Issues with your account? Bug us in the Discord!

Planes !

shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tJuO16hRTk[/url]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59s72vYQqsI[/url]

I'm buying an 801, the slightly larger cousin to this lil beastie.

They remind me of Starfuries, "Ugly but well hung."

Anything that takes off at a little over 35 mph has GOT to be cool. By their very nature, they are inherently safer with such an incredibly low stall speed, in fact, the 701 and 801 don't really stall at all, they just sorta drift down, (after watching some guys do a sort of vertical sideslip, I believe it).

I've bought the engine. I'm sorting out a prop and gearbox, then, onto the actual kit itself.

I'll have 220hp or so, which is 40 over the recommended power requirement. I'm thinking that perhaps I'll just install a ski ramp on the roof of my house... who needs a bloody airstrip...:D

Comments

  • StingrayStingray Elite Ranger
    Sweet, but carrier landings are a b*tch on a ski ramp. :D
  • Falcon1Falcon1 Elite Ranger
    Ha that looks so easy even I could fly one of those :p Impressive little plane!
  • FreejackFreejack Jake the Not-so-Wise
    Zenith Aircraft's factory is located near my hometown. Hadn't ever paid much attention their different planes. I guess I assumed they only made the low-wing sport craft.

    After that video, that would be an awesome short distance commuter plane if you had a house well off the beaten path

    Jake
  • shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
    Freejack....

    You got a garage I can borrow for... for.. a year or two ? :D

    ~~~~~~

    Seriously, I will probably end up going to the factory at some point to start proceedings with them, I'll have to drop by and say hello if thats ok with you. :)
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    Kit planes scare me a bit...

    A little history. My dad is a private pilot, aircraft mechanic and inspector. He owns a 1960 Cessna 150 Swayback. He got it in his head he wanted to build a kit plane. He met a guy at Oshkosh (the 2nd largest Airshow in the world) who had designed and built a 2/3 scale P40e Warhawk kit plane.

    So my dad bought the kit, found himself an engine, started building pieces. He was almost done building the kit, most of the plane was put together, he was just working on the control surfaces. The guy he bought the kit plane from crashed his and was killed.

    Now granted, your talking about a kit plane from a factory, so its going to be less fabrication, more pre-fab and it will be held to a manufacturing spec. It still makes me a tad uneasy though.

    The best thing about kit planes though, they aren't as expensive. Its flying for less.

    This is one of those things that irritates me though. This the part of my life where I look back at my childhood and say, "Idiot". The group of pilots my dad knows there in southeast Wisconsin, included at least two instructors. I had the opportunity to get my pilots license and all I would have had to pay for is fuel. But no, I had to be the stupid teenager. Thats probably the biggest thing I regret.
  • FreejackFreejack Jake the Not-so-Wise
    [QUOTE=shadow boxer;159086]Freejack....

    You got a garage I can borrow for... for.. a year or two ? :D

    ~~~~~~

    Seriously, I will probably end up going to the factory at some point to start proceedings with them, I'll have to drop by and say hello if thats ok with you. :)[/QUOTE]

    Unfortunately that's near my hometown, not where I live now (which is about 2 hours away). If you happen to come through St. Louis on your way through to Mexico, Missouri, drop on by. As far a garage, nuuh buddy, that's all mine...

    The funny thing is, the new development to which we are moving is directly across from a small regional airport, if I had a plane (and a pilots license) I could almost walk from my house to the plane...

    Jake
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    [QUOTE=SpiritOne;159087]This is one of those things that irritates me though. This the part of my life where I look back at my childhood and say, "Idiot". The group of pilots my dad knows there in southeast Wisconsin, included at least two instructors. I had the opportunity to get my pilots license and all I would have had to pay for is fuel. But no, I had to be the stupid teenager. Thats probably the biggest thing I regret.[/QUOTE]

    I have exactly the same regret. I still intend to correct it as soon as I have the money and the time, but both those things seem so far away...
  • AlaricAlaric Damn kids! Get off my island!
    I gained my PPL when I was 22 at which point I ran out of money and lost the licence. many years have passed since then and I haven't regained it. always something else to save up for.
  • Holy crap! talk about strong lift!
  • shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
    Well... most certified aircraft run up into the 100K bracket for something worth flying... and the engines are 1950s technology. I'd feel safer in an 801 than I would ancient Cessna... metal fatigue is evil...

