I built a kit airplane in my garage. I've been at it for years off and on but I've been hard at it since covid in 2020. Last year we had the actor and writer strike and I dedicated a full time effort at completing her. My construction logbook is approaching 3600 hours and I am almost finished. I'll be painting her soon then it's off to the airport. Yes the wings come off for travel.
This is an aluminum high performance sport plane. She is very fast and caries four hours of fuel. She doesn't need much runway and she fits in a small hangar bay. Every bit of this plane is new and sourced with the best available technologies. The engine was blueprinted then balanced by an engine shop in Kamloops. I then assembled it myself at their shop with one-on-one instruction over the course of two days. Awesome experience. We ran it for three hours and performed the first two services. It came home with me in the back of my Chevy Suburban.
The aircraft aluminum came as a kit from a company in Oregon. I had to cut, trim, fit and drill every hole. I built the jigs and templates from wood. The newest versions of these kits are computer CNC cut and drilled. The builder doesn't have to locate any holes, they are all are pre-punched. My kit was old school do it yourself. The new kits go together in half the time and they are probably better.
There is a lot of fibreglass work. There are many aerodynamic fairings that have to be made and fitted. The engine cowl came from two molds with the kit. I had to cut the huge pieces down to size and fit them the airplane. It was a long process.
The avionics came from Steinair in Michigan. I cut the instrument panel and shipped the blank to them. They mounted all the Garmin stuff and made them talk to each other. I just had to wire the thing to the airplane. It took about a week. Every wire of the entire airplane is labeled at each end with printable heat shrink tubing.
This has been a very long term project. It was put aside several times when life was too busy. It was completely sidelined for 9 years during my car racing adventure period. Covid brought me back to this project. The writers strike finished it for me. Now I'm very close. I hope to maiden flight January 1, 2025.
6 сен 2024
