me stand up and admit that my name is John, and I'm an epoxy addict. Everyone say "hello John". OK, now we've got that over with.... I'm building a Cozy IV composite canard a la Rutan LongEz, but with four seats. See www.cozyaircraft.com for specs on the plane and www.kgarden.com/cozy for the entirely unabridged four year building saga so far with 658 pictures and counting.

Kit or Plans
When you buy a kit you spend more money up front and commit yourself to a particular company and it's continued existence. You have to store all the stuff while it corrodes and gets outdated. People often have a hard time making the leap (to build) because the investment in a kit is often very high. With plans you get to test the water with you're financial toes, then take you're time gettng all the way in. It typically takes five years or more to build a plane (not counting ultralights). In the case of the Cozy IV, it costs about $15k in materials to build the airframe. Spread that cost over 5 years and you're looking at $250 / month. Hey - drive a used car for a while instead of that leased SUV and you're there already. The point is that you can get into it without a major up front investment and you can spread the cost over as much time as it takes.

Kit manufacturers will tell you that building from a kit is much quicker. I'm sure this is true to some extent, so long as you pay lots of $ for the quick build options. However, I'm here to tell you that the basic construction is the easy part. I completed my Cozy airframe in 18 months. Why am I not flying after 4 years? because building the airframe is 30% of the work. Turning that airframe into a flying machine involves a lot of details that you'll have to deal with whether you go kit or plans.

Plastic, Tin or Fabric?
I'll put the case for plastic. Someone else can argue for the other construction methods.

Working with composites is fun. You can fix any mistakes you make and the end result simply looks cool. Much better than a "spamcan" with rivets all over it.

Perhaps thats why I find the canard so attractive - can't go down to the FBO and rent anything like it.

Start with the mission. If you want high speed travel, a canard is perfect. If you want aerobatics, maybe an RV's for you. If you want short-field - what - a kitfox? What about seaplanes - anyone want to chip in?

One magazine does an annual roundup of all kit and plans offerings. I think it's Kitplanes.
 
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