    not to mention its ME who builds it, ME who sees it go together, ME who knows exactly what I'm flying... to me, thats vastly superior in the peace-of-mind stakes than any ammount of paper work from the CAA for a plane a good deal older than I am.
  • CiberCiber Earthforce Officer
    just add a v12 daimler benz engine and everything will be sweeeeeet (well everything is already sweet with that airplane)
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    And ME who never sets foot in it out of fear for my own life. ;)

    Personally, I'd trust that paperwork that your aerospace agency gives you over a kit plane. For something in which a single broken weld can cause catastrophic failure, I trust the agency that specializes in the safe operation of hundreds, if not thousands of similar models to verify mine as safe enough to fly.

    When it comes to flight, it's not just your individual safety that you worry about, but that of the other pilots in the air, their passengers, the people on the ground. There's a lot that can go wrong, and in a populated area, your aircraft (even at low speeds) could pose a significant threat.
  • shadow boxershadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter
    Sanfam... just stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours. The thought of going up in a 20 year old aircraft frightens the crap out of me. Metal fatigue, general wear and tear don't care about airworthiness certificates. As a plane gets older, it becomes more and more unpredictable, flaws that may not have mattered in the first 10 years of an aircrafts life may become huge issues in the next ten. I cite the 707. A crack developed in the main fan of the tail engine on one resulting in a crash landing. No plane is immune to that sort of evil bullshit. The plane in question gave 10+ years of faithful service, right up until the tail engine effectively threw itself to pieces.

    Also, specifically in the case of the 801. It's stall speed is 37mph. In the event of a total engine failure, the survival rate of the occupants is significantly higher than any existing certified light aircraft* simply because it can fly much, much slower. Simple physics, hitting something at 40mph is much better for your health than hitting something at 80mph.

    There are many hundreds of Zenith Aircraft flying, hundreds of Sonnexes, hundreds of RV1s, thousands of 'kit planes'.

    Also, the G ratings, as tested are equal to, or higher than that of certified aircraft. You'll find Sanfam, if you do your research, there is a very healthy chunk of the kit airplane sector which make planes better than certified ones in many respects, taking advantages of the advances in technology, materials science and manufacturing methods which certified aircraft simply haven't the opportunity to do so because of the stifling certification processes and bureaucracy. It's indeed a bitter irony that the rules designed to make aircraft safer, hinder the progress of designing and building safer aircraft.

    Ask anyone in the aviation industry about the Lycoming saga...

    In short Sanfam, I'm suprised you side with the cobwebbed fogies.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

    *aside from those fitted with a BRS chute [url]http://www.brsparachutes.com/default.aspx[/url]
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    The 707 doesn't have a tail engine. It has four wing-mounted engines. :P

    Anyway, that minor point aside, [i]every[/i] plane is subject to wear and tear, whether it was kit-built or not. What really matters is how well you maintain it.
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    SB: That is the point of inspections and proper maintenance. The majority of airframes in the world are quite old (20+ years). These airframes fly with few failures. Why? Because they are regularly inspected and undergo proper maintenance. In the majority of failure cases, you'll find that the airframe was not properly maintained: they cut corners, let things through that shouldn't have been, or just didn't have a robust inspection schedule.

    Kit airplanes, on the other hand, rely on the competence of the person building the kit, and you can't tell me that there are that many competent amatures out there :)
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    I hope then SB that you don't plan to fly commercially, AT ALL. A good 60% of all commercial aircraft are over 10 years old.

    My dad is a A&P mechanic by trade, he works for an airline. For years as a kid I heard what those aircraft go through. They literally tear those planes apart till there is nothing left but frame and rebuild them every so often, just to make sure everything is ok.

    Anyways... All that being said there are a ton of other aircraft out there classified "experimental" that are flying, many with no problems too. For those who don't know, pretty much any kit plane or plane built by someone other than a major manufacturer is classified experimental, so its not as crazy as it sounds. The air show in Wisconsin in Oshkosh, the one that is now the 2nd largest air show in the world is hosted by the EAA, the Experimental Aircraft Association. Tons of kit planes fly up there every year. Get out a map, its actually quite funny. The 2nd largest air show in the world is hosted by a city with a population of roughly 65,000 people and has an airport that considered a municipal airport. The population of Oshkosh is tripled during the week of the air show. If you have never been and care anything for aviation, then at least once, you have to go to this air show.
Sign In or Register to comment.